Life at VS Music Supplies

New Music 31st January 2012

2012-01-31T12:53:00.000Z

Trinity Guildhall have just published their first tranche of the new Rock & Pop books, along with the syllabus for these new exams. Interesting new approach to music making, with improvisation and imitation skills more prominent than in other exams. I'm sure these will develop over time, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

Most of the books up to grade 2 are now available (drums, guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals). Trinity still haven't mastered the logistics of having all the books ready at the same time, which is slightly frustrating, but they are much improved on the old days, thankfully. Still waiting for grade 1 drums, and keyboards grade 1 & 2. I haven't got them in stock yet, will do so in the next few weeks.

Another new series which I have finally added to the website is the Super Duet series for flute, clarinet, alto sax, oboe, french horn, trombone and trumpet by Anglo Music. The most recent of them is the Trombone Treble Clef. They're all available to order via the website, just put "Super Duet" into the seach engine.

Other new music - Hartbeat for flute by Paul Hart. A mixture of familiar tunes arranged for flute along with new compositions, this is a nice collection, published by Brass Wind.

Other highlights - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is in the oscar nominations, and handily Alberto Iglesias' selections from the soundtrack for piano has just been published.

These are the highlights for January, there are more, and I generally post them on Twitter and Facebook as I do them, so do sign up for instant updates.

One of the difficulties being a sheet music retailer is what to keep in stock. Some people think that you keep everything on the website in stock, ready for despatch. Well, I hate to break it to you but nobody in the business does that, or we would all be bankrupt! So we have to pick and choose. New music can take a year or more to catch on, some never does. A few years ago I bought a lot of stock because I thought it would be big, and it turned out to be a turkey. It's still sitting there, reminding me of my mistake. Some stuff doesn't sell because big retailers like Amazon and WH Smith undercut the specialist music seller, so you don't keep much of that in either. I tend to focus on niche music and accessories and if I sell more than two copies a year, I keep it in stock. With even Amazon and Musicroom cutting back to keep cash from getting tied up on shelves, we all have to be careful with our money. Happily, most suppliers can deliver extra stock within a few days so customers don't have to wait too long for special order music.

That's it for now, hope to have a more regular update from now on.

Ruth

New Rock & Pop Syllabus from Trinity

2011-12-14T14:20:00.001Z

Last week I got a large envelope in the post and opened it to find this inside. It looks like an old vinyl album cover, with a sleeve inside containing written info and a CD masquerading as an old vinyl record. Takes me back...

Anyway, this is a preview of Trinity's new Rock & Pop Syllabus which starts in 2012. Looks really interesting, the graded exam books cover keyboards, bass, vocals, guitar and drums.

Here's what Trinity has to say about it:

Thisnew syllabus for Rock & Pop has been designed to reflect the diverse and oftencreative ways that rock & pop musicians learn, and is suitable for studentsof all ages and abilitites. Whether they are self-taught or taking lessons,learning for fun or heading for a career in the music industry, these new examsfor guitar, bass, drums, vocals and keyboards will help musicians developvaluable playing skills and achieve their musical ambitions. Extensive gradedsong-lists range from the classics to recent releases including the RollingStones, David Bowie, the Kinks, Kings of Leon, Radiohead, Muse, Rihanna, JessieJ and many more.

Song-listshave been revealed as well as the first glimpse of the song books availablefrom January 2012, including some sample audio and sheet music. The books willinclude six songs for each grade (Initial to Grade 8) with professionallyrecorded backing and demo tracks, helpful background notes and performancehints and tips. The first tranche of early grade books will be on sale fromlate January 2012.

So you heard it here first! I will put the books on the website as soon as they are available, do drop in here, on Facebook or Twitter to make sure you don't miss them! If you want any more information, just let me know.

New music 9/12/11

2011-12-09T13:50:00.001Z

November was a very, very busy month in the webshop, so it's take quite a while for me to find time to add new music to the site. This week I finally found a few hours, so have taken the time to add a new series by Trinity Guildhall.

It's called Musical Moments and is a series of accompanied repertoire for flute, clarinet and saxophone, both alto and tenor, unusually. It covers students from beginner to intermediate standard, providing newly composed or arranged pieces. Just put "Musical Moments" in the search engine on the website to see the full list.

Trinity is currently redesigning their syllabus for woodwind and has lots of other things in the pipeline too, such as the Rock and Pop project, so there's much to look forward to in 2012.

It has been a long time since my last post, and there have been a number of developments on the website in the meantime, such as the addition of instruments which are despatched by next day courier delivery, free! Guitars are very popular Christmas presents, as always.

We are now approaching Christmas and deliveries in and out of the shop are starting to slow down. PLEASE allow extra time for your delivery. And advance warning - it looks like almost all publishers and distributors are closing for 10 days over Christmas, so books that go out of stock or are special orders will only become available in early January.

And that's without the weather of course. Having spent 30 minutes stuck in the ice and snow on a windy Lancashire hill this morning, it brings it home that the weather can play havoc. Hope all the people stuck in that queue eventually made it out...

New Guitar Tutor - Guitar Academy

2011-10-28T13:59:00.002+01:00

Every so often I get emails from musicians/teachers publishing their own music, often under their own label these days. They are often very passionate about their product, which is a good thing, and usually disagree vehemently with whatever the other top sellers are in their field, hence their own new book.

A few weeks ago I got an email from Richard Corr, the author of a new guitar tutor called Guitar Academy. I didn't have time then, just starting the manic September routine, but I have now managed to have a look at it. It does look impressive, and like many recent guitar tutors it teaches skills for both classical and acoustic guitar, which is welcome. With integrated CD it is sure to be popular so I am going to stock it in my shop. There are three volumes in the series, all priced under £10 which is sure to make it attractive. You can find it in the shop here.

After I shut the shop and took a few hours off on Tuesday in anticipation of the electricity going off, nothing actually happened! It seems they were doing some work at the sewage pumping station and sewage systems here, saw a few vans though, including one attempting to drive down a footpath. Fortunately the driver was able to read the sign telling him the road wasn't suitable for vehicles, but the path is now blocked off anyway to prevent the illiterate and stupid driving down until they wedge themselves firmly.

As it's half term this week, things have quietened down a bit so I have been able to add more new music and accessories to the website. I have lots more in the pipeline for coming weeks.

New on the Website and Special Notice re 25th October

2011-10-24T18:53:00.000+01:00

I've now added a guitar section to the website, with instruments of different types in varying sizes. To go with this development, I've also added some guitar accessories. I'm particularly pleased with the guitar bags, which are good quality and excellent value.

Staying with the guitar theme, I've finally done something I really wanted to for some time, which is add some single songs - melody line, lyrics and chords. These are only £2 each, printed in a loose-leaf form on good quality paper, but much cheaper than if they were commercially printed and bound in the traditional way. At the moment I've concentrated on classics such as "Wild Thing", "We are the Champions" and "Faith", popular songs which will always be popular. Lots more to come, the section is far from finished.

Finally, tomorrow United Utilities' electricity division, Electricity Northwest, is turning off our electricity from 9am for some reason which undoubtedly has something to do with the electricity substation down the road. It may be off all day, who knows, given my experience of what I call "United NO-Utilities", I suppose it could be longer. Last time they made a mess it lasted three days and they cut my gas off twice into the bargain. Anyway, let's hope they stick to their word this time.

So I've got ahead with my orders as best I can and will be starting work extra early tomorrow morning. But clearly I will be unable to take phone calls, deal with emails or process orders which arrive after the witching hour of 9am tomorrow. Sorry, please bear with me.

A five minute breathing space!

2011-10-07T17:47:00.002+01:00

The last month has been hectic, with masses of new stock arriving ready for the mad rush that arrives in September, and boy, has it been mad!

Trying to get a day off has been a challenge, let alone develop more things on the website, but finally this week I've found a little time to do things I've wanted to do for a while.

So firstly, some music new to the website:

Bach's Air on a G String for violin
Bach's Air on a G String for piano
Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor for piano

All of these are Edition Peters and at good, low prices.

While the last few months have been dominated by reconfiguring the website for Google's ever-increasing demands, that work is now coming to an end and I've now added a new section for musical instruments to the site. As of this afternoon, the instruments covered are strings, woodwind and brass, in great value packages suitable for beginners.

For violins and cellos, there are student models down to 1/8 size, and in the brass and woodwind sections there are packages which not only include the instrument and case but also music stands and other accessories. Fantastic value at good low prices, so do check them out.

Next week I'll be adding guitars, so do watch this space!

Developments on the Website

2011-08-05T14:17:00.003+01:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks, as orders diminish over the summer holidays I spend most of my time working on the website. There are always lots of developments to make but never enough time to do them.

Anyway, Faber have now published the last books of the revised Improve your Aural series, so I decided now was the time to tidy up the Aural Training section. I've added more books, so the section is 50% bigger, now including the revised Aural Time series as well as a few others.

I've also created a separate, improved section for manuscript paper and books. It includes things such as guitar and ukulele tab, special manuscript for piano as well as standard books for writing music.

Now I'm on with the new ukulele section; I've had a few ukulele books on the website for a while, but nowhere proper to put them. So today I got the most popular tutor books into a new section and moved the other books (such as Ukulele Christmas Playlist, a good seller) over to there.

Still have lots of things to do - the Christmas section needs a check next week, and I still need to add lots of barcodes and stuff which the Great Google God requires. I try to do some every day, but with thousands of products it is the stuff of nightmares, typing in 13 digit numbers and codes every day. I've been at it for three months now, hope I'll have finished it all by the end of the year.

New Music This Week, 22/07/11

2011-07-22T14:35:00.003+01:00

A new violin tutor - Take off with the Violin - has now been published by Kevin Mayhew. It's designed for young beginners and Book 1 also has a teacher's book to accompany it.

There's a new repertoire book for cello - My First Concert - with comes with playalong CD.

Karl Jenkins' concerto for violin, Sarikiz, has just been published in a violin/piano edition. This work was premiered in 2009 and is reminiscent of Vivaldi.

For classical guitar, we have Baroque Guitar Anthology Vol 1, and for flute Irish Folk Tunes, both published by Schott and both with accompanying CD.

I'm still adding cross links to all the Trinity 2012 piano pieces, but all the books except the Grade 6 with CD are now in stock, the grade 6 should only be a couple of days as Faber forgot to put it in this week's delivery. They're already selling well, with the new book/CD combo proving expecially popular.

That's it for this week, more new music to come next week.

New Music This Week, 08/07/11

2011-07-08T14:10:00.004+01:00

This week has been dominated by the release of the new 2012-2015 ABRSM violin syllabus.

This includes new pieces, scales and sight reading tests from 2012. Here is the exam materials section, there are several pages as the old books are still there for a few more months.

A new development on the website is cross links, so you will find other books relating to the same grade whenever you click on one of the new 2012 books. I've wanted to do this for a while, but this is the first time I've been able to provide this kind of linkage. They also link to repertoire pieces, not just exam books. I hope it makes shopping much easier.

In addition to this, ABRSM has also published new scales and sight reading books for cello, double bass and viola. These are also valid from 2012.

Other new titles:

West Side Story - piano arrangement

Bernstein for Piano - collected works, some never published before

Bernstein Broadway Songs -easy arrangements of well know Bernstein songs

That's it for this week, after adding all the new string books over the last few days, I'm off to put my feet up for a bit!

New Music This Week, 01/07/11

2011-07-01T10:30:00.004+01:00

This week has been dominated by the publication of the new Trinity Guildhall 2012 piano syllabus. This is notable for two things: it's out on time (a first for Trinity) and they have adopted the ABRSM practice of packaging CDs with the exam pieces book. I don't know why they have taken so long to do this; they're bound to sell more and as the book/CD package is not subject to VAT it's not only cheaper but much easier administratively too.

They have still produced separate CDs, and you can find all three products in the Piano Exam Pieces section of the website (the link takes you to the page where they are listed, starting second row down). They're not in stock yet, I'll get them in gradually over the next few months as sales for new exam pieces are slow to get off the mark.

Trinity has also published a new (2nd) series of its Sound at Sight (sight reading) books for piano. Four books this time instead of three. I'm not sure if the original series will disappear in time, will need to check that out. This link takes you to the page where all the books are listed, starting about half way down.

On a completely different theme, a new piece for euphonium - Goblin's Rondo, a well-known piece by Bazzini originally written for violin.

Staying on the violin theme, next week the ABRSM publishes its new violin syllabus along with new technical requirements for all string instruments. I'm part way through adding them, ABRSM says were not allowed to sell them/put them on the website until 7th July, an embargo which they themselves and other big retailers roundly ignore, so I hope to have them up by the middle of the week.

New Music This Week, 10/06/11

2011-06-10T13:48:00.008+01:00

I've been a busy bee this week, adding lots of new stuff and sheet music which, while not new, is new to this website. Here's a full round up of all the brand new publications added over the last week.

