2:30 Archives - Donna & Andy

Sing a Song of Peace

Andy Duinker — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 18:32:05 +0000

0 shares

Share 0

Share this page using these social links!

Sing a Song of Peace

by Donna Rhodenizer

Audio & Lyrics

Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Sing a Song of Peace.

Teaching Tips

Expressive singing

Sing expressively to present the theme of peace and the reflective mood of the song.

Discuss dynamics, facial expression, legato phrases and treatment of interval jumps that must be sung accurately without sticking out.

Score Study

Sing a Song of Peace is written in ABA form. Explore the score to determine where each section begins and ends.
Sing the melody line and/or the descant harmony line using solfege syllables and/or hand signs.
Discuss where the phrases begin and end. While singing, move one hand in an arc to represent the shape of the phrase that is being sung.

Adding harmony

There are two opportunities to add harmony, using instruments (handbells, hand chimes or Orff instruments such as metallophones) or by singing.

After the students are comfortable with the melody of the B Section, introduce the descant line by playing the line on the piano while all singers are singing the melody in unison.

Choose a few students to play or to sing the descant line. Keep it light and complimentary to the melody without being overpowering.

Composer's Notes

Sing a Song of Peace

I got an email from Joanna, my former job-share partner. In her current school she was starting a Grade 4-5 choir. The first rehearsal was approaching, and she wanted something fun and exciting to pique the interest of the students and get them enthused to join the choir. She also needed something for them to sing for Remembrance Day with a short window to prepare something. I was inspired to sit at the piano and write her a simple song with a focus on peace. I knew she had handchimes at her school and I also know that kids love to play them. What better way to inspire kids to join the choir than to give them a chance to get their hands on the handchimes. I also Included a short section with a simple descending harmony line for a nice taste of harmony that the students would easily be able to sing and it would come together and sound good quickly.

By the time I met with Joanna the next day, I had a song written with separate vocal parts and handbell scores ready for copying and distribution to her choir singers. It was fun to be writing for young elementary choir singers. Having a specific theme also helps narrow the creative process from endless possibilities to something far more manageable. After the initial writing for the elementary singers, I couldn’t resist creating an arrangement for choirs who are able to manage more two-part singing (and eliminating the niche of having handbells or handchimes). Once again, a simple song will end up with several arrangement variations so that music teachers and choir directors have options. It makes their musical lives less complicated and my composing life more complicated, but creating music is still a terrific way to pass the time!

You're Invited

When you have enjoyed singing this song with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

Send us your video of Sing a Song of Peace and perhaps we can post it here.

The post Sing a Song of Peace appeared first on Donna & Andy.

It’s a Pirate’s Life for Me

Andy Duinker — Fri, 23 May 2025 19:22:08 +0000

0 shares

Share this page with your Teacher Friends 0

Share this page using these social links!

It's a Pirate's Life for Me

by Donna Rhodenizer

Audio Sample

Listen to melody + accompaniment for It's a Pirate's Life for Me as you follow along with the lyrics.

Part of a song collection

It's a Pirate's Life for Me is one of 12 songs from the award-winning song collection "Blue Skies and Pirates". Donna Rhodenizer and Andy Duinker have written these songs in a variety of styles and skill levels for singers from ages 5-12+.

Learn more about this fun collection for elementary-aged kids, choirs and solo vocal students. The 112-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 and purchase audio tracks

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

The Blue Skies and Pirates CD (Donna & Andy performance and instrumental) tracks (24) are available as download or physical CD on this website.

Teaching tips

Introducing the song

Read the lyrics aloud.
Discuss any unfamiliar words.
Have a discussion

Do students think it would be fun to be a pirate with a talking parrot and the ability to sail a ship wherever they want to go?
Has anyone ever seen or heard a talking parrot?

Lyric options

Two options for lyrics are provided for line two of verse three.
Decide if you want to sing about a pirate with a sword, or if you prefer to have the pirate sleeping.
The teacher may make this decision before introducing the song, and two separate lyric sheets are provided to accommodate this lyric choice. It is also an option to have the students vote on their preference.

Performance suggestions

Add simple props – striped shirts, bandanas, toy parrots and fake tattoos (An eyeliner is a great tool for creating temporary tattoos).

Include special pirate “soloists” to present the spoken response, “To the sea!” Invite soloists to give different interpretations of the “to the sea!” response.

