We were overwhelmed with your comments and reviewed hundreds of song suggestions and entries. Many of the songs you requested were already on our site in digital sheet music or guitar tab format. Be sure to check our original post Love Irish Music? Suggest a Long Lost Song To Win a $25 Gift Certificate! to see if your song was already part of our extensive Irish sheet music catalog on our site.

The first announcement we would like to make, is that we were able to fulfill several requests for one of your favorite artists from the Emerald Isle. After following up on your suggestions, we were reminded that Celtic Woman released a brand new album in January called “Songs from the Heart.” We are pleased to announce that we arranged all of the songs from this new collection, which included four songs that you had requested including: My Lagan Love, Nil Se’n La, The Lost Rose Fantasia and The Coast of Galicia. In honor of these requests, we’re offering you a chance to save money when you download sheet music from Celtic Woman’s new album “Songs from the Heart.”

From now through midnight on St. Patrick’s Day, enjoy an automatic 15% off all Celtic Woman sheet music.

We hope you enjoy the new arrangements of all twelve songs from “Songs from the Heart,” including the four that you had recommended to us.

In addition to our new selection of Celtic Woman sheet music, we are also arranging three songs that will be available to download on our site by St. Patrick’s Day. The songs are Farewell to Erin (Farewell to Ireland), Planxty Burke and In the Gloaming.

For those lucky seven winners that are expecting gift certificates to Musicnotes.com, we will be emailing those to you no later than Monday, March 15th.

Thanks again for entering this contest and we hope you had a lot of fun! Be sure to stay tuned as we look ahead to new contest ideas and updated rules.

In celebration of the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day celebration, we’re on the hunt for long lost Irish songs and we need your help.

Simply suggest an Irish song that we do not have digital sheet music for on Musicnotes.com in the comments below. If we add sheet music for your song by St. Patrick’s Day, you’ll win a twenty-five dollar gift certificate to our online store! You can use the gift certificate to purchase anything you need including: Irish sheet music, Guitar Guru Sessions, movie sheet music and much, much more!

Our Suggest an Irish Song Contest starts today and will run through midnight on Sunday, February 28th.

We’d like to present you with a few contest rules for our Suggest an Irish Song Contest. They are:

1. Where to Recommend Your Song: You must post your song suggestion with a title, composer and/or performer (if it’s a traditional piece, just say “traditional”) as a comment on this blog post with a valid email address. Any other requests will not be considered as part of this contest. The valid email address will only be used to notify you if you won a gift certificate, and is not publicly displayed when you comment on our blog.

2. What Songs We Will/Will Not Consider: We will consider any song suggestion related to Irish music. In order to be considered for the contest, the song that you recommend must not be currently available on Musicnotes.com in digital sheet music format.

3. How Winners Will be Notified: Musicnotes.com will review entries and award the gift certificates by March 17, 2010. Songs recommended will be added to the site by March 17, 2010.

We will notify you via email if you have won. Please be advised that only entries made from now through February 28th, 2009 are eligible for the contest.

To avoid confusion, winners will also be awarded on a first-come/first-serve basis. In other words, if two people request the same song, we will award the certificate to the first commenter with a valid email address. You may enter as many times as you like for your chance to win. No purchase necessary.

Please note: During our previous contest, we received several entries for arrangements of songs we already had on Musicnotes.com in digital sheet music format. Please be aware that only new songs are being considered for the contest.

Simply think of an Irish song, then search Musicnotes.com to ensure that we don’t have already have it. To enter, recommend the title, composer and/or performer in the comments below for your chance to win!

Be sure to stop back or bookmark the page and check the comments, too!

Irish Sheet Music for Your Songs

Thank you for taking the time to enter song suggestions into our contest. We really appreciate all your entries and have many to go through. Many of you pointed out that a folk song can have several names, and we did see quite a few variations of song titles in your requests. For example, An Irish Lullaby is also known as Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral.

A few of these songs, like Only If… by Enya, may not be visible in your country. While we do everything we can to ensure that songs are available worldwide, sometimes we can’t due to copyright restrictions.

Thank you to everyone who submitted a song suggestion for our contest. Any entries received after February 28, 2010 will be disqualified. Stay tuned for new Irish music!

The following songs are not eligible for the contest, because we already have sheet music for them on Musicnotes.com.

