Otoño Colorido

"Otoño Colorido" is a Spanglish tune written to not only extol the beauty of the autumn, but also to teach a few color translations. And what better season for colors than autumn?

This song is very lively and should be performed with high energy. It's a super easy road map. Sing from measure 9 through 40, then repeat. The second time, go right through measure 40 and into the breakdown and on to the end. Exuberant clapping on beats 2 and 4, which occurred briefly in the intro, starts again at measure 41 and continues to the end.

Be sure your singers maintain the energy, but not at the expense of correct pronunciation of the Spanish text. Admittedly, we struggled with that in the studio. Having the singers keep their lips in the shape of an "o" really helped with getting the proper vowel sound on o-to-ño and co-lo-ri-do.

The song begins with the chorus in two parts. The second part is optional, but as always, makes it a little more fun, plus gives older students a challenge. You will find the rehearsal track for part 2 as well as a unison version of the song on our web site. We have also provided a pronunciation guide there to help. However, if you have students who speak Spanish in your group, by all means, recruit them to teach it.