Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Hello Ghostie!.

Hello Ghostie!

Halloween songs can be a great teaching tool. They often include minor tonalities, lots of “oohs” and other sound effects, and topics that are mysterious and fun to sing. These songs tie in with the anticipation children experience leading up to Halloween festivities at the end of October. However, in my music classroom some students didn’t partake in any Halloween observances. Ghosts in particular are a sticky subject. Are they real? Are they just stories? Some kids believe strongly, other do not and others are not sure. Where does my responsibility lie when students look to me for opinions? 

Hello Ghostie! was written as a way of giving young singers some tools for dealing with ghosts in general. Not to present ghosts as scary, horror-movie kind of creatures, but acting like regular people by walking up to a house and knocking on the door to have a visit. How would you react if you heard a knock at the door and when you opened it, a ghost was standing there? There are certainly a variety of possible reactions and I explored both afraid and brave responses for different verses. This makes for an interesting expressive singing exercise for singers. How will they sing a chorus with the same words but conveying different emotions? Will they sing each repetition of “Hello Ghostie” with changing emotions or keep it all the same within each chorus? I also composed the ending with room for interpretation. The singer must decide if they finish with brave confidence or maybe after all their bravado, a few doubts are still lingering and they aren’t quite sure of the outcome.

Composing the accompaniment for Hello Ghostie! was an interesting journey. Sea shanty songs are popular with young singers (and older ones too!) and this song fit that style very well. That is the style I wanted for my song. However, when I first framed out the accompaniment, I wrote out simple chords, basically to get the chord structure. This was a more sedate musical style and it also works well with the song. That meant I had to decide – but then again, maybe not! I decided to provide both accompaniment versions so singers can decide which accompaniment suits their needs. It also creates a neat learning experience to compare two styles of accompaniment that make a song sound different, even though the melody and words are exactly the same for both versions. I am always interested in encouraging musical exploration and creativity.  

I like writing songs where the singer has the opportunity to make musical decisions about their performance – which should happen every time someone sings, but often does not. It is one of the most difficult things I do as a composer to commit myself to one specific interpretation of a song. There are so many options and there are reasons to include or omit different dynamics in a song. In the teaching tips for this song, I included specific notes written to the singer instructing them to make the song their own by adding the dynamics they think work best, even if that means ignoring what I wrote in the score. It will be interesting to experience a variety of performances of this song as it develops its own personality in the singing world.

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