News & Views Friday, June 23, 2017

by Ken Tilger, Band Education Specialist –

Besides recommending the best new arrangements for band, we also keep our eyes out for helpful resources for band directors.  Lately we have seen an increased (and much needed) focus on materials for beginning and middle school band directors.  I am excited to recommend the following titles to improve your program, make your job easier, and further your students’ musicianship.

Specifically for the band director is Habits of a Successful Middle School Band Director designed as a complete guide to music teaching and administrative elements of the middle school band program, and Teaching Music Through Performance in Middle School Band that addresses various aspects of the middle school band program, but more importantly provides guidance and analysis of essential repertoire at the middle school level.

For your students’ growth and development are two recent warm-up series.  Habits of a Successful Middle School Musician is a comprehensive warm-up focusing on fundamentals and sight-reading, while Alfred’s Sound Innovations Ensemble Development series has been so popular that beginning and middle school band directors were clamoring for a young edition to be released.  As with its Intermediate and Advanced counterparts, Ensemble Development for Young Concert Band focuses on ensemble playing and development at an appropriate playing level.

I hope you find these titles and series helpful and beneficial to you and your band program.

Habits of a Successful Middle School Band Director
Scott Rush, Jeff Scott, and Emily Wilkinson
Building on the successful Habits series, Scott Rush and his team have created a practical guide to all aspects of the middle school band program including recruiting, rehearsing, teaching strategies and more!  A great resource for ideas and inspiration, this is a comprehensive book that will grow as teaching skills grow, and will serve as a constant and essential companion throughout the career of any middle school band director.

Teaching Music Through Performance in Middle School Band
Compiled and Edited by Richard Miles
This much-needed volume provides critical information on creating an effective wind band program in Grades 6 through 8.  Chapters focus on organization, administration, developing proper instrumentation, recruitment, retention, literature selection, and more!  Included are 100 core works at grades 1 to 3.5 organized by difficulty with a separate section devoted to marches.  Together, these works make up core repertoire for middle school bands.

Habits of a Successful Middle School Musician
Scott Rush, Jeff Scott, Emily Wilkinson, Rich Moon, and Kevin Boyle
Habits of a Successful Middle School Musician is a field-tested, musical collection of more than 300 sequenced exercises for building fundamentals.  Perfect for use by an entire band or solo player for years two, three, and beyond, this series contains carefully sequenced warm-ups, chorales, sight-reading etudes, rhythm vocabulary exercises, and much more.  This series presents everything an aspiring player needs to build fundamental musicianship skills and transfer them directly to the performance of great literature.

*NEW*
Sound Innovations: Ensemble Development for Young Concert Band
Peter Boonshaft and Chris Bernotas
Sound Innovations: Ensemble Development for Young Concert Band contains chorales and warm-up exercises for tone, technique, and rhythm designed for beginning band students.  A complete curriculum to help them grow as ensemble musicians, this series complements any band method and supplements any performance music.  It contains 167 exercises at grade 0.5-1.5 grouped by key, including more than 100 chorales by some of today’s most renowned young band composers.

Stanton’s Also Recommends:
Teaching Music Through Performance in Beginning Band, Volume 1
Teaching Music Through Performance in Beginning Band, Volume 2
Warm-ups and Beyond

About the Author:
Ken is a former band director, and has been with Stanton’s since 2004.  Besides music, he geeks out on comic books, amusement parks, and all things Pittsburgh.  He also plays saxophone with Swing’s the Thing Big Band, loves fall weather, and is excited that it is hockey season!

recommended by Jen Sper, School Choral & Classroom Music Specialist

Since 1996, World Music Drumming has transformed lives and built community through ensemble drumming, singing, moving, playing xylophones and recorders. Students have developed focus, listening, teamwork, and respect while having the best time anyone can have in school. Now in over 20,000 schools worldwide, we are celebrating this success by publishing the landmark World Music Drumming 20th Anniversary Edition!

