Take Me Out To The Ball Game

arr. Paul Jennings

"In the Spring a young man's fancy turns to..." popcorn and peanuts and home runs. And since 1908, everyone has sung about the experience with this rousing song.

We wanted to bring it to you in an enjoyable, fairly authentic manner, so we started with a nice cheezy ballpark organ for a few rounds of charge. As we head into the tune itself, we find that we are being accompanied by a turn of the century theater orchestra with a few strings, trumpets, a flute, a clarinet, a euphonium, a banjo, and, as before, the stadium organ continues.

For this arrangement we are using three verses. Of course, there is really just the one verse, so we've spiced it up a bit. Here's how we recorded it on your CDs and cassettes, and how we suggest that you perform it with your kids:

Sing the first verse. For the second verse, have them play the tune on kazoos. For the third verse, you can have them just sing it again, but we have concocted a little twist that will have keep your students on their toes, and help their performance concentration much the way the tune "BINGO" does.

For this third verse, they start singing, keeping their kazoos handy. At various strategic words (which are designated with an ∗ above them) the children play kazoos instead of singing. We are pleased to say that the recording you hear was done live, and the kids were very pleased to have done it perfectly. Your kids will have the same fun with it.

If you don't have kazoos, check out the Plank Road Home Journal flyer inserted in this issue. It has instructions for making your own kazoos, or, if you don't want to make them, we offer you a place to buy quality kazoos at a reasonable price.

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.