Your Service To Our Country

"We are so very grateful..." What a perfect way to start a song that honors the many men and women who have bravely served in our military. You could certainly perform "Your Service To Our Country" as part of a Veterans Day (November 11) celebration, but it could really be used anytime you want to honor veterans for their service and sacrifice in protecting our nation's freedoms and ideals. During your program, if you have any veterans in your audience, or anyone currently serving, consider asking them to stand so that they can be recognized for their service.

Naturally, this is a very patriotic sounding piece. The recorded accompaniment features a full orchestra with military snare drums, cymbals, and chimes. The opening melody is played by a solo trumpet. For the second verse, another trumpet joins the first. You could have your choir sing these opening verses (as we did on the performance track), or you could start it all with a soloist the first time through and then as a duet on the repeat. That would really add to the way the entire song builds as it goes. Once you get to the chorus, at measure 21, it becomes a full 3-part mixed arrangement. Of course, as we like to say, that is all optional and the song would also work well in unison. If you decide to do all three parts, consider trying it a cappella, either in a performance or just as a nice challenge for your singers.

There are several free downloadables for this piece that are available on our web site. You'll find a unison version, an a cappella version, and isolated parts 2 and 3 tracks to aid in learning them.

We are including this song for Veterans Day in the first issue of the year instead of the second because we want to be sure you have plenty of time to prepare it for your Veterans Day program, especially if you are planning to use all three parts.

Signs of gratitude - Whether you are using this piece in performance or not, you may find it has more impact, visually and otherwise, if you decide to include sign language. Fortunately for you, we have a sign language expert, Nate Jones, who has created video demonstrations, including a tutorial, that you can use to teach sign language for this song. You will find these at our web site.