Walkin' On The Beach

You can almost hear the surf and smell the salt air as you sing this oh-so-laid back homage to beach strolling. While this would be a natural addition to any program or concert that includes summer topics, the beach is actually there all the time, in every season. So why limit yourself to a summer-only theme? And of course, it would be a good fit for a program about the ocean or vacations. But even if you don't have a performance in which to feature it, it's just a lot of fun to sing. It's all unison, but there's enough nuance (triplets anyone?) to make singers feel somewhat sophisticated in a Latin pop sort of way.

If there's one piece of advice we can give you when singing this song, it's relax! Seriously, have your kids take a deep breath or three. Then have them close their eyes, slowly lifting then lowering their shoulders. Talk quietly as you instruct them to get into the proper mellow state. If you really want to get into it, tell them to visualize each beat as having a front, a center, and a back. For this song, you want them to use the back of the beat. Our instrumentalists, notably our rhythm players, give a superb example of how to play this way. (It's a subtle distinction.) The beachy sound effects at the beginning and end of the recording should help, too.