World Music Drumming: 20th Anniversary Edition by Will Schmid
This ALL-IN-ONE format adds the following new teacher and classroom-friendly elements:
• An enhanced curriculum sequence including 20 years of “best practice” (creative ideas and teaching strategies from WMD faculty and participants)
• 16 new audio recordings of each ensemble and song (including new arrangements that include piano/vocal, guitar/bass and xylophone/recorder parts)
• 47 new “how-to” videos by Will Schmid including special Ghana-filmed segments
• 28 projectable / printable PDFs for cultural enrichment, assessment and ensemble parts
• An e-Book with interactive audio, video and PDF icons.
Even if you already own the 1st edition Teacher’s Book, Cross-Cultural Student Enrichment Book and Video, you will want this enhanced 20th Anniversary Teacher Edition with its new features and interactive layout!

For more drumming and percussion resources for your classroom, visit our website or contact us! Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!

About the Author:
Jen Sper has been with Stanton’s since 2006. A former middle school and high school choral director, she holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baldwin Wallace College Conservatory of Music. An active choral singer and accompanist throughout the Central Ohio area, she also enjoys good food, running (to counteract the good food…) and the Muppets.

recommended by Jen Sper, School Choral Music Specialist

Handel’s Messiah: Warm-Ups for Successful Performance by Jason Paulk & Ryan Kelly
This valuable resource is a must for every choral director that prepares a chorus to sing Handel’s Messiah! In three sections, Part I – Introduction to Preparing Messiah highlights Baroque performance practice and Ideals, Practical Considerations for Performing Messiah and other helpful information; Part II includes warm-ups for 20 choruses; Part III includes Appendices with a historical context of Messiah, primary sources supporting Baroque style and expression and a recommended reading list. The director score includes the full text and warm-ups with piano accompaniments, along with a code for accessing downloadable singer parts online. The singer book includes a handy folder-sized print edition of the vocal warm-ups.

For more information, please contact us – and remember, shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!

About the Author:
Jen Sper has been with Stanton’s since 2006. A former middle school and high school choral director, she holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baldwin Wallace College Conservatory of Music. An active choral singer and accompanist throughout the Central Ohio area, she also enjoys good food, running (to counteract the good food…) and the Muppets.

recommended by Jen Sper, School Choral & Classroom Music Specialist

For elementary music teachers, building a library of song collections for your classroom provides a wealth of quick and easy lessons and activities for your students! Here are some of our favorite new collections this year:

Ready Set Sing! by Cristi Cary Miller & Elizabeth Shier
From the first day of school to the last, this multi-media song collection is filled with music fun for your little ones! Play a name game, make new friends, move and freeze with the Spider Dance, echo rhythm patterns with Turkey Tom, scat sing with call and response, and much more! The all-in-one format features:
• creative, new lyrics set to familiar tunes for quick learning
• full color projectable song charts with lyrics and embedded audio for instant sound with a single click
• activity visuals to reinforce steady beat, rhythm reading, fast/slow, loud/soft, solfege patterson (so la mi re do)
• reproducible melody sheets for young readers
• quality lessons plans that feature separate teaching sequences for Kindergarten, 1st Graders and 2nd Graders
The projectable song charts and activity visuals are included via digital download access and viewed in your browser, so there is no need for special software. Just download the files onto your computer and you’re ready to go! Performance and accompaniment audio recordings are also available in a separate folder via download for performance options. Songs include: Do You Know My Friends at School?, When We’re in School, The Spider Song, Turkey Tom, Hurry Hurry Christmas Day, On a Wintry Day, Down at the Station, J-A-Z-Z It’s for Me!, Instruments Are Fun, Spring Is Finally Here, If You’re Happy Summer’s Comin’, Hit the Beach. Suggested for grades K-2.

A Hip Hop, a Skip and a Jump! by Jill & Michael Gallina
Movement and music provide an excellent instructional format for teaching a broad range of musical and developmental skills. This energetic collection of 10 engaging songs will help teach the emerging young musician and provide growth to all students in a wide range of areas existing across the entire curriculum. Active listening, auditory memory and discrimination, gross motor skills, and body awareness are all a part of the participatory songs designed with melodies and lyrics that give directives while listening. Rhythmic vocal speech adds a terrific learning experience and the comfortable vocal range allows for singing and performance as well. Piano/vocal arrangements are included, along with digital access to performance/accompaniment audio recordings and PDFs of singer parts. Plant and nurture the seeds of learning with these imaginative original songs. Songs include: Do the Funky Thing, Hip Hop Hippity Hop, Ice Skating, Imagine That!, Jumping Beans, Can’t Sit Still, Do What I Do, Soar High, Skippity Dee Skippity Doo, and Settle Down Song. Suggested for grades K-3.

