Celebrate Women's History Month with our most popular piano music by women composers!
Top Piano Music by Women Composers: Celebrating Women’s History Month.
Inside the Music with Between the Lines songwriters Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson
Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson are the songwriting duo behind Apple TV's Central Park, Disney Animation's Olaf's Frozen Adventure, and the off-Broadway Musical, Between the Lines. We caught up with the dynamic songwriting duo to talk about their backgrounds in music, their songwriting process, their dream projects, and all things Between the Lines! This interview was conducted by friends... Continue Reading →
12 of the Most Popular Christmas Digital Sheet Music Downloads
Explore the 12 most-searched Christmas titles at Sheet Music Plus and find digital arrangements for every instrument and level to download and play today! #12. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel Originally in Latin & titled "Veni, Emmanuel," this classic advent carol is a hauntingly beautiful choice for Christmas Eve celebrations. This arrangement by Sharon Wilson... Continue Reading →
2023 Holiday Gift Guide for Musicians
Searching for the perfect present for the musician in your life? See our favorite picks for musicians of all ages and give the gift of music this year!
From Sheet Music to Supplementation: Ideas from a Music Educator
The content in this blog post originally appeared on Noteflight Notes, the official blog of Noteflight. No method book is perfect… No matter what method or curriculum of study we choose to follow, our students will always need different or further instruction to master specific skills and concepts. To meet their individual needs, we must... Continue Reading →
Meet the New Sheet Music Plus
Explore new & improved features on Sheet Music Plus's updated website
Creating Ourselves: Social Emotional Learning in the Music Classroom
Guest post from Dr. Philip Silvey, Associate Professor of Music at the Eastman School of Music, and contributing composer to the Voices in Harmony choral series published by Hal Leonard. In summer, I teach a curriculum seminar to graduate students. In the class, we reflect deeply on what is taught in schools and why. We... Continue Reading →
Listen Up! Podcasts for Music Educators
Music educators are often left to their own devices for professional development. Many districts don’t have the resources for special arts-centered PD, and general education seminar content sometimes doesn’t apply to arts classrooms. That leaves music education conferences, which are great. But for those who need or want more regular help, ideas, or inspiration, try... Continue Reading →
Starting Fresh: Prioritizing What Matters in the Upcoming School Year
The start of a new school year means different things to different teachers. For some it’s a fresh start, full of possibilities. For others, it’s a rebuilding time after a downturn in the program. And for others, well, they’re still crying on the patio begging summer not to end. No matter your current emotional state,... Continue Reading →
Memorable years, formative years: Why do boys stop singing in their teens?
Guest post by Martin Ashley, editor-in-chief of the research journal of the Association of British Choral Directors Originally published by Oxford University Press in the OUP Blog: Academic Insights for the Thinking World Fifty-five years ago, a fourteen-year-old boy spent a week in the mountains of Snowdonia, staying at a youth hostel called Bryn Dinas.... Continue Reading →
Percussion Preservation: Basic Care & Maintenance
Music rooms sometimes contain tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of percussion equipment. Maintenance can feel overwhelming, but it’s worth it to protect your school’s investment! The good news: basic care can be outsourced to students. At the end of each semester, your section leader and players can oversee most of these tasks. First, dust... Continue Reading →
Arranging for Young Jazz Bands: Getting Started
Finding suitable arrangements for your beginning or young jazz ensemble can be tough, and many directors turn to writing their own arrangements. To help get you started, we’ve turned to Roy Phillippe, an expert arranger of jazz classics for young bands. ROY'S PROCESS If the music is new or unfamiliar to me, I study the... Continue Reading →
Showcase Your Strings: 13 great pieces for recruitment and demonstration concerts
Curated by Kathryn Griesinger-Parrish, Orchestral Editor at Carl Fischer Music Guests & Soloists Include a beloved teacher or principal when hosting a recruiting event. Concerto for Triangle by Mike Hannickel This easy piece cleverly features a triangle ‘soloist’…who keeps missing their cue. Until the very end, that is! Guaranteed to elicit giggles from young students.... Continue Reading →
In Conversation with Christopher M. Brunelle: The Church Year in Limericks, Vol. 2
