The Whole Note

Scrooge the Musical, Guitar Guru $4.95 Sale and More in The Whole Note

Posted on Dec 04, 2009 by Monica.

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Based on the holiday classic A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens, SCROOGE: the MUSICAL brings this cautionary tale about a cranky old man who needs to reconnect with his fellow man to the big stage. Several characters, including some unusual ghosts, visit Scrooge to try to teach him a very important lesson. This holiday Broadway musical is often on stage this time of year, so be sure to check your area for show times.

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!

Newsletter Frosty 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:

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:

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!

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New! Christmas Sheets for Instruments, Owl City and More in the Whole Note

Posted on Nov 27, 2009 by Monica.

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Santa Girl with Trumpet Do you play clarinet, trumpet or another band instrument? This year, we’re pleased to expand our selection of Christmas sheet music for alternate instruments. Last week, we highlighted selections of Canadian Brass sheet music.

This week, we’d like to mention brand new solos, duets, trios, quartets and corresponding accompaniments by sheet music publisher Kendor. We’ve added a few songs this week, and are happy to offer more Christmas arrangements -- just in time for the holidays!

Here’s a few songs we’ve added this week. Don’t forget, there’s a lot more to come!

Be sure to watch our blog for more Christmas sheet music updates for your favorite instruments!

Christmas Book Sale Ends Midnight on Monday!

LAST CHANCE!!! From now until midnight, November 30th, enjoy up to thirty percent off a variety of Christmas sheet music books.

Have you taken advantage of our Christmas sheet music book sale yet? Save up to 30 percent on select sheet music books and Christmas songbooks like WHITE CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS SONG ESSENTIALS, POLAR EXPRESS and many more!

Songs from our selection of Polar Express sheet music continues to be a popular holiday favorite with many of our customers. From now until midnight November 30th, the 72-page POLAR EXPRESS sheet music book is $3.00 off bringing it to $16.95 on sale!

This songbook features many popular songs including When Christmas Comes To Town, Believe and Hot Chocolate.

To check out our sale, visit our Christmas Sheet Music and Song Books store page.

Sheet Music for Fireflies by Owl City and Hot Song Requests!

If you’re one of the many customers who has requested sheet music from us, you’ll be delighted to know that we’ve added a few selections we believe you’re really going to get excited about. First, we just put up sheet music for I Belong To You (+ Mon Coeur S’ouvre a Ta Voix) by Muse. This song, composed by Matthew Bellamy, is a brand new addition to our selection of NEW MOON sheet music.

We also added a new contemporary Christian Christmas song entitled Christmas with a Capital C by Go Fish.

Last but not least, we just received sheet music for Fireflies by Owl City! We were overwhelmed with your sheet music requests for this particular song. Watch this YouTube! video below and see what all the music buzz is about!

That’s all the time we have for now. We hope you’re enjoying our sheet music updates and we’re excited to share with you more updates soon!

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Canadian Brass and Christmas Musicnotes Editions in the Whole Note

Posted on Nov 20, 2009 by Monica.

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Have you heard the music of Canadian Brass? This world-famous brass quintet offers gorgeous recordings by composers like J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, Pachelbel, Beethoven and more. Musicnotes.com is proud to offer Canadian Brass sheet music. We offer songs for french horn quartets as well as brass quintets that include the tuba, trombone, trumpet and french horn, too!

We’d like to highlight some arrangements that are perfect for the winter holidays. Scoring varies by song, so for your convenience we’ve remarked what individual arrangement is.

Sleigh Runners for Brass Quintet with optional percussion
A medley of What Child Is This? / Coventry Carol for Brass Quartet
We Three Kings for Brass Quintet with optional Tuba intro
Jingle Bells for a French Horn Quartet
O Come All Ye Faithful for a French Horn Quartet

For more arrangements, be sure to visit our selection of sheet music for Canadian Brass. It’s perfect for the holidays!

Popular New Songs from Your Requests!

