Rhythm and Boomwhacker Play-Along Inspired by Carol of the Bells

One of my all-time favorite holiday pieces is “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24” by Savatage / Trans-Siberian Orchestra (1995). The song beautifully blends “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” which begins with a solo cello, and then transitions into a round featuring a flute and guitar. The next section picks up the pace and showcases the melody of “Carol of the Bells,” or “Shchedryk,” the Ukrainian New Year’s song composed by Mykola Leontovych in 1916. A couple of years ago, I arranged this piece for my school’s Philharmonic, a group made up of students in grades 4-8 who play strings, brass, woodwinds, and piano. They thoroughly enjoyed learning and performing the song, which inspired me to create this play-along video. For this video, I edited the song and slowed the tempo to ensure it could be easily performed by elementary and middle school students.

Musical Elements

The musical elements covered in the piece are the following:

• Triple meter (the introduction which is in cut time is used for the introduction to the play-along video)

• E Minor

• Eighth, quarter, half, and dotted half notes

• Quavers, crotchets, minims, and minims dotted

• Accent

• Fermata

• The music contains Christmas Carols, so it can only be used in a setting that allows the music.

The piece can be played with rhythm sticks, classroom percussion instruments, boomwhackers, tone chimes, handbells, or virtual instruments like playxylo set to G Major (which is the relative e minor).

Manipulatives

These slides are to be used in your classroom so you can teach or review the rhythm patterns. They are seen above, but can also be downloaded in a PowerPoint file found on my Buy Me a Coffee Page (https://buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech).

The file contains:

• Title

• Credits

• Musical Elements covered in the play-along

• Instruments that can be used

• Quarter and four eighth notes pattern

• Two rhythm patterns played together

• The main motif of the quarter, two eighth notes, and the quarter note in the pitches of do ti-do la

• Melody and Harmony

• Motif 2 has the ascending bass line instead of the descending melody line (there are multiple slides for this)

• Dotted half note rhythms

• Quarter note rhythms

• The main motif of the quarter, two eighth notes, and the quarter note in the pitches of do ti-do la

• Melody and Harmony

• Fermata and accent rhythms

Tips for Teaching:

There are a lot of different ways to teach these manipulatives, depending on where your students are in learning musical concepts. You could concentrate on the meter, use this to prepare/present/practice dotted half notes, or teach about the various melodies and harmonies found throughout the song. Whatever you decide, I hope that you have fun with this play-along video. Finally, when using YouTube, use the settings to change the tempo to fit your students’ needs.

Resources:

Savatage / Trans-Siberian Orchestra. (1995). Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24. On Dead Winter Dead and Christmas Eve and Other Stories. Paul O'Neill.