A Little Green

We're pretty happy with the way this delightful song turned out. It's lively, cheerful and we had a blast recording it! Again, it's a tune that we feel you and your students will get the most out of if you use the accompanying P/A CD or cassette. The orchestration is carefully crafted and offers wonderful variations using, among other things, accordion, flute, violin, guitar, mandolin, clarinet and euphonium.

There is also an Irish drum and tambourine to give it an authentic Celtic flavor.

Neither the title of the song nor its lyrics suggest anything specific about Ireland or St. Patrick's Day. True, the style is reminiscent of the island, but we wanted to present it as a song that can be used for other occasions as well. For example, it could be used as a spring song to welcome the season, which begins in March. It could also be used as a dance and movement song for spring, March, St. Patrick's Day, or anything you like.

While the melody and lyrics of the song are very simple and repetitious, we have chosen to include an instrumental accompaniment with a melody instrument playing along, just in case. This is because the song is in 6/8, moves rapidly, and alters the emphasis of the beat periodically. Your students may have no trouble with this at all, but if you wish to use it with younger students, the melody line may help.

As we mentioned, this song is a good one for movement. A section is provided at measure 9 on the repeat for this purpose. Some simple steps can be quite effective. Of course, if you have dancers who are knowledgeable about Irish dancing, clogging or even ballet, they will have a good time coming up with their own choreography to add to the song.

Just because we have indicated a dance section at measure 9, don't feel that you have to limit it to this section. In fact, if you want, you can include movement throughout the entire song. Have some students sing while others dance. Or, just use the instrumental version of the song and use it entirely as a dance feature. It would certainly work that way!

If you would like to add some easy movement, we suggest the use of scarves or streamers. Have your dancers hold onto them and move them rhythmically to the beat. Since the piece is in 6/8 time, there is an undercurrent of 2 beats per measure which would be appropriate to follow for movement. Even when the beat reverses, such as at measure 17, the duple feeling is present, thanks to the ongoing eighth note line indicated in the right hand of the piano part.

There are many, many ways to incorporate movement using scarves or streamers in this song, but here is one suggestion to get you started:

Have each dancer hold a green streamer or scarf in each hand.

• meas. 9: right hand down
• meas.10: right hand up
• meas. 11: right hand down
• meas. 12: right hand up
• meas. 13: left hand down
• meas. 14: left hand up
• meas. 15: left hand down
• meas. 16: left hand up
• meas. 17-20: make a sideways figure 8 two times with right hand
• meas. 21-24: make a sideways figure 8 two times with left hand
• meas. 25: both hands down
• meas. 26: both hands up
• meas. 27: both hands down
• meas. 28: both hands up
• meas. 29: both hands out to opposite sides
• meas. 30: both hands back in
• meas. 31: both hands out to opposite sides
• meas. 32: both hands back in

While this is very simple movement, if you have multiple students performing it, it will be striking, especially if you have bright green scarves. Make them long ones, but not so long that students trip on them or get tangled.

The last two measures of the song indicate an optional divisi. If you have students who like the challenge and can sing the high E's without too much difficulty, it will add a nice punch to the end.

We would love it if you could take a little extra time to listen to the instrumental version (the one without the melody) at least once. The orchestration is different every eight measures! It might be an interesting study for your older students to analyze the orchestration and see if they can tell the differences, such as strings playing pizzicato in one section and arco on the repeat. Or identifying where the euphonium has the melody. Or the clarinet. Or the flute. There is a solo violin sometimes and a string section at other times. Can they hear the difference? It's quite interesting and we think it's neat to listen to. The only melody instruments that are always playing are the guitar, mandolin and accordion. (As usual, our guitarist, Sandy Williams, managed to impress the heck out of us by sight-reading this on guitar perfectly!) If you are planning to analyze the rhythms with any of your students, be sure to point out the change in the pattern from 1-2, 1-2-3 - such as at measure 9 - to 1-2-3, 1-2 - such as at measure 17, which is indicated in the left hand of the piano part. This reversing of the beat is one of the things that makes it so delightfully lively and danceable, especially for serious dancers.