I am the Music Man
This is an earlier version of "I am a Fine Musician". In each verse the participants act out playing different instruments and sing the sounds the instruments make.
I am the Music Man
Cumulative Song
1.
The Music Man:
"I am the music man,
And I come from down your way* and I can play!"
Response: "What can you play?"
The Music Man: "I play the piano!"
Group: "Pia-pia-pia-no, pia-no, pia-no;
Pia-pia-pia-no, pia-pia-no!"
2.
The Music Man:
"I am the music man,
And I come from down your way* and I can play!"
Response: "What can you play?"
The Music Man: "The saxophone**."
Group: "Saxo saxo saxophone saxophone saxophone
Saxo saxo saxophone saxo saxophone
Pia pia piano piano piano –
Pia pia piano pia piano!"
3.
The Music Man:
"I am the music man,
And I come from down your way* and I can play!"
Response: "What can you play?"
The Music Man: "The big bass drum!"
Group: "Big bass big bass big bass drum
Big bass drum big bass drum
Big bass big bass big bass drum
Big bass big bass drum!
Saxo saxo saxophone saxophone saxophone
Saxo saxo saxophone saxo saxophone
Pia pia piano piano piano –
Pia pia piano pia piano!"
The Music Man: "I am the music man!"
Notes
*Or "I come from far away."
**Or other instrument with its sounds.
You can continue the song with other instruments or change the instruments and their sounds from what's written above. The order is up to the singer.
Comments
This song is similar to "The Wonderful Musician" written by Walter Greenaway and published in London in 1871. The chorus of that song begins: "A big drum, a kettle drum, the fiddle, flute, and piccolo, piano, harp, harmonium and many more beside". The song is also known in Germany as "Ich bin ein Musikante" and adapted in the US to "I Am a Fine Musician."
All of these songs are rooted in the German Grimm's fairy tale called, "Der wunderliche Spielmann" (The Wonderful Musician). Here's a plot summary of the tale from Wikipedia:
A fiddler, wandering in the forest, gets bored and longs for company. He starts to play his fiddle, which draws to him a wolf, fox, and hare, none of which is the company he seeks. Using the animals' admiration for him and his playing, he tricks each of them into becoming ensnared or trapped so that he can continue on his way alone. He finds a companion that he seeks, a woodsman, but at that time the wolf has worked itself free, and frees the fox and hare on his way to pursue the musician.
Just as the animals come upon the musician with the goal of doing him mischief, the woodcutter steps in front and protects him with his axe. The animals leave, and the musician thanks the woodcutter with another song, and then leaves.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Thanks!