A fun piece for classroom, concert and festival, “Who Wants Cake?” celebrates two folk tunes that refer to cake while exploring introductory Level 2 skills and techniques. “Old Aunt Kate” (American traditional) and “Fais do do” (French folk tune) are richly scored with full chords, very easy 8th notes, and 4/4 and 3/4 meters; frosted with one easy key change (keys of C and F) and a few well-placed accidentals; and lightly sprinkled with percussive techniques (martellato, thumb damp, mallet, echo, mart lift, ring touch and vibrato). Beamed 8th note pairs are carefully assigned: one ringer always plays both notes within the beat, either left-right or right-left (much easier than having 2 people share these 2 notes). The score is reproducible by original purchaser.
Each tune can stand alone: There is an optional “Fine” or a starting point at M. 37 and choirs with 2, 3, 4 or 5 octaves can all play!
Written by an experienced handbell educator, “Who Wants Cake?” is a great step-up piece for rising Level 2 ringers – starting with easy skills in the first verse (quarter note chords and repeated 8th notes) and incorporating more complex skills as the piece progresses. The one dotted note-8th note pattern can be taught by rote or played as 2 quarter notes. All percussive techniques are optional, so this can also be played on chimes.
Other students (perhaps in a different class or grade) may sing the melodies by rote with the ringers as they are scored in a comfortable vocal range. Your singers will enjoy the cheeky attitude in “Old Aunt Kate” and the promise of tempting treats in “Fais do do.” Both songs have additional lyrics – easily found online. For more background on Old Aunt Kate see Seeger, Ruth Crawford (eds.) / American Folk Songs for Children, Doubleday/Zephyr (1948), p139; and for more historic lyrics, Gutenberg.org, Negro Folk Rhymes by Thomas W. Talley, The Macmillan Company (1922), p179.
Based on 18 years’ experience teaching handbells in a classroom, Kath Wissinger developed a respected curriculum and a body of pedagogical repertoire used by educators world-wide. Her carefully sequenced lessons that spiral and scaffold skills produce confident, creative and well-prepared musicians, while enticing them with catchy tunes, intriguing harmonies and engaging techniques. Her reproducible Level 1 curriculum “Square One” includes carefully sequenced lessons covering all skills from Level 1- to L1+. Find more high-quality L1 pieces and creative L2 pieces with the same careful 8th note assignments in the “Class ring” series: L2- and L2 pieces such as Upbeat, Enjoy the Ride, Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Shenanigans. More pieces that include singing options with ringing in the “Sing & Ring” series include My Paddle’s Keen and Bright, Little Rock, Fruit of the Spirit and Ship of the Desert. For these and more, go to Handbellworld.com and search the “series” section at the bottom of the “Music Selection Assistant” page.
For more pedagogically focused pieces, see ringTrue’s “Class Ring” series. If you are a dedicated handbell teacher and have yet to discover Square One (RE3013R) and the teaching methods Kath developed during her 18 years directing 4th-8th graders in the classroom, please take a look. This 2-volume set has carefully designed lessons that develop confident knowledgeable ringers with rote and unison exercises, focused practice pieces and all-inclusive etudes worthy of classroom time and performance! A license for access to the complete digital download is included with the purchase, so all scores can be projected on a Smart Board or white screen, copied into individual ringer notebooks for an organized curriculum year to year, easily accessed for your own at-home prep, or even copied or emailed as pdfs for your students’ at-home use. All to make your teaching experience and your ringers’ learning experience as logical, easy, interesting, fun and effective as possible. A short video explanation about Square One is available.