Loud / soft
High pitched/ low pitched
Changing their natural voice to sound more gruff, or silly, or…..

Small group classes, elementary music classroom singers or choirs may be divided into small solo groups to sing the verses as small solo sections. This helps lighten lyric memorization demands for younger singers.

Home schoolers

Create a ship by organizing a group of chairs, turning a table upside down, or using a cardboard box.

Pretend to be pirates as you listen to the song and sing along.

Have fun!

Colouring page

Download (pdf), print and have fun colouring this page while you listen to the song It's a Pirate's Life for Me

Composer's Notes

Some songs seem to “arrive” without much fuss. This is one of those songs. I don’t remember what sparked my imagination and got me started writing, but it was a simple process to include all the clichés associated with pirates as I wrote lyrics for the verses. It is great fun to include participatory bits in a song that I know the students will love to sing. The exuberant call, “To the sea!” is that kind of fun element that draws kids into the singing experience. Often the songs I write reflect the fact that I am the mother of three energetic boys. If I could write lyrics and keep my own three livewires interested, it was a good indication of how it would go for the general child population that eventually sings my songs.

The recording process for this song was also a blast. Our Donna & Andy recordings have all been recorded using the talents of the best musicians we can find. It’s a Pirate’s Life for Me was recorded for the CD: Bue Skies and Pirates, with lots of blues and jazz influenced tunes. The “heavyweights” we hired to record our tracks were high-end, well-known jazz musicians and musical monsters who are able to play with incredible skill. We took courage in hand and requested each of these highly respected musicians to add a spoken response, “to the sea!” to include on this track. At first, we thought nobody would agree, but as each musician contributed their pirate interpretation, their inner child became very evident. As the voices started accumulating, efforts were made to stand out in the group of voices. they tried to be louder, they laughed at each other, they asked to re-do their part if they thought they could do a better take. They were silly, they were earnest and they had fun!

You are Invited

When you have enjoyed singing this song with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

Send us your performance video - perhaps we might post it on this page!

Send us your video of It's a Pirate's Life for Me and perhaps we can post it here.

The post It’s a Pirate’s Life for Me appeared first on Donna & Andy.

A Birdly Debate

Andy Duinker — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 20:58:29 +0000

0 shares

Share this page with your Teacher Friends 0

Share this page using these social links!

A Birdly Debate

by Donna Rhodenizer

Audio & Lyrics

Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for A Birdly Debate.

Coldbrook & District Elementary School

(director - Joanna MacPhee Simpson) in rehearsal with composer Donna Rhodenizer. The singers (grades 4 & 5) are demonstrating the ending with the Cuckoo wining the debate.

This was a March rehearsal leading up to the school's year end concert in June.

Teacher Tips

Expressive singing

Use clear, crisp diction for the repeated “cuckoo” and “rat-a-tat tat” lyrics.

The melodic placement of the “cuckoos” provides the opportunity to work on singing with a light upper register tone.

Discuss how to create a contrast between the major and minor sections. The tonality, staccato or legato phrases and dynamics all play a part in creating the contrast.

Discuss the term leggiero at the beginning of each B section. How will that expressive instruction affect the way the singer will sing in this section?

Find the rit. at the end of each C section. Following this marking creates a final bit of drama and highlights the shift between the minor and major tonalities.

Composing

Decide on the final outcome of the song. This may require compromise if there are varied opinions regarding which ending should be sung. Try not to get into a singers debate!

When composing the two endings, I was thinking that the cat either manages to eat one bird or two. However, without specific details provided, that outcome is open to interpretation. If students feel better with no carnivorous activity taking place, it is certainly possible that the cat scared away the woodpecker, leaving the cuckoo to declare its status as the "winner" of the debate. Teachers are encouraged to discuss this background information with students as they make their decision about the song ending!

Call and Response

A Birdly Debate has three sections.

Section A – dialogue between the two birds

Section B – cuckoo and rat-a-tat tat alternating lyrics

Section C – minor tonality and dealing with the cat

The sections can be managed in a variety of ways with unison sections or the lyrics divided between two groups of singers using call and response.

Call and response provides the opportunity for singers to add different perspectives and hone their expressive singing skills as each singer or group expressively represents the view of “their” bird.
Call and response helps singers develop musical independence, an early introduction to a skill used for harmony singing.

