Reid Kerr College Students Perform “And Then He Kissed Me”

Reid Kerr College students perform “And Then He Kissed Me” in a recorded classroom session. The familiar song gives the ensemble a shared task within a defined teaching exercise. The source’s educational setting helps explain why the session was organized around a shared task rather than a polished concert production.

The lecturer’s description dates the session to June 2010. Students received instructions that day and worked through a three-hour morning class before recording a live take. The time limit gives the exercise a practical frame, and the video preserves the result produced within that class period.

The source says students could use notation, learn parts by ear or improvise. These different approaches had to fit together within one arrangement of the song. Each method requires listening to the rest of the group so that individual ideas can contribute to a coherent whole.

About half of the performers were using a second instrument. Examples include a singer on saxophone, a pianist on clarinet and an electric bassist on double bass. Switching instruments also asks performers to adapt familiar musical knowledge to a different physical technique.

The upload describes a live performance with additional percussion overdubbed later. That distinction explains the final recording process without presenting the audio as wholly unaltered. Keeping this detail in view gives an accurate account of how the published recording was assembled.

Watch the performance

Working within a short class period calls for practical decisions. Players must identify their parts, establish tempo and decide how to support the melody. The task combines preparation and collaboration, with players making choices while staying attentive to the common arrangement.

A familiar song provides a structure for that work. Performers can return to its recognizable form as they build individual parts and listeners can follow the result. Listeners can use the song’s structure to track how the parts fit together during the performance.

Playing a second instrument adds another task. A musician may understand a phrase but must coordinate the physical demands of a different instrument with the ensemble. This process illustrates how musicians can transfer musical understanding between instruments and roles.

The classroom is part of the video’s context. The performers share a working space, and the camera preserves their participation in the session. The room is not presented as a stage set; it remains part of the classroom activity described in the source.

The vocal line offers a reference for the accompaniment. Instruments can contribute rhythm, harmony or brief contrasting gestures around it. The melody therefore gives the different instruments a shared point around which the accompaniment can be organized.

A part does not need to be complicated to help an ensemble. A steady figure can give singers and other players a shared point of reference. Simple parts can be particularly useful when rehearsal time is limited and the group needs a dependable structure.

The session illustrates different routes into musical understanding. Reading, listening and improvising each contribute to the performance described by the lecturer. The description makes clear that the exercise welcomed more than one method of working out the music.

For those interested in music education, the video documents a specific class exercise as well as a cover of familiar repertoire. This context distinguishes the recording from a conventional studio cover, while keeping the focus on the students’ work.

Viewers can also enjoy the performance simply as group music-making. The classroom context adds a sense of shared work to the recording. Their performance is preserved as a group activity that can be heard beyond the original class.

The lecturer says the video was uploaded for the students. That original purpose grounds the clip in a documented educational activity. The source’s account of the upload clarifies its intended audience and educational origin.

The three-hour session, second instruments and recording details give the performance a concrete context. The source description helps explain how the arrangement came together.

More videos to explore

The Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me” is the original recording associated with the student arrangement.

The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” provides another reference from the 1960s vocal-group repertoire.

Further reading: Reid Kerr College session and source video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSwiiK-HqQo