On the Road: New York, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky!

Stanton’s Sheet Music is coming to YOU! Stanton’s will be on the road this winter attending several conventions outside the state of Ohio.

Our first stop will be in Rochester, New York, December 3-5th for the NYSSMA Convention. We are extremely excited about going back to this show for the 5th time! We are eager to see some of our favorite customers and, of course, meet new educators who we’ll be able to help. We are bringing a full selection of sheet music for Solo & Ensemble, Choral, Elementary Music, Concert Band, Jazz and Orchestra, along with some of the newest publications for music educators and college music majors. You shouldn’t have trouble finding us–we’ll be under the big blue Stanton’s balloon flying in the exhibition hall. If you are already familiar with Stanton’s, or have been reading our blog regularly, you may have learned that the Stanton’s staff loves traditions. We can’t visit Rochester without having our traditional night out at the Dinosaur—a well-known restaurant with a reputation for excellent barbecue. The Dinosaur’s bar-like interior will be crowded with everyone from musicians/educators from the convention to urban professionals and leathered bikers—all mingling in waiting for a table. It’s always worth the wait because the food is fantastic and the portions are huge. We’re hoping that all of our NYSSMA crew—new and returning—will love the Dinosaur and have a great time in Rochester!

After hosting our annual January Church Choral Reading Session on Saturday, January 9th, the next stop on the winter tour will be our inaugural trip to Grand Rapids for the Michigan Music Conference, January 21st-23rd. We are thrilled to finally be adding Michigan to our roster; we have talked about attending this convention ever since this event moved from a college campus to a convention center. We have been so pleased to be of help to music educators in the state of Michigan, and we look forward to seeing those customers face-to-face. Once again, we’ll be bringing a wide variety of music publications and resources for music educators and college majors. Since this convention is a new experience for the Stanton’s crew this year, we are open to suggestions as to what to do and where to eat. We’re sure that the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel has a nice restaurant or two, but are there other fun and exciting places to dine out in the downtown Grand Rapids area?

We are keeping our fingers crossed hoping for good traveling weather. We know the trip back from Rochester can be a little nerve racking with all of the lake effect snow hitting us on route 90 (we’ve “white-knuckled” our way back home at 2:30 in the morning more than once), but we are also hoping for good weather going to and from Grand Rapids with the snow off Lake Michigan in January. Wish us luck!

Of course, Stanton’s busy schedule doesn’t stop there. After we attend the Michigan Music Conference, Stanton’s travels to Cincinnati the very next week for OMEA, then on to Louisville, Kentucky for the KMEA convention the week after that. That’s three in a row—back to back to back! Then we still have a few small February run-outs to the Morehead Band Clinic and the ACDA Central Division Conference in Cincinnati before we can settle back into our normal routine. Keeping busy on the road is not only a fun way for the staff to get out and meet new people, but also makes the dark, chilly months seem to speed by more quickly. Come out and see us sometime this winter, and if you’d like Stanton’s to come to YOUR state convention next year, let us hear about it!

GO BUCKS!!!

Spend Your In-Service Day at Stanton’s!

As schools come to the end of their first grading period of the year, many districts have in-service work days for teachers.  Why not spend your in-service day here at Stanton’s?  Check with your administrators, then gather all the music teachers from your district and come on in!

Now is a particularly great time to be planning your winter and holiday concert programs.  We have all our picks for seasonal concerts on display, and we’re happy to help you find exactly what you’re looking for, or offer you some suggestions.

So give us a call (1-800-42-MUSIC) and let us know when you’re coming!  If you have any special requests (musical research, repertoire choices and suggestions, etc.), please let us know as far in advance as possible, and we will do our best to accommodate you. 

For Ohio music educators, we invite you to join us on Friday, October 16, 2009 for COTA (Central Ohio Teachers’ Association) Day.  Stanton’s will be providing free coffee and doughnuts for you on that day, and free promotional items will also be available.  See you soon!

POP goes the sheet music!