The teacher and student(s) may decide together how much of the song will be sung back and forth between the two groups and which sections will be sung in unison.

Part options:

Sing sections A and C in unison. In the B section, divide the singers into a “cuckoo” group and a “rat-a-tat tat” group. Each group will sing only their words alternating back and forth (call and response style) through this section.
Divide all cuckoo and rat-a-tat-tat lyrics between the two groups of singers. This will mean the A section and the B section will include the call and response treatment of the lyrics.
Divide the dialogue lyrics so each group only sings the lyrics that correspond with the bird they are representing.

The PDF download includes more detailed instructions and suggestions for dividing the song between two parts.

Ensemble Singing

It may be helpful to involve a director to assist a small ensemble with the call and response sections and help singers stay together. If a director is part of the performance, singers will need to practice watching carefully for direction.

Without a director, singers need to listen carefully to each other so call and response sections flow seamlessly one to the other.

When practicing the 2-part version of this song, have the two groups face each other to help the singers hear and respond to the other part more clearly.

Composer's Notes

A Birdly Debate

Inspiration for a song can come in a variety of ways. This song was written because of another cuckoo song I saw in a book. The song included repeated cuckoo lyrics but they were hard to sing and the song didn’t really work for me. For some reason, that sparked the idea of two birds talking back and forth. What would they talk about? Would they argue about who was the superior bird? I jotted down ideas and knew it was going to work as a song when it made me laugh as I was writing.

The cat showed up, almost the same as it does in the song, skulking about the edges of my thought process and inserting itself into the story. I wrote two different endings for the song. I thought both had merit and I couldn’t decide which one to include. My kids used to read “choose your own ending” books. I decided to include both lyric options and leave it up to the singer to choose the ending. As much as it was really a copout on my part not to make the choice, I also think it is fun for the singer to have a bit of say in the matter. I have tried to sing this song with Andy dividing up the cuckoo and rat-a-tat tats back and forth and we usually end up laughing. When the Coldbrook & District School Grade 4-5 Choir (in Nova Scotia) premiered A Birdly Debate, they did a super job and gave this song a good start in the world! Congratulations to the singers and their teacher, Joanna MacPhee Simpson.

You are Invited

When you have enjoyed singing this song and doing the activities with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

Please send us your performing video - we might be able to post it on this page!

Send us your video of A Birdly Debate and perhaps we can post it here.

The post A Birdly Debate appeared first on Donna & Andy.

Thankful

Andy Duinker — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 01:42:43 +0000

0 shares

Share this page with your Teacher Friends 0

Share this page using these social links!

Thankful

by Donna Rhodenizer

Audio Sample

Listen to this grade 4-5 elementary choir performing Thankful as you follow along with the vocal score.

Directors' notes

Thankful has been arranged as a three-part round. It is available as a 3-part treble arrangement and also as an SSATB arrangement. The melody is written with a range of B3-E5 in the treble clef and B1-E4 for bass clef singers. When the song is being sung as a round, it is suggested that each part be sung by mixed groups of singers (soprano/alto and tenor/bass) to create support for the outer ranges of the melody line.

The two arrangements (3-part treble and SSATB) are compatible and can be used for a massed choir performance. The only adjustment is the section of the music between bars 49-72 (Rehearsal letter B-C). In this section, the tenor/bass voices are highlighted in the SSATB arrangement. In the 3-part arrangement, a 2-part canon is written. For a massed choir performance, choose one group to highlight for this section (either tenor/bass voices or 2-part treble voices singing the 2-part round) and resume with all members singing at rehearsal letter C.

Thankful is written with the option to include handbells with the piano accompaniment.

When performing with handbells, they present the opening introduction of the melody. The melody is written in the piano score as well to add support. However, if the bells are secure in presenting the melody, the piano accompanist may either leave out the melody notes or play them lightly. If using the piano as the only accompanying instrument, the melody line is written in the piano part and it needs to be highlighted. It is possible to play the handbell part using a second piano if one is available. This provides more texture and depth to the accompaniment.

