Better Bundle Up

by Teresa Jennings

This pop style tune is funky, fun, bluesy, hip, and downright contagious. Our older singers in the studio had a great time with it, though we have no doubt that your capable younger students will enjoy it as well. In fact, we decided to let our singers audition to do the verse as a solo, just for the fun of it. The winner was Mattie Tom, whose awesome rendition you can hear as a bonus (track 33) on the recording. If you have a budding soloist of your own, go ahead and do it as we did, or even extend it into the chorus and/or second verse. Bring in the rest of your kiddos as a "background" group wherever it feels right.

Use both parts 1 and 2 whether you have a soloist or not, if you can. Part 2 is technically optional, but it really is needed during the call and response sections during the verse. It will work to have part 1 sing the responses themselves if necessary. Then part 2 is pretty much the same as part 1 except for a few notes until bar 38 when part 1 jumps up the octave on the B flats. To simplify and help teach this, we have a part 2 rehearsal track you can download for free on our web site.

Hold still? Are you kidding? - Yeah, you'll understand when you sing this that you just want to move to it. You can keep it as simple as just doing the optional claps as indicated. Or you can really go all out and add some full-blown choreography to it. Or anything in between, of course. Should you choose the all-out version, we have just the ticket! Our choreographer, Melissa Schott, has put together some fabulous steps that you can use just as she shows you, or as always, you can adapt them in any way that suits your performers. You will find a video which includes her full demonstration as well as step-by-step instructions on our web site. A PDF of her teaching notes is available as well.

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.