YMCA is presented at its original performance tempo of 110 BPM. I would suggest slowing it down to at least 90 BPM when first starting out.
This song will use all the tubes in a standard One-Octave set of Boomwhackers, though like nearly all songs, some pitches are played significantly more often than others.
There is no perfect way to mix up the pitches to ensure that everyone gets an equal amount of notes to play.
Probably the easiest way to start is to divide the tubes up pairs of the interval of a fifth as follows:
Try other combinations – maybe even without pairing specific intervals – to see what works best with the flow of the music and the student’s abilities.
You can also choose to practice either just the Verse or just the Chorus by choosing those options from the drop down menu.
MUSICAL FORM
This piece is an excellent choice to explain musical form. An outline of this song’s form and components is below.
The song starts with an introduction with no vocals. The melodic material in the introduction is different than the rest of the song, and won’t be heard again until the conclusion of the piece (also called a Coda).
Then the structure of the song just alternates between the verse and the chorus. We call this an AB form, where A is the verse and B is the chorus.
More specifically, (if we ignore the introduction and coda) this form would be known as ABABAB1, because the last time the chorus is played, it is changed slightly and extended (hence B1).
We sometimes refer to this kind of extended ending of a song as the Outro. This word is contrived from the shortened form of ‘introduction’ – Intro – and serves a kind of opposite effect, to mark the ending of the song.
YMCA ends with the same melodic material as the introduction. Again, this reintroduction of melodic material from earlier in the song to conclude it is called a Coda.
If we are to include the introduction and coda into the analysis of the form, then we could say that the form is ABCBCBC1A, where A is the intro and Coda, B is the verse and C is the chorus.
Because of the particular arrangement of instrument sounds required for this song, you can’t change the accompaniment.
I hope in the future to add an option to change the style, so that you could play the song in different genres, like Bluegrass or Reggae.
Leave your suggestions and comments in the field at the bottom of the page!
