Happy Thanksgiving!

As you celebrate with family and friends today, let this piano solo set the mood. The sheet music is available in the collection George Winston Piano Solos, or you can download and print just this piece, Thanksgiving, from Stanton’s Digital Delivery.

Holidays for Piano and Strings

Do you have a pianist playing with your string orchestra?  If so, you know that they are often the unheralded “glue” that holds the harmonic structure of the group together.  Isn’t it time that they got their share of the spotlight?

Renowned conductor Leonard Slatkin thinks so!  When his son, the pianist in a school string orchestra, mentioned to his father that he never got featured on anything, his famous father got busy and wrote a series of fresh, creative, non-traditional arrangements of holiday carols for solo piano and string orchestra.  They were such a hit at his son’s school, that he decided to publish them.  Now they are available to the public in two volumes so that school pianists around the world can finally get their time in the sun!

Listen to a sample online–click on the “ear with notes” icon.  If you like what you hear, order yours today!

If you don’t already have an account with Stanton’s Sheet Music, one can be set up in minutes to your board of education, music boosters, orchestra activity account or school credit card.  Orders to your personal Visa, Mastercard or Discover card are also welcome.  Call 1-800-42-MUSIC, order online or FAX your order to 614-224-5929.

HOLIDAYS FOR PIANO AND STRINGS Volume 1
Arranged by Leonard Slatkin
Contents: Carol of the Kings; Silent Night; The Twelve Days of Christmas; Veni, Veni, Emmanuel; Moonlight Carol; The First Noel; God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen; O Come all Ye Faithful; Pat-a-Fum and Deck the Halls with Joy.
Conductor – Violin 1  – Violin 2 – Violin 3 (Viola T. C.) – Viola – Cello – Bass -Solo Piano – Percussion

HOLIDAYS FOR PIANO AND STRINGS Volume 2
Arranged by Leonard Slatkin
Contents: Of Kings, Saints and Pigs; The Angels Sing; Three Kings, Three Ships; O holy night; A Czech Christmas; The Watchmen at Coventry; festival of Lights; Christmas Lights; a Holiday Trio; Jingle Bells and Pastorale (from Messiah – strings only)
Conductor – Violin 1  – Violin 2 – Violin 3 (Viola T. C.) -Viola – Cello – Bass – Solo Piano – Percussion

“What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

As a retail store open to the public, Stanton’s is often the source for some  “humorous but true” musical stories.  So to poke some good-natured fun, here’s a new batch of funnies that really happened over the phone!

We got a phone call from a frustrated young customer.  “I can’t find Suzuki violin books on your website!”
Our clerk asked, “What are you typing in?”
“Suzuki Violin Book One,” he replied.
“That’s actually too much information.  Just type in Suzuki,” he was instructed.
“Okay – uh, how do you spell Suzuki?”
Hmmm – wonder why he couldn’t find it in the first place!

An enthusiastic customer called and announced, “We are opening a brand new school next fall and would like to get on your mailing list for promotions!”
We were happy to oblige.  “Sure!  What is the address of the new school?” the Stanton’s employee asked.
“Oh – it doesn’t have one yet – it’s just now being built!”
Alrighty then – we’ll be sure to send you lots of promotional material…(?)

Some other head-scratching phone conversations…
Stanton’s employee, “May I help you?”
Customer, “Yes – I got a call that some music that I ordered had come in…”
Stanton’s employee, “Yes…?”
Customer, “So, is it in?”
(And you called why?)

Stanton’s employee, “And who shall we send this to the attention of?
Customer, “Me!”
(Sigh!)

Customer, “I just heard this choral work on the radio about five minutes ago – the last part goes like this – la, la, la…” Customer proceeds to sing, then asks, ” What’s the name of it?”

We get a lot of calls like that, but the craziest was the customer who asked if we recognized a particular tune, and–he didn’t just sing it to us–he played it on his accordion that he just happened to have strapped on when he made the phone call!  Wow!

We could write a book – or at least a blog!

New Choices for Concert Band

Now that marching band season is over (except for playoffs and state marching band finals), it’s time to plan for the upcoming concert season and Stanton’s has you covered!

Are you looking for a required piece for next year’s OMEA Adjudicated Event?  Visit the Large Group Contest section of Stanton’s Listening Library to hear recordings of this year’s required selections!

Want to know what the best new selections for concert band are this year?  Visit the Top Choices for Young Band (Gr. 0.5-2.5) and Top Choices for Advanced Band (Gr. 3+) sections of the Stanton’s website to view, listen to, and read about the best new music for 2009-2010!

