“The Educator’s Guide to Grants”

Would you like funding to update your music technology resources? Do you need uniforms or instruments for the marching band? Are you searching for funding for professional development or travel to study abroad? The Educator’s Guide to Grants is designed to help schools and non-profits find funding and create proposals to access funds successfully. Novices just learning to negotiate grant writing and more experienced writers seeking million-dollar awards will find insight and assistance with this guide. A CD-ROM included with the book features a screened list of hundreds of funding sources matched to each grant area.

Shop Stanton’s for your sheet music needs!

Stanton’s Sheet Music NEW Virtual Workshop!

Stanton’s understands that not everyone can attend our educational and informative workshops, so to better serve all our customers, we present Stanton’s “Virtual Workshop!”

In our Virtual Workshop area, you’ll find newly published music that has been reviewed and recommended by our expert staff. Stanton’s sheet music specialists are always searching for the best new music that is not only perfect for performance, but is also educationally sound, liturgically appropriate, aurally pleasing and full of teaching and ministry opportunities.

The workshops themselves are designed so you can easily preview Stanton’s top choices as featured on our clinics, workshops and promotions.  You’ll also find the very newest titles that have just come across our desks – great music that we just can’t wait to present to you!

Inside each workshop you’ll preview actual arrangements with audio demonstrations, and often LIVE video footage of our workshops and reading sessions featuring nationally recognized clinicians. We have always welcomed our local customers to visit our store to select music with the in-person assistance of our knowledgeable staff; we’re so pleased to bring you a similar experience online with Stanton’s Virtual Workshop!

Check out Stanton’s “Virtual Workshop” today, and let us know what you think!

Interactive Elementary Music Resources

If you missed our Elementary General Music Clinic this week, you can check out our online clinic flyer. Coming next week, you’ll also be able to explore these titles online using Stanton’s new “Virtual Workshop.” Check out these great new interactive resources which were featured on the clinic:

Interactive Folksongs
Folksongs are powerful teaching tools. Their repetitive rhythms and melodies provide a better understanding of music concepts, while teaching us about our multicultural heritage. The more interactivity you bring to your classroom, the more engaged your students will be in their learning. Master educator Cristi Cary Miller combines these tools in an exciting multimedia approach that teaches folksong melodies accompanied by simple Orff instrument ostinatos. Step-by-step lesson plans are printed in the Teacher Book. They coordinate with projectable music lessons on the enclosed interactive CD-ROM. Recorded melodies (without lyrics) and separate Orff instrument pitches are embedded in the projected lessons for more interactive learning and assessment. Lessons are teacher-paced with a click-through format that does not require any special interactive software. Just insert the CD-ROM into your computer and click away! This collection for grades 2-5 features songs for younger students and songs for older students.

Interactive NOW!, Vol 6
The “Interactive Now” team of Debbie Anderson and Phyllis Thomas is on a roll! Their innovative approach to integrating technology continues to expand and is now available as Flash-based software that can be used with any interactive whiteboard or computer. As always, you will find ten outstanding units of study for exploration by students in grades K-5. Your students will have fun with the twelve-bar blues, match treble-clef pitches, review rhythmic values in a fast-paced game, respond through movement to multiple styles and tempi, and a whole lot more. Each unit includes “Objectives” and “Quick Tips,” along with printable, reproducible worksheets and assessments. Check out volumes 1-5 as well!

For more Elementary music resources, contact us today!

Keep Stanton’s at Your Fingertips!

Stanton’s is proud to announce the official launch of our new Mobile Website! After last year’s June launch of our completely redesigned main website, we immediately turned our attention to building a mobile website. The world is getting smarter and moving faster—at least, our phones are—and in order to keep up with the grower number of customers using smart phones, Stanton’s knew that we needed to adapt our site to be user-friendly on the “small screen.”

Why are we so excited? The new mobile website doesn’t need to be zoomed in; it’s designed to fit within your phone’s screen size. It breaks down categories with a simplified structure that is easier to navigate with your fingers.

Using Stanton’s new mobile site, your smart phone becomes your mp3 player for our thousands of music sound files.  So if you’re at a doctor’s appointment, at the airport, or sitting on your back porch, you’ll be able to listen to something new from our mobile website anywhere you are!

What’s next for our Mobile Website? We are currently designing our fan favorite–the Listening Library–to be mobile friendly as well. Stanton’s is working to include bar code scanning capabilities in the store, so you can easily scan and hear sound files while standing right in front of the music!

