Onomatopoeia

by John Riggio

Crash! Wham! Boink! This song was requested by one of our Music K-8 Mailing List subscribers, and it was such a great concept we just had to do it! For the uninitiated, "onomatopoeia" is a word that describes a sound. Those of you who remember old episodes of "Batman" or read comic books will know what we're talking about.

The song has a fun rock style and is easy to sing. There is no syncopation and lots of repetition. The divisi starting at measure 31 is optional. But the really cool part is that your students get to sing or speak the onomatopoeia, and then they hear the actual sound on our recorded tracks. (Yes, this is one song where you really need to use the accompaniment recording.) They sing "Squish," then they hear it. They speak "Zap!," then they hear it. We've included a nice variety of sounds to imitate. Mix up the soloists to give everyone a chance.

As a cross curricular piece, your students will be learning an important literary device. Be sure to share your performance with the classroom teacher, so you can all have a Blast!

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.