Stanton’s receives many calls and emails that begin with “I’ve got a great piece of music here that’s pretty old…” and, sadly, that conversation often ends with “I’m sorry to tell you that piece is permanently out of print.” What does that mean for you, the director/musician when something is permanently out of print (POP)? Read on to find some of the most common questions and their answers:

1) Why do things go POP?
When we inform someone that a certain piece is POP, the most common response we receive is “I can’t believe it—that piece is so good!” While it is true that sometimes a piece is taken out of print due to lack of sales, this is not the only reason. Sometimes there are copyright changes, royalty disputes and other business issues that have nothing to do with sales. Even if a piece is taken out of print due to low sales, that’s not necessarily an indicator of quality. A piece that is “good” may also be very difficult, or extremely contemporary or use an unusual voicing/instrumentation, all of which could lead to low sales despite how “good” it is.

2) Why does Stanton’s show POP titles on their website?
When Stanton’s determines that a piece is no longer in print, we indicate that on our website so that you, the customer, can also have that information. If you were looking for a certain piece and simply didn’t see it listed, you may just conclude that it’s not available from Stanton’s, or that you had typed something incorrectly.
Sometimes a piece that is permanently out of print is not yet listed that way on our website. While we make every effort to keep the information on our website up-to-date, we usually don’t learn that a piece has gone POP until we try to order it and the publisher says “sorry, no.” Please call us if you have questions about the status of a particular piece.

3) How do I determine that something is POP?
As stated above, we encourage you to contact Stanton’s whenever you have questions about a piece of music. If you are interested in doing some research yourself, you can check the website of the publisher to see if they have more information. If the music is from a publisher that is no longer in business, their copyrights, or “imprints,” are probably still owned by another publisher; the same arrangement may still be in print from the “new” owner of that imprint. You can find more details about defunct publishers on the Music Publishers Association’s directory of imprints.

4) Do I have any options for obtaining this music?
Once you have determined that something is POP, you may contact the publisher to request permission to photocopy (Stanton’s can give you their contact information) if you have at least one original copy. Especially in the case of churches and schools, the publishers will often grant this request for little or no cost. The publisher will then send you a letter stating that you have permission to make copies. If you do not have an original copy, you might acquire a copy from someone else’s library by sending out a query on the ChoralNet listserv, or a similar forum. IT IS ILLEGAL TO MAKE PHOTOCOPIES WITHOUT THE PUBLISHER’S PERMISSION, EVEN WHEN SOMETHING IS NO LONGER IN PRINT!

5) This music is still in print, so why is it so hard for me to get it?!
In addition to “in print” and “out of print,” there are a few other ways to designate the status of a piece of music. It may be “temporarily out of print” (TOP) or “on backorder” (OBO), which means that the publisher is sold out of the music in their warehouse and will need to print some more. It also may be designated as “print on demand” (POD) or an “archive edition,” meaning that it is not something that the publisher keeps in stock, but they will print special copies on request. A piece of music might be a “special import” that is not kept in stock in the US, but that a publisher can get from their international partners. ALL of these situations may affect how long it will take to get your music and how much it will cost.

6) Is there any chance that it WILL come back into print?
No. There may be other arrangements of the same composition available, but once something goes POP, it will not come back.

Permanent means permanent.

Experience Matters

There is a billboard up near Cleveland for an insurance company that reads in bold letters, EXPERIENCE MATTERS.  That not only applies to insurance companies, but to music stores as well.  Stanton’s Sheet Music will have been in the business for 50 years as of July, 2010.  Staff members have come and gone over the years, but many have stuck around for quite a while and they all contribute to the experience of the whole staff in some way or another.  One of Stanton’s original staff members still works here on a part time basis, several others have been here over 30 years and the knowledge passed down from one employee to the next over the years is invaluable.  As new employees are trained, they learn the way things have worked well for years, and often contribute new ideas to improve the process, which are then adopted and taught to the next generation of workers.
As held true with former employees, several of our current staff are former school music teachers, many are currently teaching music privately and several are active in vocal and instrumental ensembles large and small away from Stanton’s; they bring all that experience to the business.  Also, the whole present sales staff of nearly twenty people consists of college-trained musicians, and several have advanced degrees.  Even the majority of people in our bookkeeping, shipping and receiving departments are musicians.   That’s a lot of experience!

