News & Views Thursday, May 17, 2012

Are you looking for that unique music gift for Mother’s Day? Come and shop at Stanton’s! We just received music throws as well as decorative pillows that would “dress up” any music studio or home.

We have a wide array of gift items such as jewelry, scarfs, bags, mugs, all occasion cards, etc. In addition to our gift assortment, we stock a wide variety of printed music.

If you can’t decide what to buy, then purchase a Stanton’s gift certificate that is redeemable for any item in the store.

Visit Stanton’s online or in person; odds are…you won’t leave without something special!!

John Jacobson Workshop
DATE/TIME: Thursday 8/2/2012, 9:00 am-4:00 pm
LOCATION: Franklin County Veterans Memorial
REGISTRATION FEE: $60.00 per teacher.
Students may attend this session for $40.00, however students WILL NOT receive a music packet/choreography DVD. Both fees include lunch.

Click here to watch video

Wear your comfy clothes and tennis shoes because you’re gonna get a workout! Recharge your battery, renew your enthusiasm and review the best new titles for show choir with the master of choreography, John Jacobson and special guest, Roger Emerson. You will receive all the music and choreography notes for 20 complete routines and a DVD of some of the titles covered in this session.

Stanton’s is pleased to welcome back Lloyd Larson as our clinician for the August Church Choral Music reading session! His compositions and arrangements include well over 1,000 published works—including choral anthems, numerous extended Christmas, Easter and non-seasonal works, keyboard collections, vocal solo and duet collections, instrumental works for solo and ensembles, orchestrations, and handbell settings. The resulting notoriety has placed him in constant demand as a clinician throughout North America.

Your registration includes a packet of over 40 new choral anthems that are hand-picked from the hundreds published each year. We look forward to seeing you on August 11th for a wonderful morning of singing with one of the nation’s most sought after church music experts.

Sacred Choral Reading Session
Saturday 8/11/2012, 9:00 am-12:30 pm
Battelle Fine Arts Center, Otterbein University
195 West Park St., Westerville OH 43081
Cost: $20.00 (There is no pre-registration; you may register the day of the clinic beginning at 8:30.)
email our choral department for more details

Sacred Piano Reading Session
- Also featuring Lloyd Larson
Saturday 8/11/2012, 2:00 pm-4:30 pm
Stanton’s Sheet Music,
330 South 4th St., Columbus OH 43215
Cost: Free!
email our keyboard department for more details

Stanton’s Sheet Music is pleased to invite you to the 2012 “Stanton’s Super Session,” a day-long choral reading session of new music from a variety of publishers!  Pre-registration is now open – register online, or call us at 1.800.426.8742.  Check out our video below for a “sneak peek” at what we have in store!

Click here to watch video

(from The Associated Press)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Bluegrass legend and banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs, who helped profoundly change country music with Bill Monroe in the 1940s and later with guitarist Lester Flatt, has died. He was 88.

Scruggs’ son Gary said his father died of natural causes Wednesday morning at a Nashville, Tenn., hospital.

Earl Scruggs was an innovator who pioneered the modern banjo sound. His use of three fingers rather than the clawhammer style elevated the banjo from a part of the rhythm section – or a comedian’s prop – to a lead instrument.

His string-bending and lead runs became known worldwide as “the Scruggs picking style” and the versatility it allowed has helped popularize the banjo in almost every genre of music.
The debut of Bill Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys during a post-World War II performance on The Grand Ole Opry is thought of as the “big bang” moment for bluegrass and later 20th century country music. Later, Flatt and Scruggs t eamed as a bluegrass act after leaving Monroe from the late 1940s until breaking up in 1969 in a dispute over whether their music should experiment or stick to tradition. Flatt died in 1979.

They were best known for their 1949 recording “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” played in the 1967 movie “Bonnie and Clyde,” and “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” from “The Beverly Hillbillies,” the popular TV series that debuted in 1962. Jerry Scoggins did the singing.

After the breakup, Scruggs used three of his sons in The Earl Scruggs Revue. The group played on bills with rock acts like Steppenwolf and James Taylor. Sometimes they played festivals before 40,000 people.

In a July 2010 interview, Scruggs said in the early days, “I played guitar as much as I did the banjo, but for everyday picking I’d go back to the banjo. It just fit what I wanted to hear better than what I could do with the guitar.”