Have you misplaced your publisher promotions or want to make your own selections from among the many new titles this year?  Visit the Current Publisher Promotions box on the right-hand side of Stanton’s Concert Band listening page to hear ALL of this year’s new titles from each publisher!

Don’t forget to listen to the Concert Band Featured titles on the left-hand side of the Concert Band listening page.  These are the top 4 titles for concert band this year as picked by Stanton’s instrumental staff and are sure to please!  (They are Christmas titles now, but will change to the top 4 concert selections soon, so check back often!!)

Lastly, don’t forget to order your new concert selections and adjudication titles and scores from Stanton’s:  www.stantons.com or 1-800-42-MUSIC and have a great concert season!

What is “Broadway Junior?”

“Broadway Junior” is a series of popular Broadway musicals designed to meet the needs of young performers through the ninth grade. Author-approved and condensed to approximately 70 minutes, they preserve the spirit and essence of the original while eliminating elaborate production elements. The “Getting to Know” (G2K) series offers the same type of condensed productions, but is specific to the musicals of Rogers and Hammerstein. There is also the “MTI Disney’s Kids” series, which contains Disney family favorites shortened to 30 minutes and easy enough for elementary students. All three of these product lines are available from Hal Leonard publishing.

What makes these products especially unique is that you get all the performance materials and the performance rights for one set price. The resources included also allow you to cut spending in other areas of production: a full accompaniment CD is included so you don’t have to hire a live pit, a choreography DVD stands in for a professional choreographer, etc. There are also many audition and planning materials available for free on broadwayjr.com.

Here’s how the ordering process works: You place your order with Stanton’s Sheet Music by phone, web, email or fax. We then pass your information along to Hal Leonard, who will fax a licensing agreement to your school. Once you complete, sign and return that contract, your performance kit is shipped directly to you from Hal Leonard’s warehouse. As long as you return the contract in a timely manner, you usually receive the kit about a week after you place your order with Stanton’s.

Broadway Jr., Disney’s Kids and G2K ShowKits are available for purchase only by elementary, middle and junior high schools (grades K-9). Other groups—high schools, camps,  community and children’s theatres, religious organizations—must contact MTI or R & H Theatricals to inquire about traditional licensing. (Read our musical licensing blog to find out more.) To determine whether your organization qualifies, please contact us for more information.

You work hard for the money…

The majority of Stanton’s customers are school music teachers. We have great respect for them. Actually, several of Stanton’s employees are former school music teachers, so they know what it’s all about–school music teachers have got to be some of the hardest working employees of any school system!  They often have multiple schools they have to drive to, with classes spanning elementary through high school, with different lesson plans for each level. Their middle school and high school classes are often two to three times bigger (or more) than most academic classes (and therefore, that many more parents to be in contact with).  They frequently have rehearsals scheduled before and after the regular school day and have performances on the weekends.  So sometimes they get stressed!
There is a story that back in the 1980s, during the air traffic controller’s strike, airports were hiring people to take over for the striking workers.  A former high school band director applied for the job, got trained and was directing jets as his local airport.  Someone asked him if it wasn’t the most stressful activity he had ever encountered.  He just laughed!  “You want stress?  Be a high school band director!”  Well, within the last couple of years, we have discovered something even more stressful than being a music teacher in America, and that’s being a music teachers overseas!  We got an e-mail from a customer in Japan that ended rather abruptly.  They wrote, “I’ll e-mail the rest later–in the middle of a typhoon!”  But the worst one had to be the e-mail from a teacher in Beirut, who wrote, “Gotta go–my school is being surrounded by tanks!”

So when you’re feeling stressed about your job as a school music teacher, just think–somebody might have it worse!  And remember, Stanton’s is here to help you find the very best sheet music for your performing groups. Our educational departments read through virtually every new piece and pick the “cream-of the-crop” to stock and recommend to our customers in our mailed promotions, reading sessions and blogs.  At Stanton’s, our philosophy has always been that by helping you, the music teacher, to be successful, we will be successful.  That’s how it has been since 1960 and will continue to be.  And it works!  We appreciate your trust in our choices for you and welcome your orders and inquiries.  So contact Stanton’s with all your sheet music needs.  On the web, email, by phone at 1-800-42-MUSIC or via FAX at 614-224-5929.  Thanks for your patronage!

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.

Feedback Friday: Kiddie “fright night”

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?

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!