With the second volume of The Church Year in Limericks, Christopher M. Brunelle, Director of Music at the First United Church of Christ in Northfield, MN, and a former member of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, and the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, continues to put lowly doggerel to lofty purposes. This collection of entirely new... Continue Reading →
Easy Advocacy: Proactive Steps to Promote Your School Music Program
Advocacy can feel like one more thing on an overfilled plate, but communicating with our administrators and communities is key to healthy school music programs. These easy tips create little or no extra work for you – they capitalize on what you’re already doing. Delegate tasks that don’t require your expertise Utilize your parent and... Continue Reading →
Getting Started With Jazz Guitar
Guest post by Chad Johnson - guitarist, author, & Hal Leonard digital content specialist For many guitarists who start out as rock, country, or blues players, learning jazz can be a bit intimidating. At first glance, there seems to be very little in common between jazz and popular music. The scales have weird names like... Continue Reading →
Making Connections & Creating Community In an Overscheduled World
Guest post by Susan Eernisse, Children’s Music Editor for Jubilate Music Group One of the things we as children’s choir directors deal with is the competition for a spot on the weekly family schedule. I believe there are some fantastic things going on every week in our choir rooms, yet how do we get the... Continue Reading →
In Another Guise: Recycling and Borrowing in J. S. Bach’s Works
By Dr. Uwe Wolf, Chief Editor of Carus Verlag It may seem surprising that Johann Sebastian Bach’s oratorios and masses are based to a large extent on parody, and that they were originally composed to a quite different text. This does not, however, diminish the fascination which they exert. Of course, when the timpani notes... Continue Reading →
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Preserving the Publishing Legacy
In October 2022, as musicians across the world mark the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams's birth, Oxford University Press's archived Vaughan Williams materials are to be moved to the British Library, where they will join the Library’s existing world-class collection of Vaughan Williams autograph manuscripts, papers, letters, photographs, and other materials—the most comprehensive collection relating to this composer in the world. The OUP donation covers approximately 60 items, each one of these demonstrating some part of the publication process. Here, we explore a selection of the items, each telling a story from Vaughan Williams’s musical career.
Mariachi – Yes, It’s Part of the Music Program
by Herman Méndez One might deem a program as successful when it has been fully embraced by students, school staff, parents and community to the degree that it becomes an integral part of the school curriculum. Over a number of years now, mariachi music programs in schools have been growing in numbers in the southern... Continue Reading →
12 of the Best New School Choir Arrangements from Shawnee Press
This blog comes courtesy of the Director of Educational Choral Publications for Shawnee Press, Greg Gilpin Assess! Inspire! Ignite! As the new school year begins, many teachers are faced with new challenges created by the pandemic as well as ever-changing educational requirements for young people. Here are a few examples: - You older and experienced... Continue Reading →
8 Tips On Recruiting For Your Music Program
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, many music institutions were closed. The health commission prohibited many choirs and musicians from performing. Due to health concerns, many parents opted not to enroll their kids in music classes but instead made them attend regular academic classes. One of the noticeable challenges that music teachers faced was recruiting and... Continue Reading →
Your Intro to Pop A Cappella
Hint: It might just be more approachable than you think! Looking for new ways to get students to join choir and keep them coming back for more? From Pentatonix to Pitch Perfect, they’ve already fallen in love with pop a cappella. Here’s Rob Dietz to help you teach them to sing it. Rob, a cappella... Continue Reading →
Rebuild & Renew!
By Patti Drennan The musical world more or less came to a screeching halt in March 2020. Unsure of the effects a deadly Coronavirus could bring, most churches and businesses shuttered their doors until medical officials could analyze the seriousness and duration of this pandemic. For many months, choirs quit singing in worship and large... Continue Reading →
3 Selections To Get Your Choir Back Into The School Year
By Danielle Larrick As we transition into the Back to School season, many of us are shifting our focus and starting to consider repertoire for the upcoming year. While the final choices will come down to you, this is a great way to engage your musicians and get their opinion on the repertoire you're considering for... Continue Reading →
Come Back Bigger and Better!
