Get Back: TB Choral Octavo

Roger Emerson's arrangement captures the propulsive energy of the original while making it work for developing choirs. The flexible voicing options (TB through TTBB) let you program this regardless of your group's configuration, and the pop-rock idiom keeps students invested in the material.

Infectious and urgent. The song pulses with the kind of restless energy that defined late-period Beatles recordings, propelled forward by relentless rhythmic figures that refuse to let the listener sit still. There's joy in the simplicity of the hook paired with surprising harmonic moments.

Any choir director looking for repertoire that connects with student singers while building ensemble skills. This arrangement works equally well for high school concerts, middle school pop programs, or community ensembles that want contemporary material with substance.

• Keep the backbeat driving throughout. The rhythmic thrust is what makes this song memorable, so resist the urge to slow down or soften the articulation on beat 2.
• Balance the hook so it's clear and rhythmic rather than melodic. The repeated "get back" phrase works best when delivered with precision and forward momentum.
• Lock the section unisons first before layering in the harmony parts. This arrangement depends on a solid foundation of locked rhythms.

Place this in a pop or rock-focused concert segment where it can anchor a set of similar-era material. It works particularly well as a closer because the energy builds naturally and gives audiences something they recognize and want to sing along with.

• Maintaining rhythmic precision in syncopated pop-rock idioms
• Balancing unison passages with layered harmony parts
• Singing with intentional articulation and rhythmic clarity
• Flexibility across multiple voicing configurations (TB/TTB/TBB/TTBB)
• Responding to the specific demands of non-classical repertoire