New Trinity Brass Syllabus

This week I have added a number of items from the new Trinity brass syllabus to the website. The trombone and tuba sections are bigger as a result.

For those who are interested in Winner Scores All (which seems to be attracting a lot of attention already), I spoke to Delia at Brass Wind a couple of days ago and she told me it was just about to go off to the printer, so it won't be much longer.

I anticipate that next week I will be able to add a number of new publications - will keep you posted.

New Trinity String Syllabus

I have almost completed adding all the new pieces listed in the Trinity Syllabus for 2010-2012. I just have a few books I need to check, but most are now on line.

A few books are not yet published:

• Viola Allsorts


• Cello Allsorts


• Go with the Flow - Cello

I will keep an eye on these and add them when they become available. The grade 7 and 8 pieces for violin and viola have changed the most from the previous years.

One of the frustrating things I find with Trinity is that they make mistakes in the syllabus, unlike ABRSM. Sometimes these mistakes are carried over from year to year, and it can make it difficult for teachers and parents to find the music. They often don't put edition numbers in which makes it difficult for retailers to find the pieces, but sometimes when they do, they get the number wrong.

A bigger problem is incorrect titles, here are some I have spotted so far:

• Solos for the Young Violinist should be Solos for Young Violinists


• Lost Melodies - Old Masterpieces for Cello is actually called Forgotten Melodies by the publisher so you would never find this on any website!


• Roche: Vacance should be Vacances, with an S

In these days when people search for music via the internet, accuracy in titles and edition numbers is so important - so if you're reading this at Trinity Guildhall (and I know you drop in from time to time!), please, please could you check all the titles and numbers before your next publications?

I haven't got to the brass and guitar syllabi yet - will do them next week.

On a lighter note, while business is picking up as new school years start, most mornings are still quiet so I can get on with updating the website. What I really don't get is why everything happens at once, after some hours with no phone calls or deliveries!

Yesterday, all was quiet until 12 o'clock, when in the space of 30 minutes I had two customers call with complicated queries which required internet searches, 2 deliveries arrived and one of these arrived at the exact same time I received a call back from a distributor which I really needed to answer! Then there was the wrong music in one of my parcels which I then had to sort out. I was also trying to do the post at the same time as helping customers, processing deliveries and wrapping parcels. I finally sat down to lunch at 2.30!

Weird.

New this Week

I know it feels a long way off, but some teachers are already thinking about Christmas concerts, so this week I have moreorless finished the Christmas Music Section. I have added a lot of products new to this website and tried to provide music for every solo instrument, and ensembles of all shapes and sizes.

Unfortunately some instruments don't have music for them - solo bassoon for example - as potential sales for a publisher are too small. But I have trawled the publishers' websites to find as much as I can. I have also added lots of music for flexible ensembles, so there is plenty to choose from.

This week Trinity Guildhall violin exam pieces (towards the bottom of the page if you follow this link) for 2010-2015 were finally published - a couple of weeks late. All are now in stock with my distributor except grade 4, which for some unknown reason is not yet available.

So do have a wander through the Christmas music if you have a minute and don't forget the gifts too!

New Music This Week

At this time of year there is always a flurry of new music appearing along with the new syllabuses.

The most popular so far is More Time Pieces for Cello, Vol 1 and Vol 2. These contain a collection of pieces for cello and piano, published by ABRSM.

Staying with the cello theme, a new publication from Spartan Press, Let's Swing - Cello, contains 15 original compositions for cello in blues, jazz and swing styles. A welcome addition to the repertoire which is dominated by 19th century music, it comes with both piano accompaniment and CD backing tracks. A similar volume - Let's Swing for clarinet was published earlier this year.

Camden Music has added to its classical guitar collection with Songs from Erin, by Garry Ryan. Two pieces influenced by irish music.

A new piece for string quartet - Scatter the Mud - (great name!) is a collection of jigs in a ceilidh style, published by Spartan Press.

For flexible woodwind ensemble, Queen's Temple has published Wizard's Waltz, which is suitable for almost any combination of clarinets, flutes, oboes, saxophones and bassoons at grade 2-3 standard. By well-known composer Paul Harris.

I have added a new publisher to the website - Recital Music. A specialist double bass publisher, Recital Music has had a number of pieces added to the 2010 ABRSM double bass syllabus. Being a small business myself, I'm keen to promote other small concerns whenever possible, so it's good to be able to offer this publisher too. I now have most of their music on the website, though there are a few pieces missing which I will keep an eye on during August and add as soon as they are available.

There are a number of brass pieces by Brass Wind on the new ABRSM syllabus which are not yet published: A Blast from the Past (Gorb), Framed (McDowell), The Green and Pleasant Trombone Book, Winner Scores All and Metal Bars. Some of them will appear during August, a couple may slip into September. I will add them to the website as soon as they are available.

Finally, to Christmas. Believe it or not, I sold my first Christmas music in July! As Scottish schools go back soon, I am seeing demand for Christmas music start to rise, so will start creating my Christmas music section today. It will take a while, so please bear with me.

Decorating day

At this time of year business is quiet, so I have time to do jobs in preparation for the new school year, when I get very busy. I have mentioned in previous posts the publication of the new syllabuses for the exam boards generates work on the website, and generally I try to spend time improving what I offer on the site.

But for the last few months I have been promising myself that I would decorate my office. So a couple of days ago I started by tidying and reorganising some of my stock. In the process I found a few things which I had either lost, or didn't know I had - a clarinet pull-through, for example (I needed this for an order as my new stock hadn't arrived), ten cello spike rubbers and some badges.

So today was the day I moved all the stock out to get on with the painting. I have just sat down after starting at 9.30, with some of the stock back in but quite a bit of cleaning and tidying still to do. Hard work and I have a slightly pulled shoulder muscle, but worth it - the office is a much nicer colour (deep pink, very restful) and I will feel ready to get on with the new season in a tidier office!