Hello Everybody! {Songwriting Challenge 2.0}

This month I am super excited to participate again in Rachel Rambach’s Songwriting Challenge! I participated last year and shared a few of those songs right here at Music Therapy Kids. You can check them out below!

• Welcome to Music Time
• How Do I Know {to Add, Subtract, Divide, or Multiply}
• Tell Me {Who, What, Where}

So what is the songwriting challenge?

Each week Rachel gives us a new prompt and we are to create/share a song for that category. Week one’s prompt was to write a greeting song. The greeting song I created last year turned out to be a big hit with my classrooms and to be honest I was feeling a little pressure to write another that would be just as good. But in the end, I threw caution to the wind and let the song turn out however it turned out because that’s when I write my best. Plus if it’s a dud, I can always write another!

I have used the song with a few individual clients so far but the real test will be when school starts again and I use it with groups! It’s growing on me though so I think it may just work.

Lyrics

Hello everybody, it’s music time.
It’s our time to sing & our time to shine.
We start our time together by saying hello.
Get ready, set, go!

Hello Jaxon, Hello.
Hello Ben, Hello.
Hello Mary, Hello.
Yeah, it’s music time.

(repeat as desired)

Tips & Tricks

I have already found myself adapting the words in various ways. For example, for some of my adapted piano students, we still use an opening greeting song. In this instance, I have sung:

Hello name, it’s piano time.
It’s our time to play and our time to shine.

Also, you can see above that I omitted “everybody” and just used the name when in an individual setting. You can do the same thing when it is time to practice saying hello and just use the individual’s name three times.

I’m sure that when I find myself in a group setting, I will also add an “echo” format where I sing “Hello Jaxon, Hello!” and then have the group repeat which will give a nice opportunity for each group member to practice verbalizing or using their communication device as well as imitating a waving gesture and possibly making eye contact.

Add it to your groups.

I know that if you are also participating in the songwriting challenge, then you have your own hello song to get started with, but feel free to add this one to your repertoire as well! In fact, I usually put my recordings over in the store, but you can get the free mp3 download and lead sheet just by signing up below. Enjoy!