Songs for You the Whole Year Through by Lois Fiftal
This dynamic collection is packed with songs and activities in celebration of familiar holidays throughout the school year. Games, movement ideas, instrumental parts and interdisciplinary concepts are given to enhance your students’ musical learning. Each song can be used individually to extend your concert repertoire or together as a revue, showcasing all your students have learned. Performance/Accompaniment audio recordings and singer PDFs are available via digital download. 12 songs include: Back to School, I’ll Take Five, Poor Clifford Skeleton, Thanksgiving Day Is Coming Soon, A Month Full of Holidays!, Let’s Build a Snowman, Won’t You Be My Valentine?, Pizza Pie for Breakfast, Baseball Hero!, Get Ready for Summertime Fun! Suggested for grades K-3.

All About Music Songs! by Mark Burrows
What’s the best way to learn concepts? … Through experience! How about a great way to memorize facts? … By singing! This ingenious collection demonstrates fundamental musical concepts while clever lyrics define them. Dynamics, articulations, tempo markings, treble and bass clefs note names, rests, fermatas, and more; it’s all about music! Mark includes creative lessons (often games) and suggests related listening (usually masterworks) for every song in the book. So fun, kids won’t realize they’re learning. So fundamental, curriculum planning is a cinch!

You can find more song collections for the elementary music classroom on our website, or contact us for more information. Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!

About the Author:
Jen Sper has been with Stanton’s since 2006. A former middle school and high school choral director, she holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baldwin Wallace College Conservatory of Music. An active choral singer and accompanist throughout the Central Ohio area, she also enjoys good food, running (to counteract the good food…) and the Muppets.

At Stanton’s, we know you have many choices when it comes to purchasing sheet music. Over the next few weeks, we want to take the opportunity to highlight just a few of the many reasons why Stanton’s is the best place to buy music for your school, church, private studio or personal use!

Places where you can browse and buy A LOT of sheet music are hard to come by. It’s amazing how many times we hear, “It’s so nice to be able to look at music before you buy it,” and “I live in                                              , and there is nowhere like this to buy music.” This last statement includes cities like New York and Los Angeles, and has been made by some of the touring Broadway Across America musicians who come through Columbus. If you live within driving distance of Columbus, and you’re wondering if a trip to Stanton’s is worth it the answer is “absolutely!”

Who doesn’t love a road trip? We’re not as far away as you might think. Columbus is only a 2 hour drive from Cleveland and Cincinnati, and 3 hours from Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Lexington and some of the farther reaches of Ohio. Besides, Stanton’s Sheet Music is in a former A&P grocery store (complete with cupola) that has hundreds of thousands of sheet music titles in stock!

While you’re here, you are welcome to look through and compare all of the music that’s on hand. You can pull up a chair at our listening station or use the Stanton’s app on your smart phone to scan titles and listen to them throughout the store. If it’s your first time at Stanton’s, let us know – we’ll give you a tour! Did we mention that you can also take advantage of our knowledgeable staff, too?

Bring your entire music department! Do you have an upcoming professional development day this fall? We’d love to see your WHOLE music department here in the store! Let us know you’re coming, and we’ll be happy to set aside a table for your group, and we can even start pulling some repertoire suggestions for you to peruse while you’re here.

Need to grab lunch, or staying in town for dinner? In addition to sheet music suggestions, our staff can recommend plenty of great, non-chain places to grab a bite. Within walking distance are Dirty Frank’s, Little Palace, Katzinger’s Delicatessen, and Indian Oven, as well as Mikey’s Late Night Slice and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at the Columbus Commons (and you’ve got to try Jeni’s!). Also nearby are plenty of restaurants in German Village, on Gay Street, and in the Short North and Arena Districts.

Have we given you enough reasons to come to Columbus and visit us? We look forward to seeing you soon!

Click here for more information on the STANTON’S DIFFERENCE!

At Stanton’s, we know you have many choices when it comes to purchasing sheet music. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been highlighting just a few of the many reasons why Stanton’s is the best place to buy music for your school, church, private studio or personal use!

We’re Big Enough to Serve ALL Your Needs
*Stanton’s Sheet Music has direct access to all major and many minor, independent, and European publishers, allowing us to carry and order hundreds of thousands of print music titles for you.

