Narrabri High’s COVID song a hit

Narrabri High School musicians’ and vocalists’ song We Will Rise is a hit, charting well and getting plenty of great feedback.

The song was a collaborative piece created by students and teachers.

We Will Rise was written by teachers Stephen Bailey, Jeremy Berghan, David Kennedy and former student, now teacher’s aid, Jackson Walsh.

“It is a song about the situation we have all been in over the last couple of months with the coronavirus isolation, perspectives from the kids working at home and the expectations on them, perspectives from the teachers and parents,” said music teacher Stephen Bailey.

The song was a school project which involved students from elective music classes participating as vocalists or accompanying musicians with the teachers’ material.

“We had a great pool of talent to draw on,” said Stephen.

“We designed it as a project.

“We wrote the song and then gave the song to each of our elective music classes and said to the kids ‘please learn your part in the song and then record yourself either singing or playing along to a basic version we had provided.’

“They then sent their recordings back to us and then we mixed it together, with us adding some more material, to get the final product.

“We targeted the elective music classes because we have better access to those students through the distance online learning, and opened it up to any concert band members in junior years who played trumpet, saxophone and trombone.

“Former student Matthew Nash, now a music student in Brisbane Conservatorium, did some trumpet work for us as well.

“We sent him some sheet music and the basic recording version we had and he recorded his part and emailed it back and we mixed it in.”

Students and teachers provided the accompaniment to the vocals, Jeremy, Jackson and Stephen did a few of the parts and Steve McCauley, teachers aid and students also provided material.

“The students’ parts were blended with the teachers’ parts so we got a nice mix of both groups” said Stephen.

The song is now on the Narrabri High School Facebook page and getting thousands of views.

“We are getting lots of positive feedback,” Stephen said.

“Narrabri High School student liaison officer David Pierce put it on our Instagram page and tagged a few famous people in it and a couple of them have been commenting back which is pretty exciting.”