Not Mozart's notation: How simplified notation helps beginning band sanity

Music notation is a valuable tool. Music literacy (including the ability to read traditional Western music notation) is an important skill which should be developed in order to help students achieve total musicianship. But lines and spaces are not always the best tool for every context, especially when it comes to popular music. I'm using a score consisting of tables for one of our beginning band songs this year. This song is a popular tune (and a student favorite) with rhythms well beyond what is typically covered in first-year band. Here's my score (note the lack of clefs, note heads, and even rhythm notation):

The lyrics are underneath, but before we get there: can you name that tune? It's certainly harder to sight read without the context of rhythm or meter. However, virtually all of my students have heard this song outside of school. So here's what a student part looks like:

Obviously, a beginning band student isn't going to get a whole lot if they just play those notes. I don't use the parts the first time we touch this song. Once we've learned the main sections (in this case, green blue and red), the written parts act as a memory aid. The small lines next to some of the notes indicate that they're "low" (below the tonic of the song). The dashes in the last line remind students to hold that note (the ending I used seems to be less familiar to students than the main tune). 

The benefit of this system is that students can play rhythms well beyond their reading ability. My group hasn't gotten to individual eighth notes yet, or dotted rhythms, but they can execute both well in the song because they know the tune and are playing based primarily on an aural concept. This "part" serves more as a reminder than something to stare at. Today, a student discovered that after a few weeks of practice, she can play the whole thing from memory! I teach band for the music, not the notation, so using this kind of part has helped my students play music that they care about and perform at a high level without getting caught up in music notation confusion. It's another way (not the best way or the only way) to write music to help student learning.

Band teachers: if you'd like parts and score for this tune, leave your gmail in the comments and I'll share with you.