Music, Music

Here's a chance for you to showcase all of those wonderful Orff instruments your students have been learning to play. And just to keep things interesting, we have even suggested including Boomwhackers® in this piece, if you have them. Of course, if you don't have Orff instruments or Boomwhackers®, you can still use the piece very nicely. All you need are any concert keyboard instruments - mallet or otherwise - and some small hand percussion. Add voices, and voilá! Instant ensemble!

The melody and lyrics are so very, very easy that even our youngest singers learned it fast. It's only four measures long (which is why there is no lyric page, by the way) and it repeats a lot. It's stated first at measure 5 the second time, just to whet the appetite. Then it gets out of the way for the percussion to be heard again, and then comes back in as a 3-part round at measure 9. Each part sings three times and stops. Very simple, and a great introduction or reinforcement of part singing.

On the CD, you will hear six clicks before the piece begins. This is to help the percussionists know when to start, since they begin in measure 1. You will also hear solo guitars, fiddles, and recorders playing the melody, as well as piano, strings, bass, and drums in the background.

This is definitely one piece that could be performed live. The piano part could even be optional if you wanted to really feature the percussion and keyboards. Just be sure to cue your singers well, as the recording does help with that a bit. To add your own reinforcement, perhaps someone could play melody on guitar, fiddle (violin), or recorder for you. Have them do as our players did - add a bit of Celtic-style embellishment for fun.