Winner Scores All - a new version with CD now available for french horn, tenor horn and Eb bass, already in stock

Improve your Aural Grade 1

Schumann Dreaming Op 15/7 for viola, trumpet, clarinet and alto sax, only £3.50 in Schott's Single Edition series

Elgar Pomp and Circumstance for viola, cello, trumpet, clarinet and alto saxophone, again only £3.50

Huguet's Flamenco for cello, a piece with influences of flamenco guitar music, for the advanced player
Rosenblatt's Jazz Sonata, also for the advanced cellist

Muller-Siemens "...called dusk" a strange title for a piece of music for cello, refers to a poem by Beckett

Easy Recorder Trios Vol 4 - latin-american dance tunes for 3 descant recorders

Easy Recorder Quartets Vol 8 - 4 ragtimes by Joplin

Viola Playing- a new series of tutor books by Robert Trory, following his very successful violin playing series, the first three books are now available

Cellowise 2 - repertoire pieces for the intermediate to advanced player, with CD

Bach cello concerto - Bach's fourth piano concerto, arranged for cello

Vasks Aria e Danza and Concerto, both for flute

Mussorgsky's The Old Castle, arranged for alto saxophone, a good choice of instrument for this classic tune, I think

Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring for French Horn, £3.50 though I managed to load it on the website as £0.00 for a couple of hours!

I've also added a whole new section for audio CDs - a selection of popular classical CDs. So far I've got as far as Bach in the alphabet, will keep working on it.

I also have lots of plans for additions and improvements over the summer, do let me know if there is anything you would like to see on the website.

Wedding Music

2011-06-04T08:17:00.005+01:00

As we approach the wedding season, here's a selection of wedding music available to order on the website.

Naturally, a good deal of it is organ music, so starting with that instrument we have:

Essential Wedding Music for Organ

Essential Wedding Music for Manuals

Mendelssohn's Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Organist's Wedding Album Vol 1

The Organist's Wedding Album Vol 2

The Oxford Book of Wedding Music for Manuals

The Oxford Book of Wedding Music for Organ

Twenty One Trumpet Tunes for Manuals

Widor's Toccata from Symphony V

Air on the G String for Organ

Wagner's famous Bridal March from Lohengrin

Pachelbel's Canon and Gigue

Five Trumpet Tunes

Turning to piano, we have:

Wedding Music for Piano

The Classic Wedding Collection

Mendelssohn's Wedding March for Piano

Classic FM: The Wedding Collection for Piano

And for keyboards, Electronic Keyboard Cocktails - Wedding Music.

For other instruments:

Classics for Weddings - music for solo instrument and piano/organ manuals. Available for alto saxophone, clarinet, flute, trombone BC, trumpet and violin.

Hymns and Wedding Music for All Harps

Weddings for Choirs

and finally, Mendelssohn's Wedding March for orchestra.

So a good selection of wedding music for all instruments.

New Music This Week, 01/06/11

2011-06-01T09:33:00.009+01:00

Lots of new music on the website this week, here are the highlights, most are published by Schott as I'm currently working through their new music catalogue.

Tempo Tempo - a collection of fast tempo pieces for the intermediate pianist

Beethoven's 5th - the fifth symphony, arranged for solo piano

Joplin Waltzes - Joplin's little known waltzes for piano

Fiori Teneri - a piece for accordion by Czech composer Laburda

Moving away from the keyboard, Argentinian Tango and Folk Tunes for violin comes with CD. The French Fiddler is the latest in the the Fiddler series from Boosey & Hawkes.

More for violin: Senfter's Five Pieces, Penderecki's Tanz and Eotvos Seven, which was written as a memorial to the Columbia astronauts. Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance march is also available in a new arrangement for violin and piano.

In violin studies, there is a new edition of Kreutze's 42 etudes, and a new edition of Rode's 24 Caprices, which also has a version for smaller hands.

For viola, Rode's 24 Caprices are also available in a new edition, while I have also added Dancla's 36 melodious and easy studies, Dont's Studies and Knox's Viola Spaces.

For other instruments, we have Discovering Rock Drums, a guide to all the rock styles since the 1960s, Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance march arranged for trumpet, and Scottish Folk Tunes arranged for guitar (tab and notation).

All in all, lots of new material, I have a long list of new music still to work through so watch this space or follow me on Twitter.

New Music This Week 25/05/11

2011-05-25T15:05:00.005+01:00

Here's a quick round up of new publications now on the website:

Teenage Cool Clarinet Repertoire Book 2 - pieces to accompany the second tutor book in the series.

Classic FM: Hall of Fame - best loved tunes from classical works, arranged for piano. Includes Pachelbel's Canon, Beethoven's Ode to Joy, and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, among others.

Red Hot Violin - a new series of famous tunes and songs, arranged for violin of Grade 3-4 and Grade 5-6 standard.

Guitar Basics Repertoire - a collection of folk songs, classical tunes and film music for young guitarists.

Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March (think Last Night of the Proms) has been given a makeover for those who don't have a full orchestra to hand. An arrangement for piano is now on the website, but I can see further down the list of new music that there are also arrangements for other instruments too, will add those as I get to them.

Movie Classics for Sax, another title in the Schott Saxophone Lounge, brings arrangements of 14 famous film melodies for alto sax and tenor sax. Includes Hit the Road Jack and Pink Panther, with CD.

A collection of Love Ballads for piano completes this week's round up, tunes for romance, with an accompanying CD.

New Music This Week 18/05/11

2011-05-18T14:06:00.008+01:00

Trinity has just published the 2010 Theory Papers for all grades. They can be found on this page of the webshop.

Trinity has also published a set of supplementary exercises or grades 1 to 5, to be used in conjunction with the Theory workbooks. They can be found on the same page as above.

Kevin Mayhew has brought out more books in the Teenage Cool Clarinet series: Tutor Book 2.

In music for piano, the 200th Anniversary of Franz Liszt has prompted new publications from Wiener Urtext: Consolations, Dreams of Love and Pathways to Franz Liszt.

Wiener Urtext has also published a new edition of Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, one of the most important piano works of the 20th century.

New Music This Week, 03/05/11

2011-05-03T14:02:00.003+01:00

With the Associated Board changing the aural parts of their exams and publishing their new Aural Training in Practice books (Grades 1-3 and 4-5), Faber Music are in the process of publishing revised versions of their series, Improve your Aural.

As is often the case when a publisher revises a whole series, not all the books are available yet and the order of publication seems slightly random. So available now are Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5 and Grades 7-8.

A new publication for piano from Christopher Norton, Microballads, is designed for pre-Grade 1 to Grade 3.

At this time of year I start to get swamped by pamphlets from publisher telling me about new publications and not-so-new publications which they think I might have missed. Plus the exam boards start to give advance notice of their new syllabus and related publications which will start to come out in June. So I'll start to wade through all of this and do weekly updates again.

New this Week, 11 April 2011

2011-04-11T16:04:00.002+01:00

The Associated Board has finally published the first two volumes of their revised Aural Training in Practice series, Grades 1-3 and Grades 4-5. Each comes with two CDs for practice. Don't hold your breath for the books for grades 6-8, I think they're a long way off yet.

The Microjazz Collection for Piano has also been revamped by Boosey & Hawkes, Book 1 and Book 3 are available now with CD backing tracks, though the original music only books are still on sale. Book 2, however, has now been withdrawn and replaced by a new edition, also with CD. As I sold my last copy of the old edition last week, the new Book 2 is now in stock.

New Music This Week, 01/04/11

2011-04-04T14:59:00.003+01:00

The latest in the Pure Solo series, The Green Book, has just been published. Book and CD for clarinet, flute, alto sax and trumpet.

Not new publications, but new to the website are Techniques of Oboe Playing and Techniques of Flute Playing. These books are designed for the advanced player, with a rather hefty price tag!

For cello, we have Saint-Saens' original Suite in D Minor for cello.

And for piano, Stainer & Bell have just published a revised and fully fingered edition of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

Those are the highlights for this week, I do add to the website and stock every single day, so there are plenty more pieces of music available. If you can't find what you're looking for, just drop me a line at: contact@vsmusicsupplies.com

New Music This Week, 22/03/11

2011-03-22T15:06:00.001Z

At this time of year, fewer new publications come out so my updates will be a bit sparser.

A new series has been published by Schott, "Free to Solo". It comes with CD and is available for guitar, trombone, trumpet, clarinet/tenor sax, alto sax and violin/flute.

Barenreiter has published a collection of favourite opera arias by Handel, for mezzo soprano/contralto, tenor and bass.

And finally Faber has now re-published Team Strings 2 for Violin under its own imprint (formerly an IMP publication). It's now in stock and available for immediate despatch.

All of these books are available to order, just follow the links to the shop.

New Music This Week, 25/02/11

2011-02-25T14:16:00.003Z

Finally, what we've all been waiting for has arrived - the theme to Downton Abbey! I'm humming it as I type; when I watched the first programme of this series my very first thought was "what's that music?"

So here it is, arranged for piano. As yet I haven't got my hands on a copy so I'm not sure how difficult is though I guess intermediate standard. Hope to have it in stock by Tuesday.

Other new music this week- 100 years of Popular Music: 30s Volume 1. Contains hits such as A Foggy Day, Blue Moon, I got rhythm, Over the Rainbow, the Lady is a Tramp, and many, many more.

Another book in this series, published last week - 100 Years of Popular Music: 70s Volume 1, contains songs such as Amarillo, Diamonds are forever, Hi Ho Silver Lining, Leaving on a Jet Plane, Save your Kisses for me, Send in the Clowns, Stand by your Man and many other classics.

And another great compilation book, for piano - Music for Pleasure, 100 famous tunes for piano, excellent value.

Other activities this week include a good number of organ pieces published by Kevin Mayhew, on the website for the first time. And the cello tutor/studies section has doubled in size, so much more to choose from there.

New Music This Week, 14/02/11

2011-02-14T12:35:00.003Z

A brand new tutor for young alto sax players has just been published - Super Sax. It's written by Heather Hammond, who is also behind the phenomenally successful Funky Flute and Cool Clarinet. There is also a repertoire collection to accompany the tutor book.

Heather Hammond has also just published the next book in her series for clarinet; Cool Clarinet 3. This takes players up to around grade standard and is accompanied by a repertoire book

Drumming Styles is a new book which contains over 70 beats, tips on how to play and a demonstration CD. By Noam Ledermann.

Another well known composer for children, Mary Cohen, has just published two more books for strings. Bags of Fun for Violin and Cello are full of tunes designed to give beginners confidence to play on open strings and the first two positions.

New Music This Week, 05/02/11

2011-02-05T10:10:00.003Z

If you're keen on the theory of music, compose your own or are studying music at an advanced level, this new publication may be for you. Behind Bars has been years in preparation and as a result comes with a hefty price tag. It may be one for libraries and universities rather than the average music lover!

The ABRSM Theory Exams and Answers have now been published; they are available in the Theory section of the website.

The viola is an often neglected instrument, so a new sonatina is to be welcomed.

Himalayan Suite for flute and piano is another new publication, and comes adorned with a picture of one of my favourite flowers, the Himalayan Poppy.

For student Clarinettists, I Hate Crossing the Break! is sure to be a welcome collection of studies by prolific composer Paul Harris.

Taylor-Made is a collection of pieces for cello which help cellists to learn the different positions, and comes with CD.

Horn Warm Ups is a new collection of exercises for French Horn, tested by the horn section of Opera North!

For oboe, we have an arrangement of Gounod's Serenade.

As always, if you can't find what you're looking for on the website, just drop a line to: contact@vsmusicsupplies.com If it's in print, we'll find it!

Postal Record

2011-01-31T20:13:00.002Z

A couple of weeks ago I got an invoice for a stock delivery I received in December. The invoice was posted a couple of hundred miles away on 16th December and arrived almost exactly one month later. I suppose we can put that down to the snow. I thought that was pretty much the record, but on Friday I received an even older envelope.

On 22nd June last year, a customer posted a cheque for a music book in London. It arrived on 28th January, over 7 months later! It probably got stuck in the bottom of a bag somewhere and never escaped, wasn't even postmarked. In the meantime, the customer had paid for the order by card over the phone as I do keep an eye on cheque orders, in case they get delayed. So I've destroyed the cheque now, but what a record!

The new website has been up and running for almost two weeks now, there's still a lot of work to do to tidy up but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

New VS Music Supplies Website

2011-01-20T11:38:00.002Z

This week the big news is the launch of a new website.

The old website has been retired, as it was looking a bit tired and didn't give me all the functionality I wanted anymore. I still have a lot of work to do to improve the look of the product descriptions as inevitably there were formatting problems moving everything over.