Scruggs will always be remembered for his willingness to innovate. In “The Big Book of Bluegrass,” Scruggs discussed the breakup with Flatt and how his need to experiment drove a rift between them. Later in 1985, he and Flatt were inducted together in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“It wasn’t a bad feeling toward each other as much as it was that I felt I was depriving myself of something,” Scruggs said. “By that, I mean that I love bluegrass music, and I still like to play it, but I do like to mix in some other music for my own personal satisfaction, because if I don’t, I can get a little bogged down and a little depressed.”

He said he enjoyed playing because “it calms me down. It makes me satisfied. Sometimes I just need to pick a few tunes.”

At an 80th birthday party for Scruggs in January 2004, country great Porter Wagoner said: “I always felt like Earl was to the five-string banjo what Babe Ruth was to baseball. He is the best there ever was, and the best there ever will be.”

In 2005, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” was sel ected for the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry of works of unusual merit. The following year, the 1972 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band record “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” on which Scruggs was one of many famous guest performers, joined the list, too.

Scruggs had been fairly active in the 2000s, returning to a limited touring schedule after frail health in the 1990s. In 1996, Scruggs suffered a heart attack in the recovery room of a hospital shortly after hip-replacement surgery. He also was hospitalized late last year, but seemed in good health during a few appearances with his sons in 2010 and 2011.

In 2001 he released a CD, “Earl Scruggs and Friends,” his first album in a decade and an extension of The Earl Scruggs Revue. Over 12 songs, he collaborated with an impressive stable of admirers: Elton John, Dwight Yoakam, Travis Tritt, Sting, Melissa Etheridge, Vince Gill, John Fogerty, Don Henley, Johnny Cash and actor Steve Martin, a banjo player, were all featured.
Scruggs, born Jan. 6, 1924, in Flint Hill, N.C., learned to play banjo at age 4. He appeared at age 11 on a radio talent scout show. By age 15, he was playing in bluegrass bands.

“My music came up from the soil of North Carolina,” Scruggs said in 1996 when he was honored with a heritage award from his home state.

He and Flatt played together in Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, then left to form the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1948.

Their popularity grew, and they even became a focal point of the folk music revival on college campuses in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Scruggs’ wife, Louise, was their manager and was credited with cannily guiding their career as well as boosting interest in country music.
Later, as rock ‘n’ roll threatened country music’s popularity, Flatt and Scruggs became symbols of traditional country music.

In the 1982 interview, Scruggs said “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Beverly Hillbillies” broadened the scope of bl uegrass and country music “more than anything I can put my finger on. Both were hits in so many countries.”

Scruggs also wrote an instructional book, “Earl Scruggs and the Five String Banjo.”
In 1992, Scruggs was among 13 recipients of a National Medal of Art.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought of rewards and presentations,” he said. “I appreciate those things, especially this one.”

Louise Scruggs, his wife of 57 years, died in 2006. He is survived by two songs, Gary and Randy. Gary Scruggs says funeral arrangements are incomplete.

Garrison Keillor’s radio show, Prairie Home Companion, often has a “Joke Show” around April Fool’s Day, so we thought we’d chime in with a classic that many musicians already know, but may enjoy being reminded – or it may be new to them.  If you’ve ever done any gigging, you’ll be able to relate!

Saint Peter was getting a little bored checking in souls at the Pearly Gates, so he thought he’d change things up a little bit for some variety as three new entrants appeared before him.

He asked the first fellow in line, “How much money did you make down on earth?”
The man replied, “About $300,000 a year.”
“Well, that’s pretty impressive, ” said Saint Peter.  “What did you do to earn that?”
“I was a surgeon,” was the reply.
“So why do you think you deserve to come into heaven?” asked Saint Pete.
“Well, I admit I made a lot of money, but I saved a lot of lives in the process,” said the surgeon.
“I suppose you’re right.” said Saint Peter.  “You may come in.”

The second man stepped up and Saint Peter again asked how much money he had made back down on earth.
The man said, “About $500,000 a year.”
“Wow!” exclaimed Saint Peter.  “And what did you do to deserve that?”
“I was a lawyer,” he said.
“And why do you think I should let you into heaven?” asked the Saint.
“Okay – I did make a lot of money, but I helped an awful lot of people.”
“I suppose you’re right.” said Saint Peter.  “You may come in.”

The third fellow now stood before Saint Peter.
“So, how much money did you make back on earth?” asked the holy man.
“Oh, about $15,000 a year.” said the man.
“And what did you do?” asked Saint Peter.
“I was a jazz musician,” he replied.
“So why do you think you deserve to get into heaven?” asked the Saint.
“Well, I admit I didn’t save people like the surgeon or help people like the lawyer, but I made a lot of people happy!” said the musician.
“I suppose you’re right.” said Saint Peter.  “You may come in.  But could you come in through the kitchen?”

