Whomp Out Loud

You will note that we have not included a lyric page for this piece as its only lyrics are "Woh" and "Whomp." We figured your singing students could remember that without much help. Select a group of students to do the singing while others are selected to play the various percussion parts. It might be difficult to have students play and sing simultaneously, despite the ease of the melody and "words." Then again, older kids may find the coordination no problem.

The real emphasis of this piece is, of course, the percussion - both pitched and unpitched. We have suggested that you can use Boomwhackers® as your pitched percussion and have included a part separate from the piano/vocal on page 36 of this issue. If you do not have Boomwhackers®, or if you wish to supplement them, consider adding any pitched percussion in the key of C, such as xylophones. You could also let students play pianos or synthesizers.

As the title suggests, the idea is to make a whole lot of musical sound "out loud." We borrowed this idea from the performing group Stomp (and their popular video "Stomp Out Loud") which we have talked about many times in Music K-8. (We even wrote a song with a similar emphasis in Volume 8, Number 2 called "Sounds All Around Us.")

The premise of Stomp is to make music with found objects, some pitched and some non-pitched. Let your students create or invent their own percussion instruments using found and/or common objects. Put the students in groups to work together (a wise reinforcement of teamwork on your part). Add the newly created sounds to the pitched instruments (and the recording), and you will have quite a percussive event!

If you are using this piece in performance, consider the idea of visual interest. Let students decorate their found percussion. For example, have them paint garbage can lids (clean ones, of course) bright colors. Or put sparkling streamers on the ends of their pencils, etc. Coordinating movement as they play will also make it more exciting.

At the bottom of this page, we have included a few ideas for made instruments and rhythms students could incorporate in the song. Use these as they are, or adapt them freely. Add more, encouraging your students to not only think of instruments, but also rhythms. Make writing the rhythms part of your project and you have reinforcement for that, too.