Rock Boom BAG

We have a large repertoire of Boomwhacker® music here at Plank Road, and an even larger one of recorder music. And from time to time, we publish pieces that use both Boomwhackers and recorders together. But this time, we had a very specific request for a rockin' program finale: The recorders needed to only use BAG. As it so happened, when we received the request, we were in the midst of working on the music for this issue. So we decided to go ahead and fulfill this request. Tony B., here you go! Now your kids can rock out together at the end of the year.

We decided to make it a modal rock tune so that it could be a little edgy. It uses diatonic BWs which never play anything more difficult than quarter notes. The pattern is a repeating one for most of the tune, in fact, so your kids should be able to learn it quickly. The recorders, as requested, use only BAG (or GAB, if you prefer to think that way), and they also have a rhythmically limited part for ease of learning.

What really makes the tune fun for all involved is the yelling of the phrase, "Rock! Boom! BAG!," as well as the gutteral utterance of the word, "Huh!" periodically. (Thanks to our all-male grunters Tom, Karl, Jerry, John, and Mike for this. It came so naturally...) Kids are invited to join them at the very end, but you may find they are tempted to also join in elsewhere in the song. Let them, if they can do it and still have a safe embouchure ready to play recorders again immediately after. (Not a problem for the BW players, of course.)

We have indicated BW applause after the piece as an option. We find this a nice release for the kids, as focusing on playing BWs can be tense. If you do use it, teach kids to enter and stop on your cue.