Featuring talented clinicians from major publishers, Stanton’s summer choral clinics are a fantastic way to jump-start your school year! We always look forward to visiting with our regular customers, matching up faces with names of new attendees, and meeting teachers new to Stanton’s from across the country.

Mark your calendar for these dates:

	Elementary/General Music Clinic Wednesday August 1, 2012 Clinician: Greg Gilpin
	The John Jacobson Workshop Thursday August 2, 2012 Clinicians: John Jacobson & Roger Emerson
	The Joy of Singing Friday August 3, 2012 Clinicians: Christine Bass, Roger Emerson, Mac Huff & John Jacobson
	Stanton’s Super Session Saturday August 4, 2012 Clinicians: Andy Beck, Greg Gilpin & Jen Sper

Also in August 2012:

	Sacred Choral Reading Session Saturday August 11, 2012 Clinician: Lloyd Larson (no pre-registration for this session)
	Excellence in Choral Literature Saturday August 25, 2012 Clinician: James Gallagher

Registration will open April 1st. For more detailed information regarding any of these clinics, contact the choral department at 1-800-426-8742, extension 1.

This weekend, we celebrate the birthday of Lawrence Welk (3/11/1903-5/17/1992), American bandleader and accordion player, whose effervescent brand of “champagne music” was featured for more than 30 years on his successful show.

Welk, who was raised in a German-speaking hamlet in North Dakota, did not learn English until he was 21, developing an accent that would later contribute to his homespun appeal. From the age of 13, he earned money playing the accordion, and he later formed two groups, the Biggest Little Band in America and the Hotsy-Totsy Boys, before leading bands and orchestras, mainly in the Midwest.

Welk then moved to Los Angeles, where The Lawrence Welk Show, a program of band music with vocalists, dancers, and featured instrumental soloists, helped make him one of the wealthiest performers in show business. Welk was a demanding taskmaster dedicated to producing a nostalgic, wholesome show. He maintained a roster of musical regulars, including the Champagne Lady (vocalist Alice Lon) and the Lennon Sisters. When the network dropped the program, he contracted with more than 250 independent television stations in the United States and Canada to broadcast Memories with Lawrence Welk until 1982. From 1987 the program appeared on public television. Welk accumulated a vast real-estate empire and acquired royalty rights to 20,000 songs, including the entire body of Jerome Kern’s work. Welk titled his two autobiographies after his trademark phrases, Wunnerful, Wunnerful! (1971) and Ah-One, Ah-Two! (1974). (from Britannica.com)

If you want to personally celebrate Lawrence Welk, check out “Lawrence Welk, The American Music Maker,” a fantastic piano/vocal/guitar collection of over 200 nostalgic songs performed on the show. Here in Columbus, PBS usually airs Lawrence Welk reruns on Saturday evenings–check your local listings to see if you can still view this “Wunnerful” 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!

Stanton’s is closed today so that our staff can devote more time to their Presidential coin collections. You can still browse and shop online and we’ll process your order first thing tomorrow, or you may be able to find what you need on our Digital Delivery site if you need an emergency copy of “Hail to the Chief.”

In the meantime, let’s enjoy this Presidential/Musical mash-up from our current “chief.”

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)
Church Choral Music
School Choral Music
Elementary Classroom 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

BILLING AND ACCOUNTS (ex. 4)

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 (1-800-426-8742). If you’re unsure of which department to choose, we’re always happy to direct you to whoever can best address your needs; press “0″ to have your call directed, or send a general email. At Stanton’s, it is important to us that you receive the most educated answers to your questions and the finest music recommendations.

We’re now halfway (!) through January and here in Ohio, thoughts are turning to OMEA Adjudicated Events! Solo & Ensemble events begin January 28th, and High School Large Group events are in March, followed by Junior High events later in the spring. While many of you have been planning since August, our biggest sales for contest music are in January.

Stanton’s strongly suggests that when you order your music for Adjudicated Events, you order the copies or scores for your judges at the same time. Solo & Ensemble events have one adjudicator, and Large Group events have three – each adjudicator needs their own copy of each score. Please do not wait until the week of (or the DAY of) your event to order – every year we get many panicked calls from directors at the last minute! If we don’t have the piece you need in stock it may take as long as two weeks to order it in, and if it is Permanently Out-of-Print, receiving photocopy permission may take even longer.

