Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Slippery Fish

Here's a song by Charlotte Diamond that she titled "Octopus", but which everyone else seems to refer to as "Slippery Fish".  You can listen to her original song (and order her CD) through this website.

I've tried to transcribe the music for the benefit of those who might find it useful.  To play the music in the embedded application below, click on the orange triangle at the top left corner of the image.  You can either scroll along to follow the music or allow the application to scroll automatically.  You may notice little icons that look like sticky notes with one corner folded up.  These are notes which indicate the hand motions that can be used at that point in the song.

In this notation, the notes marked with x's are intended to be spoken rather than sung.



Here are the lyrics written out with some further instructions:


During the "gulp, gulp, gulp" part of the song, place one hand over your open mouth with fingertips pointing upward as if covering your yawn. During the "Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …" part of the song, put your hands on your cheeks. All other movement instructions are in parentheses within the song. 


(Put your palms together in a prayer position to resemble a fish and wiggle them together as if swimming)
Slippery fish, slippery fish, sliding through the water,
Slippery fish, slippery fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!
Oh, no! It’s been eaten by an …

(Wave your arms up and down like the flailing arms of an octopus.)
Octopus, octopus, squiggling in the water
Octopus, octopus, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!
Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

(Put your hands together with your fingers slightly bent and spread, keeping your palms touching each other. Open and close your hands as you sing.)
Tuna fish, tuna fish, flashing in the water,
Tuna fish, tuna fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!
Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

(Place one hand, with fingers straight upwards, on top of your head.)
Great white shark, great white shark, lurking in the water,
Great white shark, great white shark, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!
Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

(Make a large circle with your arms to make yourself into a humongous whale.  Also deepen your tone for this verse.)
Humongous whale, humongous whale, spouting in the water,
Humongous whale, humongous whale,
Gulp! … Gulp! … Gulp! … BURP!
(Cover your mouth.) Excuse me! 

1 comment:


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