Our way of picking music to recommend to our customers is dependent upon the accumulated experience of the sales staff.  Every year, they read through the hundreds of new titles that the publishers send to the store, and –relying on their musical expertise and experience in knowing what has sold well in the past– they pick the absolute cream of the crop of the choral, handbell, general music, marching band, concert band, jazz band and orchestra titles to recommend to Stanton’s customers.  The experience of our staff is a commodity that our customers can count on.  The music that we recommend will be the best sounding, most highly programmable and most educationally valid sheet music that is available.  That’s something we think you should know.  Yes, EXPERIENCE MATTERS.

How may I direct your call?

We’re always talking about our knowledgeable staff—you’ll find that very phrase on much of our printed advertising, as well as on our website. Stanton’s sales staff is separated into departments to ensure that each staff member is well informed about a specific area of the wide variety of music that we carry. So when you call and ask about music for trumpet, you’ll be speaking with someone who has first-hand knowledge of repertoire, not just a phone operator with no musical experience. Here’s what you’ll find in each department:

CHORAL DEPARTMENT (ex. 1)
Choral Music for School & Church
Elementary General Music
Classical Solo Vocal
Handbell

BAND DEPARTMENT (ex. 2)
Concert Band
Marching Band
Jazz Ensemble
Orchestra
Solos for all concert instruments
Instrumental Method Books
Music Software/Technology

POP/KEYBOARD (ex. 3)
Sacred & Secular Piano
Organ
Piano Method Books
Popular/Broadway Solo Vocal
Contemporary Christian Vocal
Guitar Solos and Methods
Music for Folk Instruments

You can direct emails to the exact department you need by clicking the links above, or press the appropriate extension when you call 1-800-42-MUSIC. If you’re unsure of which department to choose, we’re always happy to direct you to whoever can best address your needs. At Stanton’s, it is important to us that you receive the most educated answers to your questions and the finest music recommendations.

Listen up…

In a previous post concerning summer activity at Stanton’s (‘Summertime – and the Livin’ is…Busy?‘, 8/12) we mentioned that listening to new publisher promotions is one of the many activities that keeps us busy during the summer months.  If you’ve ever wondered how our yearly promotions are selected (at least from an instrumental perspective) or whether we get through all of the same publisher promotions you get each year, here goes…

It all begins in May and June when advance copies of publisher promotions begin to arrive.  These are not the polished promotions that you receive in the mail, but burned CD copies and Word documents containing either a list of new titles, or for those really on-the-ball, new titles complete with written descriptions.  A few publisher representatives also pay us a visit to discuss their new products/titles and just to catch up on how things are going.

Since music is ’seasonal’, we begin by checking out all the new marching band titles from Alfred, Hal Leonard, Arrangers’, and Jalen/Matrix.  The new titles are added to the appropriate categories on our website and listening library, as well as to our Marching Band Show Planning Guide (if you haven’t received your copy, give us a call 1-800-426-8742 – we’ll be happy to send one to you!).

Our orchestra/string specialist, Dan Clark, listens to all of the new orchestra titles.  From these, he selects the ones that will be used on new orchestra music reading sessions and placed into the new Stanton’s Orchestra Promotion.

Our jazz education specialist, Ben Huntoon, listens to all of the new jazz ensemble titles and selects the best available for reading sessions and promotion.  His primary criteria (besides quality and playability) is, “Would I have fun playing it?”

Lastly comes the most extensive list of titles - concert band.  Three of our instrumental staff members, Kent White, Kris Lehman, and Ken Tilger listen to ALL of the new concert band music from all of the publishers (usually with complete recordings).  You know that big pile of publisher promotions and CDs that collects on your desk every year?  Yep, we go through that whole pile and listen to every single track!  This year’s count currently stands at 482 NEW TITLES and we haven’t seen promotions from 2 smaller publishers yet.