We have a few songs that went up this week that you’ve asked for. Jump Then Fall by Taylor Swift and Change by Carrie Underwood are two, recent songs that several of you were asking for. We’ve also received Broadway sheet music for THE LAST FIVE YEARS. Composed by acclaimed songwriter Jason Robert Brown; you can sing or play twelve songs from this unique one-act musical experience.

15 Percent Off Coupon for Your Next Christmas Musicnotes Edition Purchase

Are you interested in getting the best value on Christmas sheet music this year? Then you’ll want to take advantage of this money-saving coupon that includes our Christmas Musicnotes Editions. Whenever you see that little, green note, you’ll know you’re getting a phenomenal value because our Musicnotes Editions allow you to print unlimited copies of your sheet music and you’re granted both performance and recording rights for the piece! The average price of our Musicnotes Editions is $4.95, and the coupon is good for 15 percent off your entire purchase. No minimum purchase is required!

Christmas Musicnotes Editions include arrangements for vocalists, pianists and choirs. We’re also arranging and offering Christmas Musicnotes Editions for C, E♭, and B♭ instruments, too!

%15 OFF!	Stretch your fingers and dust off your keys! From now through December 25, 2009, Save 15 Percent off of your next digital sheet music purchase. Simply enter in MNEDITION when you check out and enjoy a %15 off savings on any digital music download from our Musicnotes Edition catalog. Limit one coupon per customer.
Offer Expires: Midnight, December 25th, 2009 – Use coupon code MNEDITION when you shop at Musicnotes.com and enjoy 15 Percent off any digital purchase that includes a Musicnotes Edition. Includes sheet music, guitar tab or Guitar Guru Session.

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Special Reminders from Musicnotes.com

musicnotes-santa Just to let you know, we have two special promotions ending on Monday, November 30th. First, our Save Up to Thirty Percent Off Select Christmas Sheet Music Books and Songbooks Sale will wrap up on that day, so if you haven’t checked them out, be sure to do that this week. Second, if you want to enter our Winter Holiday Song Suggestion Contest only entries entered through midnight, November 30th will be considered for the contest.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend and be sure to stay tuned for more updates!

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Up, Star Trek and Next to Normal in This Week’s The Whole Note

Posted on Nov 13, 2009 by Monica.

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In this week’s Whole Note, we have quite a few shows that we received sheet music for including the widely popular (and one of the most requested) Broadway shows NEXT TO NORMAL, the animated feature UP which arrived on DVD this week, and music for the new STAR TREK, which also debuts on DVD shortly.

We are happy to announce that we’re now able to offer sheet music for NEXT TO NORMAL. This Broadway show about a family trying to deal with a mother’s bipolar disorder has been extremely popular, and has continued to be a highly requested collection of songs.

Now you can play or sing songs from a wide selection of Broadway sheet music from this Tony award-winning show. Some of the more popular songs include: Superboy and the Invisible Girl, I’m Alive and Light. Thank you to everyone who requested sheet music for NEXT TO NORMAL. We hope you enjoy these arrangements from this Broadway show.

For those of you who love movie sheet music, we’re proud to announce two films that are debuting on Musicnotes.com. The first film is the animated movie UP, about an older gentleman named Carl who takes the adventure of a lifetime. We are now offering movie sheet music downloads for Disney’s UP, which includes songs like Married Life and Stuff We Did. Feel free to browse through our selection of sheet music from UP if you’re looking for a different song.

Do you love science fiction movies? Here at Musicnotes.com, over the years we’ve had epic musical battles between Star Trek and Star Wars sheet music. We’ve added several new instrumental solos including CLONE WARS sheet music in our effort to provide fans with the music you want to play. This week, we’ve added STAR TREK sheet music. Let the music fill the air and let a new space battle…BEGIN!

Winter Song Suggestion Contest Reminder

Special thanks to everyone who entered our Winter Song Suggestion contest so far. Just as a reminder, there’s still time left if you would like to enter for your chance to win a $25.00 gift certificate to Musicnotes.com! Simply go to our Suggest a Winter Holiday Song Contest, read the instructions, and enter! It’s really easy! GOOD LUCK!

