Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for The "Can't Wait 'til I'm Older" Blues.

The "Can't Wait 'til I'm Older" Blues is one of 12 songs from the Juno-nominated song collection "Dinosaurs, Dragons and Me" Donna Rhodenizer has written these songs using a variety of styles including a lullaby/tango, bluegrass, blues and pop in a variety of skill levels for singers from ages 5-12+.

Learn more about this fun collection for elementary-aged kids, choirs and solo vocal students. The 122-page book provides the vocal score, full score and separate lyrics pages for 12 songs. Enjoy! 

Please note: audio tracks for the e-book version are sold separately. Print copies of the book include CD (24 tracks)

Stream or Purchase from many streaming sites including:  Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer.

The Dinosaurs, Dragons and Me CD (Donna & Andy performance and instrumental) tracks (24) are available for download or physical CD on this website.

You are invited to send us your performance of The "Can't Wait 'til I'm Older" Blues. Maybe your video will be featured here on this page.

Please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

21 Cross-curricular activities are provided in the PDF download extending the focus of this song to other subject areas including:

• Fine arts: music, visual art,
• Language arts
• Math
• Social studies
• Technology

The “Can’t Wait ‘til I’m Older” Blues

I was listening to an interview on the radio while I was driving. The interview subject was talking about how much they had anticipated growing up, only to find it wasn’t as glorious as they had imagined it would be. That simple thought got me started on this song about youngsters who want to grow up, but once they do, they wish they were young again!

Later, at school I talked to my students and I asked them if they ever wanted to be a grownup and be able to decide things for themselves like what time they went to bed, the kind of car they wanted to drive, and what they would eat for a meal. Most of the students nodded their heads in agreement that adults had things pretty good.  However, I asked them a few pointed questions. When it was time to eat a meal, who cooked that meal? Who bought the groceries for that meal? Who worked at a job to pay for the groceries? What about owning a car? How many of the students drove themselves to soccer practice, piano lessons or to a friend’s house? None! The adults did the driving, and they also paid for the gas, the maintenance on the vehicle and the payments for the car. Things were not looking so rosy for the adults at that point. Now we had the right attitude to sing a blues song!

Each verse explored an item the kids thought would be great to have once they were older: a sporty red car, a great job, and their own place.  Once they examined some of the adult responsibilities that came with those items, the chorus was simple to write:  “I’ve got the ‘Can’t Wait ‘til I’m Older, so I can Wish I were Younger’ Blues.”

Perhaps another day I will write a song for adults to sing as we wish we were carefree kids again! That song will have to wait for another day though. Right now I have to deal with cleaning and shopping and laundry and errands and bills and taxes………

Teaching Tips

    Introduce the song and create an emotional connection by having a discussion.

• Discuss the title of the song. What do you think the composer is going to write about in the song?
• Discuss things that adults can do that children wish they could do (e.g. own a car, have their own house, etc.)
• Are there things that children can do that adults wish they could do? (e.g. playing in the yard while someone else makes dinner, not needing to grocery shop, etc.)

Talk about the blues scale, flatted thirds and accidentals. Find places in the music where the blues notes and accidentals are used.

Listen to the descending blues scale at the end of the song. Practice this several times to become comfortable with the tricky intervals before singing the entire song.

Discuss 12/8 meter. Each of the four beats are subdivided into 3 eighth notes. Count to four while clapping three times on each beat to get used to the feeling of 12/8 meter.

Improvise your own notes and/or lyrics for one (or more!) of the verses. You may create new lyrics, or scat your melody.

You are invited to send us your performance of The "Can't Wait 'til I'm Older" Blues. Maybe your video will be featured here on this page.

Please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

Free Download

You are invited to download the complete Ed the Invisible Dragon package including 19 cross-curricular activities FREE when you use coupon code  EDFOREDUCATION  or  edforeducation  at checkout.

Free Download includes:

• Vocal score
• Director/piano score
• Lyrics
• Accompaniment – with melody guide
• Accompaniment – piano
• Donna & Andy band – instrumental track
• Donna & Andy – performance track
• Ed For Education – 19 Cross-curricular Activities

Enjoy!

Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment + melody guide for Ed the Invisible Dragon.

Ed the Invisible Dragon is one of 12 songs from the Juno-nominated song collection "Dinosaurs, Dragons and Me" Donna Rhodenizer has written these songs using a variety of styles including a lullaby/tango, bluegrass, blues and pop in a variety of skill levels for singers from ages 5-12+.

Learn more about this fun collection for elementary-aged kids, choirs and solo vocal students. The 122-page book provides the vocal score, full score and separate lyrics pages for 12 songs. Enjoy! 

Please note: audio tracks for the e-book version are sold separately. Print copies of the book include CD (24 tracks)

The print book (without CD) is also available on Amazon

Ed the Invisible Dragon has been performed by thousands of young vocal students and elementary school students around the world. You can see performance videos further down this page. Enjoy!

Stream or Purchase Ed the Invisible Dragon from many streaming sites including: Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer ...etc.

"Ed" is also available on the Donna & Andy CD Dinosaurs, Dragons and Me

Also:

Do an online search and find Ed the Invisible Dragon all over the internet.