Composer's Notes

Andy and I were travelling from Nova Scotia, Canada to do a tour of Donna & Andy concerts in elementary schools in Ontario. As we drove, rural Nova Scotia and scenic ocean views had given way to the forested scenery (and hopes of catching sight of a moose) in New Brunswick. We had navigated the traffic in Montreal, which can be an adventure or a disaster depending on the time of day, and we were finally in Ontario. The 401 is a highway that is known for lots of lane changing as traffic weaves and flows and it is also known for the times when all 16 lanes come to a complete halt during peak travel times. For a country girl, the highway was overwhelming at times and as Andy drove I would sometimes cover my eyes and let him do his thing as he adeptly navigated the traffic. At one point suddenly to our left, I could see a large expanse of water. “It’s the ocean!” was my first thought, but it turned out to be Lake Ontario. Nonetheless, the sight of a large body of water sparkling in the sun beaming from a clear blue sky was a welcome sight to this Maritimer’s eyes.

The words that turned out to be the song Thankful sprang to my mind and I quickly grabbed a pen to write them down. They are very simple and they don’t rhyme, but they captured the moment completely. The melody also came at the same time and I jotted that down using my solfege training so I could write out the notes later.

When we returned home, I taught the song to my elementary school choir. I realized that we could layer the parts by singing it as a round. There are a few spots where the harmonies that are created are a bit dissonant, but they quickly pass and satisfying, comfortable harmonies appear – much like the welcome sight of sparkling water after dealing with the snarls of the highway.

Thankful is a thought, a feeling, and a reflection set to music. We have much for which to be thankful if we stop and take notice.

You are Invited

When you have enjoyed singing this song with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

Please send us your performance video - we might be able to post it on this page!

Send us your video of Thankful and perhaps we can post it here.

The post Thankful appeared first on Donna & Andy.

Best Friends

Andy Duinker — Wed, 01 May 2024 19:43:21 +0000

0 shares

Share this page with your Teacher Friends 0

Share this page using these social links!

Best Friends

by Donna Rhodenizer

Audio & Lyrics

Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Best Friends.

Part of a Song Collection

Best Friends is one of 12 songs from the award-winning song collection "Blue Skies and Pirates". Donna Rhodenizer has written these songs in a variety of styles and skill levels for singers from ages 5-12+.

Learn more about this fun collection for elementary-aged kids, choirs and solo vocal students. The 111-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 and purchase Audio tracks

Stream or Purchase from many streaming sites including:

Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer.

The Blue Skies and Pirates CD (Donna & Andy performance and instrumental) tracks (24) are available for download or physical CD on this website.

Teacher Tips

Introducing the song

Discuss with students some of the things they have done with friends.

Have they ever had to apologize to a friend?
What is the most fun activity students have done with a friend?
What is the scariest thing they have experienced with a friend?

Score Study

Use the opening phrases to highlight and discuss intervals: 3rd, 4th, 5th and octave.

Find other bars where there is an octave jump.

Find other bars where the interval of a fifth is used.

Expressive Singing

Read the lyrics aloud to become familiar with the story.

Decide which words will be emphasized to create an expressive performance.

There are a variety of emotions associated with the lyrics in this song. There are sections where the singer is remorseful, other sections where they are surprised and impressed, and still others where there must be sincere concern and apologies offered. Use expressive singing to convey all these feelings as part of the musical theatre/story-telling aspect of this song.

Decide which words will be emphasized to create an expressive performance.

The two opening verses are light and bouncy in a major key. The next section is legato and the lyrics are more reflective. The accompaniment in this contrasting section includes a few minor tonalities creating a different feel to the story. Sing the melody matching the contrasting musical treatments to create an interesting vocal performance.

Character Trait Education

Use Best Friends to discuss relationships, friendship, loyalty, empathy, and the art of apologizing.

Concert Suggestion

Create a thematic concert about friendship/community/togetherness and include more Donna Rhodenizer songs.

For "Littles" (Grades K-1)

For "Middles" (grades 2-3)

For "Bigs" (grades 4-6)

All-school finale

Colouring Page - Download

Download (pdf), print and have fun colouring this page while you listen to the song Best Friends.