An Irish Blessing
An Irish Lullaby
Anywhere Is
At the Mid Hour of the Night
Avondale
Barb’ry Allen
Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms
Black is the Colour
Black is the Colour (of my true loves hair)
Boulavogue
Breathless
Carrickfergus
Chistmas In Killarney
Cockles And Mussels
Come All Ye Fair and Tender Maidens
Danny Boy
Do you want your old lobby washed down?
Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes
Dúlamán
Eleanor Plunkett
Finnegan’s Wake
Forgiven Not Forgotten
Galway Bay
Galway Races
Holy Ground
I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen
I’ll Tell Me Ma
I’m A Rover And Seldom Sober
If You’re Irish
If You’re Irish Come Into The Parlor
Isle Of Innisfree
Isn’t It Grand Boys
Langstrom’s Pony
Little town in the old County Down
Look to the Rainbow from FINIAN’S RAINBOW
MacNamara’s Band
Maggie
Mermaid
Molly Malone
Mountains Of Mourne
Musical Priest
My Irish Molly
My Singing Bird
My Wild Irish Rose
Only If…
Only Our Rivers Run Free
Out on the Ocean
Planxty Irwin
Pretty Girl Milking a Cow
Red is the Rose
Road to Lisdoonvarna
Rocky Road to Dublin
She Moved through the Fair
Siúil a Rún
Soldiers’ Joy
Spinning Wheel
Star Of The County Down
That’s An Irish Lullaby
The Bonny Swans
The Briar & The Rose
The Fields of Athenrye
The Irish Rover
The Mason’s Apron
The Parting Glass
The Patriot Game
The Rising of the Moon
The Rose of Tralee
The Sailor’s Hornpipe
The Spanish Lady
The Star of County Down
The Voice
The Water is Wide
The Wild Rover/The Unicorn
Toss the Feathers
Walking in the Air
Wearin’ O the Green
When Irish Eyes are Smilin’
Whiskey In The Jar
Whistlin’ Gypsy
Who Threw The Overalls in Mistress Murphy’s Chowder?
Wild Mountain Thyme
Women of Ireland

Are you a Broadway sheet music fan? You can now download arrangements of sheet music from SCROOGE: the MUSICAL. Songs include I Hate People, Christmas Children, Thank You Very Much and many more!

Songs from the Winter Holiday 2009 Suggest-a-Song Contest!

We’d like to extend a HUGE “Thank You” to all of you who suggested a song for our Winter Holiday 2009 Suggest-a-Song Contest! Our staff has started to review your suggestions and we have already added some of your requests, some of which were suggested several times!

• ‘Zat You, Santa Claus? by Louis Armstrong
• Medley of Sleigh Ride and Marshmallow World by Kristin Chenoweth
• Home on Christmas Day by Kristin Chenoweth
• When the River Meets the Sea by Paul Williams from EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS

We will be awarding a twenty five dollar gift certificate to the first commenter who suggested one of these titles sometime early next week. Watch the blog for more updates as we continue to review your Winter Holiday 2009 song suggestions! Thank you so much for your recommendations!

$4.95 Sale on all Christmas Guitar Guru Sessions!

From now until midnight, December 25, 2009, enjoy an average $2.00 savings on all of our Christmas Guitar Guru Sessions! Typically our Guitar Guru Sessions are $6.95 each, our limited-time sale price on these Christmas songs is only $4.95!

Enjoy the low price of $4.95 on all Christmas Guitar Guru Sessions from now until midnight, December 25, 2009!

Remember, each guitar lesson also comes with a corresponding guitar tab, too. Here are a few popular Christmas Guitar Guru Sessions included in the sale:

• Santa Baby for Electric Guitar
• Feliz Navidad for Acoustic Guitar
• Frosty the Snow Man for Acoustic Guitar
• Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer for Acoustic Guitar
• Happy Xmas (War Is Over) for Acoustic Guitar

In addition to these popular Christmas songs, we also have a broad selection of Guitar Guru Sessions that are Traditional Christian Christmas hymns, too. Choose from Guitar Guru Sessions like:

• Angels We Have Heard on High for Classical Guitar
• The First Noel for Classical Guitar
• Joy To The World for Acoustic Guitar
• Silent Night for Classical Guitar
• What Child Is This? for Acoustic Guitar

If you want to learn how to play guitar or a new Christmas song, be sure to browse our Christmas Guitar Guru Sessions to see what songs we have available.

That’s all the Christmas sheet music news we have for right now, but be sure to stay tuned for next week!

Simply suggest a winter holiday song that we do not have digital sheet music for on Musicnotes.com, for your chance to win a twenty-five dollar gift certificate to our online store! You can use the gift certificate to purchase anything you need including: Christmas sheet music, Guitar Guru Sessions, Chanukah sheet music and much, much more!

Our Suggest a Winter Holiday Song Contest starts today and will run through midnight on November 30th.

