I recently arranged When the Saints Go Marching In for piano ensemble. It is available here.
When the Saints Go Marching In is the unofficial anthem of New Orleans. We love the song in New Orleans. We hear it played all the time by marching and jazz bands in the city. Students love learning how to play it on the piano.
The piano ensemble music for When the Saints Go Marching In includes:
- A short summary about the song
- Rhythm practice
- Individual parts for harmony, bass notes, and melody
(Each part is notated in its simplest form first and then as more advanced variations. The variations allow for a group of multi-leveled students to play together.)
To teach my piano ensemble class the song, we talked a little about the song. A lot of my students didn’t know that it was a religious hymn. Most thought the football team here (The Saints) composed it!
After talking about the song, we tapped the rhythm page together. Noticing the ties is especially important before learning the melody. I then had each student in the ensemble class learn the melody. We all played the melody together. Having each student learn the melody helped them listen closely to the rhythm of the song when we added other parts.
Next, I assigned two students the bass notes and another student the harmony. They each learned the simplest arrangement of their part. Then the students with the bass notes played with the melody. Then students with the melody played with the just the harmony. After that, everyone played their part together. Then I challenged the students to try a harder arrangement of their part. For the students with the melody, I showed them how they could add chords in the left hand. We played all of the parts together one more time and tried it faster.
They had a blast! Be sure to check out other piano ensemble music here.
Lauren teaches piano to students of all ages in New Orleans, LA. Teaching is her passion. She enjoys creating resources for her students and is the author of Ready for Theory®.