Sheet Music for Songs You’ve Requested

Musicnotes.com Logo In addition to new movie and Broadway sheet music, we’ve also added a few songs that come straight from your song requests. They are:

The song Everyday was composed for this YouTube! video of Noah, who took a picture of himself every day for six years and then set it to music. Garnering over 14 million views, this video set to music is a shining example of how there truly is a song for everyone. We are thrilled to fulfill this unique song request, and hope that you enjoy being a part of this unusual sheet music experience.

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Free Holiday Songs, New Suggestions & Contest News in The Rest

Posted on Nov 01, 2009 by Monica.

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Tis the Season For this month’s free sheet music download, we are offering separate arrangements for piano and guitar.

For our free piano sheet music download, we are featuring a holiday medley of the songs Jolly Old St. Nicholas and Up on the Housetop.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas is a traditional Christmas carol that may have been composed in the early 1900s. The simple lyrics are about someone wishing for St. Nick to come and leave them presents in their stockings. Up on the Housetop (Ho! Ho! Ho!) is an older traditional Christmas carol from the 1860s. Composed by Benjamin Hanby, this popular tune is also about Santa coming down the chimney to fill the stockings of little kids with presents. Combined, the two carols together create a fun, holiday medley that we hope you’ll enjoy singing and playing.

This holiday medley is available as a free sheet music download from now until the end of November. We have provided abridged lyrics as part of the medley, so you can sing our arrangement as a solo or with your family and friends!

Guitar Guru Lovers! Download the Russian Dance for Free!

This month’s free Guitar Guru Session and guitar tab, is a movement from The Nutcracker Suite composed by Tchaikovsky. The Russian Dance, which is also known as Trepak, was composed as part of the ballet in the early 1890s.

Now you can learn how to play the Russian Dance from The Nutcracker Ballet on guitar for free, through the month of November. Simply visit our free sheet music page to download this seasonal arrangement. We hope you enjoy it!

New Songs from YOUR Requests!

We have been hard at work adding a ton of new songs that you’ve asked for. First, we’d like to point out that we are expanding our selection of alternate instruments solos. This week, we added a ton of popular flute sheet music solos by some of your favorite artists. We’ve also added quite a few fun songs for guitar, including new guitar tab by Taylor Swift.

Here are some new songs we’ve added from the songs that you’ve requested:

For Emma by Bon Iver
Chances by Five for Fighting
I Know It’s Today by Jeanine Tesori
Guitar Guru Session for Cold as Ice by Foreigner
So This Is Love by Cinderella
Does It Still McFly? by Michael Giacchino and other songs from the new STAR TREK.
Come Back to Me by David Cook
Haven’t Met You Yet by Michael Buble

Contest News! Guitar Guru Headset Give-a-Way and New Contest!

For the month of November, be sure to check out our Suggest a Winter Holiday Song Contest for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Musicnotes.com!

We’ve contacted our Guitar Guru headset winner for October’s contest. Thank you to everyone who entered for a chance to win.

Until next time, remember… practice really does make perfect!

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Song Requests in The Whole Note

Posted on Oct 23, 2009 by Monica.

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Are you a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? This television show, created by Joss Whedon, was about a teenage slayer who hunts vampires. Certain episodes were risky, creative endeavors that pushed the boundaries of this paranormal show. For example, Hush was an episode nominated for an Emmy with very little dialogue. Once More With Feeling was a musical episode that is widely popular, even to this day. The lyrics were part of the episode’s story, so characters often broke out into song. Of course, there were also a few random blurbs in the show that added a little bit of silliness, too.

With music and lyrics written by Joss Whedon, the songs offer a range of styles from jazz to rock to Broadway. Now, you can download digital sheet music for Once More With Feeling. Here are some of the more memorable songs from this popular episode:

I’ll Never Tell which was sung by Xander and Anya
Going Through the Motions was sung by Buffy, but was also sung as a reprise.
Rest In Peace was sung by the vampire Spike to Buffy.
Under Your Spell was sung by Tara to Willow
Standing was sung by Giles
Walk Through the Fire was sung by the cast from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

In addition to songs from this musical episode, we also have more sheet music from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, including the theme song.

