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!

We won’t name names…

Considering the multitude of music titles that publishers bring out every year, it is amazing that there aren’t more printing errors that get past the proof readers.  Consequently, when a goof does come through, it usually jumps right off the page.  Without pointing fingers (it happens to the best of us) here are a few publishers’ errors that we’ve caught over the last few years.

 The writer’s name is Ruth Elaine Schram, which comically became SCRAM when printed on the cover of a piece called “Somebody Got Lost.”  And we had to wonder how much the publisher really “cared” when they printed a cover saying “Variations” for Carinet and Piano.
A boo-boo that had to have been quite disheartening to the publisher, but didn’t get caught until thousands of choral octavos had been printed, was the result of a computer font that wasn’t supported by the printer’s equipment.  Anytime an apostrophe appeared in the lyrics, the printer’s computer preceded it with the letter “i” making the apostrophe look as if it was an accent mark.  Consequently there were typos such as “all the walls came a-tumbalini’ down” and “yei’ll take the high road and Ii’ll take the low road.”  The publisher decided not to recall them but has thankfully resolved the issue for future printings.

An error that probably got the biggest laugh, but was promptly recalled by the publisher when we brought it to their attention (can anyone say “lawsuit”?) was a case a number of years ago in which a biography of rock and roll drummers had a picture of Ringo Starr in which part of the caption read, “dummer for the Beatles.”  Now some people may argue about the technical prowess of the man as a percussionist, but he had to be a pretty smart cookie to do as well as he did with what he had.  And he’s crying all the way to the bank!

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!

Thumb pressure relief for clarinetists and oboists.

So a customer came in the store one day in early September and wanted to talk to us about a product that he had invented.  This happens quite often here at Stanton’s and we try to listen and determine if it’s something that we think is significant enough to endorse and add to our product line.  This particular customer was an oboist and he had mentioned that Bill Baker, who was the former oboe professor at Ohio State and a good friend of Stanton’s, thought this was an fantastic device.  This gentleman had a new invention called the OCGenie for helping clarinetists and oboists relieve the stress that leads to sore thumbs.  These musicians support the weight of their instruments on their thumbs, and if they play long gigs or practice for hours at a time, they often have to quit because of the tremendous pain that their thumb knuckles have to endure.  Makes total sense, right?  Well this musician/inventor came up with a new neck strap device that actually adjusts itself by using the weight of the instrument to take the pressure off of your thumb knuckle joint. Normally we don’t carry musical instrument accessories, but we felt that this might be something that we should look into for our customers who are doing a lot of playing. It attaches to your instrument using a thumbrest ring that attaches to your original thumbrest.  The neckstrap itself winds back into its case when it’s not attached to an instrument–similar to a self-retracting dog leash that can be adjusted for different lengths.  There is also a soprano sax version as well. A Stanton’s employee was actually using one even before we had heard of it and she absolutely loves it.  This might be just what the doctor ordered, BEFORE you have to see him for tendonitis in your thumb!

Make your orchestra “Trans-Siberian!”

STRING TEACHERS!  What could be more hip than your students playing music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on your holiday concert?  Don’t miss out on getting your copy of WIZARDS IN WINTER, arranged for String Orchestra by Bob Phillips. Give a listen to it at the Stanton’s Listening Lab to hear how cool it is–it will really pep up your program!  You can order online, call to order at 1-800-42-MUSIC, FAX your order to 1-614-224-5929 or send us an order by mail at Stanton’s Sheet Music, 330 South Fourth Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215.  Your students will thank you for it!

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.