We’d like to present you with a few contest rules for our Suggest a Winter Holiday Song Contest. They are:

1. Where to Recommend Your Song: You must post your song suggestion with a title, composer and/or performer as a comment on this blog post with a valid email address. Any other requests will not be considered as part of this contest. The valid email address will only be used to notify you if you won a gift certificate, and is not publicly displayed when you comment on our blog.

2. What Songs We Will/Will Not Consider: We will consider any song suggestion related to a winter or a winter holiday. Some popular winter holidays include Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, etc. In order to be considered for the contest, the song that you recommend must not be on Musicnotes.com currently in digital sheet music format. Also, there is one song we are currently arranging that is not on Musicnotes.com. That song is African Noel.

3. How Winners Will be Notified: Musicnotes.com will review entries and award the gift certificates by December 15th, 2009. Songs recommended will be added to the site by December 25th, 2009. We will notify you via email that you have won. Please be advised that only entries made from now through November 30th, 2009 are eligible for the contest.

To avoid confusion, winners will also be awarded on a first-come/first-serve basis. In other words, if two people request the same song, we will award the certificate to the first commenter with a valid email address. You may enter as many times as you like for your chance to win. No purchase necessary.

Please note: Several of you are recommending additional arrangements of songs we already have on Musicnotes.com in digital sheet music format. Please be aware that only new songs are being considered for the contest.

Simply think of a winter holiday song, search Musicnotes.com to ensure that we don’t have already have it. Then, recommend the title, composer and/or performer in the comments below for your chance to win today! Be sure to stop back or bookmark the page and check the comments, too!

Can you tell us a little bit about your musical background?

I have been involved with music since I was very young, and have always enjoyed singing. I performed my first solo in the preschool nativity play when I was around 3 years old. I started taking piano lessons when I was 7 years old, violin when I was 9, and have sung solos in the Cape Town Eisteddfod every year since I was 8 -- although I only started weekly singing lessons when I was 13.

From 2005 to 2008, I was a part of Pro Cantu Youth Choir, an internationally-acclaimed a cappella youth choir led by conductor Leon Starker. This was a great experience, allowing me to travel overseas a number of times to many different countries. Highlights include participating in the World Choir Games in Xiamen, China in 2006 and in Graz, Austria in 2008 (where we were crowned Choir of the World in the Musica Sacra Category). We also traveled to New York in January 2008 to perform at Carnegie Hall; The Armed Man, a mass for peace by Karl Jenkins.

Singing is my passion; one of my greatest joys is to stand up in front of an audience and communicate with people through the words that I’m singing and the emotion that can be portrayed through the music.

Why did you choose this particular song?

I have a wide taste in music, but I particularly enjoy singing classical songs, early baroque pieces and Celtic folksongs. I have always loved singing a cappella – I think there is something special about presenting the voice in its simplicity; vulnerable and pure. Folk songs were passed down from generation to generation, sung in the kitchen or at the fire, accompanied by whichever instrument was available and often simply unaccompanied. I love the haunting melody of this song and the sad story it tells.

Christy-Lyn was also kind enough to share with us her comments about being able to download sheet music from Musicnotes.com. “I have been downloading sheet music from Musicnotes.com for quite a long time now, and I always appreciate being able to find exactly what I’m looking for, and receiving it instantly – when I’m inspired to sing a particular song, I get quite involved and impatient, and it’s great to know that I can rely on Musicnotes for quality music without delay or complication.”

Please take a moment to watch May’s winning video. Musicnotes.com congratulations Christy-Lyn on her performance, and wishes her the best of luck with her music-filled future. Good luck, Christy-Lyn!

Sheet Music Portfolios on Sale at 20% Off!

To protect your digital sheet music, we offer these sheet music portfolios designed to help you organize and play your favorite songs. What makes our portfolio so special? Not only can you personalize these portfolios, we’ve tested them to ensure that they’ll lay flat on your piano or music stand so you’ll be able to keep your fingers on your keyboard.

Comes with 12 clear inserts, but you can also order our portfolio refills or put in your own inserts to expand your storage capacity. Our Musicnotes.com sheet music portfolios may hold between 25 to 35 inserts; each insert can hold two sheets for approximately 50 to 70 sheets of music.

Our Musicnotes.com digital sheet music portfolio is normally $7.95, but is now on sale for $6.36 through the end of June! Order your digital sheet music portfolio today!

Grab a Guitar Guru Headset at 20% Off

Last month, we offered a special sale on every Guitar Guru Session we had in our inventory. For our June deals, we’re offering reduced shipping and 20% off our Guitar Guru headsets for the PC. Our Guitar Guru headset will allow you to work with our voice command feature available for the PC and keep your hands on your guitar!