Hit Songs from Your Song Requests

MusicNotes Halloween We are pleased to announce that we’ve added these brand new songs straight from your song requests from some wonderful performers!

Stay tuned for more news about your song requests and Christmas sheet music. We’ve heard that some of you are already practicing Christmas carols, and we want to ensure that we get you the sheet music you need to sing or play for this year’s holiday season!

ONE WEEK LEFT! Take $1.00 Off Your Next Digital Music Purchase

$1.00 OFF!	Tickle your ivories and warm up your pipes! We’re offering you the chance to save $1.00 off of your next digital sheet music purchase. Simply enter in MNTREAT when you check out and enjoy a $1.00 off savings on any digital music download. Limit one coupon per customer. We hope you enjoy our Halloween treat to you!
Offer Expires: Midnight, Oct 31, 2009 – Use coupon code MNTREAT when you shop at Musicnotes.com and enjoy $1 off your digital purchase including: sheet music, guitar tab or Guitar Guru Session.

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Spooky Broadway Shows, $1 Off Treat and More in The Whole Note

Posted on Oct 16, 2009 by Monica.

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Spooky Broadway Shows In this edition of The Whole Note, we’d like to turn your attention to the sound and stage. Do you know what’s lurking behind the curtain? We do! There are several Broadway shows that are perfect for Halloween. Whether they inspire you to dress up in costume or sing a little tune, we think you might get a kick out of these shows.

SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a Broadway show that first appeared on stage in the late 1970s. Based on a character from the Penny Dreadful serial novel from the mid-1860s, this spooky barber cut more than his client’s hair. Assisted by Mrs. Lovett who bakes his victims into her pies, this is definitely one of the creepier shows ever to hit the stage on Broadway. Songs include Green Finch and Linnet Bird, Not While I’m Around and The Worst Pies in London.

Man-eating plants from outer space, frightening dentists and big hair run amok in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. The show has a little bit of a “B”-movie feel to it. A popular show for a lot of kids, songs include Suddenly, Seymour, Somewhere That’s Green and Feed Me.

Both PHANTOM and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA were inspired by the 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra written by Gaston Leroux. The story of a disfigured man-in-the-shadows who falls in love with a beautiful girl named Christine may be part romance, but it’s also a terrifying and tragic story, too. Over the years, the phantom’s signature mask has inspired many Halloween costumes. The new PHANTOM is more like the original novel than the Andrew Lloyd Webber version, but both offer memorable and haunting songs like Think of Me and Home.

Other Broadway shows perfect for Halloween include WICKED, JEKYLL AND HYDE, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.

New Moon Sheet Music New Releases!

This week, we’ve added two classical pieces from the brand new NEW MOON soundtrack. Both of these songs are part of the bonus track on the CD, and sheet music is available for instant download.

Die Fledermaus — Duettino: Ach, ich darf nicht hin zu dir performed by APM Orchestra
Wandrers Nachtlied II, Op. 96, No. 3, D.768 performed by Ulf Bastlein

Be sure to watch Musicnotes.com for more updates about upcoming sheet music for New Moon.

Join Your Fellow Music Lovers on Facebook!

facebook_logo Have you visited Musicnotes on Facebook? We have been having a lot of fun on our Facebook page. Many of you have chimed in and offered us feedback or enjoyed our Facebook-specific contests. When you become a fan of us on Facebook, we’ll offer you some sneak previews that will show up in your updates.

Thank you so much for sharing your love of music! We hope you continue playing and practicing your favorite songs!

And if you’re on Facebook…we’ll see you there!

Trick or Treat! Take $1.00 Off Your Next Digital Music Purchase

$1.00 OFF!	Tickle your ivories and warm up your pipes! We’re offering you the chance to save $1.00 off of your next digital sheet music purchase. Simply enter in MNTREAT when you check out and enjoy a $1.00 off savings on any digital music download. Limit one coupon per customer. We hope you enjoy our Halloween treat to you!
Offer Expires: Midnight, Oct 31, 2009 – Use coupon code MNTREAT when you shop at Musicnotes.com and enjoy $1 off your digital purchase including: sheet music, guitar tab or Guitar Guru Session.

