News & Views Thursday, August 24, 2017

Stanton’s Sheet Music presents a
WILLIS MUSIC PIANO TEACHER WORKSHOP
featuring Carolyn Miller

Friday August 11, 2017
9:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Stanton’s Sheet Music
James E. Strouse Workshop Hall
330 S Fourth Street, Columbus OH 43215
FREE!

Motivating students to practice can be exhausting! The solution is easy: give them exciting, inspiring pieces! Students will come in to every lesson with more enthusiasm than ever. Join our expert clinician Carolyn Miller for an entertaining session packed with captivating music and valuable teaching tips.

Please RSVP for this free session by Thursday August 10 by phone (1.800.426.8742) or email (keyboard@stantons.com). We look forward to seeing you at this valuable session featuring complimentary refreshments and special day-of discounts for attendees!

recommended by Jen Sper and Alissa Ruth, School Choral and Classroom Music Specialists

The Music Show by John Jacobson & Roger Emerson

“Join your favorite animated characters led by the famous Luigi’s Baton and his side-kick Mike the Microphone, as they introduce young music students to the ‘FUN’damentals of music, with emphasis on the fun! With the help of their friends Cadence the Drummer and Fret the Guitar, children will love learning about beat, rhythm, tempo, melody and so much more.”

This video series (with lesson plan guides included) is a resource that we feel will be useful for reinforcing concepts which you have introduced to your students. Intended for introducing/practicing elements such as steady beat, rhythm, and high/low, lessons include objectives, materials, vocabulary, suggested lessons, and assessments, making this accessible for you and your students. This would also be a helpful resource if you have a substitute teacher who is a musician as well.

The following are included in this all-in-one format:

– Full color digital lessons with embedded video episodes for instant viewing
– Projectable and reproducible song charts with lyrics and embedded audio
– Activity visuals to reinforce music concepts
– Quality lesson plans

All of the projectable content is included via digital 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: The Beat Is the Heart of Music; I’ve Got Rhythm, How ‘Bout You? Take a Rest; We’re Gonna Sing High, Low and in the Middle; Presto Is Fast, Largo Is Slow; Lines and Spaces Baby! Suggested for grades 1-3.

For more information about this and other classroom recommendations, visit us at stantons.com, call us at 1.800.42.MUSIC ext.1, or email us at choral@stantons.com. We look forward to working with you!

About the Authors:
Alissa Ruth began working at Stanton’s in the summer of 2016. She is a former middle and high school choir director and holds a Bachelor of Music in Education degree from Capital University. She is an active choral singer in the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, as well as various choirs in the Columbus area, and she spends her free time running, doing yoga, cooking, and watching Netflix.

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.

Stanton’s Sheet Music presents a
WILLIS MUSIC PIANO TEACHER WORKSHOP
featuring Carolyn Miller

Friday August 11, 2017
9:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Stanton’s Sheet Music
James E. Strouse Workshop Hall
330 S Fourth Street, Columbus OH 43215
FREE!

Motivating students to practice can be exhausting! The solution is easy: give them exciting, inspiring pieces! Students will come in to every lesson with more enthusiasm than ever. Join our expert clinician Carolyn Miller for an entertaining session packed with captivating music and valuable teaching tips.

Please RSVP for this free session by Thursday August 10 by phone (1.800.426.8742) or email (keyboard@stantons.com). We look forward to seeing you at this valuable session featuring complimentary refreshments and special day-of discounts for attendees!

recommended by Ben Huntoon, Jazz Specialist

Summer is the perfect time for piano teachers to try something different. Introduce your students to creative music making with these popular books by Bradley Sowash, a renowned piano educator specializing in improvisation who just happens to live Ohio.

Creative Chords is a unique two-book series designed to teach beginning students who have mastered basic keyboard skills how to improvise! Each book comes with unique code to access videos and backing tracks in which the author demonstrates how to play well-known melodies by ear, improvise embellishments and variations, add chords and accompaniment styles, and create full-sounding arrangements based on their own tastes and preferences. Teachers, even those with a limited background in improvisation, will agree this is a must-have for balancing the ear and the eye for playing today’s music!

That’s Jazz, a nine-book series, is the perfect avenue for motivating late elementary & intermediate level students, while opening them up to the vital musical tradition and artistic expression of jazz. Whether teachers have limited jazz training or none at all, they can still feel confident leading students through their first experiences with jazz!