19 Cross-curricular activities are provided in the PDF download extending the focus of this song to other subject areas including:

• Fine arts: music, visual art, and drama,
• Physical Activity
• Science
• Technology

Ed the Invisible Dragon

I was blessed to be the mother of three boys. They were born two years apart, so when my third son was born I had three boys under the age of 4!  My small house was not often quiet, nor was it tidy, even with daily efforts to keep the boys and toys contained. However, my active sons were great inspiration for me as a composer and many stories and songs were created as entertainment for my own children. Ed the invisible dragon was inspired by my chaotic house. I would find the living room full of scattered Lego pieces and half-finished creations. The boys would be nowhere in sight, having gone off to another activity in another location. When I would round them up and inquire, “Who made this mess?” the inevitable answer from ALL three boys would be, “Not me, Mom.” At some point we determined that someone invisible must be living in our house making messes and leaving them behind. Ed the invisible dragon was born at that moment.

The topic of Ed would come up as we were driving somewhere as a family. We would discuss Ed and all the things he would do that might cause trouble. By the time I decided to introduce Ed and his escapades to my elementary music students there were many verses. I honed it down to the final four that became Ed’s legacy, and the first group of students who sang it loved it. After Ed was performed by my students, other teachers inquired about obtaining a copy of the music and in 1993, Ed the Invisible Dragon was published and presented as part of a song collection. He has been traveling around the world ever since. Just like my own boys, he has grown up, had adventures independently of me, and has found his own niche in the musical world. He is pretty young for a dragon and I expect he will be around for a very long time.

NOTE: Ed the Invisible Dragon is one of the first songs I wrote for my students when I began teaching elementary school music in the mid 1980s. The song was first published in 1993 - Ed is now over 30 years old! (Although 30 years is really not very old for a dragon!)

Ed the Invisible Dragon is also available at these links

• Full Voice Music
• Songs for Teaching
• MusicPlay Online
• Royal Conservatory of Music Voice Series, 2019 Edition: Repertoire 2, List B : 20^th - and 21^st - Century Repertoire

After 30 years of Ed the Invisible Dragon as a song - "Ed" is now a book too!

Purchase on this our here or get your copy(s) on Amazon. Enjoy!

• You are invited to send us your performance of Ed the Invisible Dragon. Maybe your video will be featured here on this page. 
• Please drop by again and leave a Review of Ed the Invisible Dragon on this page. Thanks!

Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Bedtime Tango!

Bedtime Tango is one of 12 songs from the Juno-nominated song collection "Dinosaurs, Dragons and Me" Donna Rhodenizer has written these songs using a variety of styles including a lullaby/tango, bluegrass, blues and pop in a variety of skill levels for singers from ages 5-12+.

Learn more about this fun collection for elementary-aged kids, choirs and solo vocal students. The 122-page book provides the vocal score, full score and separate lyrics pages for 12 songs. Enjoy! 

Please note: audio tracks for the e-book version are sold separately. Print copies of the book include CD (24 tracks)

Dinosaurs, Dragons and Me print book (without CD) is also available on Amazon

Stream or Purchase from many streaming sites including: Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer.

The Dinosaurs, Dragons and Me  CD (Donna & Andy performance and instrumental) tracks (24) are available for download or physical CD on this website.

Introduce the song with a discussion.

• Do you ever find it difficult to settle down when it is time to sleep?
• Are there are any other things you do instead of going to bed?

What is a tango?
Find some examples of this fiery dance.

Use expressive singing to change the feel of the song when it is a lullaby vs. the feel of the song when the child is dancing, playing, or reading.

Use legato singing and a change in dynamics for the final “goodnights” of the song.

12 Cross-curricular activities are provided in the PDF download extending the focus of this song to other subject areas including:

• Fine arts: dance/movement, music, visual art
• Language arts
• Social studies
• Science

Bedtime Tango

I vividly remember when I started writing Bedtime Tango. I was on my way home from a three-day conference, having left my three small children at home with their dad. Three days of busy conference included a quiet hotel room for two nights, making it a real vacation for this composer/Mom! As I was driving home, I was thinking about the nighttime rituals that occur in a household of young children: one more story, one more drink of water, one more kiss goodnight.

My initial idea was to write a lullaby (how optimistic of me!) but as soon as I thought of the opening line, “when it is time for bed, and I don’t want to go” I had visions of my boys as they would find all sorts of things to stretch out the day and stall the inevitable destination of sleep. I knew that once I arrived home there would not be a moment of quiet to write down my ideas, so I pulled over to the side of the road to jot down lyrics and write the melody using solfege syllables (a handy tool when there is no manuscript paper at hand). I could take you to the exact spot where I parked the car to write down my ideas.

Later, I was able to work with those scribbled notes to complete the story. I had fun flipping back and forth between a lullaby and a tango as the backdrop for the lyrics of Bedtime Tango. I also let my adult self win the battle, as I ended the song by winding things down with a final “goodnight”. After all, eventually we do need to sleep, right?

• You are invited to send us your performance of Bedtime Tango. Maybe your video will be featured here on this page.
• Please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!