Barney in bells! You ever get one of those insane pictures i

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Fri Jan 24, 2003 4:06 pm

Last week, as our Morris kids have worked so hard on "South Australia," the teacher decided to start them on "Shepherd's Hey." Adderbury Morris dances always start with a "silly song" (to the tune of whatever they will be dancing to), and the one for "Shepherd's Hey" goes like this:

"I can dance, I can sing,
I can do most anything,
I can whistle, I can play,
I can do the Shepherd's Hey!"

All accompanied with appropriate hanky motions, of course.

Well, as soon as they learned this, one of the girls started to giggle. When asked what was so funny, she said "It sounds like something Barney would sing!"

Of course, she was right! So now, when I play "Shepherd's Hey" I get this insane picture of a big purple dinosaur capering around in Morris kit and it just about slays me! Do you know how hard it is to whistle and giggle at the same time? Yikes!

("Don't think about a purple dinosaur. Don't think about a purple...arggghhh!")

Redwolf

Sandy Jasper · Post by **Sandy Jasper** » Fri Jan 24, 2003 5:11 pm

The other night one of the ladies in our whistle class brought her dog along. The dog began to mournfully howl everytime we hit high notes. With every song her torment grew, finally I couldn't play at all for laughing. The strang thing is, the lady was so used to her dog's singing, she didn't even notice!

Laughing and whistling do not go together, though if you put the whistle in the very side of your mouth, you can manage it in the most dire of circumstances. Best plan I can suggest is not to think of the purple dinasour...

jbarter · Post by **jbarter** » Sat Jan 25, 2003 1:54 pm

Handy tip Redwolf. Even if the Morris tune you're learning doesn't have a set of words with it already give it some. One day you'll face the terror of all Morris musicians: Set ready to dance, public ready to watch, musician's mind goes blank - tune forgotten. Even if the dancers can't remember the tune they'll remember the words and the tune comes right along with them.
I'd give you some of the ones we use but believe me they're not suitable for anyone the age of your dancers.

Edited to correct the stupid spelling errors I should have spotted before posting.
_________________
May the joy of music be ever thine.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jbarter on 2003-01-25 14:57 ]</font>

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Sat Jan 25, 2003 2:06 pm

Good tip. I can see that happening already. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, for some reason I sequed into a totally different tune when I was playing South Australia (can't even remember what tune it was)...I must have been spacing out or something. All the dancers kind of plowed to a halt and just stared at me like "what in the heck was THAT???"

One of the fun things about being the musician for this little group is I really have a chance to watch the kids progress...not only because I'm standing up there watching them through figure after figure, but also because I can feel it in the music as their timing improves. This really has been a fun gig. I started out doing it just because they needed parent musicians, but I find myself looking forward to every Friday's practice, and I just can't wait until their first "dance out" on May 1 (it looks like they're going to get to dance in downtown Santa Cruz!). In fact, right now we're working on assembling "kit" for each of the kids (yesterday they voted on the colors for their baldrics).

Redwolf