We tested a bunch of different headsets for Guitar Guru yet the one that stood out offers noise-canceling, excellent sound quality. Your Plantronics Guitar Guru headset typically ships in one business day.

Normally, our headset retails for $24.95 plus shipping. Take 20% off our Guitar Guru headset for a price of $19.96 and get $2.95 shipping to U.S. addresses! Order your Guitar Guru Headset today!

Submit your June Entry for our YouPerform Contest!

Remember, voting for our May YouPerform Contest will end in just a few days and one lucky winner will get chosen. Hope you’re practicing one of our free sheet music downloads or any of our other Musicnotes Editions for our contest.

Prize is $100 gift certificate to Musicnotes.com, so be sure to join this month’s contest group on YouTube! and read our Musicnotes.com YouPerform contest rules!

June Coupon for 15% Off your Next Digital Order!

Last but not least, celebrate the beginning of summer with this great discount! Take 15% off your next digital order — including our Guitar Guru Sessions — through midnight on June 30th. Just insert coupon code MNSUN when you check out to take advantage of this limited time offer! Limit one coupon per customer.

Take advantage of these great deals while you can, because they’re not going to be around forever. Keep your eyes on the summer sky and don’t forget to practice, practice, practice!

For the first time, one of our contestants decided to submit a creative video, where she did not record herself as a performer. We contacted our contestant, asking her why she chose to submit her entry this way. She said, “I do not show myself singing because I wanted to put the emphasis on the words of this beautiful song -- which is really like a prayer for our country. I never knew more than the first stanza of this song and when I sat down to work on the piece I was amazed at the beauty and idealism of the lyrics.” You can read the full description if you click back to YouTube! from the video for “America the Beautiful.”

Our second contestant in this round of voting is a singer who performed ‘Tis the Last Rose of Summer a cappella.

We hope you take the time to watch these videos and vote for May’s Musicnotes.com YouPeform Contest winner! Are you inspired? Don’t forget to submit your entry for June’s contest, too!

Narelle and Elaine’s musical journey began at a housewarming party where Narelle sang the song “Welcome to my World.” When speaking with Elaine after her performance, Narelle discovered that not only was Elaine a musician as well, but an active volunteer who dedicated her piano and accordion skills to perform music at local retirement homes and care facilities for the elderly.

Excited by the idea, Narelle offered to sing and perform with Elaine, who responded very warmly to the idea. Not long afterward, the duet began rehearsing and structured four or five musical programs over the course of the following year that were comprised of 30 or 40 songs per program. In Elaine’s experiences, she had learned that senior citizens are particularly partial to songs from the World War eras and had been playing most of the songs by ear prior to her work with Narelle. Unfamiliar with music from the era, Narelle felt she had a huge amount of learning to do, especially since there wasn’t a lot of sheet music on hand for those songs.

When Elaine didn’t have the necessary sheet music for a particular song, Narelle found herself struggling to learn the songs by ear. To find the sheet music, Narelle turned to Musicnotes.com where she usually found what she needed. Many of the songs on Musicnotes.com are arranged with a vocal line and corresponding accompaniment, so both musicians ended up benefiting from Narelle’s sheet music downloads. Narelle also found that she was surprised that a number of highly-popular short songs like “Daisy Bell” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” turned out to be the choruses of ballads with two or three verses.

While the journey for Narelle and Elaine hasn’t been easy, it’s been a rewarding one that has led them to their award-winning YouPerform contest entry of “(I’ll Be With You) In Apple Blossom Time.”

“Thank you, Musicnotes, for the monthly free sheet music and the opportunity to hone our craft through the YouPerform contest, and thank you to previous winners who advised to ‘make a piece your own’ and ‘find something to make it special’,” wrote Narelle and Elaine. Both performers also added their advice for contest entrants:

Narelle mentioned to us that other musicians should “be true to the sort of music you want to do and don’t let yourself be swayed by what others say is popular. Be courageous — stick with what you do best.”

Elaine’s advice is this: “If you’re given an opportunity, HAVE A GO, even if you think it’s beyond you. Very often you’ll find that with practice it wasn’t as hard as you thought it would be.” — April 2009 YouPerform Contest Winners

Musicnotes.com would like to extend its best wishes to Narelle and Elaine on their musical future. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about your April YouPerform contest winners, and that you’re inspired to sing or play an eligible song for this month’s YouPerform contest. Until next time, we invite you to watch the winning performance below.

