Yankee Doodle's Pony

Once again, Teresa has come up with a cute partner song for a well-known classic. This time, she adapts "Yankee Doodle" to be sung in a swing style. Not only is it a fun way to do the song (how often do you get to hear a piccolo jazz solo?), but it also gives us the opportunity to demonstrate the "f hole" or "arch top" guitar (see pages 50-52 for more info) on the P/A cassette. During the sections at measure 9, you can easily point out the strumming guitar to your listening kids.

As with most partner songs, the idea is to sing the two parts separately first, then combine them. Since every kid knows the original song, you could use part one for younger students and part two for older students.

If you use the cassette, be sure to listen to the big band arrangement by itself for discussion purposes. If you don't use the cassette, remember to swing!