*Stanton’s e-Tools are designed to make your job easier! Use our Listening Library, Jukebox, Virtual Workshop, Wish List, and Digital Delivery features to compare and organize titles for your music program.

*Itemized purchase orders, bids, and large orders are no problem. We work with many schools around the country and U.S. International schools who “bulk order” over the summer.

*Besides providing music to customers all over the country, access to publishers like Hal Leonard and Alfred combined with stantons.com gives Stanton’s Sheet Music global reach with numerous international orders and worldwide shipping destinations.

But Small Enough to Serve YOU
*Stanton’s Sheet Music is still a single location, family-owned store in downtown Columbus, Ohio. We do not have a warehouse or call center, and our website is just another way to shop for music with Stanton’s.

*We have 3 departments each with a specific number of dedicated, specialized staff: Choral & General Music, Band & Orchestra, and Keyboard & Pop. While anyone in a respective department can help you, if you find a specific staff member you like to work with, feel free to request them.

*We are your customer service. We answer your phone calls and e-mails. We fill your orders and process your internet orders. We personally handle your “sheet music emergencies.” We solve any problems should they arise. We will get to know you by name, and by working with you over time, get to know your program.

*We are your partner in music education. We choose our Stanton’s Staff Selections to help make your job easier. We organize and conduct Stanton’s numerous clinics, workshops and reading sessions. We develop Stanton’s e-Tools with you, the music teacher, in mind.

We hope that over the course of this series we have given you some reasons to make Stanton’s your #1 choice for sheet music. If not, give us a call or place an order with us, and see why Stanton’s Sheet Music has been Sheet Music Specialists since 1960!

Click here for more information on the STANTON’S DIFFERENCE!

At Stanton’s, we know you have many choices when it comes to purchasing sheet music. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been highlighting just a few of the many reasons why Stanton’s is the best place to buy music for your school, church, private studio or personal use! Today we’d like to spotlight a couple of ways the Stanton’s staff goes above and beyond for you.

So you want to program an old title. You call us to order it, or place your order at stantons.com. While taking/processing your order, our knowledgeable staff realizes the age of the title, either because we remember when it was published (yes, many of us have been here that long), or we’re tipped off by the catalog number – in fact, old Belwin/Columbia Pictures numbers contain the year of publication within them. Rather than just place the title on backorder and hope it comes in, we often check the availability of old titles right away! The Alfred and Hal Leonard dealer websites allow us to check the status of a title, and, if it is urgent, we are happy to call our representatives with other publishers on your behalf. This way you know as soon as possible whether you can expect to receive your title, or if you need to consider programming another piece. Sure, we hate to disappoint, but we’d rather you know sooner than later if a piece is unavailable so you can plan accordingly.

You need music in a hurry! Despite your best planning, sometimes music and scores get lost before an impending performance, or an administrator/civic leader requests a specific title that’s not in your library for performance at the end of the week. If you find yourself in a “sheet music emergency,” Stanton’s can help! If the music you need is in-stock, we will strive to get it out to you the same day as long as we have your order before 4:30 pm, and we’ll work with you to find the right balance of expedited shipping time and cost. If your item is not in-stock, we can arrange for drop-ship service directly from most publishers so that your music will ship within 24 hours. If your timetable is REALLY urgent, we will personally call your drop-ship order in to the publisher to ensure that it is handled properly and shipped the same day – most publishers can get expedited orders out the same day if they are placed by noon or 12:30 local (publisher) time. We strongly recommend that if you need to place an expedited or drop-ship order that you call us ASAP so that we can give your order the detailed attention it requires, and give you the service you deserve!

Does your sheet music store do this? If not, give us a call and see why Stanton’s Sheet Music has been the “Sheet Music Specialist” for over 50 years, and why you should shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!

Click here for more information on the STANTON’S DIFFERENCE!

recommended by Jen Sper, School Choral and Classroom Music Specialist

Looking for a fun and educational way to introduce the history of music notation? Enter Guido d’Arezzo! This interactive storybook provides a creative and engaging look at the development of music notation as we know it – the concepts are easy enough for upper elementary students to grasp, and the presentation is clever enough to engage even a high school music theory class!

