We Love Our VETS

Veterans Day is coming soon – November 11, to be exact. And as we have so many times in the fall, we have provided you with an appropriate piece to use for the occasion. This time, it's a bit different. It's a cheer, set to a marching groove, but there is nothing pitched in it at all. The foundation is marching band-type drums, and the kids do the 2-part shouts in a mostly call and response form. Because there is no melodic guide, you will need to count carefully and cue their entrances. Once they get started though, it should be okay. Usually, our second parts are optional, but in this case, they are integral. Fear not, they are super simple so that even very young students can join in.

To make it more interesting and/or challenging for older performers, we have created some optional percussion/body percussion lines. You can pick and choose what to use from these parts. You can also alter them to make them a lot easier or more difficult as you like. To demonstrate them more audibly, we have isolated both the kid percussion and vocals as well as the kid percussion only. There is also a full version recording that has no kid percussion for reference, rehearsal, or performance. The extracted percussion part appears on page 32 of this issue, however you can find a downloadable version of it, too, along with all the other mentioned goodies on our web site.