Composer's Notes

Best Friends

I grew up in a small rural community with a population of less than 200 people. Fortunately for me, next door to our house was a family with seven children, the youngest of whom was my best friend. She was a year younger than I was, but once we were old enough to play together we were together at her house or at mine, kicking about on our family farm, or riding our bicycles in her dad’s paved store yard. The scenarios used in Best Friends are drawn from real events that occurred as our two families grew up together. The only “poetic license” I manipulated was the verse about the bees. Although we didn’t encounter swarms of bees, there were other injuries that resulted during our adventures. We also didn’t end up at the emergency department for many of the scrapes we received. Farm kids are often tough and the nearest emergency department was a 40-minute drive away. The bull turned out to be a curious steer, and no real threat to us. The mud was actually a hole in a barn floor (with a drop to the basement below) and my best friend’s brother taunted my older sister that she couldn’t jump over the hole. She assured him she could and she jumped. Unfortunately he was right and she was wrong and she landed on the concrete floor one floor below. Fortunately there were no injuries! I consider myself to have had an idyllic childhood. We worked hard on the farm but we also found time to play. There were swings my dad tied to large branches of oak and maple trees along the edge of our lawn. We rode bikes, played “Kick the Can”, had a few croquet tournaments, climbed trees, made forts, combed the ditches for glass pop bottles that could be returned to the store for 5 cents each, and a brook where we played even though our parents had told us not to play there. Best friends made all those activities that much more fun and it was worth every scrape, every adventure and every apology!

You Are Invited

When you have enjoyed singing this song and doing the activities with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

Please send us your performing video - we might be able to post it on this page!

Send us your video of Best Friends and perhaps we can post it here on this page.

The post Best Friends appeared first on Donna & Andy.

My Kaleidoscope View

Andy Duinker — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 00:15:30 +0000

0 shares

Share this page with your Teacher Friends 0

Share this page using these social links!

My Kaleidoscope View

by Donna Rhodenizer

Audio & Lyrics

Part of a Song Collection

My Kaleidoscope View is one of 10 songs from the CD "A Jolly Bunch Are We". Donna Rhodenizer has written 9 of the songs in a variety of styles and skill levels for singers from ages 5-12+.

Learn more about this fun collection for elementary-aged kids, choirs and solo vocal students. Enjoy!

Stream and purchase audio tracks

Stream or Purchase from many streaming sites including:

Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer.

The Computer Cat CD (Donna & Andy performance and instrumental) tracks (24) are available for download or physical CD on this website.

Teaching Tips

Discuss the jazz elements of the song:

Switching between minor and major thirds is a stylistic element used in jazz. Find the spots in the melody where these notes occur.

Other notes are changed by adding accidentals. Discuss how accidentals work. Once they have changed a note in a bar, every note that is the same will also be changed, without adding another accidental. However, once you leave that bar, the accidental is no longer in effect unless it is added again. Remembering which notes are changed and which ones are not takes practice!

Look at the vocal score and find the tied notes and syncopations that give the song its swinging jazz feeling. Sometimes the syncopations are created by starting a phrase on beat two with a rest on beat one.

The metronome marking at the beginning of the piece states “swing the eighths”. This means that eighth notes will not be sung as two notes of equal value even though that is how they are written. Swinging the eighth notes means that the first eighth note will be held longer and the second eighth note will be shortened. The music will have a lilt or a “swing” because of this.

Performance suggestions

Add visual colour to the performance by adding colourful scarves as props, or if there are multiple members in your ensemble, dress in a variety of colours that are mentioned in the song.

Composer's Notes

My Kaleidoscope View

I remember one Christmas when we received a brand new colouring book (not handed down from one of my two older sisters!) and a big box of 48 crayons. I think it even had a sharpener in the back of the box. Midnight Blue was a favourite colour for my sisters and me. There were various shades of blue, including multiple turquoise options, and enough reds to make that Christmas colouring book vibrate with our colourful choices. What fun we had colouring at our big dining room table. I expect it also was lovely for our parents to have us quietly occupied during our extended colouring sessions!

In language we also have a large palette of colours that are sprinkled throughout our language we can be green with envy, feeling blue, tickled pink, etc. I started jotting down all the different idioms that involved colours and started organizing them into lyrics for a song. When I ran out of the idioms I could think of off the top of my head, I did an online search to see if there were more that I had missed (and there were!). Remembering my joyful childhood colouring sessions I thought all those colourful emotions might be like that big box of crayons with its 48 colours!

I set all the colourful idioms to music using a jazzy, swing style. Although there is a range of emotions from “black as thunder” to “as good as gold” I liked focusing on the optimistic attitude of viewing the world with “rose-coloured glasses” and the fact that “as a friend I am true blue” so I repeated those lyrics for a bit of positive reinforcement. Since there were so many words, I wanted to include a few breaks here and there. Whistling a phrase has always been a fun challenge for my students so I added that in as well. It seemed fitting to combine all those colours from my “box of crayons” into one big, colourful attitude, and voilà! I ended up with My Kaleidoscope View.

