The World Says Merry Christmas

Participation is the name of the game for this song. With optional parts for easy guitar, Boomwhackers®, 2-part recorders, and percussion, you can choose as much or as little activity as your students can handle.

The song is written in a folk rock style with traditional instrumentation for that genre, and it only has three chords. The "easy" student guitar chords are notated with four-string chord diagrams. They will appear the first time each chord is presented. You will want to make sure that the guitarist plays only the four strings indicated unless he/she has advanced to playing the full chord. Open 5th and 6th strings are not a part of the chords and will create an unpleasant dissonance if allowed to ring. Also, we are focusing only on finger placement and chord structure at this point. Use a simple, single, "down" strum whole note for each chord. Be sure the student uses the fingertips of his/her left hand and not the flat part of the finger. (Tip: You may want to provide fingernail clippers for your guitarists.)

Two recorder parts are included as well. Part 1 is a BAG part with part 2 adding a C and D on top. The recorders enter the second time around and play to the end. The recorder parts could be played with any C instrument: bells, handbells, violin, keyboard, etc. The Boomwhacker® and percussion parts also enter the second time at measure 5, acting as verse 2, and play to the end. The suggested percussion patterns are notated here. They are only two bars long and continue "similarly" to the end. Use triangle, jingle bells, tambourine, cowbell, hand drum and any other percussion instrument you have in your percussion box.

With all of the instrument options, it's hard to imagine that someone might be left out. However, if you have students without an instrument in their hands, they could clap along on beats two and four beginning at measure 5, second time. And of course, there's always the singing, too.