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Great Song Requests and Vocal Method Book Sales in The Whole Note

Posted on Sep 18, 2009 by Monica.

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From sheet music for songs from Glee to filling your song requests and adding sheet music for songs from The Beatles: Rock Band, we have had a very busy past couple of weeks. We are thrilled to announce several new songs that we’ve been working on. Some of these songs are older; some are “brand new.”

For example, we have sheet music for Meet Me On The Equinox from Death Cab for Cutie. This song is the first song announced for the movie NEW MOON, the sequel to TWILIGHT. The song Magic by Selena Gomez, on the other hand, is a song from the 70s that many of you have asked for.

Here is a list of some other great songs that we’ve been adding to fulfill your song requests:

For those of you that prefer Christian sheet music, we’d also like to point out a few songs that we’ve added for your requests, too.

If you’re interested, please feel free to add your sheet music requests through our song suggestion tool.

Up to 25% Off Vocal Method Books

Are you a vocalist who wants to improve your skills? How about a singer who wants to improve your sight-reading? Whenever we talk about things like How To Find Your Vocal Range or offer some Sheet Music Sight-Reading Tips, you often tell us how much you appreciate the information. To help you become a better singer, we’re putting a great selection of vocal method books on sale.

From now through midnight, September 30th, enjoy up to twenty-five percent off select vocal method books. The price is automatically deducted from the books you want to buy; there’s no minimum purchase nor do you have to enter a coupon.

Included in our sale are vocal method books like The New Voice (How to Sing and Speak Properly) or the The Contemporary Singer (Elements of Vocal Technique) which we’ve pictured on the left. The New Voice method book has more of an emphasis on singing mechanics and is originally $15.95, but it’s on sale for $12.76, while The Contemporary Singer is perfect for vocalists wanting to appear on stage. We also recommend the book Sight-Sing Any Melody Instantly, for those of you who want to improve your skills in that area.

To take advantage of this sale, we invite you to visit our vocal method books page to browse our recommended titles.

Take 10% Off Guitar Guru Sessions

We recently had some fun promotions for Guitar Guru, like our huge $10,000 give-a-way, but we’re not done yet! From now until midnight, September 30th take ten percent off of your favorite Guitar Guru Sessions. Just enter code GG3TEN at checkout to take advantage of the savings. Limit one per customer.

You might want to check out some of the hot new Sessions we’ve added. This Guitar Guru Session of Yesterday by The Beatles has already hit our top five! With the release of the remastered CDs and BEATLES: ROCK BAND, Beatlemania seems to have literally struck a chord with guitarists. Check out these Guitar Guru Sessions for The Beatles to see some of the new Sessions we’ve added.

If you’re not sure what you want to play, here’s a few more suggestions from a broad range of musical styles for you:

Well that’s all the time we have for this week’s edition of The Whole Note. Until next time, make sure you tighten those strings and flex your fingers!

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25% Off Sale on Musicnotes Editions and More in The Whole Note

Posted on Jul 24, 2009 by Monica.

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Musicnotes Edition Logo From now until midnight July 31st, enjoy a twenty-five percent off savings on our Musicnotes Editions sheet music. (The average price of a Musicnotes Edition is around $4.95, so the sale would bring the price to around $3.71.) There is no coupon code for this sale; we have automatically deducted the twenty-five percent off so you can simply shop and enjoy!

What’s so special about Musicnotes Editions? Here’s a little explanation about our Musicnotes Editions, as well as an explanation of the additional benefits you’ll receive for buying this sheet music.

This digital sheet music was either arranged by Musicnotes.com’s staff of professional arrangers and composers or it is a new engraving of the composition’s original printed arrangement. When you purchase any Musicnotes Edition, you are granted performance and recording rights and you may print an unlimited number of copies of your purchased sheet music.

From christmas sheet music to classical piano sheet music, our Musicnotes Editions offer you a variety of song styles. For your convenience, we’d like to list some of the music styles we have available in this selection.