But it is a cleaner, "whizzier" design and should also load faster on most computers. Do let me know what you think.

New Music 10/01/11

2011-01-11T11:31:00.002Z

Quite a number of pieces have been published over the last month:

For percussion, we have Ruby, a concerto for percussion and orchestra.

For 2 clarinets, Mozart's Bowling Duets.

A new Guitar Duet Collection from Schott, which is already attracting a lot of interest and is in stock now. Also for guitar duet, we have Mayran de Chamiso's Reveries en Duo, also known as Fantasia for Guitar Duet.

A well-known German string method called Early Start has also been published in English for the first time by Barenreiter. It covers violin, viola and cello; just put Early Start the search engine on the website and select from the list.

For trumpet, we have Philip White's Sonatina.

For piano, a collection of 30 Piano Songs from the Movies.

And the first collection of songs from Glee, arranged for SATB or SSA.

And finally, four books from Faber - Pure Solo: The Red Book. Hit songs:

Don’t Rain On My Parade (Glee Cast); Empire State Of Mind (Part II) (Alicia Keys); Everybody Hurts (R.E.M.); Home (Westlife); I’ll Stand By You (Pretenders); I Say A Little Prayer (Aretha Franklin); Isn’t She Lovely (Stevie Wonder); Let’s Face The Music And Dance (Frank Sinatra); The Loco-Motion (Kylie Minogue); Material Girl (Madonna); Mercy (Duffy); Nella Fantasia (Gabriel’s Oboe) (Ennio Morricone); She’s So Lovely (Scouting For Girls); Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana); You’re Beautiful (James Blunt)

arranged for alto sax, clarinet, flute or trumpet with CD. All at a special introductory price of £10.79.

New Music 09/12/10

2010-12-09T09:14:00.002Z

While deliveries have slowed down due to the weather, I'm still managing to get the post, even if it does mean a lot of trudging through the snow!

I've added a lot of music this week, here are the highlights:

For piano:
Classical Highlights for Piano with CD
Exploring Latin Piano - with 2 CDs
Tango meets Jazz - again with CD
Chopin: The Easiest Preludes - for intermediate pianists
Angela Hewitt's Bach Book

For organ:
Amazing Grace - variations for organ by Naji Hakim

For violin:
Classical Music for Children - very easy pieces for violin, with CD

For cello:
Variations on a Rococo Theme by Tchaikovsky

For clarinet:
A new, one-volume edition of Alfred Uhl's 48 Studies

New Music This Week 22/11/10

2010-11-22T12:26:00.002Z

Lots of new titles have been published very recently, here are some selection which are now on the website.

Kapustin Sonata for flute Op 125 - a four movement work for advanced players

Classical Piano Anthology Vol 1 - a collection of easy pieces for grade 1-2 pianists, in a new collection by Schott

Exploring Jazz Violin and Exploring Jazz Clarinet - as the worlds of contemporary and classical playing continue to merge, these two new volumes (with CDs) help players learn the jazz style

Baroque Recorder Anthology Vol 3 - a collection of 17th and 18th century pieces for treble recorder, with CD

Pop Ballads for Flute - a selection of pop classics arranged for flute with CD

Romantic Guitar Anthology Vol 4 - a collection of pieces for advanced guitarists

Baermann Romance for clarinet -a short and easy piece from the 19th century composer Baermann

Sing Jazz Ballads Vol 1 - famous jazz ballads for medium voice, with CD

Karl Jenkins Stella Natalis - a piece for choir by the well-known composer

Joy to the World - 9 carols arranged for mixed chorus by Karl Jenkins

Macmillan Benedictus Deus - a Latin setting for SATB by the Scottish composer

For wind band, I am starting to fill out this section, starting with some new publications: Holst's Jupiter and Mars, and Lyric Suite by Finzi.

This week I have also introduced a section for study scores, something I have lacked for some time. I've started with some new publications by Eulenburg, including new editions with CD. I will be working on this section over the coming months.

New Music This Week

2010-11-12T11:15:00.002Z

Lots of new publications have been added to the webbsite, here are the highlights:

Bass-Time Beginners for Double Bass
Fantasy on a theme of Arnold - music for piano based on a theme by Malcolm Arnold
Three Improvisations for piano by Alan Bullard
Dog 'n Bone Rag - music for 4 flutes
Fantasiestucke - Schumann's well-known piece, arranged for bassoon and piano
Go Fourth - position changing for cello, with CD
Vivaldi's Sonata in E Minor arranged for guitar
Bowers Sonata for Tuba
Bowers Sonata for Trumpet
Bowers Sonata for Horn
Callisto...and the Great Moon Turns - a new piece for double bassby Martin Storry
Well-Tempered Licks & Grooves Vol 1 - jazz styles for piano, with CD
Pachelbel Selected Organ Works
Handel Sonatas for Violin
Smetana From My Homeland, for violin
Swing Standards for alto sax with CD

There's lots more to come, I've been trying to catch up with all the new publications in the last few months.

On another note, ABRSM has put back its publication of the new Aural Training in Practice series, to at least April next year. The old books will still be available until then. In the meantime, the new Specimen Aural Tests are available and you can find them in the Aural section of the website.

New Music This Week

2010-10-22T13:40:00.002+01:00

The Associated Board has recently published new Specimen Aural Tests, a long overdue publication, to go with changes in the syllabus from 2011. Instead of the old grades 1-5, 6-8 routine, they have been published as Grades 1-3, 4-5, then grade 6, grade 7, and grade 8. Each can be purchased with or without CD to assist in exam preparation. Grade 1-3 is already in stock, others will follow over time.

Trinity Guildhall already has an aural test book out, which has been available for some time. It is now a stock item as it has been very popular recently.

A new version of Bach's Italian Concerto for cello has been published, the imaginative title is "If Bach was a Cellist, Vol 1".

A new double bass tutor from Bote and Bock is also now available - Enjoy the Double Bass. Designed to cover all the basics of bass playing up to 2 1/2 position, it is available to order now.

That's it for this week, am just starting to catch my breath after the rush for the new school term. I hope to be adding a lot more to the website in the coming weeks, plus there will be a whole new look to the site before Christmas, watch this space...

It's the manic time of year again

2010-10-07T11:49:00.002+01:00

At this time of year, everyone wants the same music books at the same time and I'm run of my feet, so website updating takes a back seat during the rush. Today though, is a quieter day so I have time to mention some of the goings-on in the music business.

As everyone knows, we are in a recession and the sheet music and instrument business has been hit hard by this. Over the course of the year there have been a number of changes to distribution networks as publishers try to maximise their sales and minimise their expenses. Some smaller publishers have signed up for distribution with larger concerns and some bigger publishers are considering or making changes to the way they work. A couple of them are worth mentioning as I think they are very welcome.

Firstly Chantelle, a guitar music business, has now arranged for distribution in the UK via MDS in Germany, who also handle giants such as Boosey & Hawkes, Universal Edition and Schott. I'm pleased about this as guitar music is very patchily distributed and so I hope to add more titles to the website this autumn.

Secondly, Breitkopf & Hartel has also agreed to distribute its exam syllabus titles via MDS. I've been frustrated by the difficulty of obtaining their music in the UK, so I hope that by the time these titles are available (15th November) I will have added them to the website.

I have done some stocking up for Christmas, and also added some new music, here's a selection:
Flexible Christmas Jazz Duets for Strings
The Bass Clef Book - not new, but new to the website, it's a tutor book to improve the left hand of pianists
The Spooky Wooky Violin Collection
Nifty Shifts - to help young violinists with position changing

And finally, Trinity has now published all grades of the new keyboard syllabus for 2011, you can find it here.

New Music

2010-09-10T11:27:00.002+01:00

Newly published music this week:

Bags of Tunes for Viola - similar to the violin book, written by Mary Cohen, tunes ideal for the beginner
Simply film - film themes arranged for piano, Grades 2-3 and Grades 4-5
Piece it Together Flute - music designed to improve tone and technique for easy to intermediate players
Method of Movement for Marimba - not a new book, but a classic which is hard to get in this country. I have located the sole importer and can now offer this book on a special order basis.

Finally, I now have the new Associated Board Piano exam pieces for 2011 in stock here.

New this Week

2010-08-16T10:42:00.002+01:00

At this time of year, new music comes thick and fast. Here is a selection of music added to the website since my last post.

Repertoire Explorer 2 for both flute and clarinet - collections of additional repertoire

Easy play along flute

Kapustin Sonatina - from the new Grade 8 ABRSM piano syallabus

Traffic and Spooky Pieces - both for cello by Mats Lidstrom, who has launched a new company publishing cello music

Drummer's Text Book - a new guide for beginners

Tales from the Far North - for double bass

Simo's Scramble - for double bass by Teppo Hauta-aho

Exploring Jazz Sax - instruction on playing jazz, with CD

Improvising Blues Sax - an introduction to the blues, with CD

Viola All Sorts - repertoire book

Drum Kit Pieces and Studies for the new Trinity 2011 syllabus

Best of grade for both flute and clarinet - new collections of repertoire

The Rhythm of the Mills - clog dances from the Lancashire cotton mills, arranged for string duet/trio

Many prices across the website are now reduced, so drop in and have a look!

New to the Website this week

2010-08-02T10:26:00.002+01:00

I've added a lot of books to the website this week: Funky Flute which is a popular tutor series for flute, Mompou's Musica para Piano which is on the new ABRSM piano syllabus, for example.

I've also massively expanded the Double Bass section, with over 400 books and pieces now listed. There are also a number of new pieces for double bass in preparation, so I'll add them as soon as they are ready.

Reduced Postage

2010-07-23T09:49:00.002+01:00

I have reduced the postage and packing charges to £1.50 for second class and £2.00 for first class delivery. These prices are among the lowest in the UK, but the packaging for music remains the same - cardboard backing, cut to the size of the book, covered in good quality brown paper to protect the music in the post.

I have added a number of new pieces for double bass this week - some of them are in the new music section, all of them are in the double bass section. A number of them have playalong CDs too.

New ABRSM Piano Syllabus

2010-07-16T13:00:00.002+01:00

The new Associated Board piano exam pieces for 2011-2012 are now available and are in the piano exam pieces section on the website.

You can buy the music only or the music plus CD recording of all the pieces. A CD only is available but this is a little more expensive than the book/CD combo.

It is the time of year that publishers start to bring out new works, especially the exam boards, so there will be more to come over summer.

Bargain Box

2010-07-09T13:12:00.002+01:00

I've added a bargain box, where you can buy music at discounted prices - it's all stock that has been here a while and which I would like to clear. Discounts of 50-70%, so have a browse - I'll be adding things daily.

Happenings this week

2010-05-31T10:31:00.003+01:00

I'm still working on updating prices - completed the saxophone section this week, which contains a number of fairly hefty price rises for imported music, mostly around £2. I've added a collection which I had unaccountably missed off - Leonard Bernstein for Alto Sax.

This week I finally got around to completing the compliance requirements for the PCI DSS regime which I mentioned a couple of months ago. This is supposed to be about improving security for payments, but as far as I can see it is a paper exercise which will improve revenue for a few companies, to the detriment of retailers.

I use third parties to handle payments - Sagepay and Paypal, two of the really big boys in the arena who have the highest levels of encryption and compliance with the regulations. So I don't keep or process any card details myself - they handle all the security. This is good for me and good for my customers. My payment gateway, Streamline (aka Royal Bank of Scotland) , knows who I use as they handle it, so why do I find myself filling in forms telling them what they already know? Moreover, the forms they sent are written in American English and the instructions in the glossy booklet which tell you how to access and work through the website are inaccurate. The only good thing is that I am allowed to self-assess and avoid paying someone to come and have a look at my computer.

So I've spent several hours complying with this pointless regime, when I could have been doing other things. Are my systems more secure as a result? No, they were already secure to the highest levels in the industry. What difference has all this made to my customers? None. This has to be the very epitome of "red tape"!

New This Week

2010-05-21T10:48:00.002+01:00

This week I have added Goldman's Daily Embouchure Studies for both trumpet and trombone, published by Carl Fischer.

Keeping with the brass theme, also new to the website is Fink's Studies in legato for bass trombone and tuba.

For harp I have added Grandjany's 3 Petites Pieces Tres Faciles.

And finally I have added a new keyboard method; Keyquest 1, 2 , 3 , and 4. This is a recent publication and a welcome addition to the keyboard method market.

Back to Normal

2010-05-14T10:51:00.003+01:00

After the events of the last week, it's nice to get back into the normal routine.

