Leapin' Lemurs

Lemurs are fun - just ask Hollywood! Their leaping antics made a great point of departure for this new recorder work. We have restricted it to the notes G, A, B, as well as low D and E. This makes it an ideal way to improve your players' skills between the purple and blue belts in Recorder Karate or any other method with similar note sequences. And maybe you could use it as a special way to earn a newly created belt, maybe even one that the kids design. It could be plaid or maybe a combination of your school's colors. The essence of the tune is that it features leaps in much of the melody, so it will reinforce the concepts learned in new ways.

Just for fun, we have added a couple of other things to this tune that you and your players may enjoy. For one thing, the players get to yell "Leapin' Lemurs!" several times. Be sure that they say it rhythmically and that as they put their recorders back to playing position, they reset carefully.

And then there is "The Wilhelm Scream." This theatrical scream is placed as a silly sound effect after each shout. If it sounds vaguely familiar, you may have heard it before... hundreds of times! It is actually a bit infamous as a hidden favorite of Hollywood sound folks. It has been used in more than 130 films starting back as far as 1951, and has been in all of the Star Wars films, the Lord Of The Rings series, The Green Berets, the Indiana Jones films, Batman Returns, Toy Story, Planet Of The Apes, Spider-Man, King Kong, and even Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. To learn more about it and to hear a pure version of it, visit the official web site. You will find a link to it on our web site.

To add a little movement, consider having the kids devise a "Lemur Dance" for the brief instrumental breaks at measures 32, 36, and 40. If they have seen the movie Madagascar or one of the specials on Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, or National Geographic, they will have plenty of ideas. As a matter of fact, it would be a great extension to have them research and learn more about lemurs on the web. There are lots of good web sites available.

Note that there is a reduction of the instrumental score available online.