We recently came across a 2017 video by Dr. Jean called Macarena Months. We’re always excited when people use the inspiration of the lyrics, the rhythm or the dance to create new art. This new song is no exception. The song makes some deviation to the official Macarena Lyrics we are all familiar with.
Dr. Jean took the dance and rhythm of the song and applied new lyrics to help children remember the months of the year. Dr. Jean is a well known teacher, artist and educator that uses music to aid in education.
Educated at Emory and Georgia State, Dr. Jean is in fact a real doctor. She earned her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. With a YouTube channel of over 140,000 subscribers and more than 70 million lifetime views, we trust the song is in good hands with the good doctor.
Regarding her technique and approach, there’s quite a lot of work in cognitive psychology that supports the use of storytelling to aide in memory formation. However this is the Macarena.com and so we’ll stick to the music.
If you want, you can watch Dr. Jean’s video upload (the song officially appeared on her 2003 album Ole! Ole!) but essentially the song mimics the dance moves of The Macarena at the same pace. She provides the following instructions which we’ll show below.
January, (Left arm out with palm down.)
February, (Right arm out with palm down.)
March, (Turn left palm up.)
April, (Turn right palm up.)
May, (Right hand on left shoulder.)
June, (Left hand on right shoulder.)
July, (Right hand on back of head.)
August, (Left hand on back of head.)
September, (Right hand on left front hip.)
October, (Left hand on right front hip.)
November, (Right hand on back right hip.)
December, (Left hand on back left hip.)
Then you turn around. (Turn around.)