Check out Stanton’s Mobile Website on your smart phone, and give us your feedback. We know you’ll be as excited as we are about what we’ve created for you!

One Year Ago: Stanton’s Launched its New Website!

There seems to always be something new happening at Stanton’s. Last year at this time, we were excited for the launch of our new website, which is actually three websites in one: our main site (stantons.com), digital delivery website (digitaldelivery.stantons.com) and, what seems to be our fan favorite, the Stanton’s Listening Library (listeninglab.stantons.com). The new website gave us the ability to offer increased communication and enhanced technology and features for our customers—helping to make the online shopping experience more similar to live shopping in our store!

On our main site, you can easily access our Twitter, Facebook and WordPress feeds and view our most recent posts right on the homepage. All three of these external networks allow you to communicate directly with our creative staff. In each of the 13 main categories, such as Orchestra Music, the tabs on the right side of the screen allow us to easily display staff picks and seasonal materials, and keep our recommendations current with your programming needs.

We have continued to make improvements to our site, even after the initial launch. We added a predictive search to our search engine so that you can find the exact title you need more quickly. A “Wishlist” feature makes it easy for you to build and name multiple lists of items that can be printed, shared or exported to help you plan your concert and your budget. We have fine-tuned our shipping estimator to give you a realistic expectation of what shipping will cost, so there are no surprises. Our Current Promotions and Clinics pages received face lifts, and we added a “Quick Order” feature for when you’ve already collected your catalog numbers and quantities  and just want to complete your order as fast as possible.

Many of these ongoing improvements were suggested directly by you–our customers!  With the “feedback” button at the bottom of each page of the website, customers have let us know if something wasn’t working quite right so our programmers can narrow down and fix any glitches quickly. Thank you for helping to make our site a useful, user-friendly resource for musicians and music educators, and thank you for choosing Stanton’s Sheet Music for all your sheet music purchases. We welcome your continued feedback as we add more enhanced features in the year to come!

Digitally Download Sheet Music

Do you ever need sheet music in a big hurry?  Check out Stanton’s Digital Delivery to browse our digital sheet music library. There are pop songs, Broadway songs, sacred songs, guitar tabs, and much more!

You’ll need to download a free Scorch program that allows you to see the first page of each song you look up, and it allows you to print on your own printer.  Many songs can also be transposed to whatever key you need! Just pay with a credit card, download and print.

This service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  Happy browsing!

2012 OMEA Professional Conference Instrumental Highlights

The 2012 OMEA Professional Conference is just around the corner.  In addition to being a great way to recharge during this long period of the school year and the camaraderie of being around friends and colleagues, it is also a great place to discover new music, learn new teaching techniques, and discover new tools to enhance teaching and learning in your classroom.  The instrumental staff at Stanton’s is pleased to highlight some of the items being featured at this year’s conference. 

Composer and co-author of the Sound Innovations band method, Robert Sheldon will be presenting sessions including Fix It Now: Techniques for Creating Immediate and Significant Improvement in Your Rehearsal, Writing Music for Winds and Percussion, and Preparing Your Ensemble for Expressive Performance.

Composer and co-author of the Tradition of Excellence band method, Ryan Nowlin will highlight approaches for starting beginners, lesson planning, and using the technology and enrichment features of the T.O.E. book during his session, Teaching Band with Excellence: Achieving the Most in Every Lesson.

Conducting takes center stage in Practical Score Preparation Strategies for the Harried Instrumental Conductor by Gary Stith (author of Score Rehearsal Preparation), and Be the Music: Non-Verbal Gestures, Pedagogical and Musical Thoughts and Ideas for the Conductor by Stephen Gage combining the pedagogical approaches of Laban, Green, and Lisk (Conductor, Teacher, Leader; The Musical Mind of the Creative Director).

There are many technology-related sessions featuring Finale notation software including Finale Top Ten; Using Finale and SmartMusic Together to Easily Maximize Your Results; Finale and SmartMusic in Action with HS Band Students; and Using Finale in Music Education, and the sessions/discussions with Sousa historian/Fillmore biographer and Columbus resident Paul Bierley (Hallelujah Trombone), Sam Pilafian (Breathing Gym Live for Band, Orchestra, and Chorus), and Tom Batiuk, cartoonist/creator of Funky Winkerbean, are sure to be both entertaining and informative.

For more information about the sessions, visit the searchable schedule on the OMEA website, and visit Stantons.com, Stanton’s OMEA booth, or stop by the store while you’re in Columbus to purchase any of the titles listed above.  We look forward to seeing you February 16-18!