The Tale of Guido d’Arezzo by Maritza Sadowsky
Long before the lines and spaces, the flags and beams, music had to be memorized because there was no way to write it down. That is, until clever Guido came along! Learn how this Medieval monk laid the groundwork for the system of music notation that we use today. This true story is told with beautiful illustrations and age-appropriate vocabulary, which can be read from the screen or heard by clicking the listen icon. Embedded audio plays period music, whimsical sound effects, and a professionally-voiced narration. As you scroll through each interactive page, be sure to click highlighted elements to watch the story come to life. Utilizes flash technology that works on individual computers and interactive whiteboards. Recommended for all ages.

About the Author:
Jen Sper has been with Stanton’s since 2006. A former middle school and high school choral director, she holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baldwin Wallace College Conservatory of Music. An active choral singer and accompanist throughout the Central Ohio area, she also enjoys good food, running (to counteract the good food…) and the Muppets.

recommended by Jen Sper, School Choral and Classroom Music Specialist

Teaching dictation in the ensemble classroom can feel like a drag – do I have time for this?!? I’m already teaching sight-reading – isn’t that good enough?!? You DO have time (or you can MAKE the time), and it IS important! Here’s a great resource to help:

Hear It, Read It, Write It! by Dave & Jean Perry
Learning to read music is much like learning a language. There are three basic elements: listening, reading, and writing. This well organized book provides step-by-step sequential lessons for developing these skills. Rhythm, note, and interval concepts are taught in the following way: first, hear and echo a short musical example; second, read and perform a notated exercise; and third, notate musical phrases as demonstrated on the CD. Worksheet-style student pages are included as reproducible PDFs. Ten-minute activities for teaching or assessment, recommended for fourth through ninth grade ensembles or music classes.

About the Author:
Jen Sper has been with Stanton’s since 2006. A former middle school and high school choral director, she holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baldwin Wallace College Conservatory of Music. An active choral singer and accompanist throughout the Central Ohio area, she also enjoys good food, running (to counteract the good food…) and the Muppets.

At Stanton’s, we know you have many choices when it comes to purchasing sheet music. Over the next few weeks, we want to take the opportunity to highlight just a few of the many reasons why Stanton’s is the best place to buy music for your school, church, private studio or personal use!

Stanton’s is one of the largest sheet music retailers in the country, with tens of thousands of titles in stock. We understand that many of our customers can’t make it to our Columbus, Ohio location to peruse music, so we offer a 21 Day Trial service.

How It Works: Music can be secured with either a Stanton’s account or a credit card. We send you the in-stock materials you request, and you pay nothing but the shipping and handling costs. As long as the music is returned to us in NEW condition within 21 days, you are never charged. If you have specific titles you’d like to see, we will happily send those to you, or you can ask one of our knowledgeable staff members to select pieces for you based on concert theme, performance venue, type of group, etc.

What You Can Take On Trial (by department):

Choral, Handbell, Classroom General Music & Solo Vocal: You may take up to 20 single copies of octavos and/or up to 5 musicals, collections, or director’s scores.

Band, Orchestra and Instrumental: You may take up to six items on trial, including full arrangements, solos and chamber ensembles (only scores will be sent for titles appearing on the OMEA High School Large Group Contest List).

Piano/Keyboard: Up to five collections and/or 10 teaching pieces, one copy each. Popular sheet music is not available for 21 Day Trial. 75% (by dollar amount) of the piano music on trial must be purchased.

For more details about our 21 Day Trial, visit us online at www.stantons.com, or give us a call at 1-800-42-MUSIC!

Click here for more information on the STANTON’S DIFFERENCE!

respectfully offered by Dan C., Orchestra Music Specialist

If you are reading this, you are probably a musician or associate with musicians. When you are a musician or hang with musicians, you begin to think that everyone is probably involved in music in one way or another. But, we musicians are really a fairly finite group of people.

It has been speculated that if you were to gather all people in the United States who make their living in the music industry (whether creating it, performing it, recording it, writing it, teaching it, publishing it, selling it, making and repairing instruments that play it etc), you would end up with about the same amount of people as are employed by the Kellogg’s Company – you know, the cereal and snack food folks. Yeah – a pretty finite group!

It seems unlikely that anyone involved in this tight-knit music community would intentionally keep their fellow musicians from trying to make a living. And yet, that’s what you do when you copy sheet music without permission. Sheet music is property – like a trumpet, violin or a microphone – but it’s intellectual property, which can be a bit nebulous. Basically, only the Copyright Holder has the “right” to “copy” their work. When you copy music without permission from the copyright holder, you are actually stealing it.

