Rattling Bones

Every year about this time, we have to decide whether we are going to do something for Halloween or not. Many of you have told us that you have no problem using materials that blatantly refer to Halloween, ghosts, goblins, witches, monsters, etc. Many others of you have said you cannot use such materials at all. Consequently, we have decided to mix and match what we offer every year. Some years, we refer to Halloween outright, while others we allude to it without actually saying so. This year, we are going with the latter approach.

Truly, there is nothing in the song "Rattling Bones" that can be thought of as controversial (at least, we hope not). But, it does have that certain seasonal "eery" quality that is reminiscent enough to please your students. Skeletons and bones are nice and generic and they even tie into science (biology), in case you'd like to have a little across-the-curriculum study, too.

Musically, this simple song allows your students a chance to practice their dynamics, their reading of sixteenth notes, and their use of non-pitched percussion. Each of the five times at measure 9 is dynamically different, which is indicated on the music. The first four times, it gets softer and softer. The last time, it returns to forte. The whisper each time at measure 4 does not have to have dynamic variation, unless you want it to.

The words "rattling bones" utilize two sixteenth notes and an eighth note each time. The toms imitate the rhythm on the recording during the first eight bars, in case reinforcement of the rhythm is needed. Write the rhythm on the board and discuss it with your students before learning the song. This will help them understand the rhythm better when they see it (assuming you are using the music). Ordinarily, the word "rattling" is only two syllables. But for this song, we have taken poetic license and made it three syllables. It just sounds cooler.

There are several opportunities within the song to employ auxiliary percussion, both rhythmic and non-rhythmic. Consider selecting a group of students to perform the non-rhythmic parts and another group to perform the rhythmic parts. These may or may not be the same students who are singing, depending on what you prefer. Though, it might be easier if they were not also singing, especially if they are younger students. You could then alternate who gets to sing and who gets to play the percussion on subsequent performances.

The non-rhythmic part consists of rattling objects such as shells, shakers, rattles, or anything that makes a rattling sound. Let your students create their own percussion for this part, if you have time. During the first few bars each time, the rattling sounds occur freely. If you have a lot of different sounds, make sure students don't all just play constantly as wildly as they can. Consider taking turns or making some sounds more sparse. They may continue at measure 5 after the woodblock enters, but they should stop at measure 9. Remind players that knowing when to start and stop is just as important as the melodic and rhythmic parts. After all, silence is part of music, too!

The rhythmic percussion is mostly indicated by the x's above the vocal line which represent the part for wood sticks or claves. Again, this is a good way for beginning readers to count and play in the right spots. Listening to the vocal parts while they play will be a helpful clue since the wood sticks never play at exactly the same time as those vocal parts. You could add your own woodblocks (a simpler, but complementary, rhythm than the one we have indicated) or ratchet, if you have one. Even if you are using the recording, these parts can be doubled.

On the recording, you will hear that there are two layers of bass guitars in octaves. The electric guitar is playing a bizarre ethereal and spooky-sounding pad throughout to add to the mysterious quality of the song. (Yes, that's a guitar, not a synthesizer, in case your kids ask. Cool, isn't it?)

You will note that there is no lyric page for this song (or any of the other short - 2-3 page - songs). When a magazine has as many pages as this one, space is a genuine concern. In cases like these, we feel that the brevity of the music is such that you could easily reproduce the piano/vocal music if you wanted your students to see it, or you could use the reproducible student music (available separately), or you could just teach the songs by rote. They are so simple that just listening to them a few times on the recording will have students singing along.