I was delighted to have retired high school band teacher and long-time friend, Richard Bennett, create the amazing big-band style arrangement of this song for me. He captured the feel of the song and helped add even more depth and colour to My Kaleidoscope View!

You Are invited

You are invited to send us your performance of My Kaleidoscope View.

Maybe your video will be featured here on this page.

When you have enjoyed practicing and performing this song with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page as well. Thanks!

Send us your video of My Kaleidoscope View and perhaps we can post it here.

The post My Kaleidoscope View appeared first on Donna & Andy.

Because

Andy Duinker — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 02:18:43 +0000

0 shares

Share this page with your Teacher Friends 0

Share this page using these social links!

Because

by Donna Rhodenizer

Audio & Lyrics

Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Because.

Teaching Tips

Introduce this song by asking your students if they know the answers to any of the questions mentioned in the lyrics.

Do they have any questions they can ask to stump the teacher?
Clap the simple rhythm of the song.
Sing the song using solfege and/or note names.
Find the phrases that use step-wise movement.
Find the notes that are a fourth apart or a third apart.
Find the three notes that create an arpeggiated triad.

Performance tip

Have two students join their vocal forces to sing this song as a partner song. Singers alternate singing phrases for the verses and then join to sing the chorus in unison. This helps facilitate younger singers who may find it challenging to learn and/or memorize a three-verse song.

Composer's Notes

I keep a notebook where I jot down song ideas. Bits and pieces of words that pique my interest, and things I see that are curious or funny (or beautiful or inspiring!) all find their way into the pages where they are kept for a later time.

Questions are often great inspiration for songs. As they were growing up, my own children asked me many questions as they explored the world around them. Whatever children see they will question, and “Why?” is one of the most frequently asked questions of all.

I remember being asked if worms poop. Fortunately, I had paid attention in grade 7 science class enough to be able to come up with the astute response, “If it eats, it poops.” My son went on his way and I was pleased to have been able to give a satisfactory answer. Other questions are not as easy, but these days we have a world of information at our fingertips and we can look up just about anything almost instantly. Wow.

“Because” evolved from a list of questions that I thought would be interesting to use as song ideas. Instead of writing a song about each of the questions, they became a group of questions all contained in one song. The questions came from the place in my imagination where I am still a curious child, wondering about things. However, the answer to all those questions seems to have formulated from that internal spot many parents revert to when we really don’t have answers for the hundreds of questions our kids ask us. “Because, that’s the way it is” is probably not a very satisfying answer for a truly inquiring mind, but it became a fun combination of words to sing, so that’s how it was written.

Before my grandchildren (or my young students) sing this song and ask me for the REAL answers, I have some homework to do!

You Are invited

When you have enjoyed singing this song and doing the activities with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

Please send us your performance video - we might be able to post it on this page!

Purchase option

Because is also available through Full Voice Music (2 verse version) as part of the publication Songs and Studies for Kids Level B

Send us your video of Because and perhaps we can post it here.

The post Because appeared first on Donna & Andy.

Bedtime Tango

Andy Duinker — Sun, 04 Dec 2022 01:18:09 +0000

2 shares

Share this page with your Teacher Friends 0

Share this page using these social links!

Bedtime Tango

by Donna Rhodenizer

Audio & Lyrics

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

Part of a Song Collection

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 and purchase audio 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.

Teaching tips

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

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

Colouring Page - download

Download (pdf), print and have fun colouring this page while you listen to the song Bedtime Tango.

Composer's Notes

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?

In the recording studio, I wanted a “mother’s voice” but I didn’t want it to be my voice (in addition to the singing) so I conscripted my sister to read the lines “it’s bedtime, stop dancing.” She was a nervous wreck trying to make sure she nailed her three lines of “script” with just the right combination of stern reprimand and supportive parent. Making her task even more difficult was the fact that she really thought it would be more fun to continue dancing, reading and playing. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be put in the role of the authoritarian. We talked her through the process and we got the track recorded. I’m glad I asked her to contribute to this track!

You are invited

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!

Included in this

12 Song Collection

Send us your video of Bedtime Tango and perhaps we can post it here.

The post Bedtime Tango appeared first on Donna & Andy.