Notes

Program notes provided by the composer.

Instrumentation

Mad Libs is a flexible ensemble piece designed for young students. The modular score is designed to accommodate a variety of different instrumentations, from an orchestra to a small chamber group. The score provides instructions for ways to divide the ensemble into designated parts (either by range or by section) for each movement of the piece. Assign students to their various groups before beginning each Mad Lib.

Mad Libs

Each movement consists of a separate Mad Lib word game, sound exercise, and story. For each piece, the students should first choose words that correspond with the categories given in Part #1. In Part #2, students create sounds of their choosing that represent their words picked in Part #1. Prompts are given to help students create sounds (e.g. "Think about characteristic sounds that the animal makes and noises in its environment.").

The piece is designed to be flexible, but the piece might be easiest to execute if students choose words and sounds as an ensemble together. The teacher or conductor can help facilitate this process by either calling on different students for word/sound suggestions or voting on words/sounds as a class. Some sounds will only need to be performed by specific groups within the ensemble, so adjust this procedure as necessary based on the instructions given.

In general, short sounds will work best for these pieces (staccato quarter note/eighth note length). Don’t be afraid to get detailed when choosing sounds! Explore how different dynamics, articulations, and pitch registers might correlate to different kinds of words (e.g. small animal vs. large animal). Talk about ways to translate sounds across different instrument sections within the ensemble (e.g. how a string sound can be mimicked in a wind instrument). This process should be fun and serve as a compositional exercise for kids! Sounds don’t need to be perfectly matched across instruments.

Once all words and sounds are chosen in Parts #1 and #2, the teacher should reveal the story given, filling in the blanks with each corresponding word. Read the story aloud to the students – the quirkier, the better!