Still searching for the perfect contest piece? Our website is up-to-date with this year’s Large Group required lists for high school choir, concert band, and orchestra, junior high choir, concert band, and orchestra, and Solo & Ensemble lists for high school instumental and vocal ensembles

Adjudicated Events can be an exciting and rewarding time for you and your students. Let Stanton’s help you by placing your orders early!

The concert band world lost an icon over this past weekend. William Francis McBeth (March 9, 1933 – January 6, 2012) was a prolific American composer, whose wind band works are highly respected. Among the most popular of his nearly 60 band works were Chant and Jubilo, Of Sailors and Whales, Through Countless Halls of Air, Masque, Kaddish, Canto and Caccia.  The popularity of his works in the United States during the last half of the twentieth century led to many invitations and appearances as a guest conductor, where he often conducted the premiere performances of some of his compositions, the majority of which were commissioned. His conducting activities have taken him to forty-eight states, three Canadian provinces, Japan, and Australia.

From 1957 until his retirement in 1996, McBeth taught at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.  He had an early start to his musical training, studying piano with his mother and taking up the trumpet in the second grade. He attended Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. While an undergraduate at H-SU, McBeth played in the university band. From December 1952 to January 1953, the band traveled with U.S. Camp Shows to Europe. He also played string bass in a jazz combo, which was unusual for the time period due to widespread segregation throughout the South.   He was initiated into the University of Texas Alpha Iota Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in 1957.  In 1962, McBeth conducted the Arkansas All-State Band, with future president Bill Clinton playing in the tenor saxophone section. He served as the third conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra from 1970 until 1973. He died aged 78 in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

McBeth’s most outstanding awards have been the Presley Award at Hardin-Simmons University, the Howard Hanson Prize at the Eastman School of Music for his Third Symphony in 1963, recipient of an ASCAP Special Award each consecutive year from 1965 to present, the American School Band Directors Association’s Edwin Franko Goldman Award in 1983, elected Fellow of the American Wind and Percussion Artists by the National Band Association in 1984, National Citation from Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity in 1985, in 1988 Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia’s Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award for his achievement and continued contribution to American music, Kappa Kappa Psi’s National Service to Music Award in 1989, Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic’s Medal of Honor in 1993 and Past President of the American Bandmasters Association. In 1975 McBeth was appointed Composer Laureate of the State of Arkansas by the Governor, the first Composer Laureate named in the United States.

In this “information age” of internet digital downloading and social networking, you can order and purchase music through any number of sources at any time of the day (or night), and even do it via your smart phone, so what’s the difference? Granted, Stanton’s Sheet Music has quite an internet presence due to our website and online listening library, we have a digital download site with ever increasing inventory, you can become a fan on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and, let’s face it, you’re reading our blog, so what REALLY sets us apart?

First, and foremost, almost all of our staff (including bookkeeping, receiving, shipping, etc.) are trained, degreed musicians with both performance and teaching experience. We have former band and choir directors, church musicians, former classroom teachers, private instructors and active, freelance musicians on staff. When you pick up the phone and speak with us, we’re more than just “customer service representatives.” We have studied and/or taught with much of the material that we offer, make recommendations, and have experienced many of the rewards and challenges of marching season, school musicals, budgets, booster groups, administrators, etc.

Second, and equally important, we are one resource with one location and we do it all! We are a store open to the public, not a warehouse. All of our orders whether phoned in, faxed or placed online are pulled from our in-house stock, backordered from publishers as necessary, and sent from our store. The same sales staff you speak with that takes your orders, fills your orders, responds to customer e-mail, orders our stock, puts stock away, reviews new material, processes internet orders, matches backordered items, and works with publisher representatives. Stanton’s is not divided into script-following CSR’s, order pullers in some distant warehouse, stock buyers hidden away in offices, and a billing department on another floor of the building. The same people handle your order from beginning to end and are available to answer any questions along the way.

If you haven’t worked with Stanton’s before, give us a call (1-800-426-8742), send us an e-mail, visit our website, or visit our store (we not only give music recommendations, but fantastic lunch recommendations as well). Place your next order with us and find out why we have been the ‘Sheet Music Specialists’ since 1960!

As we gear up to celebrate the close of 2011, Stanton’s is still open today to serve your sheet music needs (but we’ll be closed tomorrow). You can always browse and shop on our website or contact us by email, although we won’t respond until next year…

Click here to watch video