B A Rock Star
by John Riggio
As you may have guessed, "B A Rock Star" is a recorder piece featuring only the notes B and A. One of our favorite things to do on a chart like this is to make our session players do all the heavy lifting while having recorders play very simple lines. The kids enjoy the music and get to rock out while our session players wail on their instruments. Plus, you look like a hero for letting them play it!
As with many of our beginning recorder pieces the road map is very simple - no repeats, no D.S. or anything like that. It's all half notes except for the last note which is a quarter note. So it's ideal for beginning players - simple enough to play but flashy enough to make them feel cool.
Performing this piece can be a lot of fun, as students can dress the part! Think sunglasses, spiked hair, rock costumes (tasteful, of course) - anything from jeans and T-shirts to the one-piece jumpsuit with a cape from yesteryear. Add faux jewelry to taste. Big gold medallions, gold chains, etc. You can even have students pretend to be the rock band behind the recorders, playing bass, guitars, drums, and keyboards, and syncing to the recording. If your school has a theater, this would be an ideal tune for creating a light show for the total rock concert effect.
If you're interested in seeing the reduced score for this tune, you can find it online as a downloadable PDF. (See details below.)
Online extras - A free, downloadable score for this piece can be found under the "Graphics and Extras" for Volume 18, No. 1 at MusicK8.com
Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.