It’s the Holiday Season…

…And it’s coming upon us a bit faster than some of us are ready for! Do any of you elementary music teachers need some good ideas for some holiday songs?  Relax–we have some great solutions for you.  One of the best holiday collections we’ve seen is “Around the World at Christmas Time.” This collection has songs from Germany to Mexico and Scandinavia to Israel. The songs in this book can be performed individually or all together as a choral revue. This is a good way for your students to learn a bit about how the holidays are celebrated in other countries as well as here in the good old USA.
Another great collection that has  more upbeat and fun tunes is “All Aboard the Holiday Express”. This collection contains secular holiday tunes and a couple of Hannukah songs as well. Other holiday collections you may want to check out are “Happy Holidays“, “Songs for Christmas” and “Silly Songs & Sing-Alongs for Christmas.”  All of these collections have accompaniment CDs available.
For more information or questions please call us at 1-800-42-music, email or visit our website.

How-to: Musical Rentals and Performance Permission

Stanton’s Sheet Music receives many inquiries from customers who “just got put in charge of the school musical” and want to know where to start. Although MANY choral/band directors and drama teachers are also expected to direct musicals, it seems that most college courses skip right over this topic. One of your first steps will be to decide upon the musical you’d like to stage. While Stanton’s does sell Broadway vocal collections, choral/band arrangements and other musical theater products including most Broadway Junior productions, we CANNOT contract the licensing rights that give you legal permission to perform the work—for that you must contact the appropriate licensing company. Some of the largest licensing companies are:

Musical Theater International
Since its founding in 1952, MTI has been supplying musical materials to theatres worldwide, whether it is the newest hit from the Broadway or London stage, or a timeless classic. MTI has been a driving force in cultivating new work and in extending the production life of the great American musicals such as Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Fiddler On The Roof, Les Misérables, Annie, Damn Yankees, The Music Man, Godspell, Little Shop Of Horrors, and the musical theatre collection of Stephen Sondheim, among others.

Rogers and Hammerstein Organization
Founded by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II more than 60 years ago, the R&H Organization represents a wide variety of entertainment copyrights and over 200 writers. In addition to Rodger & Hammerstein classics like The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, The King and I, and South Pacific, they also offer a range of popular musicals including Annie Get Your Gun, The Light in the Piazza, Babes in Arms, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc
Tams-Witmark licensed the first high school production of a Broadway musical approximately 75 years ago. Today, thousands of schools and community theatres are presenting Tams-Witmark musicals each year, including A Chorus Line, Anything Goes, Bye Bye Birdie, The Wizard of Oz, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Oliver, Hello Dolly, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Crazy for You, Forty-Second Street, Camelot, Kiss Me Kate, Gypsy and Brigadoon.

Samuel French
With offices in New York City, London, Hollywood and Studio City, California, Samuel French has been representing playwrights since 1830. They began hosting the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Play Festival in 1975 which has resulted in the publishing of 181 new plays since. Some of their most popular offerings are: Anne of Green Gables, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Chicago, Clue: The Musical,  Grease,  Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Mikado, Nunsense, Peter Pan, The Rocky Horror Show, and The Secret Garden.

All of these reputable companies offer script preview programs (similar to Stanton’s 21-Day Trial) and helpful websites to guide you through musical licensing procedures. Several variables determine how much money the performance rights will cost, and the only way to get a quote is to begin a dialogue with a licensing company. Stanton’s advises you to begin this process as far in advance as possible so that you have plenty of time to research and choose the best show for your particular situation.

Now all you have to do is cast the show, run rehearsals, build sets, sew/rent costumes, book a pit, and print programs. Simple, right?

