I Promise

This second song of the revue From The Inside Out is written simply enough to be performed by your youngest singers. Given the importance of the subject, however, you may wish to use it with older singers as well. And as we mentioned before, you could also use it in settings other than the revue.

Easy rhythms and melodies are repetitious and should be no problem to memorize. Additionally, the song is unison throughout. The lyrics are pretty self-explanatory and reinforce the virtues of honesty, truth, and keeping promises.

Since the song is so simple, your students can spice it up a bit with the use of movement and/or the addition of non-pitched percussion. Both of these options are indicated on the music.

The movement is shown in italics under the first verse and we suggest you add it the second time through the song to give it more emphasis. At measure 13, your students sing both times, and the movement continues. The ideas we have included are just suggestions and you can adapt or change them any way you want.

The non-pitched percussion soli also starts the second time at measure 5. Since there is no singing at that point, they get to be the stars for a time. We have included a two bar pattern using cowbell, tambourine, claves, and guiro on this page for your convenience. Again, you can use it as we have indicated, or you can adapt it in any way. Add more percussion instruments. Or use fewer. More complicated rhythms could be employed. Or simpler ones. What works for you is what works. Once the percussion enters, let them continue to play all the way through to the end of the piece. They can add a button to the last beat for fun.