We’ve taken off $1.00 on every Guitar Guru Session in our catalog, offering you the chance to learn your favorite songs! Choose from blues Sessions like The Thrill is Gone or classic rock Sessions like Barracuda.

Here are a few other Guitar Guru Session favorites that you’ve enjoyed:

No coupon code is required for you to enjoy this limited time offer, which is good through the entire month of May.

Want more Guru? Each week we’ll be getting behind-the-music to feature some of your favorite artists and performers that define what a “rock-n-roll” guru is all about. For more about how this software can help you learn your favorite song, visit Guitar Guru Sessions online or download your free Guitar Guru Session on our free sheet music page and give Guru a try!

Download Old McDonald Had a Farm for Free!

Did you know that “Old McDonald Had a Farm” has a song history spanning over two hundred years? Some music scholars speculate that the song’s history may be traced to an early 18th century opera called “The Kingdom of the Birds,” but it wasn’t until the early 20th century that “Old McDonald” evolved to the song as we know it today. Initially published in 1917, this beloved nursery rhyme has been translated into several languages and has been recorded by dozens of performers around the world.

Download free sheet music for Old McDonald Had a Farm through the end of May. Don’t forget, this song is eligible for your entry into our Musicnotes.com YouPerform Contest for May 2009. Just join our May 2009 contest group on YouTube! and submit your performance for a chance to win!

Vote Now for Your April 2009 Contest Winner!

Speaking of contests, will you help us decide your favorite YouPerform contest winner for April? We have three entries this month, and we’d love to get your vote. Hope you’re considering entering next month’s contest, we’d love to hear you sing or play!

Don’t forget to check out our Musicnotes.com YouPerform Contest rules page to find out how you can submit your video for May!

All three of our winners played variations of the song Bunessan which is also referred to as Morning Has Broken. We had the chance to catch up with our winners, and we’d like to shine the spotlight on them as they talk about their experiences in music and their contest entry.

First Place Winner

Your first place winner in the contest was a talented musician named Rachel, who played the song as a “duet” with her performance of both the Irish whistle and the piano. Rachel taught herself how to play the piano and read music when she was six. Although she’s had formal piano training, Rachel taught herself how to play the Irish whistle about a year and a half ago. She’s currently learning how to play violin.

Excited to win, Rachel also talked a little bit about why she chose to play the arrangement the way she did. When we asked her why she chose the Irish whistle and the piano for her performance, she responded with:

“I decided to arrange Bunessan for Irish whistle and piano because I really like both instruments. I couldn’t decide between the two, so I did both. I also really like how the Irish whistle sounds with the piano. I’ve done the same thing with two other songs that my brother composed, except I recorded two Irish whistle tracks instead of one. We have a website with our music on it here: http://lambsundries.com/music.html”

In Second Place

Playing for ten years, Renee took second place in our YouPerform contest. Many of you had enjoyed Renee’s piano performance of Bunessan, and from what we learned Renee has a bright future ahead of her. Renee loves music so much she’d like to go into the performing arts some day. When we asked her what she enjoyed the most about playing piano, she said: “I love to just start playing and forget about everything else for a while. I love just “being in the music” and feeling the beautiful harmonies.”

Renee also had some great advice for future Musicnotes.com YouPerform contestants:

I would just say to make it your own. It doesn’t have to be the exact rhythm or even the absolute perfect notes. Just play it now you feel it.

Just look at the first place winner. She completely made it her own and it was beautiful. Most of all have fun doing it! — RENEE, Second Place Winner

And in Third Place…

We take a trip around the world to the Philippines to bring you your third place winner. Wilma has been playing piano since she was eight years old, but eventually life got in the way of her music performance. Picking it up again, Wilma estimates she’s been playing for about twenty years. When we asked her how music is a part of her life, she mentioned that she’s a big movie buff and enjoys playing songs from movies. As Wilma put it, “Music is what makes life beautiful.”

We also asked her if she had any advice for people learning how to play piano. Wilma revealed that:

My advice is that you need to put a lot of effort in practicing, because that’s the way all piano players improve our playing skills. Also, it pays to learn how to read notes and not just play by ear. Both learning how to read sheet music and mastering how to play by ear are two great skills to learn in order to become an advanced keyboard player. --WILMA, Third Place Winner

Wilma also had some great advice to share regarding our contest. She said, “Don’t forget to put a personal touch into your playing to set your video apart from other entries who may be playing the same song.”

Watch the Winning Entries!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this first-hand look into our music contestants as they describe their musical background and their thoughts on our contest. We encourage you to get inspired by their wining entries and can’t wait to watch your video entry for next month’s contest. For your enjoyment, watch the winning videos below.