Forward

Every year we publish an entire all-school musical revue within the first few issues of Music K-8 Magazine. It's a revue that you can perform with all of your students or just one or more select classes, as you prefer. In this first issue (September/October 2021), you will find the first two songs of this year's revue. More music, script, teacher's guide, and other extras will be found in the third issue this year (January/February 2022).

This year, our revue is called Forward. It's an uplifting, positive, motivational theme that hopes to inspire your students as they move, well, forward in life. This is the kind of topic we generally focus on for end of the year graduation/moving on performances. But we don't think it should exclusively be used that way. Who among us couldn't use some regular reminders of the possibilities in front of us?

The song, "Forward," takes on the main subject with energy and passion right out of the gate. Before they even sing, students are invited to bring movement into their involvement through the use of body percussion. This is notated on the music, and is optional. However, we highly recommend using it, even if you choose to have a separate, non-singing group do it. It isn't difficult, using only claps and patsches (thigh slaps) in consistent patterns throughout. There are taps prior to the beginning of the audio so that students know when to begin.

The lyrics of this song set the tone for the revue. Kids are filled with ideas, ambitions, dreams, and plans. It's a good thing, and one we want to nurture and support. The realities of life will interrupt sometimes, but it shouldn't keep them – or us – from daring to dream.

Extension - Ask kids if they can think of anyone who had ideas that grew into something big and maybe even helped the world. What new ideas are happening right now in the world? (As of this writing, the ongoing exploration of Mars is a biggie. See "Perseverance: Adventure On Mars" later in these notes for more about that.) If any of them are up for it, let them share their own ideas or dreams. (But don't insist.)

Musically, the song has a delightful and catchy pop groove with a marching feel to it. It starts lightly and builds throughout the song to a big ending, adding layers of orchestration as it goes. It also adds a second vocal part at the D.S. which is optional, but nicely enhances the experience if you can pull it off. The vocal lines are also instrumentally covered to help reinforce young voices. This is especially handy if you are not planning to use the optional part 2. As always, if you need a little help with the second part, we suggest including others such as older students, teachers, or even parents. To help you teach part 2, we have created a rehearsal track which you will find on our web site for free downloading. You can also access a few more extras free on our web site: a body percussion only version, a full version with no body percussion, and a PDF of the body percussion you can print out and share with students if you wish.

As always, we encourage you to adapt the revue any way you like, such as modifying the script or adding more music. If you're interested, we have quite a number of previously published songs from Music K-8 you might consider, depending on the angle of your presentation. You can find lots of ideas and inspiration through our latest Index, covering Volumes 1-31 of the magazine, at MusicK8.com/Index