Interactive NOW!

In-stock and ready to ship, Stanton’s is pleased to present “Interactive NOW” from Heritage Music Press.

Interactive NOW
Using your interactive whiteboard just got a whole lot easier! Each volume contains ten interactive lessons is designed specifically for use in the K–5 music education classroom. Developed by music educators Debbie Anderson and Phyllis Thomas, these exciting materials are student tested and proven to be effective in teaching music concepts. Available for SMART Board (vol 1, 2, 3, 4) or Promethean (vol 1, 2, 3, 4).

For more details on these or other classroom music products, contact us!

SmartBoard Resources for Elementary Music

Do you have access to a SmartBoard for your elementary music classes? Stanton’s is now carrying a groundbreaking series of SmartBoard tools created by teachers, Debbie Anderson and Phyllis Thomas, that will help you get the most out of your lessons!

SmartBoard Now, Volume 1
Using your interactive whiteboard just got a whole lot easier! This collection of ten interactive lessons is designed specifically for use in the K–5 music education classroom. Developed by music educators Debbie Anderson and Phyllis Thomas, these exciting materials are student tested and proven to be effective in teaching music concepts. Lesson topics include: beginning notation, steady beat, and audiation, rondo form, pitches of the treble staff, reading and singing sol, mi, and la from a three-line staff, writing your own ostinato, beginning dictation and more!

SmartBoard Now, Volume 2
Harness your students’ love of the interactive whiteboard and expand their learning opportunities with this set of ten original lessons from notable educators and IWB aficionados Debbie Anderson and Phyllis Thomas. Lesson topics include: concepts of sound/no sound, reading rhythms with iconic notation, using a hand staff to teach and compose with melodic notation, reinforcing rhythmic notation and more!

SmartBoard Now, Volume 3
Get in on the action and build your interactive whiteboard repertoire with this engaging set of activities from creators Debbie Anderson and Phyllis Thomas. They continue their run of best-selling interactive blockbusters with several classroom games, and lesson topics including: dynamics, composing your own sol-mi melodies, ABA form, tempo and more!

SmartBoard Now, Volume 4
Are your students clamoring for more interactive whiteboard lessons? We’re here for you! Debbie Anderson and Phyllis Thomas have listened to your feedback about their first three volumes of lessons and have created another set to fit your teaching needs. As always, they tested these lessons in their classrooms, and they passed with flying colors! In this volume you will find the following lesson topics: basic melodic and rhythmic notation and principles, conducting, stick notation, meter and more!

DooZie
A Musical Dice Game
Debbie Anderson, creator of numerous best-selling lessons for interactive whiteboards, presents this competitive game featuring note values. If your students love Yahtzee™, they’ll have a blast with DooZie. And, best of all, everything that’s needed is right at your fingertips. Pop the disc into your computer and your students can start playing today!

For more information on these and other classroom music products, contact us!

Stanton’s Launches its New Website!

On Wednesday, June 8th, Stanton’s launched its brand new, redesigned website to the public! After a year of planning, site design graphics and new programming, Stanton’s is proud to debut its newest creation.  The new website is actually three websites in one: Stanton’s main homepage–built for everyone to use and encompassing most everything a musician would want to see, the Stanton’s Digital Delivery page–for customers who want music instantly and don’t mind music not having a cover or fancy artwork, and Stanton’s Listening Library–designed especially for music educators looking for product recordings to help in building their concerts and programs.

In developing the new website, Stanton’s focused on enhancing communication with the customer, including suggestions of new products, timely recommendations and ease of use in navigating the website. To help highlight new products, Stanton’s incorporated its social networking features–our Facebook page, WordPress blog and Twitter feed–directly onto the website. Many of our recommendations are written and published daily, so the website’s new design layout displays the latest articles, postings and tweets using RSS feeds directly from the networks!

Throughout the redesigned website is an ever changing list of new products hot off the presses! There are multiple flash viewers that display the latest new products for customers to see.  Also designed into each of the main categories is an area with click-able “tabs” that allows the Stanton’s staff to present events, products, features, staff picks, favorites, seasonal suggestions, best sellers, videos, or anything that we feel relates best to our customers.  Each of these main category pages is specific to a particular musical focus–like “Orchestra Music“–and as the seasons change, so do the subjects and suggestions in this area. We’re very excited about this new feature, allowing Stanton’s the flexibility to be ever evolving.

We’d be so honored if you would take the time to explore our new site and provide us with some feedback–we hope that you’ll find it makes your shopping experience even easier!