The three of us give each piece of music a rating of 1-10.  Our ratings are based on a combination of quality writing/arranging, educational usefulness, saleability, etc.  Once we’ve finished listening (or it finishes us!), we plug the ratings into a spreadsheet.  The pieces with the highest average ratings make our concert band promotion.

Write-ups are created for the pieces that make the cut – yes, we write our own because the publisher write-ups are often insufficient – the layout is created and then sent to the printer to be produced and mailed. 

This is why Stanton’s promotions are worthwhile!  The pieces we select are the best musically, the most useful for the classroom, and you know that we’ve reviewed them all (so you don’t have to – we know you have a million other things to do)!   

The Anatomy of Conducting

“Gesture is the genesis of sound.  Gesture, the conductor’s technique, is the frame-work by which we evoke the sounds we hear and wish to hear from our ensembles.” – James Jordan

Both instrumental and choral conductors will benefit from the insight contained in the DVD The Anatomy of Conducting: Architecture & Essentials.  This insightful master-class includes tools such as multi-angle video demonstrations and state-of-the-art motion capture animation, allowing conductors to closely study the gesture of renowned conductors James Jordan and Eugene Migliaro Corporon.  Revolutionary graphics show the skeletal movement of each conductor in real-time to give conductors an in-depth and accurate picture of body mechanics and architecture.  By delving into the physical process of the conducting gesture, one can discover a wealth of new knowledge and apply it directly to your work with a performing ensemble.

In his introduction to the accompanying workbook, Jordan says “Learning conducting technique is not unlike learning any other skill-based activity.  No matter how experienced we are, there is always the need to stay in touch with the basics.  While many will believe that the DVD and workbook are for beginning conductors, this DVD can be a regular refresher of the basics for even the most experienced conductors.”  What a wise sentiment!  Whether new to the field or a seasoned music professional, we are sure that your conducting (and your ensemble) will benefit from the lessons contained in The Anatomy of Conducting.

For this and more conducting resources, call us at 1-800-42-MUSIC.

Summertime – and the Livin’ is….Busy??

So you know that the staff here at Stanton’s is very busy throughout the year (especially in the fall and during OMEA contest season), but what goes on at your primary sheet music resource during the summer?

Of course, phone call and order frequency slow down and there are the requisite staff vacations scheduled, but the store remains very active from May through August.  It all begins with doing inventory – counting the 1,000’s of titles Stanton’s has in-stock is quite a big and lengthy job even after selling a lot of music during the school year.  This gives us a chance to clean up and reorganize specific areas and to find any ‘mis-filed’ items and get them back to where they belong.

Completing inventory allows us to place large stock orders for next year with the myriad publishers that we deal with.  Although this is not a big deal with some of the smaller publishers, when it comes to the biggies (i.e. Hal Leonard, Alfred, etc.) these orders usually encompass a couple of skids piled with 100+ boxes filled with music!  Of course, the resulting job is to get all of that music checked in, sorted and filed in its proper place.

Other summer tasks include listening to ALL of the new choral, band, and orchestra titles from the publishers (more on this in a later post) to choose what will be in our yearly school and church promotions, as well as what we want to recommend to our customers.  Once the promotional titles have been selected, we create our own write-ups (words like ‘Stunning’ and ‘Impressive’ from the publisher promotions don’t exactly tell you if your kids can play a piece or not) and do our own layout work before sending the promotion out to be produced and mailed.  We also add all of these titles and their audio files to the Stanton’s Listening Library as well as the ‘Top Choices’ section of our main website.

These tasks along with handling in-house customers, purchase orders, and intermittent phone calls ensure that Stanton’s remains quite busy through the summer months!

New Toy For Music Techies

It’s not often that we have something new at Stanton’s that isn’t sheet music but now comes the exception. From the KORG company comes the new NANO Key USB-Midi controller! This keyboard is the perfect input device for the performer or educator on the go. A USB-powered, 25-key velocity-sensitive keyboard in a console that measures 12″ long, 3″ wide by 1/2″ thick. Pack it in your briefcase, suitcase or bookbag and you have a great notation device for the plane, train or car! Compatible with Mac or PC it works great with Finale, Sibelius or Garage Band. It’s productive right out of the box… Check it out!