[From the collection “First Easy Tunes for Beginning Trumpet Players on TrumpetHeroes.com]
This great old spiritual appears in hymn books, band methods and a thousand other places, often with the title and lyrics “modernized”. This seems to be the most authentic title but if you don’t like it, change it. I must have sung it a thousand times before I put together the “walls came a tumblin’ down” with the seven priests with seven Trumpets thing from the Bible (Joshua 6). Not only is it a great old song, it’s a testament (pun intended) to the sheer power of the King of Instruments! ( You scholars out there who wish you could correct this statement with a lesson on the shofar will have to do so elsewhere or just let us have this one.)
This is another tune where I’m giving you the bones with the expectation that you learn them then get away from the ink. Listen to some recordings of this and you’ll hear that everyone makes it their own. Have some fun with it.
If you read my explanation of key signatures you might have given up when I started on about minor keys. This tune clearly wants to be a minor one because we get an earful of the lowered third (Bb in the first key here) and the melody comes to rest on a G. That says G minor to me. That first key – G minor – is the one that seems most natural for this tune. The second – F minor – is a bit of a knuckle-buster with those Ab’s in it but it’s a bit lower, so maybe easier from that point of view. The third key –C minor – is low enough that almost anyone can tackle it. All three of these keys involve flats and in each case the last flat isn’t even needed in the melody. It’s nothing to worry about, it’s there because we’d need it if we had a harmony part or if we wanted to get away from the simple melody and improvise a little. Try it!
The third version below has a bonus missing from the ones above it … the other half of the song! If you get it in your ear (by playing it a few times) try finishing the other two version in their keys. The instruction “DC al Fine” stands for “Da Capo al Fine” which means “go back to the beginning and play until you see the word Fine”. Fine means “end” so that’s where you stop. Hopefully you ignored it on the way by the first time.
If the instruction “Swing” is new to you let’s just say that not all eighth-notes are created equal. In every pair the first one is longer than the second one. Listen to some recordings and you’ll hear what I mean. Play this tune like that.
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