I have added a few books to the website this week, after customer requests:

Triligence by Mike Mower for flute

Easy Blue Clarinet Duets

Blue Clarinet and Saxophone Duets by James Rae

The customer who asked for the last book told me he couldn't find it anywhere, but he knew it existed. I'd never come across it either; for some reason a lot of the publishers make little effort to let retailers know about new publications. In the summer, when business is slow, I tend to sit with catalogues and add things to the website, but if the publisher never produces a catalogue, I simply don't know about new music, or even the range of music they cover. Similarly, some of the smaller publishers are very poor at telling you which distributors handle their music; I recently opened an account with a distributor and this week got a catalogue from them for a publisher I find difficult to obtain. I had no idea they handled their music, so that publisher will now get more airtime on the website.

Chatting with my customer I mentioned that the music he wanted comes from Germany, and he asked just before I placed an order, which was good timing. He seemed surprised at the Germany thing; but some of the large distributors now have large hubs abroad. Boosey & Hawkes, Universal Edition, Schott, Carl Fischer, IMC, Amadeus, and many more all come from Germany. The problem for retailers is that the carriage charges are not only higher than UK distribution, but they are subject to the vagaries of currency exchange. Two years ago the delivery charge from Germany was £8.40, at its height recently it was £11.51; it's now £10.97 following the fall of the Euro recently.

On top of that, the currency problem has eroded the profit margin over the last couple of years, resulting in a loss of 50p profit per book, on average. As I've mentioned before, the fall of sterling against the dollar has also resulted in price increases for imported goods of 25-30%. Lets hope things start to stabilise a bit now.

A number of smaller publishers or suppliers seem to be entering distribution arrangements with larger concerns too. As profits get squeezed, it can be tempting to utilise the systems of a larger business in order to maximise income. I think there is more of this to come in the music business, so we may see some big changes in the next year or so.

Election Week

2010-05-01T20:49:00.002+01:00

A lot of talk out there is now about politics. I thought the campaign would be dull, but it has turned out to be full of surprising twists and turns. This week I tuned into Sky News just in time to see "bigotgate" unfold right before my eyes. Poor Mrs Duffy, mugged by a politician for using the "I" word, the issue that dare not speak its name.

We vote according to what we experience in life and how the Government of the day touches our lives. For the last 13 years under Labour, I worked in HR so my perception of Government was formed by what I saw: rise in National Insurance costs (which cost me personally and also raised costs in my business), the decimation of final salary pension schemes due to the changes in tax and regulation - I actually had to close one scheme myself as we could no longer afford the risk and costs, a massive increase in legislation and regulation which meant my job changed from enabling my business to succeed into preventing it getting sued. I could go on.

Add to that my experience since becoming self-employed; the fall of sterling against both the Euro and the Dollar making many products 25% more expensive, the removal of the 10% tax rate, the crashing of the economy reducing turnover in my business and you can see I really don't want more of the same.

The expenses scandal has made many people even more cynical (if that's possible) than before. My local MP managed to spend £60 of my money on window cleaning for her office each month. That's enough to clean the windows of my house for almost a whole year. I'm leaving aside the fact she managed to get through £250 of "petty cash" every month too and do enough mileage to have driven to London and back three times every 10 days. Funnily it was the window cleaning that really took the biscuit! ( by the way, if I recall correctly, the excuse for the petty cash claims was tea, coffee and biscuits for the staff - that's a lot of tea and coffee!)

With the swings in the opinion polls, the Labour car crashes on TV (literally!) it has been the most exciting election I remember. So I am tempted to stay up on Thursday night to watch the drama unfold. I want to see my MP lose her seat, and I'm hoping to see a few more of the politicians I most despise lose the income and job security they have cost others over recent years.

What I want from the incoming Government, whoever it is, is recognition of the place small businesses have in our economy, that we and the general working public are not a cash cow simply to service the Government, and that we start to live within our means, not mortgaging the future of our children with massive amounts of debt.

A Topsy-Turvy Year

2010-04-15T11:32:00.004+01:00

This year has been a strange one. The snow reduced business substantially early in the year and since then it has been up and down. There are "dead" days followed by really busy days. While overall sales are following the pattern of last year, they are definitely lower than expected, perhaps customers really are reining in spending now. I don't think it's just me, either; you can tell sales are low by the speed with which some orders arrive from suppliers, so I think we're all feeling the pinch.

So I have been busy looking at ways to develop business - firstly by adding Paypal Express to my website. I did have this some time ago but the interface between the website and Paypal Express was very unstable and caused a lot of payment failures, so I removed it while the kinks were worked out. It's now working very well, so I hope it will help with sales - customers who have previously used credit cards have switched to Paypal, so we will see.

I've also posted a few items on ebay as a test - my seller id is vsmusic2010. There are a few music sellers on there, so I will be selecting items carefully, picking the ones I think most likely to sell. The advantage of this for customers is that I can reduce the postage charge for smaller items, rather than the standard charge on the website. I hope it means I can sell more of these small accessories than previously.

A few weeks ago I had a long letter from my bank about PCI DSS compliance when taking card payments. I've read it several times and still don't understand it. I know I'm not particularly stupid - I used to be a HR Director and I do have a law degree, but why they can't write in English I don't know. Happily, my website hoster (EKM Powershop) has helped simplify things for me. As I don't have my own server or store card details, it doesn't seem to be much of an issue for me as I use third party systems which are already compliant, but I do have to do a self-assessment questionnaire.

We seem to spend a great deal of our lives doing risk assessments of some kind, don't we? As far as I can see, the self-assessment won't make a blind bit of difference. If there's a problem with a payment later, and I got the self-assessment wrong, then I'm screwed; if I got it right but something went wrong elsewhere, I'll still probably have to foot the bill and then sue someone else. Great.

Anway, time to get back to my parcels, need to get the post moving...

New Music

2010-03-26T10:03:00.002Z

I have been busy updating prices on the website (still not finished!) but have managed to add a few new pieces:

Eleven pieces for clarinet in C - published by ABRSM
Jazz Clarinet Aural Tests and Quick Studies - also ABRSM
Beethoven Romances for Violin, in three editions; Henle, Edition Peters (also available with playalong CD) and Schott

Still working on the price changes - some have gone up by a pound or two, some have gone down since sterling appreciated against the euro. Prices for accessories are still volatile as sterling loses against the dollar, so they can change very quickly.

Hope to have more new music in the next week or two.

New Music This Week

2010-02-12T11:12:00.003Z

A number of new books have been published over the winter. A new collection of pieces for Cello from Trinity - Cello Allsorts, and continuing the strings theme, the long awaited Time Pieces for Double Bass Vol 1 and Vol 2. Repertoire for double bass is a bit thin, and I'm always on the lookout for new pieces for the instrument, so I also have in stock Muller's Neapolitan Dance for bass.

A new series of books to help pianists with sight reading as been published by the Associated Board, by the well-known Alan Bullard. Volumes 1, 2 and 3 have been issued, with two more to follow.

Trinity have just published Sound at Sight for French Horn, a welcome addition to the collection of books for horn.

And finally, Harry James' Trumpet Concerto, a jazzy piece which Winwood Music has been wanting to publish for some time - it's now available.

A lot of prices have changed and I am gradually working through the website updating them. It's a slow job, which I only really do once a year and it takes a long, long time, so you have a good chance to get a bargain before I get all the changes done!

Normal Service Resumes

2010-01-19T13:27:00.003Z

After the snow fiasco, I have finally caught up on all my deliveries. My parcel wrapping paper, one month overdue, arrived yesterday afternoon, just in time for today's mammoth parcel collection.

And my orders of the last two weeks which came by DHL arrived yesterday. But to add insult to injury, they should have been here on Friday - the idiot substitute driver insisted on listening to his Sat Nav, ignoring the "no vehicles", "dead end", "no through road" signs all the way down an impassable road until he impaled his vehicle on the steps and crashed it into the bushes. Irritatingly, this all happened 1/4 mile from my house - if I'd known, I'd have walked up there and liberated my parcels myself.

And this morning, the goods ordered on 5th January, which had disappeared into a black hole (see previous post) also turned up. I sent them back.

So the Snow Chaos is now behind us for the time being. My apologies to customers who had their orders delayed, many thanks for your patience.

The Award for the Worst Courier of 2010 (so far!)

2010-01-15T11:27:00.002Z

Well we're only a couple of weeks into the new year and I already have two contenders for the worst courier service of 2010.

The front runner is DHL - for the simple reason that on 5th January they took custody of a parcel from Oxford University Press for me and, in a stunning demonstration of incompetence, it has still not been delivered by today, the 15th. The reason is "snow" and the closure of the motorway. Yes the motorway between their depot and me did close briefly during the heavy snow on the 5th/6th January. But I also know that on the 5th and 6th January all the drivers sat on their backsides in the depot all day (elf n safety?) - understandable during the worst of the blizzard (Tuesday). All the parcels were apparently put in a warehouse, which seems to be in a different space/time continuum, as my parcel has never reappeared in this dimension.

The publisher has chased it every day this week, but DHL apparently lack all interest in doing their job belatedly and so OUP has despatched a duplicate order. Let's see how long that takes. In the meantime, I have customers waiting for music in that delivery and I have smoke coming out of my ears.

The second contender for worst courier of 2010 is Parcelforce. They also abandon work at any sign of snow or ice. Over the Christmas period they took a stunning 10 days to deliver a parcel which was "24 hour express". The reason? Snow. I was also due a delivery today, but it looks like the driver didn't like the look of the rain and partially melted snow on the road so he hasn't bothered. 24 hour express? More like 24 days.

What I don't understand is why this happens when companies like Fedex, DPD and UPS do get through, with slight delays. You'd think that professional drivers would be more able to cope - people who live here have had to drive on the stuff. Or, they could park up and walk a bit, like some of us have had to do. It's not that hard.

Snow Delays

2010-01-07T16:20:00.002Z

While I am still processing orders as usual and tramping through the snow on the path in the picture above to the post office, unfortunately Royal Mail is not doing the same. Deliveries have ceased here and in many areas. Many courier companies have also ceased delivering.

Why professional drivers can't be expected to cope with a little snow is beyond me, but it does mean that my stock deliveries are very late and mail to my customers is slowing up markedly. As time goes on I will run out of items which I normally keep in stock. I'm sorry, but I will let you know individually if your order is going to be despatched later than usual.

Christmas Deliveries 2009

2009-12-11T11:08:00.003Z

As we approach Christmas, please bear in mind that stock deliveries to me and post deliveries to you do tend to slow down.

Items on the website with despatch times of 1-2 working days are held in stock and will be despatched on the next available working day. Occasionally we run out of these items and if this happens you will be informed,together with the likely despatch date.

Items on the website with a despatch time of 4 working days or more are ordered specially and it is likely that the last orders will be placed with publishers on 14th and 15th December, to allow delivery before Christmas. Special order items requested after this time may not arrive in time for Christmas.

Orders will be despatched on every working day up to and including the 23rd December, and on normal working days between Christmas and New Year.

But please note that all the music publishers close down completely between Christmas and New Year, so special order items (and any replacement stock items) will not be ordered until Monday 4th January.

If you would like further information on this, do drop me a line: contact@vsmusicsupplies.com

Have a restful Christmas and Happy New Year.

Ruth

New Music This Week

2009-12-04T11:03:00.003Z

One of the problems with 18th century music is the requirement to improvise cadenzas, a skill which is difficult to master - I never did!

So a new publication - example cadenzas for Mozart's oboe concerto - is sure to be of help to young oboists, as this music is a staple of the repertoire. Written by Melinda Maxwell, it gives ideas and suggestions for suitable improvisations.

Another publication new to the website is Ten Supplementary Studies for Young Brass Players by Colin Moore. Useful as sight reading practice in preparation for exams, these graded studies are published with bass and treble clef versions in the same book.

In other news, courier and postal deliveries are starting to be a little erratic in the run-up to Christmas. If you want music for Christmas, please order early as there are only two weeks left before the Christmas shutdown.

Price Changes

2009-11-27T13:30:00.002Z

I haven't added new music lately as I've been too busy with orders and also working through price changes (increases) for all Brass Wind publications. Most of the books have gone up by 50p. In some cases, I have left the books at the old price where I still have stock in, and I haven't yet finished the updates so if you order now you may get a bargain!

I have reluctantly had to raise postage prices - they have been static for two years now, and having reviewed my figures I have put them up by 50p. I should really have increased them when the postage cost went up in April, but with costs for many things rising fast, I have no choice but to put them up now. Sorry!

New This Week

2009-11-05T11:57:00.002Z

This week I have added some mug mats to the gifts section on the website - here's a picture of one of them, but there are three other designs too. At £2.50 each they're a good price too!

I have added a number of pieces for double bass too:

Armand Russell's Challenges,
Clucas's Baroque Suite, which was premiered this year,
Faure's Apres un Reve (Recital Edition),
Hirta for double bass quartet
Tony Osborne's Space Travel,
Tony Osborne's Pizzicato All-Sorts,

For piano, we have Rock Ballads (with CD), Microrock (for beginners) and Riffs and Grooves.

