Hunting Easter Eggs

Shh! We're hunting Easter eggs! This song is the perfect accompaniment for your annual Easter egg hunt. Set in the style of an oh-so-familiar sleuthing song, it's just plain fun to listen to and sing along with. The melody is simple and repetitive so that it's perfect for your young egg hunters.

The lyrics deliberately exaggerate the point that the eggs are hiding, even giving them personalities. This could be something you capitalize on should you choose to do this song in performance. Let some students dress as decorated eggs and actively try to escape being found. Other students could dress as bunnies or they could wear "detective" outfits. A trench coat comes to mind, as does a magnifying glass. Even Sherlock Holmes would be cute.

The spoken "Shh!'s" at the beginning of the song are meant to be done in unison. The ones at the end are solos until the very last one. This is all optional and you can divide them however you like. Just be sure to have students put their index fingers over their lips like they're trying to get everyone to be quiet.

At the end of the song, after the big shout chorus, everyone should begin to get softer and softer till the end. If your students are reading the music, you can reinforce the dynamics by showing them the changes as they occur. Have them make a big deal of them for the best effect. For example, if they're moving around, have them tiptoe quietly.

The most delightful part of this tune is Paul's big band jazz arrangement. (Which is why you will definitely need the CD to perform this. It's just not the same without it.) Besides his usual stellar ensemble writing, he has done us one better this time with the addition of a soli flute ensemble. Very chic! The basic melody of the ensemble is cued on the piano/vocal score just so you can see how it essentially goes. But most of the notes are full chords, not single notes. For more information about our ensemble, or consort, refer to the sidebar on page 66.

For your listening pleasure, we have isolated the winds into their own mix and put it on our web site as a free MP3 download. Also, as a special treat, we have included a copy of the wind orchestration as a free downloadable PDF - for those of you who want to see what's really going on. In addition, a black and white version of the cover of this issue is available for your students to color. After all, they're hunting Easter eggs. See below for information.

Online extras - The free, downloadable items mentioned for this song can be found under the "Graphics and Extras" for Volume 16, No. 4 at MusicK8.com