Wind Band Invitational and New Music Reading Session

There’s a bite in the air and the leaves are changing colors and dropping from the trees. It’s time for the Eighth Annual 2009 New Concert Band Reading Clinic! This extremely popular clinic weekend, especially helpful for 1st and 2nd year teachers, allows participants to have a “hands on” experience with the latest and best new music. The featured composer/director this year is Ray Cramer, famed musician, band pedagogue and director emeritus of Indiana University. Taking place on Friday and Saturday, November 13-14, at Capital University in Columbus, OH. Make your plans now to attend. Navigate to the clinic website for details.

Are budget cuts adding a hitch to your Holiday?

If you need to stretch your music budget this fall, but still want to get your elementary students up on the stage, Stanton’s Sheet Music recommends one of following titles. Each one includes the teacher edition/score, reproducible student parts and a performance/accompaniment CD—all for $50 or less!

Granny McBee’s Christmas Eve
Running about 15 minutes and appropriate for all elementary grades, Granny McBee’s bedtime story lures all the children off into dreamland.

Humbug
Based on Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” this 30 minute musical sets the action in the present-day classroom of grumpy teacher Ms. Ebenezer. K-3

Is Santa Smarter?
This Christmas musical/revue features your school’s fifth graders on a game show with Santa as the celebrity contestant, but can include all grades.

It’s Christmas Everywhere
This multicultural delight is explores both familiar and lesser-known carols and traditions from Germany, Japan, Australia, Africa, Mexico, Canada, and Spain.

Mrs Claus and the Great Elf Rebellion
When the elves begin feeling overwhelmed and rebellious, Mrs. Claus must help them realize how special and important they are to children all over the world.

Pictures of December
These songs written in a variety of styles touch on all aspects of December: snow, Christmas trees, a Hanukkah dance, the tenants of Kwanzaa, caroling, bells, and more.

For other great ideas for your winter concert or program, contact Stanton’s general music specialists!

Hallowe’en for Piano

Nearly everybody loves Hallowe’en!  For piano teachers who are planning a Hallowe’en recital, or for those wanting to celebrate the season, we have a varied selection of fun pieces and books to suit players of nearly every level of difficulty.

The Halloween Songbook is a book of easy popular songs such as The Addams Family Theme, Monster Mash, and The Munster’s Theme.

 

Happy Halloween is a collection of  spooky originals by Jane Bastien. The difficulty of the pieces ranges from primer to second grade.  This is a long-time favorite. The pieces are clever, represent different musical styles,  and imitate the various spooky sounds of the season.  Titles include Black Cat Boogie, The Ghosts’ Ball Game, and Witches Rock.  

 From Alfred Publishing comes a list of Halloween pieces written by their talented composers of educational piano music. These include Dennis Alexander’s “Broomstick Capers” and Margaret Goldston’s “Beware of Ghosts!”.

For more information concerning these or other products, visit us at stantons.com or email us at keyboard@stantons.com

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!

Arrrr, Me Mateys!

“Talk like a Pirate Day,” September 19th be fast upon us! Why not spend the day swashbucklin’ by perusin’ these great grand resources for yer little lads and lasses?

How to Be a Pirate in Seven Easy Songs
This reproducible mini-musical transforms landlubber students into proud pirates, through story, song and simple costumes and props.
 
Pirates! The Musical
Join this salty crew of colorful scallywags, hoist the Jolly Roger and set sail for a mighty adventure. Perfect for upper elementary and middle school performers

Treasure Island
Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic, this 55-minute adaptation introduces Jim, Billy Bones, Long John Silver and a host of interesting characters and features eight original songs.

Pirates of Penzance
One of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular operettas has been carefully edited and condensed for young performers. This 70-minute version includes all your favorite characters and choruses from the original.

Ruth E. Schram’s collection Every Day’s a Holiday includes an original number for “Talk like a Pirate Day,” as well as songs in a variety of styles for creative holidays all year round.

Our Principal’s a Pirate Packed with humor and set in a jolly, pirate-style jig (complete with genuine pirate lingo), this 2-part choral arrangement even features a simple spoken part to involve your own principal.

