Winter Elves… are out tonight!
I LOVE Goblins are Around Tonight which appears in David Vinden’s Songs for Singing and Musicianship.
I changed the lyrics to make them cute and Christmassy. I found that my students really took to the Winter Elves. I showed them pictures of different winter elves and they had to choose which elves they thought this song is about. Are they mischievous? Are they making mischief and playing tricks in a nice way? Are we all having fun and laughing or is it more like a trick or treat?
Introduce the song
Here are the words:
Winter elves are out tonight
Ev’rywhere you go
Making mischief playing tricks
Ev’rywhere you go
Watch out for their footprints
Scattered in the snow
Winter Elves are out tonight
Ev’rywhere you go
If you need any help with the tune, listen to my Winter Repertoire and Teaching Tips webinar inside Doremi membership.
What do Students need to know first?
If your students are learning this piece, they’re probably further along than so la and mi. So how can we approach teaching this?
In my letter names and clefs blog and live session (video available in Doremi membership) we talked about playing melodies on the white keys, and instead of talking about do and so we talked about tonic and dominant. This means we can move to different modes and tonalities without falling foul of the fact that the tonic isn’t do anymore. Obviously in a natural minor key la is the tonic. So before we get to Winter Elves, I want to make sure we’ve already talked about friendly and unfriendly tonics. Towards the end of Doremi Sing and Play, we explore this with songs that use do mi and so such as Spinning Top and Bells in the Steeple. (My lesson plans on this are available in Doremi membership)
Which Key?
I encourage my students to play it in A minor or D minor. D minor is nicer because no ledger lines are needed and there are no sharps or flats under their hands.
Your students might also be further along and know that you can change the tonality from major to minor by flattening the third. I had started talking about semi tones with a student when learning fa because when we play in F-do we need a semi-tone from mi which gives us B flat. Quite quickly, I then go onto the idea that C major has a major third and then a minor third (big / little) and it changes to minor third and major third (little / big) when we go to D minor. Then we can discover that we can change C major to minor third and major third by lowering the third and change from a light bright sound to a dark, mysterious, minor sound.
So go with what stage your students are at. As already discussed, practicing known concepts for Christmas repertoire is the best approach!
Decode the Notation
I have also asked students to work this one out without the notation too. Alongside my picture of the elves we have la to do re mi and they work out the solfa but most of the time they’re not at that level with the minor sound. They can play with a tonic and dominant accompaniment with the left hand and there’s no need to mention the solfa. In Doremi Sing and Play they’ll have been playing tonic and dominant in the left hand for ages; as soon as we learn so mi do.
It comes to a point where just playing tonic and dominant in the left hand doesn’t work! If notated in C minor, later on the G and the F clash! So it’s not the best accompaniment and they can hear that it doesn’t sound nice. I encourage my students to play around with the notes and see which sounds nice. I should also add, to prepare their ears for the minor sound, I’ll have played an accompaniment to really drill in the minor sound.
Responses