For organ, we have an arrangement of Gershwin's Three Preludes.

For viola, Kreisler's Preludium and Allegro, and Hindemith's Viola Sonata in a new edition.

For cello, Cirri's Sonata in C Major.

For alto sax, two new publications: Jazz Ballads and Pop Ballads, both with CD.

More next week...

New Music This Week

2009-10-29T11:07:00.002Z

At this time of year, music publishers bring out their new publications. Most of them are single books of repertoire - few are a complete new series of books, let alone a new tutor book.

This week I have added a brand new violin tutor series called Violin Playing to the website; it takes students from the very beginning to grade 8 standard, which is most unusual. There are 5 books:

Book 1 - preparatory/initial grade

Book 2 - grades 1 to 2

Book 3 - grades 3 and 4

Book 4 - grades 5, 6 and part of 7

Book 5 - grades 7 and 8

There are also two repertoire books to accompany the series; the First and Second Book of Concert Pieces.

Other additions to the website: Marcellos 2 sonatas for viola in G and C, and the new third) edition of Abracadabra Cello.

On the subject of the postal strike, while there are some delays to post to and from VS Music Supplies, they don't seem to be long delays, with post taking a day or two longer than it should in most cases. Let's hope it continues that way.

New This Week

2009-10-23T10:24:00.004+01:00

Christmas is now approaching and while I sold my first Christmas music in July (really!), interest in Christmas music picks up from about now. The most popular item which I sell in large numbers each year is New Christmas Praise for brass or wind band, and I have already sent off a full set of this in October.

So this week I added a few new or new to me publications for the Christmas period:

Mr Mozart Takes a Sleigh Ride - organ
Sleigh Bells across the Snow - organ
Play Christmas - tunes for saxophone, clarinet, flute, trumpet, piano and violin with CD
and The Ukulele Christmas Playlist

When the new exam syllabuses are published, there are always a few pieces which have not yet been issued or are out of print at the time, so I do keep checking them. This week I have added:

Kije's Wedding - trumpet
Verhey - Idylle for cello

And recently published music includes:

Blues and ragtime for piano, by Paul Harris
Nocturne for cello by William Lloyd Webber
Tango for Two - piano duet
Gaslight Square II - piano duet
Partita for trombone by Brian Kelly
The Pop Piano Player - Mamma Mia (with CD)
The Jazz Piano Player - Autumn Leaves (with CD)
Let's Swing - Flute (with CD)
Variations on God Save the Queen for clarinet trio

That's all for this week. I hope the postal strike is not affecting you too badly, its business as usual here, despite the strike.

Update: In this article there is a picture of what happens when a driver who doesn't read signs tries to drive down the footpath I use to take my parcels to the post office!

New this Week

2009-10-15T09:18:00.005+01:00

I now have a bit of a breather after the September/early October rush, so have been able to add more new music to the website.

Starting with Christmas, Faber Music has published another collection of pieces for school string ensemble, Stringpops Christmas. Easy arrangements for players up to grade 2, it comes with a CD containing PDF parts and recordings of the accompaniments too, all for £9.99.

Taigh na Teud, the scottish publisher based on the Isle of Skye, has published several new books this autumn. Most of them are music for the Scottish Music Exams grades 1 to 5: for harp, accordion, and fiddle (towards the bottom of the page).

For choir there is Slighe an Airgrid, gaelic songs for choir.

Brass Wind have just published an eagerly awaited book, Winner Scores All. This is all over the new syllabus for brass instruments and there has already been a lot of interest. Currently there is a treble clef instrumental version
with a piano accompaniment available for b flat (trumpet) only.

The bass clef instrumental version for trombone has also just been published. I am sure more versions and piano accompaniments will follow.

Moving on to strings, a new publication by Kevin Mayhew is also on the cello exam syllabus. Go with the Flow contains music for cello in a range of styles.

The CDs for the 2010-2015 Trinity Guildhall violin syllabus are just out.

The CDs for the new Trinity guitar syllabus have also just been published and also include the guitar duets.

Staying with guitar, The Real Guitar Book Volume 3 has been published this month by Camden .

Other music -Let's Swing for violin, with CD has just been released by Spartan Press. It does exactly what it says on the tin!

For saxophone, there is Songs for Claire, and new music to the website (not newly published) includes The Light Touch 1 and 2 for trumpet.

Finally, with the prospect of a postal strike looming, I am adding the option for special delivery (UK only) to the website. Special delivery items are treated differently to ordinary post and will not be too affected by a strike. Though they may slow a little, they won't get stuck in a pile in a sorting office, so if you want to pay extra for the reassurance, you may do so.

I'm not happy about the prospect of a strike - for small businesses like me who use Royal Mail to send out our parcels and have some deliveries arrive by ordinary post, a strike will cost money. I may have to pay extra for special delivery for my supplies, so I really have no sympathy with Royal Mail workers, along with all of the public I meet in the post office every day. Let's hope someone somewhere sees sense before they proceed down this suicidal path.

And Yet More New Music

2009-10-02T09:28:00.006+01:00

Brass Wind have published more music recently; A Blast from the Past by Adam Gorb contains music for trumpet and piano inspired by renaissance and baroque sounds. For intermediate players.

On a slightly different theme, though still for trumpet, Cecilia McDowell has created music inspired by works of art, hence the title "Framed".

Queens Temple Publications has just released the latest installment in a set of sonatas by Timothy Bowers. His sonata for bass trombone and piano was composed in 2006, and follows the release of his sonata for tenor trombone, which was composed in 2007. More of these works to come.

It's been a very busy week in the online shop, so busy I got up at 5 am yesterday to get ahead! Orders tend to decline at this point in the week, so I can get all my paperwork straight, file away the new books that have come in, do this post and sweep out the office.

This week I received my first order of new packing paper from a new supplier. It's cheaper than the paper I used to buy, but stronger so should stand up to the stresses of travel through the mail better. I will be able to keep my postage prices the same for a while longer - they have been the same for two years (not many retailers have managed this!) but I think it's likely that when the postage charges go up again in April I will have to increase it slightly. Cheaper paper certainly helps keep costs down.

That's it for this week. I hope to have a bit more time next week to add new books to the website, but if you don't see what you want, do ask - I can get almost anything.

More New Music

2009-09-26T09:19:00.004+01:00

We are now in the slightly manic phase of the year, when everyone is buying music books and, bizarrely, people tend to order exactly the same books on the same day. It's weird - you don't sell any copies of some books for 9 months, then you get several orders at the same time. It's a struggle to keep up with demand at this time of year, and I'm pretty tired.

Newly published music includes Green and Pleasant, for trombone or euphonium, available in treble or bass clef and on the new exam syllabus.

Other new music - Six Studies in English Folksong for Tuba, by Vaughan Williams. Bass clef only.

For advanced double bass players, there is Moving On Again, a piece written in 2007. And for more intermediate players, there is Bass in Space.

For those still waiting for Winner Scores All, the latest update from the publisher is that it is due out mid-October. I hope to have more new music next week, if time permits.

New this Week

2009-09-11T12:09:00.003+01:00

ABRSM Publishing have issued a new book this week - Spectrum for Violin. It contains new contemporary pieces for violin and comes with a CD.

New to the website is Cool Clarinet, a tutor book series for young beginners. There are a number of books, including duets and trios. Just put Cool Clarinet in the search engine to see the full list.

The books are published by Kevin Mayhew, as is another addition to the website: The Church Organist. This is a handy conversion course for pianists who are taking up the organ for their local church, and it covers all the basics of technique and equipment in the first volume. The second volume contains some standard repertoire and a third volume in in preparation, to cover improvisation.

There are still a number of books listed on the new exam syllabus for various instruments which have not yet been published. I am checking them each week and will add them as soon as they are published.

New this Week

2009-09-04T15:07:00.003+01:00

The Associated Board cello exam recordings have been published this week, with the exception of the grade 8 one for some reason. They are all now on the website. Curiously, the retail prices in a few cases are lower than the price list I received a couple of months ago. I have added them at the new price, but some retailers have used the old price list.

This week I have also completed adding new pieces from the Trinity guitar syllabus, as there have been a few changes.

A few oddities this week - I ordered a piece of flute music (Out of the Cool) some time ago for a customer, only to be told it was being reprinted. It finally turned up and I sent it out, only for the customer to ring me and tell me the piano part was incomplete. To cut a long story short, it turned out the whole print run was faulty and will have to be pulped. It will be months before it is ready again.

Then there's the parcel which left Holland on 26th August and still hasn't arrived. And the warehouse person for another publisher who managed to send me the invoice for the correct book yet put the wrong book in the parcel. These kinds of things are really annoying when you have customers waiting. Such is life...

New Trinity Brass Syllabus

2009-08-28T11:55:00.002+01:00

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

2009-08-21T11:13:00.002+01:00

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

2009-08-14T10:06:00.004+01:00

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

2009-08-07T08:28:00.006+01:00

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

2009-08-01T13:25:00.002+01:00

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!

More Brass Ensemble Music

2009-07-24T09:59:00.004+01:00

This week I have added a large number of pieces for brass ensembles, from duets to full brass bands.

Music from the "Winners" series by Brass Wind Publications are always firm favourites, whether for brass duet or flexible 4 part ensembles. Lots of well-known tunes in easy and flexible arrangements, suitable for school groups.

I have also added a number of Christmas arrangements for brass - we are now half way through the year and Christmas starts in August for most shops! I will put special Christmas music section up later in the year, but for now I still have too much to do for the new syllabuses.

The New ABRSM Syllabus

2009-07-16T09:18:00.006+01:00

The new ABRSM syllabus is not published until August, but we retailers do get a sneak preview of all the books required for the new set pieces so we can plan ahead. I'm not allowed to tell you what's in the syllabus, so a few general comments will have to do.

There are new set pieces for cello, double bass, trumpet, trombone and bass trombone. In most cases, a few new pieces replace others which have dropped off the syllabus. But it seems the bass trombone syllabus has been given a big makeover.

This was overdue - the pieces listed were a bit dull, difficult to get, often expensive (especially since the crash of sterling last year) and sometimes out of print. The new syllabus includes a lot of newer publications which will be cheaper, more accessible, and include different styles of music for bass trombone - I'm sure it will be welcomed by trombone teachers.

Some of the books listed are not yet published, for some I need to check prices by phone before I can list them so it will be another month before they are all online. One or two are already out of print!

ABRSM has also rebranded itself, with a new website and new logo (at the top of this post) so it's all change there.

While some schools are already on their summer break, others will finish this week, so I hope everyone has a great holiday if they're going away. I also hope the kids will keep practicing...

More Website Updates

2009-07-04T07:59:00.002+01:00

Over the last few days I have added pieces from Trinity Guildhall's jazz syllabus for clarinet, flute and saxophone, so there is a lot more jazz music available to order now.

At this time of year orders tend to drop off a bit, so that gives me more time to work on the website. I'm spending about 3 hours a day on it at present, 6 days a week. It's a work in constant progress, and a job that will never be finished!

I do rely on customers asking for obscure pieces - I like obscure music as I often end up being the only retailer selling it! Good for me and good for my customers. This week's new, hard to find piece is Adagio fur eine Spieluhr (Adagio for a Musical Clock) by Beethoven, for flute or oboe. It is imported from Eastern Europe only on demand, so there's a long wait, but it is very hard to find elsewhere.

Recorder Music

2009-06-30T11:04:00.003+01:00

I have spent some time increasing the recorder section with the pieces required for the Trinity recorder exams. The ABRSM list will follow.

On the subject of the ABRSM exams, the new strings, brass and woodwind syllabus from 2010 will be published in August. I have received a list of all the pieces required (though not the syllabus itself) for all instruments so I will be adding the music over the next month.

Hope you're enjoying the fine weather, I certainly am! It's a bit of a struggle to sit at my computer some times...

Organ and Guitar

2009-06-13T08:54:00.003+01:00

This week I went to an organ and piano concert by Wayne Marshall and Jennifer Micalleff in Manchester. I've never heard organ and piano play together before, and it was really eye-opening. Some of the music was written for organ and piano, some for two pianos but arranged differently by Wayne Marshall. We also heard variation on Carmen for two pianos, an unpublished work by an American arranger whose name escapes me now. An unusual but very enjoyable evening.

With great timing, the same day I finished a big upgrade to the organ section of the website - most of the ABRSM exam pieces are now on the site.

I have also just completed the classical guitar section with the ABRSM exam pieces. Trinity also uses some of the same pieces, but I will add more Trinity music in a little while.

Harpsichord Music

2009-06-05T11:19:00.003+01:00

This week I have added a lot of harpsichord music to the website, covering the vast majority of the pieces required for ABRSM exams grade 4-8. I will be working on this more over coming months. I had never heard a harpsichord played live until I was at University (studying music of course) and was blown away by the beauty of the instrument. I'm also a big fan of baroque music in general, so I find harpsichord music particularly satisfying.

