◆ This month there will be musical games, new Cub Scout songs to sing, and a minstrel show planned and put on. It’s going to be a big month, and the following ideas will help make it so.
Naturally, we can’t tell you which type of music is most typical in your section. That is something Pack and Den leaders will discover during December in preparation for the January theme. School music teachers can help, as well as most libraries. Each Den can choose a song and do it in costume for the minstrel show.
Of course, the boys of the Southwest will be singing cowboy songs such as “Home On the Range,” “Headin’ For the Last Round-Up,” “Cowboy’s Lament,” The boys of New England may choose to sing sea-farin’ chanteys, such as “Blow the Man Down,” or “Reuben Ranzo.” (A laughable stunt would be to have a Cub Scout on stage going through singing motions while a hidden “basso profundo” sings “Rocked In the Cradle of the Deep.”) Boys of the South will probably sing southern ballads and spirituals.
HOMEMADE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
You will find this a most popular field with Cub Scouts. They can actually make instruments that will have musical tones as well as being comedy take-offs of actual instruments. You will find a page of ideas for homemade musical instruments on page [17] of this issue of Scouting.
Naturally, it’s a lot more fun to make these instruments if the boys know they are going to use them in your Pack meeting or minstrel show.
Perhaps each Den will have its own “kitchen cabinet” type of band. All Dens can practice the same songs, then come together at the Pack meeting in one big band and play them together.
Another interesting field is to make rhythm instruments which boys play to the tune of a phonograph record. Rhythm instruments include pot cover cymbals, rattles, blocks of wood, and tin cans.
CUB SCOUT MUSICIANS