“Nephi’s Courage” Singing Time Ideas

Is there any more classic song to sing when teaching The Book of Mormon than Nephi’s Courage? I think not! My friend Lisa Hansen composed this song in the ’80s and I hope this song never leaves our primary kids.

Nephi’s Courage Bell Charts

Unlike some primary songs, this song is full of chromatics, and I do not recommend doing it unless you have a full bell set with chromatic notes and the works.

This version has the melody and harmony options for the Key of F, so take your pick which style you’d like to use with your primary!

Nephi’s Courage Living Pictures

To see how I made a large picture frame for this activity, read this post.

Think of the characters in this song and how you could act them out!

Using a large picture frame with nothing inside it, sing through the first verse (and chorus, if you like) to the song. When you act like Nephi, Laban, Laman and Lemuel, change demeanor to act like them!

Now for subsequent sing-throughs, ask for 4 volunteers to be the characters and step into the frame when you sing about them. See how many kids you can get to be characters in the picture frame.

You can also include images of the brass plates, city gates, or have kids act out other ideas from the song to include the maximum number of kids.

Nephi’s Courage Melody Map

There are so many fun key words, and repetitions of melodic movement in this song. A melody map is great! I adapted this from one I found online and included some extra colors for different people in the song, different ideas.

When doing this with Junior Primary, I will put the melody map in the correct order and point to each dot as we sing. With Senior Primary, I might mix up a few pages and ask them to get them in order. You could tape together 2 pages to make the mix-up simpler (I’ve found even Senior Primary can struggle with more than a few pages worth of a melody map scrambled up).

Key words and colors here: Lord/He (purple), Commanded (Red), Nephi / I (blue), Obey (pink), Laban (black), Laman & Lemuel (Yellow- for sour like a Lemon, because they are kinda sour!), Feelings (Light Green)

Watch Sharla Dance Demonstrate!

In Fall 2023 Sharla Dance gave a workshop demonstrating activities for Nephi’s Courage. Here are the things she demonstrates, and time stamps for each:

• Rhythm Patsch for different ages (1:38:00)
• Rhythm Clap (2:24:00)

Watch Donna Howard Demonstrate!

Donna Howard is a great teacher, and she presented a workshop in fall 2023. Here are some examples of her teaching Nephi’s Courage with active engaging activities:

• Rhythm Sticks (at 40:25)
• Body Rhythm Cards (at 1:21:00)