Last week was half term week, so business was quiet and I took the opportunity to get a few days away, over a long weekend. I really enjoy running my own business but the downside to it is that I rarely get away - the last time was between Christmas and New Year. Being an internet retailer means that you work pretty much 7 days a week one way or another. Most orders come in overnight although there are other smaller peaks in the day, so I keep an eye on the website every evening. I really needed a break, having made an uncharacteristic mistake last week which emphasised my tiredness.

My car has been away for a couple of weeks as it was hit by a lorry - I wasn't in it at the time but watched the accident unfold. How a driver can fail to see a bright red car parked in the road is a mystery! There was obvious damage to one wing, but I noticed the back wheels seemed to be out of alignment with the front ones. When I pointed it out to the mechanic who came to collect my car, he clearly didn't believe me, an attitude common with male mechanics when speaking to a woman. He said "You know the back wheels stick out further than the front ones", like I was an idiot. So yesterday when they rang to tell me my car was ready, I asked about the wheels. "The back axle was bent, we had to replace it" was the answer. It's nice to be right!

New to the Website

2009-05-28T10:47:00.005+01:00

This week I have added more Trinity Guildhall publications to the website:

Electronic keyboard exam pieces
Electronic Organ
Guitar books, both classical and acoustic
The full series of Singer's World
Descant recorder exam pieces
Woodwind World for clarinet
Sound at Sight for oboe - newly published
Sound at Sight for bassoon - newly published
A number of books for percussion, various instruments
A number of reference books
Theory workbooks and past exam papers
Aural training

As always when adding new products, I don't keep them in stock straight away, but order on demand until I can assess stock levels required. Order time is 3-4 working days.

More books are due to be published in July: new violin exam pieces, guitar exam pieces, which I will add when they become available.

End of Year Sums

2009-05-20T13:17:00.002+01:00

This week I have been concentrating on getting my accounts finished for 2008-9 so I can get everything off to my accountant.

While I bought an existing business, I spent huge amounts of time creating the website and improving what I can offer, so it is nice to see it paid off, with turnover doubling over the year.

So thanks to all of you who bought music last year, and special thanks to those of you who took the trouble to give me feedback on the service I provide.

Please remember that I do rely on you to add things to my list of available music - I can get pretty much anything within about a week, so do let me know if there is something you can't find and I will do my best for you.

Am I the Devil Incarnate?

2009-05-13T19:46:00.007+01:00

Today I met a sales rep from one of the main music distribution groups. He, along with others in the industry, is uncomfortable with internet retailers and clearly thinks that they are doing damage to music shops.

Now, I used to work in Human Resources and so I am used to being portrayed as the spawn of Satan - the HR department is usually the most despised in any company. But the conversation set me thinking. Is there any truth in this view?

So why are music shops closing down? There are a few reasons in my view:

rents - in common with other retailers, the massive increase in rent over recent years has impacted on some music shops, often the ones set up more recently
over-reliance on selling instruments - the big profit margins on instruments and electronic equipment has led some to stock up on this instead of sheet music, but in a recession people simply don't buy instruments as frequently, leading to cashflow problems
poor selection and supply of sheet music (customer service) - people do buy sheet music regularly, especially parents with kids learning instruments, and this repeat business should be the bread and butter of a music shop - too often it is neglected

I don't include the internet as in this list as I don't think it is a direct cause. I have always felt that a high street music shop with an existing brand and customers had a major advantage over someone like me, trying to build a business into UK wide internet retailer. Yet I find, time and time again, that I keep more music in stock than most music shops with all the stock space they have. On top of that, I have access to much more music which I don't keep in stock but order on demand.

This is a key issue in the debate of internet v high street retailers. In the high street, you have to choose what to stock. On the internet, you can post everything available - given the thousands of pieces of music out there, this is an advantage for the online retailer. But it should be said that any music shop can do what I have done - create a website and add to it all the things they can't keep in stock.

There is also the change in shopping habits of the consumer. Many of my new customers are parents whose child is just starting to learn an instrument. These people turn naturally to the internet, they don't bother going shopping in the high street. Others don't have the time or want to spend the money driving to a music shop which might not have the book anyway. Like it or not, many people these days want to shop from home - I do, and I'm not alone. When you can spend 15 minutes online and buy what you want, to have it turn up a few days later, why waste half a day at the weekend trying to find it in the high street?

A lot of retailers forget that there are many people in the UK who live in rural areas and who simply do not have access to a music shop. Where are these people to go? The internet is a saviour for those who live on Scottish islands, remote areas of Wales or the southwest of England where there are few large centres of population capable of supporting a music shop.

The sales rep said to me today that internet shopping makes it harder to market new music as people cannot see it and so decide whether to buy it. My answers to that are:

most books are bought by parents as ordered by teachers, so it is teachers who have to be persuaded - there are ways to do this (too long for this post!)
publishers have to make PDF extracts of the music available to retailers for their websites so people can peruse them - this is starting but very slowly

Having said all that, I do think this is a genuine problem. I have tried a "new" page with little success, and I need to give more thought to how to achieve this.

So what is the threat to music shops from internet retailers?

loss of business due to heavy discounting (this applies mainly to instruments and accessories) as internet retailers have lower overheads
loss of business as people change their shopping habits towards more online purchases

While I think that the heavy discounting may reduce a little in the recession, unfortunately the lower overheads issue will remain. It would be nice to think that landlords may get a little more realistic about rents, but... As for the trend towards online shopping, nothing is going to change that and music shops have to adapt.

The key in all of this is customer service - every business has to build its customer base by providing what the customer wants and in such a way that the customer is incentivised to come back and spend more money. Whether you're in the high street or online, this doesn't change.

Any business has to seek to be as efficient as it can be, and music shops are no exception. The general consensus in the music business seems to be that the weaker players are being shaken out - those that survive will be the better ones. Many music shops have expanded into areas such as music lessons and other ancillary services - we all have to find our own niche and there are plenty of opportunities to do just that, including using the internet.

I have a few niche areas: the instruments that other retailers cover poorly, e.g. bassoon, baritone, tenor horn, etc.; certain products that most others don't carry; low postage rates due to the fact I recycle packaging; and a pride in fast, high quality customer service. Does that make me the devil? Or have I just filled the gaps that I can see in the sheet music business?

Any music shop can create a website and increase their turnover by selling online as well as in the high street. It does, however, require a different approach: I value the flexibility that trading online gives me, no 9 to 5 for me, but that means that I also write blog posts at 8pm, monitor my site in the evening when most transactions go through, and when prices change, spend my evenings trawling my site to update them. I can't shut up shop at 5pm every day.

Maybe this is symptomatic of the real threat - moving away from the traditional way of doing things into a new world with a new technology. I don't know - you decide.

Preparing for the next exams

2009-05-08T14:40:00.003+01:00

Spring is gathering pace, this week the may flowers came out -they're all over the damp fields at the moment. Lots of rain and wind this week so I'm afraid my post went to the post office by car a couple of times, sorry.

The last set of music exams is now well behind us, so the thoughts of teachers and students are turning to the next ones. This week the most popular item has been CDs of the exam pieces, for various instruments. Some of them can be purchased with the sheet music (violin, clarinet, flute, piano) while others can be bought separately (cello, guitar, viola, oboe, saxophone, also piano).

The CD is really useful - allows you to decide what you want to play before buying any music, and also helps you perfect your playing. For instruments which are accompanied by piano, practice tracks are included to playalong to.

One book which is going up the "charts" is Big Chillers for Trumpet, which is having a surge in popularity. I ran out this week and have ordered some more. It contains Mack the Knife, One Note samba, As time goes by, Lullaby of birdland, A nightingale sang in Berkley Square, Night and day, Chattanooga Choo Choo, Ain't Misbehavin' and Revelation. Great tunes, also available for horn (both) and tuba (euphonium uses the trumpet one).

Music in May

2009-05-01T11:05:00.004+01:00

I have added more titles to the website this week, in cornet, trumpet, flute and french horn.

On the negative side, I have had to increase prices of some strings for violin, viola, cello and double bass. This is the third time this year that I have had to adjust these prices - it's all down to the drop in the value of sterling, as strings are imported in either euros or dollars. This time the price increase is in the region of 10%.

The fall of our currency over the last year has added significant costs to all retailers. It's not just the price of the stock, but also the delivery charge. A proportion of my stock comes from Germany - prices for music are set at a particular point in time, but as they are charged in euros, they now cost more in sterling than they did a year ago. I can't sell them for more, though - well I suppose I could, but wouldn't have many customers buying them, would I? Most retailers stick to the RRP for books, so we can't pass on the true cost, instead we take a hit.

As for delivery charges, as you might expect delivery from Germany is not cheap. In December 2007 it was under £8, now it's over £11. Again, a cost which cannot be passed on.

Added to that some items have become more expensive for other reasons too - clarinet and sax reeds have gone up by 50% in the last year - some of that is due to supply reasons rather than just the economy. I don't deal in instruments, but those retailers who do have got the same problem there - huge inflation in prices.

All in all it's a difficult time for retailers - if your local music shop ceased trading recently, this is one of the reasons why.

Yesterday we had the news that Kemble pianos would cease production in the UK later this year - a sad day for a long standing business. Unfortunately most instruments now are made in the far east, and that looks likely to continue for some time to come - it is quite simply more economic for companies not to produce or be based in this country.

Having said all that, let's be more upbeat - music is a great hobby and relatively cheap compared with other entertainment. More and more people are playing instruments and making music together, long may it continue!

I will be closed for the bank holiday (thought you can order online 24/7 as usual) - have a great weekend and enjoy the good weather!

Spring

2009-04-24T15:46:00.005+01:00

My walks to the post office are now increasingly dry and sunny. A few days ago I discovered these little buddies on my path, sitting in a sunny and sheltered spot. They were only a couple of days old and weren't sure what to make of me. Their mothers had gone off into the fields either side of the path, but returned sharpish when the lambs started bleating, wondering what to do. I gently shepherded them up the path to the gate where they came in, they went off with their mothers and I carried on my way. A few days earlier I found a herd of cattle sitting on the path - such are the hazards of taking my parcels to the post office on foot!

So, back to work - this week I have been increasing the music listed on the website for several instruments:

euphonium/baritone - much increased section of repertoire
bassoon - more repertoire
clarinet - more repertoire, still in progress

I have also added cello tailguts (at a really low price too) in response to a customer request - please do ask if you need something and can't find it. I have a long list of things I would like to add to the website, but only so many hours in the day - if it exists there is a good chance I can get it, so feel free to ask!

New on the website...

2009-04-16T09:31:00.014+01:00

I have now taken care of most of the price changes on the website, so now I have added new products to the gifts and greeting cards sections.

Here are pictures of some of the new products - ringbinder, post-it style sticky notes, and keyring.

I have also been adding new products in a number of areas:

Classical guitar - CDs and books for the ABRSM exam syllabus, also guitar repertoire

Harp - a brand new section which I hope to develop further over the summer months, it's rather thin at present!

Harpsichord - another brand new section which contains all the ABRSM publications for the instrument

Piano - I have massively expanded the piano repertoire and there is a lot of it! I can now supply all the pieces by the major composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, etc., published by ABRSM publishing - that's an awful lot of music!

CD recordings of the ABRSM syllabus for oboe, viola, saxophone, cello, bassoon.

ABRSM jazz syllabus for trumpet, trombone, saxophone, flute, clarinet.

an improved section for percussion

more generally, I now list almost all ABRSM publications

In June/July the exam boards will be publishing the new syllabus for a number of instruments, along with several new publications and these will be added then.

As usual during school holidays, business has slowed down a bit (hence why I have been able to add so much to the website) but I am gearing up for the start of the new school term next week!

Easter Holidays

2009-04-02T18:09:00.003+01:00

I hope everyone enjoys the nice long holiday over the Easter weekend.

Orders placed in the online shop will be processed and posted Monday 6th to Thursday 9th April, and then from Tuesday 14th. VS Music Supplies will be closed Friday 10th to Monday 13th April inclusive.

I do hope you all enjoy your break, and don't eat too much chocolate. I am an addict and will certainly be indulging in an easter egg!

Exam Time

2009-03-25T11:38:00.003Z

Many students are taking music exams in March and this has some effect on sales at this time of year.

In the run-up to exams, I experience a surge in demand for some of the most popular exam pieces, mostly because students have been playing from (illegal) photocopies for months and they are not allowed to take these into the exams! So I get lots of queries from people asking how quickly I can get the music out to them, because their child has the exam next week.

The use of photocopies is a topic of regular discussion among publishers, and a sore point. I've never played from a photocopy myself, but maybe that's just because I'm old and photopiers were new-fangled technology when I was young!

