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Best Friends
$7.00 – $20.00
Sometimes being best friends involves adventures that don’t go quite as planned. Drawing on personal childhood experiences, Donna Rhodenizer explores the ups and downs of two friends as they discover how fast they can run when chased by a bull, the advantages of not being allergic to multiple bee stings, and what happens when jumping over mud puddles goes awry. Also from personal experience, Donna knows how important it is to apologize to keep a friendship viable, particularly after such mishaps occur! This song is dedicated to Donna’s childhood best friend, Melanie.
This cheery melody has a showtune feel created with a bouncy accompaniment. A contrasting legato section with shades of minor tonalities suits the more reflective nature of the lyrics before returning to the fun romp through more childhood escapades that somehow go wrong. The interval jumps in the melody are a fun way to highlight and study intervals of a 3rd, 4th, 5th and octave. The range of Best Friends is C4-C5, excellent for the developing voices of young singers.
This song is an entertaining solo and is also suitable for small group ensembles and elementary choirs.
Listen to the Donna & Andy performance track:
Listen to melody + accompaniment:
Download Includes:
- Vocal score
- Lead sheet
- Director/piano score
- Lyrics
- Accompaniment – with melody guide
- Accompaniment – piano
- Donna & Andy band – instrumental track
- Donna & Andy – performance track
- Teaching Tips and Strategies
- Colouring page
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Best Friends
Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Best Friends.
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 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.
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
Download (pdf), print and have fun colouring this page while you listen to the song Penguin Parade. Enjoy 35 more colouring pages when you get a "Top of the Class" Donna & Andy Membership.
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!
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!
| License | Single User License, Classroom / Studio License, Treble Choir License |
|---|---|
| Context | Choir – Elementary, Choir Repertoire, Classroom Songs, Expressive Storytelling Songs, Mini Musical Theatre, Small Group Class, Song Collection – Blue Skies and Pirates, Teaching Songs / Pedagogy, Vocal Solo, Choir – Unison |
| Level | |
| Topic | |
| Vocal Range | C4 – C5 |
| Voicing | |
| Duration | |
| Composer | Donna Rhodenizer |
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