Page 30 - Voice for Life Songbook 1

8. Don’t build your house on the sandy land
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Track 8
Information
The text of this song is based on Jesus’s parable about the wise and foolish builders (Matthew 7).The wise man built his house on the rock and the foolish man on the sand.When a storm broke, the house of the foolish man fell down and was washed away but the house of the wise man stood firm.Through this story Jesus wanted to encourage his followers to build their lives on his teaching so that they could withstand the trials and troubles of life.
Teaching the song
It may be helpful to play the demonstration track on the CD to teach this song. It is very easy to pick up after a couple of hearings but difficult to read from the score. If you do play the recording, ask the singers to follow the music in their copies.
When you begin singing the piece, you may find that you need to practice bar 12 slowly in order to learn the chromatic inflection accurately. Once it is familiar, try singing it as a two-part round. When this is totally secure you can add the ostinato part as well.
Be creative
Younger singers may like to make up actions to perform with this song. It will help them to memorize the words and may also encourage them to sing out with greater confidence than they would if they were static.
Musical skills and understanding
The dotted quaver rhythm used throughout this song is known as ‘swung quavers’.They are commonly used in jazz and blues music. Sometimes they are written as a triplet rhythm:
Swung rhythms are often much easier to learn by ear as they look complicated when written down.They should be sung quite lazily rather than with military precision.
33 333
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