Submitted by Connie Herbon, Iowa
Idea posted April 2, 2004
My third graders have just added single eighth note/rest to their vocabulary and needed some practice beyond their current songbook. I transposed "Musette" from Bach's Notebook for Anna Magdalena and wrote a Boomwhacker® part. Each 3rd grade class was able to play through the piece after about 15 minutes on the activity, so I think most groups of third grade and above should be able to handle it. The hardest parts are the measures of eighth rest/eighth note patterns. Those could be simplified by turning the pattern around, but playing the eighth notes after rests was the object of the exercise for my students.
You will need to translate the Boomwhacker® line to whatever form works for your players. Performance of the piece does require piano skills, but perhaps you can find a friend to make a recording for you if you are totally challenged in that area and still want to do the arrangement. Please ignore the "voice" marking under the Boomwhacker® line. I was unable to remove it from my Finale Notepad score.