Wear Some Green

Here's an upbeat song for St. Patrick's Day, perfectly set in a spirited Celtic style. "Wear Some Green" gets your students into the Irish mood with an exuberant groove featuring fiddle, penny whistle, and many drums. And as the title suggests, singers should wear green while performing it. Why wear green? There are many reasons, but Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle with its lush green landscapes, and it's a way for people to celebrate their Irish heritage. And if you're not Irish, that's okay, too. You can still wear green because everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day! (That's a shameless plug for another of John's St. Patrick's Day songs, "Everyone Is Irish." See Music K-8, Vol. 21, No. 4.)

This song is simple to sing, though it has the occasional triplet in the melody line – which is also covered by the piano, as well as fiddle and penny whistle on the chorus. There is an optional second vocal part that enters in measure 30 on the D.S. It is pronounced and different enough from part 1 that you will have no problem hearing it for teaching purposes.

Our rhythm players did an amazing job on this, using acoustic guitar in a DADGAD tuning and bass playing double stop slides on the chorus. If you have time, listen to the accompaniment tracks just for the joy of it.