About the Author:
Ben Huntoon is the Jazz Education Consultant at Stanton’s Sheet Music. He received bachelors and masters degrees in music from Capital University and The Ohio State University respectively. As a professional trumpeter, Ben is accomplished in a wide variety of genres and has performed throughout the Midwest on many stages over the past 30 years. He also teaches trumpet, coaches brass ensembles and has served on the jazz faculty at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.

Stanton’s Sheet Music presents a
WILLIS MUSIC PIANO TEACHER WORKSHOP
featuring Carolyn Miller

Friday August 11, 2017
9:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Stanton’s Sheet Music
James E. Strouse Workshop Hall
330 S Fourth Street, Columbus OH 43215
FREE!

Motivating students to practice can be exhausting! The solution is easy: give them exciting, inspiring pieces! Students will come in to every lesson with more enthusiasm than ever. Join our expert clinician Carolyn Miller for an entertaining session packed with captivating music and valuable teaching tips.

Please RSVP for this free session by Thursday August 10 by phone (1.800.426.8742) or email (keyboard@stantons.com). We look forward to seeing you at this valuable session featuring complimentary refreshments and special day-of discounts for attendees!

recommended by Jen Sper, School Choral and Classroom Music Specialist

Students love to compose their own music when given the knowledge and tools to feel confident doing so – but, teaching composition to young musicians can be intimidating! Here’s a great new resource to help:

Mission: Composition by Matthew Cremisio & Jennifer Lee-Alden
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: develop music literacy that won’t self-destruct! Beginning with steady-beat development and progressing through improvisation to reading and writing standard notation, this comprehensive music literacy program culminates in student composition. To assist your mission, manipulatives, play-along tracks, reproducible worksheets, and assessment rubrics appear on the included CD.

Need more composition and theory resources for your music classroom? Find them on our website, or contact us for new ideas! 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 and Ben Huntoon, Jazz Specialist

Jazz for Young People, Volume 1: New Orleans & Jelly Roll Morton by Sharon Burch & Wynton Marsalis
Introduce students to jazz through great literature combined with learning by doing! The first of ten volumes, Jazz for Young People includes step-by-step lessons that combine content and audio/video recordings of Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center artists with interactive student learning, including classroom instruments that every music teacher already owns or can easily afford. This easy-to-present resource is designed for a teacher who may or may not be trained in America’s art form – bringing jazz to the next generation. Digital downloads include: step-by-step lesson slides to project, audio recordings of each song and Wynton Marsalis sharing background information, as well as reproducible activity/assessment worksheets. Plus! You will have FREE access to corresponding video clips for each lesson. Perfect for the general music classroom (grades 2 and up), beginning jazz ensembles and community jazz education courses.

This is the first of 10 volumes in the “Jazz for Young People” series – we’ll be sure to update you as new volumes become available! Find more classroom music resources and jazz resources on our website, and contact us for more information – remember to shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!

About the Authors:
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.

Ben Huntoon is the Jazz Education Consultant at Stanton’s Sheet Music. He received bachelors and masters degrees in music from Capital University and The Ohio State University respectively. As a professional trumpeter, Ben is accomplished in a wide variety of genres and has performed throughout the Midwest on many stages over the past 30 years. He also teaches trumpet, coaches brass ensembles and serves on the jazz faculty at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.

recommended by Jen Sper, School Choral Music Specialist

The Resonant Male Singer by Jacob Narverud
An inspired and fresh approach on building tone and ensemble resonance with male singers! With you as their personal trainer, this book provides daily workouts for your guys to help them develop a vibrant, healthy, and mature sound through proper vocal technique. This resource includes notated warm-up examples and photos with descriptive, enthusiastic teaching ideas. Topics include:
• Body, Breath, & Energy
• Muscles & Movement
• Exploring the Voice
• Finding & Activating Resonance
• Focusing the Resonance
• Tuning the Resonance
• Repertoire/Rehearsal Ideas
An appendix of tried-and-true suggested repertoire for middle, high school, and collegiate male vocal ensembles is included. An enjoyable, yet practical guide for anyone working with male voices!

Find more valuable choral texts 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.

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.