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of the issue, what I don't understand is why, when the child is entered for the exam, the teacher and parents don't ensure that they have the music ready. Why wait until one or two weeks before the exam and then be in a rush? They have to buy it anyway, so why not do it in good time?

Then for those who have already bought the music, there is the old problem of losing the piano part. It is sensible to keep both parts together, for safety but you know what kids are like - they take out the instrumental part and forget where they put the rest of it. So I have had some people buy second copies of music they have already purchased as their offspring has lost it/left it on a bus/fed it to the dog. An expensive business.

Anyway, I wish all the students in exams at this time the very best of luck!

One Year On...

2009-03-06T16:34:00.006Z

One year ago the bulk of the work on the website was finished and VS Music Supplies began to pick up new customers all over the world. So I thought that it might be good to see where our customers come from.

Starting with the UK, this map shows the approximate distribution of customers, colour coded to show the relative number in each area:

Red = highest number, reflects VS's Rochdale/Oldham origins

Orange = next highest - the Greater London area

Green = middling numbers, mostly heavily populated areas

Turquoise = smaller number of customers, often in rural areas and widely spread

It is approximate, based on postcode areas, so if you don't see a circle directly round where you live, I apologise but I haven't forgotten you!

This map does not show other areas in the seas around the British mainland, but there is a large number of customers in Northern Ireland, then a good sprinkling in Jersey, Guernsey and Eire.

Further afield, the largest number of overseas customers is in the United States, followed closely by Singapore.

The remaining overseas customers (in alphabetical order) are in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Malta, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden.

So thank you to all of you for buying your musical supplies from VS over the last year and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

UPDATE: as of 10th March, I am adding Orkney to my list - hope to see more islands near Scotland soon!

UPDATE: added Isle of Skye on 21st April

This Week at VS Music Supplies

2009-02-27T16:12:00.003Z

My daily walk to the post office no longer requires me to muffle up in scarf, gloves and hat, so spring seems to be on the way now.

At this time of year I tend to sell more specimen sight-reading tests as students prepare for exams. These books are really useful, providing practice tests before the real ting in the exam. They cover all instruments and for most (but not all), they cover more than one grade - usually 1-5 in one book and 6-8 in another book, so you don't have to buy new ones each time. Just put "Specimen Sight-Reading Tests" into the search engine.

It's also been a big week for Music Theory in Practice, the best theory workbook on the market. Recently revised and reprinted, it is now very user-friendly.

And finally, Regency Oboe Reeds have been a big seller this week.

As an internet retailer, I am dependent on Royal Mail for my parcels to get to their destination. In October, I had one disappear because, according to Royal Mail, "the address does not exist". The people who lived in the house disagreed with this for obvious reasons. If the address is not on the Royal Mail database, it does not officially exist and if you are unfortunate enough to have a postie who is new to the area, chances are your post will not get there. This does happen regularly with new houses, as there can be a considerable timelag in getting the address registered. I sent a second parcel, it got there and in January the first parcel was returned.

This week I had another parcel returned, with a note saying it didn't exist. I checked the postcode and found that everything about the address was right - name, house number, postcode and first part of the street name. Unfortunately the second part of the street name said "road" instead of "fold" and so the jobsworth postman did not deliver it. I was livid.

My own postman asked about it next day, wondering why it had been sent back and when I told him he expressed a pithy view about the postman in question, not really suitable for this blog! He said that he delivers worse-addressed post every day than that one. I can believe it.

One of the advantages of living in a semi-rural area is that the postmen are really conscientious and seem to use their brains (and compassion) rather more than their urban colleagues. Our postman never sends parcels back to the sorting office but always finds somewhere to leave them to save us the trip, a badly addressed letter is more than likely to find the right person even if the house number/street is wrong and they are always pleasant.

So I have now sent the returned parcel again, and paid for it twice. Let's hope it gets there this time.

One of the problems here is that if the regular postman or courier is off on holiday, the replacement doesn't know where the address is, where to leave deliveries if the person isn't in or who is who. I had a parcel delayed this week due to a public holiday in Germany, checked it was on its way this morning only to see the courier (substitute driver) sail past in his van without stopping. Aargh!

Let's hope I have fewer postal frustrations next week...

Life back to normal

2009-02-18T16:37:00.003Z

All the snow is now gone, and everything is back to normal now.

Last week the county council repaired the path I use to get to the post office every day - it's much easier and safer, it's just a pity they did it after I spent several days slipping and sliding on the icy mud!

Popular items over the last week or so: clarinet ligatures, clarinet mouthpiece caps and batons. I am pretty much out of all of them and awaiting new stock now.

Some books sell in large numbers all at the same time - Easy Winners is one of these, and it is going through just such a phase this week. It is listed on the brass exam syllabus but is also available for other instruments. It's a collection of 75 famous tunes from many different types of music: TV, folk songs, pop songs, film themes and tunes from classical music. There is also a new collection, called Great Winners, which has 48 new theme tunes, including Wallace and Gromit, the Maple Leaf Rag and the Great Escape March. This is available only for brass at present.

Both of these books are great value, and for most instruments a CD containing backing tracks is also available, so you can play along! Just put "Great Winners" or "Easy Winners" in the search engine on the website (see left for link).

There are some days....

2009-02-02T13:16:00.004Z

... when I'm even more glad than normal that I work from home. I sat with my cup of coffee this morning watching the flakes falling and thinking how pretty it looks. I can think that because I no longer have to defrost my car, skid slowly along the road out of the village and spend a few hours sitting in traffic before getting to the office and finding lots of people didn't bother getting out of bed.

If you have seen my Being Green policy you will know that I take my parcels to the post largely on foot. On days like today it is in fact the safest way, avoiding the compacted snow on the roads and the speed kings who seem to think that driving along a snow/ice covered roads at 40 mph is a good thing.

So this is the view on my way to the post office this morning. It was quite dark with looming clouds and occasional snow flurries.

On the way back I took this picture

of a snow covered East Lancashire. We are set for heavy snow tonight, so more to come.

Snow, French Music and Cello Rosin

2009-01-23T21:19:00.003Z

This week we had more snow, the biggest flakes I have seen falling in many years. It stuck around for a few days before melting away. All the fields and trees were covered - it was very pretty while it lasted.

Last night I went to a concert at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, to hear the Halle Orchestra play French Music - Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Debussy's La Mer, and other works by Saint-Saens and Ravel. It was very relaxing and enjoyable, except for the noise made by all the people who feel the need to cough during the performance. I sometimes think they should hand out cough sweets before the concert starts!

On the subject of French music, at this time of the year I update all (yes, all 5,000) prices on my website. Most changes are small, between 25p and £1. This year, however, there are some major changes for the French catalogue as these are priced in Euros. The fall in the value of the pound against the euro has meant that over the last year the sterling prices have drifted further and further away from the euro value. So all the imported French music is now being repriced to reflect its real value against the euro - this means some very big changes, as much as +£7 for the more expensive items. Sorry about this, but this is one of the problems businesses who import now have in the current economic climate.

Finally, this week's big selling items have been cello rosin and Hinke Elementary Method for the oboe. Don't ask me why, it's a mystery to me why suddenly everyone wants them all at the same time!

On the Radio!

2009-01-11T10:15:00.004Z

I had a busy international week this week, shipping orders everywhere including Hong Kong, Singapore, Italy and the US. It's great to be able to help people play great music all the way around the world.

Anyway, I was settling down for a relaxing weekend, gardening aborted due to frozen ground, so thought I would watch bobsleigh races, tennis and make another batch of marmalade. Then I got a phone call from the BBC.

Earlier in the week, I had suggested to Radio 4 that they cover a hidden side of all the redundancy stories in the news - the HR people who have to make all those employees redundant. In my former life I was a HR director and making people redundant is the worst part of that job. So, having made the suggestion, the Radio 4 programme Broadcasting House thought I should do a live interview on the programme. Serves me right for sticking my head above the parapet!

So this morning I found myself alone in a BBC studio in Blackburn talking on national radio about my experiences. The presenter, Paddy O'Connell, asked me what I do now and I told him, saying that I now have no employees to deal with and that's the way I like it.

You can hear the programme here

It's now over a year since I left my well paid job for this business and I don't regret it one bit. I talk to some lovely people, and get real satisfaction from helping people find the music they want. I don't make mega bucks and probably never will, but I don't have to sack people anymore. A much better way of life.

A New Year

2009-01-06T07:41:00.002Z

I hope you had a great break over the Christmas/New Year period and wish you all the best for the new year.

We have a light covering of snow here at present, so my walk to the post office yesterday was rather lovely - the only creature that had been up this path before me was a fox!

Christmas and New Year Opening

2008-12-12T21:31:00.005Z

The website will be open for business 24/7 as usual, but please note the following:

23rd December - orders despatched as usual

24th - 26th December - no orders despatched

27th December - orders despatched as usual

28th December - 1st January - no orders despatched

2nd & 3rd January - orders despatched as usual

4th January - no orders despatched

5th January - back to normal, i.e. Monday to Friday processing and despatch

BUT orders for items which have a despatch date of 3 days or more are ordered specially and none of these can be processed until 5th January, as all the publishers are closing from 22nd/23rd December to 5th January. This means you can expect to receive these items no earlier than 9th January.

As the music publishing business is closing down for the whole of the Christmas period, I am taking the opportunity to have some time off. Throughout this time, I will be checking email periodically, so do get in touch if you have a question.

I hope you have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Ruth

Snow in Rossendale

2008-12-02T15:58:00.004Z

This is the view from my window this morning - lots of snow fell early in the morning. No post and no deliveries today as it can be difficult to get here in this kind of weather.

The kids enjoyed it - with teachers stuck in gridlocked roads, most schools closed for the day or finished at lunchtime.

Effect of VAT Change

2008-11-29T17:42:00.002Z

This week's talking point has been the Pre-Budget Report and the change in VAT to be implemented from Monday 1st December. I thought I would provide a quick explanation on how this affects purchases from VS Music Supplies.

Sheet music and books are zero-rated for VAT - this means no VAT applies. So the price of a book on 30th November will be exactly the same on the 1st December.

Music accessories - reeds, music stands, strings, etc. - are all VATable at the standard rate of 17.5%, 15% from Monday. In theory, this means that their price will reduce from 1st December.

However, as this is a small part of my business I am not VAT registered so cannot claim back the VAT costs. This means that since I have already paid for all of the accessories in stock at 17.5% VAT, regrettably my prices will have to stay as they are for now. I will of course reconsider prices of individual items as and when I stock up again at the new lower rate.

I hope this answers any questions you might have about VAT, if not, please drop me a line.

Ruth

More Folk Music

2008-11-19T10:55:00.002Z

I have added more titles to my collection of folk music - from Scottish publisher Taigh na Teud. They have previously published popular collections of ceilidh tunes, but are now adding CD versions to their collection.

So if you play fiddle, you will find an increased selection of Scottish tunes to play. Cellists and Accordion players will also find new titles there, and for a flexible group of strings, guitar, piano and recorder there is a collection of tunes for ensemble -Scottish Favourites.

For those planning Burns nights events, there is a great collection of Robert Burns songs (with lyrics) arranged for fiddle duet, guitar and/or piano.

To see the full collection of folk music, click here.

2008-11-12T16:34:00.002Z

After the dramas of two weeks ago, all is quiet on the plumbing front, so life is back to normal now.

I finally finished my paperwork, but was then struck by the mystery of the disappearing books. Four trombone books are nowhere to be seen - they were there at the last stock take in April, but have disappeared since. No doubt they will turn up in completely the wrong box next time I do a stock take, but it is really annoying, especially since I have had to buy more!

Every week I add new titles to my website and/or stock. There is so much music out there, I rely on publishers and customers bringing new titles to my attention in addition to my regular trawl through the catalogues. This week I have added The Guitarist's Way to my site, after a local customer requested it recently. It doesn't seem to be too well known, but it is a good starter series for guitarists.

I have also added New Christmas Praise for brass/wind band, which is a great set of Christmas tunes for bands. My band section on the website is a little thin - it's one of my projects for 2009. I have added a few more books to my accordion section too, more to come there.

That's all for this week, have a good weekend.

Half-term, plumbing and Wayne Marshall

2008-10-29T17:39:00.006Z

Business tends to drop a bit at the school half-term week, so this is usually a good time to do other jobs which have been waiting for a while. I started out with the best of intentions, sorting out paperwork, bank reconciliations, invoices and doing a general stock check and tidy up.

But on Monday afternoon I heard the sound something like that of a tap turning on. Mystified I tried to find the source of the noise, and when I got into the kitchen about 30 seconds later, found 1 cm of water on the floor, rising fast! After a tussle with the stopcock, I managed to turn off my water and mop up. No more work done that day!

