You Can Help

This serious piece was written to be a part of the musical revue Make A Difference. (The first two songs of the revue were published in Volume 17, No. 1.) Given its thematic timeliness and powerful message, it can also be used in circumstances outside of the revue. Part of the reason we decided to create the revue (and this song) was the increasing interest and involvement by students everywhere in helping others through crises, emergencies, and all-too-common disasters. Particularly in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last year, we heard from many schools of their efforts to raise money and send food and clothing to people in need. At that time, we created a section on our web site (MusicK8.com) dedicated to Hurricane Relief through the fund-raising efforts of students. This section still exists (you can link to it from our home page) and offers ideas and resources for your own efforts. You will also find that there are several free downloads, including some excellent songs, such as "Share Your Goodwill" and "We Might Heal." These songs would make very good additions to the performance of the revue Make A Difference. They do, of course, stand on their own as well. As with any fund-raising performance, we recommend asking the audience to participate in giving to the charities or causes you are focusing on. This can be in the form of monetary contributions or perhaps they can donate clothing, cans of food, or toys as admission to the performance.

The song "You Can Help" is quite memorable. Though it has many layers to it that may seem complex at first, you will soon hear that it is actually simple in that it is very repetitious. Once students learn the various sections, all they have to do is plug them into the overall form. To allow for flexibility of use, the song is designed to work with just the melody. When it breaks into the divisi parts (such as at measure 13), these are optional. You can have students sing either or both of the lines as you prefer. Technically, the melody is the lower line (bottom notes). It is, however, very natural to sing the harmonies. Instead of dividing the performers equally, you could just pick a few singers for this harmony if it's better for your situation.

The background vocals are also optional. You can use a small part of your class to do them, or perhaps you could bring in a few older singers from another class to help. You could do it with as few as three singers. (Ideally, let the larger group sing the melody.) There is also a little bit of optional divisi action for the background vocals.

On the Performance/Accompaniment recording, we have provided you with both instrumental tracks and instrumental tracks that include the background vocals. This way you can use the song with young singers and still include the backgrounds without having to have them live. Or it could serve as reinforcement for your own singers.

To offer even more options for performance, you will find extra versions of this song online at our web site. (See box below.) We discovered while working with this song that it was a lot of fun to do a cappella. So, we have three versions you and your students can download: a cappella vocals with just drums (so they can hear how cool it is), background vocals with just drums (so your students can do their own melody), and drums only (so your students can do all the vocals a cappella if they want). These are also good rehearsal tracks as they are very exposed.

The spoken solos which occur throughout the piece are meant to be alternated among several students. The idea is to place the word approximately on beat one as it occurs. To do this, adjustments in pronunciation will be necessary for words with multiple syllables. The performers on the recording demonstrate this. Each word should be spoken seriously and enunciated carefully for understanding. If you must use microphones, try to teach students not to move into or away from them as they are speaking or their words will be unintelligible. Good old-fashioned projection would probably work better. If you have these soloists isolated from the singers and standing still in a place where they can deliver their words, all the better.

A piece with this kind of contemporary groove is likely to get your students moving when they hear it. If you want to enhance this without adding too much choreography, you could have some or all performers add finger snaps on beat two of each bar (which would be on beat three if you're counting in 4/4 instead of cut-time). A simple movement to add would involve bending the right knee slightly. Put weight on the left foot and push the left hip out just a little. Do this on beat one, snap on beat two. Switch sides for the next measure, and so on. Maybe just do the movement during the chorus for variety. Because of the importance of the lyrics of the song, consider adding them to your program to be sure the audience understands. Like the song says, "It could've been you. It could've been me." Strong stuff.

Online extras - The free, downloadable tracks can be found under the "Graphics and Extras" for Volume 17, No. 2 at MusicK8.com