When you copy music without a second thought, that means the music is not being sold. Consequently, the music retailer and all their employees lose income, the music publisher and all their employees lose income, and, perhaps most tragically, the composer loses income. Your fellow musicians are being deprived of their ability to make a living.

So not only are you breaking the law by copying music, you are keeping your brothers and sisters in this finite musical community from doing what they love to do: be a musician. If they can’t make a living at it, they may have to leave and do something else. And the musical world becomes an even smaller place.

So don’t copy music without permission – it’s not only illegal, it’s immoral. Let’s make sure the livelihood of our music community is secure so we can all continue to make music – that thing we love to do!

For more information on what you can and cannot do when it comes to copyright, check out these books on the subject:
Copyright Basics by Joel Leach
The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright Law by James Frankel
Music Copyright Law by Moser & Slay
Music Publishing: The Complete Guide by Steve Winogradsky

About the Author:
Dan C. has worked at Stanton’s since 1979, primarily with orchestra music and print promotions. A “working” musician, he’s a classical cellist, a rock & jazz bassist and a folk & country guitarist/singer. His free time is spent with family or reading, gardening, cycling and working puzzles. His series of musical puzzles (RP3 Rebus Puzzle Picture People) can be found on the Stanton’s Facebook page each Sunday. He also has a reputation as a pretty good joke teller. Seriously.

The amazing staff at Stanton’s knows how valuable your time is. That’s why we try to provide you with as many tools as we can to make choosing music easier,  faster and more enjoyable. In this series of blog posts, we will be profiling our E-tools. Whether you are a local customer here in Columbus, OH or one of our many friends around the world, we hope you will find a way to use our E-tools!

As an extension of our Listening Library, we are proud to offer Stanton’s Jukebox. Stanton’s Jukebox is a specialized “wish list” where you can add sound samples from our Listening Library, then use it to:

• Research your music purchases by building a playlist for all the titles you are considering, and then easily compare “apples to apples” as you listen.
• Arrange your concert program by listening to full-length pieces in order, then rearranging as needed to allow for a variety in tempi and styles.
• Build specific playlists for each of your different ensembles to assist you with your rehearsal planning and score study.
• Generate a personalized URL for each playlist that can be emailed to your ensemble to enhance at-home practice – you can even add custom practice/rehearsal notes to appear with each playlist.
• Forward your playlist to your school administrator or Booster/PTA president when you need to solicit funding for specific music.
• Design separate playlists for different genres or eras of music for your Music History or Music Appreciation students to use during class or with homework.
• Create a list of your favorite works for your personal listening pleasure in your home or office, and let it inspire you to continue strengthening your ensembles!

If you have questions about how to use the Stanton’s Jukebox feature, we also have a quick video tutorial that you can watch, as well as a list of “Frequently Asked Questions.” As always, if you need further information, feel free to call us at 1-800-42-MUSIC or email us at greatservice@stantons.com.

Click here for more in the Stanton’s E-Tools series!

John Jacobson’s MUSIC EXPRESS is the classroom magazine for young musicians in grades K-6. We’re excited to announce that annual subscriptions are now available through Stanton’s Sheet Music!

Says John, “MUSIC EXPRESS is the magazine designed to help you, the everyday hero, as you share music with young people in your classrooms. It will bring you fresh ideas from some of the best music educators in the country in a format that’s easy to use and fun!”

In your yearly subscription, you’ll get 6 issues with:

• digital interactive lessons to use with your classroom technology
• 90+ songs for classroom and concert
• over 180 professional recordings
• step-by-step lesson plans correlated to the National Core Music Standards
• 36+ choreography videos by John Jacobson
• 6 video lessons by John Jacobson
• 6 NEW episodes of The Music Show
• 6 interactive listening lessons with recordings
• 5 artist spotlights or video walkthroughs
• 3 complete concert programs
• songs and lessons Orff, recorder, and classroom percussion instruments
• movement songs, assessment songs, and concept teaching songs
• creative writing activities, movement activities, extension activities
• 6 motivational articles by John Jacobson
• clearly-stated lesson objectives, assessments, worksheets, vocabulary words, tech tips, material lists
• AND MORE…all delivered to your school 6 times a year!

