Have You Seen the Ghost of John, a Round for SingersHave You Seen the Ghost of John, despite its strange lyrics, is perhaps the most beautiful short singing round in the world. Your voice students will love this free vocal sheet music!
Print out singing round Have You Seen the Ghost of John pdf The main technical difficulty in singing this song is the end of line 2, with the quick-moving eighth notes and no chance to take a breath. Although it turns it into a very long phrase, I encourage my singers to sing all of lines 2 & 3 in one breath. This way, the eighth notes at the end of line 2 sound smooth and flowing. However, then it takes a lot of control to get up to the top notes in line 3! But this trains singers to think and plan their breathing. The chord symbols are only suggestions -- when you have just one singer rehearsing the song, it can be nice to have a bit of harmony in the background to help maintain pitch. I use very simple open chords -- just 2 notes. One Christmas, I wanted a group of singers to sing this beautiful round for the recital, but I felt the words would seem frivolous in that particular setting. I decided to substitute Latin words with which many people are already familiar, from Adeste Fideles (O Come, All Ye Faithful): "Venite adoremus, Dominum." (This means "Come let us adore the Lord.") I'll admit this was a bit of a stretch. The stresses on the Latin syllables don't work out the same in Ghost of John as they do in Adeste Fideles, and I had to shift a few notes around. Instead of "ve-NI-te a-do-RE-mus," my version goes "VE-ni-TE a-DO-re-MUS." I'm hoping Thomas Aquinas, medieval scholar, wouldn't roll over in his grave! But I'll join hands with Peter Needham, who translated "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" into Latin (and had to invent some new words in the process). It's fun to sing in other languages! Have You Seen the Ghost of John could just be the loveliest vocal round in the world...if it isn't, I want to hear the singing
rounds that beat it out! The words are silly but fun; of course, it's a Halloween round.
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Amber:Thank you! THANK YOU!!! For keeping the beautiful art of Opera alive! I stumbled upon this site and I'm so happy I did!
Toni:
Thank you for your wonderful website. I also teach piano, voice and guitar - spooky! My absolute passion is opera, and have opened many a singing student's ear to the beautiful melodies and voices in the repertoire. Thank you for the wonderful warmups which I have downloaded, and will be using at the earliest opportunity - I will let you know how they go! Looking forward to more warmup ideas, too.
Danielle:
What a lovely, generous site! Many thanks from a fellow singer and music teacher in New York State. Loved the inclusion of the video for "The Ash Grove," a song I just recommended to an adult voice student today. I was pleased to be able to send her the link to not only the sheet music, but a charming performance of the song as well.
Marybeth:
I love your site! It has been an incredible resource for me as a Music teacher. I love your ideas and the music you share...
Useful Sites for Vocalists
Cantorian.org, home to free classical sheetmusicChoralWiki, Home of the Choral Public Domain Library
International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) Petrucci Music Library
Musicnotes.com - transpose vocal sheets up or down!
Note-Perfect.com, Resources for Choral Singers and Soloists
Sheetmusicplus.com
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Matt:
THIS SITE IS AMAZING!!... Thank you so much for your hard work getting these on the web, you have made many children very happy!!
Wynn:
Thank you so much for this site. I admire you so much for taking the time to reach out and share so much with others. After years of singing professionally I am finally making myself re-learn the piano in order to play for myself and to do some piano bar work. Your scales and your feedback are inspiring! Create Beauty and fill the world with LOVE!
Marta:
Thank you for the free downloads! I'm a private teacher and I teach piano and beginner voice as well. :) I've been running my studio for about a year and I've come across the same issue; I don't want my students to have to purchase an entire supplemental book for only a couple of songs. So thank you for this site...some great downloads!!
Stasi:
AH!!!!! I am so happy to find a helpful site like this. I started to give piano lessons to one little girl from church and two girls requested voice lessons this spring. Since then, word got out and going into the fall I have 18 students. I am so excited, but I'm running out of materials that they can borrow, and I, like you hate telling the parents to buy morebooks. Because I have such a diverse group of students I spend SO much time making supplemental material and I feel like I have to pick through other websites, to only find one or two useful things. I am so thankful for the wealth of supplement that you have offered here! And it's all SO user friendly!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!