Sing A Song Of Musical Concepts

by Teresa Jennings and John Riggio

from the pages of Music K-8 magazine

Over the last few years, we have done a number of songs in Music K-8 magazine that make it easier to teach the elements of music. The reaction from teachers has been so positive that we wanted to assemble the first group of these clever songs together for schools everywhere. This invaluable collection includes:

• Forte Piano - Set in a classical style, this song has the kids literally singing the concept, with the lyrics and dynamics telling the story.
• Legato Staccato - What better way to contrast these two concepts than one of Teresa's cool partner songs. Part 1 is legato, part 2 is staccato, and the third time through they get together. Lots of fun!
• 4/4 Meter - Take a simple 3-part partner song, set it in the campy style of the Beatles' "When I'm 64," add a nifty orchestration that changes with each verse, and you have a lot of fun... and you'll know all about 4/4 time!
• Presto Largo - "Speed metal polka" best describes the presto sections of the piece: really fast boom-chick rhythm and lots of thrashing by our wacky rhythm section. Contrast that with a Rachmaninoff-inspired largo, full of commanding piano playing on the recording, and this concept is ingrained forever!
• Every Good Boy Does Fine - We've all used this mnemonic device at one time or the other. Well, here, John sets it to a lively pop tune that also lets your students make up other E, G, B, D, F phrases... or use some of the many we supply. The kids love it! (And learn.)
• Crescendo - The last two songs in the collection, while different, are well used as a set. They also require the most subtlety to perform, but the effort is worth it.
• Decrescendo - Set in a dramatic minor key and in the style of an Italian opera, this effective tune is the perfect answer to Crescendo. Once you have learned both songs, sing them back to back and try to get more contrast every time. It's a challenge that will teach the concepts while it builds more musical singers!

As with all of our song collections, here's what you get in the printed version of this product: A Teacher's Handbook with playable Piano/Vocal parts. Reproducible Student Parts with full rights to make as many copies as you need for your singers. A Performance/Accompaniment CD featuring world-class players and two versions of each song: Full Performance and Accompaniment only.

The downloadable edition gives you the same pages and recordings, but they are in the form of PDFs and MP3s.

This collection is available in electronic format, for download to your computer. These files are quite large and may take a long time to download. Users with a dial-up modem will have difficulty: A high-speed Internet connection is highly recommended. When you expand the compressed files, they will include 14 MP3s (one full-performance and one accompaniment only version of each song) and a printable PDF of the written music. Questions? Visit the Download Help page (opens in a new window)

The Convenience Combo Kit includes both the Kit with CD and the Downloadable Kit.