New for this year, all subscribers will receive improved and expanded digital content, and can also receive printed student editions on request. With both Premium and Premium Plus subscription options, we know you’ll find the right choice for your classroom. Contact Stanton’s now to subscribe!

The amazing staff at Stanton’s knows how valuable your time is. That’s why we try to provide you with as many tools as we can to make choosing music easier, faster and more enjoyable.  In this series of blog posts, we will be profiling our E-tools. Whether you are a local customer here in Columbus, OH or one of our many friends around the world, we hope you will find a way to use our E-tools!

What is the Listening Library?

When you are searching for new music that fits your group, sometimes looking at or even playing through a score is not enough. Music is meant to be heard, not just seen. That is why we have recordings of almost 70,000 titles available in the Stanton’s Listening Library. The Library files are in an easy-to-use MP3 format and are created from “promotional recordings” produced by the publishers. Whenever possible, Stanton’s uses the full-length recording, but due to the fact that some tracks were only made available as “publisher promotional copies” some of the tracks may be excerpted. We are constantly adding to our library, so check back often for updates!

How do I know if Stanton’s has a recording of the piece I’m looking for?

When browsing or searching our website, you will see the “globe with headphones” icon (pictured above) next to any item that has a recording available. Clicking on that icon will take you to a recording of that piece. Having trouble hearing? Check to make sure that your speakers are turned up and not set to mute, or that your headphones are plugged in.

Can I access the Listening Library from my smart phone or tablet?

Absolutely! The Stanton’s mobile website is compatible with all tablets and smart phones. Just touch that “globe with headphones” icon to get started. If you download the Stanton’s Barcode Scanner App, you can even use the tablet or phone’s camera to scan the bar code on a piece of music, and you will be immediately directed to that item’s recording. It makes shopping for music (or browsing your own music library) a breeze!

For questions about how to use our Listening Library, please feel free to give us a call at 1-800-42-MUSIC or visit us online or in person!

Click here for more in the Stanton’s E-Tools series!

At Stanton’s, we know you have many choices when it comes to purchasing sheet music. That’s why we want to take the opportunity to highlight just a few of the many reasons why Stanton’s is the best place to buy music for your school, church, private studio or personal use!

Did you know that Stanton’s offers a 10% discount on most printed sheet music products to teachers, church musicians and college music majors? You can use your discount when shopping online, over the phone, or in the store. Your discount is automatically applied when you use your church or school account, or just mention that you are a teacher when you call to place an order!

10% doesn’t sound like very much? Think of it this way: For choral directors, it’s the same as buying 9 copies of an octavo and getting the 10th copy FREE! Or let’s say that you’re an instrumental teacher with 3 ensembles. If you buy 3 pieces for each group over the course of the year, that “fun” pop number for the spring concert is like a freebie! And who doesn’t love FREE?

For more information about the educational discount, visit us online at www.stantons.com, or give us a call at 1-800-42-MUSIC!

Click here for more information on the STANTON’S DIFFERENCE!

At Stanton’s, we know you have many choices when it comes to purchasing sheet music. Over the next few weeks, we want to take the opportunity to highlight just a few of the many reasons why Stanton’s is the best place to buy music for your school, church, private studio or personal use!

If you’re a school, church or community music director, your purchases are usually made to an account to be paid by your institution. If you are new to any of these positions, or have recently changed gigs, give us a call! We will be happy to provide you with your organization’s account number(s), and walk you through the billing process.

Are you new to shopping with Stanton’s? Rest easy – our staff can check to see if your organization already has an account (many often do), and if not, setting up a new account is easy! In fact, we can help you set up a new account when you place your first order, or make your first purchase, in a matter of minutes!

What we need:
– Name of the organization to be billed
– Billing address
– Billing phone number
– Purchase order number (if required by billing institution)

Let us know where you would like to have your order shipped, and you’re done!

Some notes:
*Stanton’s can bill your: School Board/District; Church; School Building Activity Fund; Booster organization; Community Band/Choir organization

*We can assign multiple ship-to addresses and institutional credit cards to your account.

*You can bill orders to your account at our store, over the phone, at stantons.com, or at any conference or reading session where we’re exhibiting!

If you have any questions, give us a call at 1-800-42-MUSIC and speak with our sales staff, or press 4 to speak directly with our accounting department, and shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!

Click here for more information on the STANTON’S DIFFERENCE!