So the plumber turned up, identified where the leak was roughly (in the floor), managed to restore a small (cold, not hot) water supply in the kitchen only, and then started to hunt in the floor for the leaky pipe. Unfortunately the pipes were concreted in and in the process of excavating he hit the gas pipe, thus leaving me without heating and cooking facilities just in time for the coldest night of the year!

Then he went home, no doubt to a warm house with hot and cold running water. Fortunately I had some coal and lit a fire to keep myself warm in the evening, got a microwave dinner and wrapped up well.

On Tuesday morning the next plumber turned up, made an attempt to repair the gas pipe but couldn't as it had fractured completely. It turns out the local water company decided to massively increase the water pressure on Monday afternoon, and the cold water intake pipe gave up the ghost. The really good news? My insurance doesn't cover the repair to the pipes, just resulting damage, which didn't happen as I was on the spot when it happened. So the answer was to replace the offending pipework, bypassing the old stuff. This meant running the pipes around the door instead of under the floor. Cue plumber number 2, several long copper pipes, a pipe bender and a blow torch. Here is a snapshot of the new pipework running above the door - lovely eh? Bear in mind each of these pipes cost me £108 (ok, they're a lot longer than this snippet shows, but still...):

So after the flood, parting with over £300, 5 hours of workmen and mess, and the cleanup, I really needed something to cheer me up. Today I went to the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester to hear a lunchtime concert by organist/composer/conductor/general musical superman Wayne Marshall. He played Messiaen's Les Corps Glorieux - I'm generally not a Messiaen fan but hearing his organ music played so well live was relaxing and uplifting. It was recorded for later broadcast on Radio 3, they're having a Messiaen season to commemorate his 100th anniversary in December. I have become quite a fan of organ music lately, but it really does sound much better live than recorded. I intend to increase and improve the selection of books I carry for organ - I hope to do this after Christmas.

So, my half-term week hasn't gone quite to plan so far - how was your week?

Being Green - The Winter Journey

2008-10-24T20:05:00.006+01:00

In a post in July, I showed how my parcels start their journey to my customers, and how green they are - most of them go to the post office on foot, through the fields and past the sheep.

Well now the winter is approaching the very pretty route I show you becomes less pretty - a couple of days ago we had had so much rain the ground was waterlogged, squelchy, muddy and at times dangerously slippy. So it's now time to switch to a different route and I thought I would post a few photos.

The journey starts the same, but instead of going uphill through the fields, I divert to a track (above). This road is hundreds of years old and shown on 17th century maps, but as you can see its lower reaches have not been maintained in recent years. It is stony, which gives grip but has a small stream running down it in the wet, due presumably to a broken field drain further up. This is a haunt of goldfinches, greenfinches, robins and dunnocks, and I always see little birds flitting away as I approach.

On the way uphill, I took another photo showing the village where I live and work.

Further up, the track improves as it gets closer to the farm and some houses. If you have eagle eyes you may notice a traffic cone sitting in the field. Why? No idea, but it's been there all year! The sheep don't seem to mind.

After this, a footpath takes me to join the path I normally use before crossing the A road (see the post from July further down this page). This route is a bit longer, but much safer and easier in the wet weather.

Once I have taken the parcels, I have another alternative route home which I sometimes use if I am feeling very energetic or it's a nice day, as it was today. This follows the roads, so is over twice the length and time of the other ones.

The last month has been very busy with the start of the new school year. I have odd spurts of interest for specific books - A Tuneful Introduction to the Third Position for example, where I sold out of stock three weeks in a row. A Standard of Excellence Book 1 is a popular beginner brass tutor with schools in my area, Team Strings 1 for Viola is this week's bestseller.

That's all for now - I do hope to be adding more stock to the website in the next few weeks, will let you know when it's done.

Ruth

Christmas Gifts

2008-10-11T13:32:00.006+01:00

It's taken a while, but I have now completed the Christmas gifts section on the website. I have tried to select gifts of different prices and characters for all members of the family. For practical gifts, the music bags are a great buy - good value for money, durable and will prevent the "I can't find my music" routine as you are trying to get the offspring out of the door to the music lesson!

The quaver coffee mugs are my favourite gift item - a classy and simple design that will brighten up any kitchen. For those who have a tendency to break mugs, the treble clef mug is a good option - a thicker construction means this should be less breakable.

In regards to stocking fillers, for kids there are instrument badges, for adults the Classic FM books are firm favourites.

So, do your Christmas shopping early - I even have wrapping paper for your gifts.

Click here to go to the gifts section on the website

I have also got a great selection of Christmas music now - for solo instruments or groups. I will still be adding to it over the next few weeks, but if you are looking for carol collections, they're all there, whatever your instrument or ability. Check it out by clicking here

That's it for now - happy shopping.

Christmas is coming ...

2008-09-28T17:02:00.002+01:00

I know it's only the end of September, but Christmas stuff is starting to appear in all the shops, and VS Music Supplies is no exception. For me, it does seem odd to be loading Christmas music on the website while we still have warm sunshine outside, but it has to be done! There is now a selection of Christmas music listed (more to come), gifts will follow in the next week or so.

The process has been slowed a bit by the huge demand for music books as schools and students get back to work in September. I have been working hard to keep up with orders, but my suppliers are struggling and my orders take a little bit longer to arrive than normal. Things get a little crazy at this time of year!

Why not take a look at the Christmas music on the website?

Folk Music

2008-09-17T09:46:00.002+01:00

It's been a while since my last post, as I have been gearing up for the new school year and making improvements to my stock and website.

Some of the changes are:

increased range of bags and other instrumental accessories

addition of a section for accordion

increased folk music section

Which brings me neatly on to the subject of today's post. Folk music is increasingly popular, and there have been a lot of recent publications in this area by mainstream publishers. Boosey and Hawkes have been publishing their collection for fiddle over the last few years, the most recent addition being The Greek Fiddler which unsurprisingly contains Greek music.

These books were published in a traditional instrument/piano version, albeit often with guitar chords. Recently publishers have changed this to instrument/chords/CD versions, which gives players the opportunity to play along to backing bands - definitely an improvement on piano! Boosey and Hawkes have revamped parts of their fiddler collection by introducing the Fiddler Playalong books for violin, viola and cello.

Schott has now published some excellent collections of fiddle music, covering English, Scottish, and Eastern European music. These playalong collections contain a lot of tunes - often around 80 and guidance notes on the music and playing traditions. These are great reference volumes which will keep you occupied for hours! While the Eastern European collection does cover some Klezmer music - for those who don't know, this is traditional Jewish music from Eastern Europe - there are also other collections focussing exclusively on this.

You can check out the folk music section on the website by clicking here: http://www.vsmusicsupplies.com/folk-music-239-c.asp

Further developments are planned for the folk music section - in particular, an increased selection from Scottish Publisher Taigh na Teud.

As always, if you are looking for something in particular and don't see it, drop us a line: contact@vsmusicsupplies.com and ask.

Next week - Christmas is coming...

Back to School ...

2008-08-31T06:17:00.002+01:00

It's that time of year again, and the mad rush to get everything ready for the new school year has begun. This year, the item of choice seems to be conductor's batons - I sold more in one week than I did in 9 months! I have a new range on the website - http://www.vsmusicsupplies.com/

Over the summer I have added lots of new items to the site:

gig bags/cases for clarinet and flute

massively increased selection for voice

new section for accordion

increased folk music section

Trinity Guildhall exam books

American Popular Piano

increased range of strings and instrumental accessories - more to come on this

So why not check out the site and see what's new?

New Exam Syllabus for 2009 - piano, singing

2008-08-15T18:18:00.005+01:00

This summer has been a bit of a double whammy, with both Associated Board and Trinity Guildhall bringing out the new piano exam syllabus for 2009 at the same time. The website - www.vsmusicsupplies.com now contains all the new books and pieces. CD recordings of the exam pieces are a great way to decide which pieces to choose for the exam, and are a good guide to how a piece of music should be played - these are also on the website.

The Associated Board has also made changes to piano scales and sight-reading - the new books are now on the website. Do remember that while the 2007/2008 exam pieces can be played for the first set of exams in early 2009, the old scales and sight-reading are no longer valid and you will need the 2009 set.

Discounts on bulk purchases of these books are available for teachers - just put "teacher's pack" into the search engine.

The Associated Board has also given the singing syllabus a makeover, with new sight-reading there as well. There will be new set of songbooks published soon, but they are currently being printed and are expected to be available in early September. In the meantime, I am gradually loading all the exam pieces for the singing syllabus on the website.

The Art of Song (Edition Peters songbook) has been revised and republished in line with the new syllabus. So it's all change for voice!

I try hard to get all the pieces needed for exams for every instrument, but if you ever can't find anything, do drop me a line - contact@vsmusicsupplies.com - and ask, I can get pretty much anything that's in print.

That's all for now, I will keep the blog updated with the new publications.

Ruth

For Amusement Only!

2008-07-25T18:39:00.005+01:00

Someone sent me this and I thought it would be good to share ...

The Golden Rules of Ensemble Playing

Everyone should play the same piece.
Stop at every repeat sign and discuss in detail whether to take the repeat or not. The audience will love this a lot!
If you play a wrong note, give a nasty look to one of your partners.
Keep your fingering chart handy. You can always catch up with the others.
Carefully tune your instrument before playing. That way you can play out of tune all night with a clear conscience.
Take your time turning pages.
The right note at the wrong time is a wrong note (and vice versa).
If everyone gets lost except you, follow those who get lost.
Strive to get the maximum NPS (note per second). That way you gain the admiration of the incompetent.
Markings for slurs, dynamics and ornaments should not be observed. They are only there to embellish the score.
If a passage is difficult, slow down. If it's easy, speed it up. Everything will work itself out in the end.
If you are completely lost, stop everyone and say, "I think we should tune".
Happy are those who have not perfect pitch, for the kingdom of music is theirs.
If the ensemble has to stop because of you, explain in detail why you got lost. Everyone will be very interested.
A true interpretation is realized when there remains not one note of the original.
When everyone else has finished playing, you should not play any notes you have left.
A wrong note played timidly is a wrong note. A wrong note played with authority is an interpretation.

by J.W. Swing

Being Green - How my parcels get to where they're going

2008-07-21T18:23:00.010+01:00

Every business has to be green these days, but how do you know that they really do what they say? I thought I would show you in pictures how my parcels start their journey to my customers.

I am keen that my business produces no waste, so every box of stock I receive from my suppliers is cut up and reused as stiffening for my parcels. Offcuts and leftover paper are composted or burned as firelighters. My parcels are made to the exact size of the contents, and wrapped in brown paper - economical and durable. It also helps keep down the cost of posting and packaging for my customers.

The parcels then go into my rucksack and start their journey to the post office - on foot. Across the river and up the hill, up the hill a bit more and then across the dual carriageway.

Past the church:

And to the post office:

Of course, there are some occasions when the rain is so heavy I take the post in the car (a car in the lowest emissions bracket), but most days my parcels travel the mile to the post office on foot.

By supporting my local post office with my parcels, I also help to keep business in the local area. So VS Music Supplies is a low waste, environmentally friendly business supporting other small businesses in the area.

If you have any thoughts on this or suggestions about how I can be greener, why not post a comment?

A Frustrating Week

2008-07-17T13:37:00.004+01:00

One of the frustrations of being a retailer is that you are dependent on a whole host of other people in getting products to your customers. I can't keep everything in stock all the time, though I do try to keep the most popular books. The thing is, when you urgently need something for a customer from a supplier who is normally 100% reliable, things go wrong. This week I have had:

the order placed with a supplier for an item which went out of print after I placed the order, only they didn't bother to tell me, just marked my order "complete" (!?) and forgot about it
the order placed by phone but promptly lost by the supplier and so not actioned
the supplier who dispatched an order later than they normally do, but in this case I really need something in the parcel, plus put inadequate postage on it which meant it took 4 days to arrive

I've also had parcels sent to a four-year old address, ones that disappear in the post completely never to be seen again, one which looked like it had been used as the office football, and ones with an incomplete address which took two weeks to reach me.

Another oddity which I really don't understand is that I tend to get a rush for a particular instrument or book, from all over the UK so I know it's not the same teacher! Sometimes I have a saxophone week, sometimes a flute, clarinet or violin week. This week it is "Music Theory in Practice Week". This book is published by the Associated Board and is a series of workbooks on music theory, hence the title. These books have recently been rewritten (the lower grades anyway) and republished in shiny new covers, so maybe that explains the demand this week? I don't know, but this week I have sold the same number as I normally do in two months. Very strange.

The new PayPal Express Checkout has been causing a few problems, with glitches in the software - in particular how it connects between my site and their checkout. I have spoken to my web hoster and they tell me they and PayPal are aware and working on it. In the meantime I have made a couple of changes to my checkout which should resolve most problems. I'm sorry if you have had problems, but it should be better now.