The Pirate’s Life Uncover a hidden treasure with this swashbuckling 2-part novelty song. From the first “Yo-ho!” to the final “Yarr!” it’s rollicking fun all the way.

If ye be needin’ more idears, holler at us!

Jazz Piano Clinic Recap

An awesome time was had at our clinic this fall.  JAZZ UP YOUR STUDIO was the theme for Stanton’s Piano Teachers’ Clinic in August.   Eric Baumgartner was an outstanding clinician who helped those attending to be inspired to add jazz to their piano student’s repertoire.  Jazz idiom is heard in so much of  today’s music and young musicians should be introduced to it in their private study.  Eric has written two excellent jazz compilations that are titled Jazzabilities and Jazz Connection.  There are three books in each of these collections and they can be bought with or without CD accompaniments.  The book one of each collection was so popular at the clinic that we sold out of them!

Eric has also arranged piano books for the Teaching Little Fingers To Play popular series.  Examples of his contributions include TLF To Play Jazz and Rock and TLF To Play More Jazz and Rock.  He has also arranged piano books called Jazz It Up Christmas and Jazz It Up Familiar Favorites.  Whether you include Eric Baumgartner’s jazz piano books or other excellent Willis publications like the William Gillock New Orleans Jazz Style folios,  just be open to including the jazz style to “round out” your piano student’s musical experience.  You will enjoy it as much as they will.   JAZZ UP YOUR STUDIO!!!   

Please visit Stanton’s Sheet Music or contact the Keyboard staff to learn more about the piano teaching materials that were detailed in this clinic.

Help–I’m a “band person” in a choir job!!

We hear it every fall: desperate pleas for assistance from self-proclaimed “band directors” who have taken positions teaching choir (or as our band department calls it, “Holler Band”). They feel disoriented and unprepared, and don’t really know where to start. If you are one of these people, take comfort in the fact that you are not alone in your struggle (because misery loves company, right?) and know that the choral department here at Stanton’s can empathize with you–some of us have even been in your situation before. We’ll try to help you in whatever way we can.

One of the major concerns you might have is rehearsal accompaniment. If you’re not a strong pianist, there are some resources at your disposal. The publisher Carl Fischer, who also distributes BriLee, offers piano accompaniment tracks to many of their choral arrangements which are FREE to download from their website. They also offer full performance tracks (so that you and your students can hear what the piece should sound like) AND part-dominant rehearsal tracks, which are a performance of one part on its own, to help with sectionals. Most of the other major publishers also offer performance and accompaniment tracks for purchase (it is usually listed on the front of the choral piece if a CD is available, but we’d be happy to help you figure it out if you’re not sure).

To get started with warm-ups, “Building Beautiful Voices” by Paul Nesheim and Weston Noble contains more than 60 different exercises and will help you find the right warm-ups to improve specific weaknesses in your choral sound. Another standard warm-up resource is “The Complete Choral Warm-Up Book” by Russell Robinson and Jay Althouse, which includes more than 200 exercises for your choir.

If you have time for reading some “how to” texts—and you might, now that your Friday nights are free—we would recommend “I Know Sousa, Not Sopranos!” by Russell Robinson. It is written by a choral expert who was once in your shoes, and who helps point out how you can use many of your strengths as an instrumentalist to achieve results in the choral classroom. Another great resource is “Sing 6-7-8” by Roger Emerson. Written in a conversational, question and answer format, this book offers practical solutions to common choral problems. It focuses primarily on issues of the middle school grades, but is definitely applicable to high school as well.

Please contact the choral department if you need any further help or suggestions—we can send you our recommendations on 21-Day Trial. We want for you to be successful in your new position, and we’re here to support you. Remember, music is music, be it instrumental or vocal; you’re not nearly as clueless as you think you are.

If any of our readers have other good suggestions for new choir teachers, please leave your comments on this post!

Feedback Friday: Start them early!