The Pumpkin March

by David & Anne Ellsworth

Your youngest singers will not be able to hold their feet still once they hear this special seasonal song that was written just for them! Full of sound effects and cool synthesizer sounds, the song is just a little bit spooky, but a lot of fun.

The melody is mostly quarter notes, which move steadily along with the marching rock beat while the bass punctuates the pulse with an eighth note groove. Your singers can either move, walk, or really march around as they sing to reinforce quarter note rhythms.

There is also a little bit of an exercise in dynamics at work here. At the end of the song, the melody gets softer and softer until the final "Boo!" is abruptly shouted. The scary sound effects afterwards are optional, but as you can hear on our recording, the singers really enjoyed doing them.

One nifty bit of information: our drummer, Dane Clark, brought out a new toy to play on this tune - a set of sticks called "backbeat clappers." We think they sound a little like rattling bones. See if your students think so, too!

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.