Happy Birthday, Earth Day!

Surely most of us are familiar with the ol' conga style beat, right? If not, here's a song that will demonstrate it nicely. Starting right off with the toms playing the cliché groove, it's made a bit more fun with the addition of the shouted "Hey's" throughout. Originally, we were just going to have the kids do the shouting, but it was so fun, we added the band guys, too. (Though they might not admit it, we think they enjoyed it!) On the accompaniment recording (track 23), you will only hear the band voices doing it. Which makes it a good reinforcement for your shouters. But if you'd rather not have them in there, we did make an alternate accompaniment track with no "Hey's" which we put on our web site.

The topic of the song couldn't be any plainer. Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 every year and has been since 1970. So why not have a special song for just the occasion? Mind you, we have written many pieces over the years to mark the occasion, but this is the first blatant birthday song we've done. About time, huh?

As you might expect, it's super simple and repetitive so that everyone can sing along, shout along, and even dance along if you want. While we have a section indicated for movement (bar 14), you can certainly add it anywhere and everywhere else in the song. We have shown optional movement indications on the music that are pretty basic. Just step left, step right, step left, then kick out right. (Remember this is in cut-time. Listen to the drums and percussion to line up with the beat.) These steps can be done in place. If you'd rather, you could do an actual conga line that moves around. But keep the kicks gentle and in the clear, lest anyone get literally kicked. You could also just step the right foot to the side instead of kicking. Or, if you're really concerned, just replace the moves with hand gestures instead. Or, just skip the action altogether.