The Top 5 Reasons to Do a Christmas Cantata This Year By Mark Cabaniss There’s no question the pandemic changed church choirs. At least for now. Maybe forever? Well, perhaps that’s up to you and us all. This blog post makes a case to find a way to do a cantata (or musical) this year. ... Continue Reading →
How To Make Your Choir Inclusive for Trans, GNC and Queer Singers
by Caite Debevec I failed my first transgender student. I was in grad school and had never had a trans singer in my choir before. I was rooted in what I knew regarding voice types. I was sure that my priority would be vocal health above all else and I was determined to give the... Continue Reading →
My 9+ Favorite Elvis Songs From Each Era
By: Bruce Dierbeck - Social Media Manager Thanks to the new "Elvis" biopic, the world has caught Elvis Presley fever all over again (not to be confused with his cover of "Fever" from the 1973 Aloha From Hawaii special). Elvis' music career can really be broken down by 3 distinct eras. There's the early music,... Continue Reading →
10 Favorite Broadway Songs Picked by Sheet Music Plus
We are so excited to watch the Tony Awards this weekend! There is nothing like a great Broadway musical number, and there have been so many over the decades. From classical Broadway hits to modern gems, we love to sing, dance, get sucked into YouTube rabbit holes, and get these tunes stuck in our heads.... Continue Reading →
The Music of Turning Red: Finding Cultural Harmony
By: Naoko Maruko - Head of Catalog Product Management at Sheet Music Plus Think back to the first time you watched a movie and watched a character that made you think, “That’s me!” Remember the feeling of being seen and the excitement of being represented on the big screen? Well, I don’t. I was an... Continue Reading →
AAPI Month Composer Highlight: Naoko Ikeda
Naoko Ikeda lives in Sapporo, Hokkaido in northern Japan, and is passionate about introducing the world to her country's essence through music. Influenced by classical music, jazz and pop, as well as the piano works of William Gillock, her own music reflects her diverse tastes with beauty, elegance, and humor. Ms. Ikeda holds a piano... Continue Reading →
How to Keep Your Music Students Sharp Over the Summer
While summer is a great time to relax and enjoy the vacation, it can also be a great time for music students to improve their skills and become even more proficient musicians. Below are some tips and advice for music teachers wanting to help their students practice music over the summer. Offer a summer music... Continue Reading →
The Power of Growth Mindset in Music
By Celia Zhang “I can’t do it!” “It’s too hard!” “I’m not good at it!” Parents and teachers - odds are, you or your student have probably said one of these phrases in the midst of a challenge, and I absolutely empathize with you. The feeling of missing the target, especially on repeat, is truly... Continue Reading →
5 Tips on How To Be a Musician and Succeed Into The Wedding Industry
Becoming a wedding musician can be a rewarding and fun experience to showcase your talent and share your passion for music with others. It can also be a great way to make extra money or venture into it as a full-time career. But how does one become a successful wedding musician? Here are some tips... Continue Reading →
Meet Artina McCain: SMP’s Women History Month Artist Q&A
Described as a pianist with “power and finesse” (Dallas Arts Society), “beautiful and fiery” (KMFA Austin) and having a “sense of color, balance and texture” (Austin Chamber Music Center) Artina McCain, has a built a three-fold career as a performer, educator and speaker. Recent performance highlights include guest appearances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Oregon... Continue Reading →
Bärenreiter and the evolution of Urtext
Petra Woodfull-Harris Bärenreiter’s publications are recognized by their covers in all colors of the rainbow and we owe our international reputation to the extensive musicological work that forms the basis of our Urtext editions. But what exactly is Urtext? It’s the attempt to put together a musical text that is as close as possible to... Continue Reading →
In Memoriam: George Crumb (1929 – 2022)
George Crumb. Photo credit: Simon Jay Pierce. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “…an all-American composer – one of our best, most original and most important,” George Crumb was a titan of contemporary classical music, who was beloved by musicians and audiences alike for his aurally and visually stunning scores. A true avant-garde, Crumb... Continue Reading →
John Williams: 90 Years – And Counting
On this, his 90th birthday, we’d posit that there is no living composer who has managed to be simultaneously so well-known, well-respected and well-loved than John Williams. We know his grand era- and genre-defining oeuvre like the backs of our hands: Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, Harry Potter, E.T., Indiana Jones — and the list goes on and on.
5 Online Learning Resources for Beginner Through Advanced Musicians
Guest Post By: Chloe Brittain Online music education is rapidly evolving, with new programs, courses, and technologies being released continually. From ocarina lessons to composing film music in the style of Hans Zimmer, you might be surprised what musical avenues you can explore with a Google search. In addition to its diversity of content, the... Continue Reading →
StreamSing: A Free Virtual Reading Session with Jubilate Music Group
Join host Mark Cabaniss, President & CEO of Jubilate Music Group, as special guest Mary McDonald shares thoughts on her featured pieces plus the upcoming fall/Christmas singing season.
Emerging from Our Caves
Guest post by composer Robert Sterling I’ve often said that if I were to compare myself to an animal it would be a bear. A Grizzly, to be more specific. Grizzlies eat half the year and sleep the remaining half. And they spend a lot of time in a cave. They are okay being alone.... Continue Reading →
Great Editing: The Difference between Success & Frustration!
Guest post by Ingrid Jacobson Clarfield and Phyllis Alpert Lehrer, editors of Classics for the Developing Pianist and Study Guides for Preparation, Practice & Performance Books 1-5 Classics for the Developing Pianist and Study Guides for Preparation, Practice & Performance Books 1-5 Classics for the Developing Pianist: Core Repertoire for Study and Performance. Book 1... Continue Reading →
Vocal Warm-Up Cheat Sheet: An Easy Way to Improve the Sound of Your Choir
Composer Michael John Trotta has prepared a cheat sheet full of vocal warm-ups to help you get your choir back in the swing of things and sounding better than ever.
Restore Our Song: A Homecoming
Guest post by composers Lee & Susan Dengler introducing Restore Our Song: A Resource for Restarting Your Choir, which includes an opening "kick-off" fellowship and service, devotions on the themes of deliverance and renewal, easy anthem suggestions to get the choir back in shape quickly, service ideas including a hymn sing, recruitment tips, a simple chorus for choir and congregation titled "Restore Our Song," and more.
Rockschool: A Complete Beginners Guide
Whether you’re a teacher looking for a fresh new approach to learning popular music, or an independent learner looking for inspirational repertoire, the Rockschool books are a great place to start.
Wounded Alleluias
There is a great crescendo coming! Soon a sonic shudder will quake the earth back to celebration. Our wounds will be washed, and our scars will sing! The foundations of this pandemic prison will shake, and the stones will roll away. Our choirs will find their purpose again. Our songs will soar, and our instruments will once again make a joyful noise. The echoes of our worship will resound in our sanctuaries and spill out into the world as a canticle of faith.
Edition Peters: Piano, Pedagogy, Studies and the Influence of Carl Czerny
Guest post by Christian A. Pohl, Professor of Piano and Piano Methodology, Head of Piano Department, University of Music and Theatre ‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’ Leipzig The start of the nineteenth century saw a seismic shift in the world of domestic keyboard playing as the piano rapidly displaced the harpsichord and clavichord as the instrument of... Continue Reading →
How to Make Your Own Virtual Choir
Make your own virtual choir performance in just 8 steps. This guide includes tips for planning the project, recording participant tracks, and editing the submissions into a final performance ready to post and send. For related technology and tools, visit Sheet Music Plus. You’ve seen them everywhere online: grids of iPhone videos of people singing... Continue Reading →
How to Start to Learn Guitar Solos
Guest post by Leo Nguyen, founder of Six String Tips Playing guitar solos is one of the highest aspirations a guitar player can have. We've all heard amazing guitar solos that are so inspiring that they make us want to do whatever it takes to be able to play them, right? You may be in... Continue Reading →
Chopin: Poland’s “Cannons Buried in Flowers”
Between 1772 and 1795, the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Habsburg Monarchy divided and annexed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth amongst themselves in a series of three partitions. L: Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1772. R: The Partitions of Poland, 1772-1795. Though one of the largest and most populous countries in 16th- and 17th-century Europe, decades... Continue Reading →
StreamSing: A Free Virtual Reading Session with Jubilate Music Group
As our annual Sacred Choral Sale continues, we’d like to highlight a fantastic opportunity to explore new music for spring and Easter. Join host Mark Cabaniss, President & CEO of Jubilate Music Group, and his special guest, composer Lloyd Larson, for StreamSing, a free virtual reading session. In this approximately hour-long express session, Mark and... Continue Reading →
New Pandemic Relief Funding for Your Chorus – Apply Today
Guest post by Jacob Levine, the founder of Chorus Connection and a proud member of the NYC Gay Men's Chorus. Article reposted with permission from Chorus Connection. See the original post here. On December 27, 2020, after a tumultuous political rollercoaster, the President signed into law another COVID stimulus package as part of an omnibus... Continue Reading →
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