Blues songs in Musicnotes Editions
Children’s Songs in Musicnotes Editions
Choral Arrangements of Musicnotes Editions. You may also want to check out our vocal selections, too.
Christian-theme sheet music in our Musicnotes Editions. Includes some holiday sheet music and life events (e.g. weddings.)

Classical music in Musicnotes Editions

Country sheet music in Musicnotes Editions

Folk songs in Musicnotes Editions

Holiday and Special Occasion songs in Musicnotes Editions
Jazz songs in Musicnotes Editions
Methods and Studies in Musicnotes Editions
Pop songs in Musicnotes Editions
Rock music in Musicnotes Editions
Broadway showtunes in Musicnotes Editions
Traditional songs, ballads and melodies in Musicnotes Editions

For more sheet music in this special format, be sure to browse our Musicnotes Editions sheet music. You’ll want to pay special attention to the left hand sidebar; there are links that will help segment and filter our catalog to help you narrow down your selection.

Hot off the Sheet Music Press! New Songs!

These past few weeks have been very exciting for us, because we’ve been really busy adding a ton of new songs. Some of these tunes are very timely, and others we’ve arranged based on your song requests. Without further adieu, here’s a partial list of some of the new music you may be interested in playing:

Thank you to everyone for suggestion your favorite songs, we do listen to your requests. We hope you’re enjoying the sheet music from our store but regardless, we wish you the best with your music.

Last Chance Reminder! July Deals

July is almost over, but there’s still time to take advantage of our clearance bin for sheet music books, our July 10% off coupon (TAKETEN at checkout) and 20% off of our sheet music refills.

For more information about these July Summer $avings, be sure read our post about how you can Jump for July $avings on Sheet Music Books and more!

Have a wonderful weekend!

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Talent Shows like American Idol, YouPerform Contest Winner in the Whole Note

Posted on Apr 24, 2009 by Monica.

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In this week’s wrap-up, we talk about how talent shows are inspiring musicians everywhere to sing or play their instrument and provide you with some sheet music suggestions. We also reveal the winner of our own “talent” show, the Musicnotes.com YouPerform Contest for March 2009.

Britain’s Got Talent! Do you?

As we mentioned earlier this week in our press release entitled Susan Boyle Phenomenon Resonates in Sheet Music, “Britain’s Got Talent” singing sensation Susan Boyle has had a definite impact on sheet music. You’ve been so inspired by Susan Boyle’s performance of I Dreamed a Dream, that this single song from Les Miserables sheet music is one of your top downloads on Musicnotes.com.

That’s not the only performer that you’ve enjoyed, though. Competing for a chance to perform in front of the Queen, this past week Shaheen Jafargholi started singing the song Valerie by Amy Winehouse and Simon Cowell stopped him after the first few bars. Switching to the song Who’s Lovin’ You by the Jackson Five, this twelve-year old received a standing ovation. (Watch the video of Shaheen singing.) Another sensation was a music teacher playing an alto saxophone version of the song Somewhere from West Side Story named Julian Smith.

Looks like this talent show is inspiring more than just singers to offer their music to the world. How about you? What do you play?

Talent Show American Idol Continues to Impress You

Have you been following American Idol? This week was a big heart-breaker for Anoop Desai and Lil Rounds as they were eliminated from the show. Many of the songs sung by Danny Gokey, Adam Lambert, Kris Allen and all your favorite singers have inspired you to play the songs they’ve performed. Featured songs from our selection of American Idol sheet music for Season Eight include:

Whether you buy sheet music from us or not, we hope you pick up your favorite instrument or microphone and get inspired to play!

March 2009 YouPerform Contest Winners!

It seems like only yesterday we asked you to vote on the twelve entries to March’s Musicnotes.com YouPerform Contest. We have contacted the first place, second place and third place winners today, and have invited them to share with us a few words about their musical background and performance. We’ll offer you an update next week when we’re able to sit down with our lucky contestants.

We’d like to announce that your favorite performance is of the girl who played the piano and the hornpipe. Choosing the song “Bunessan,” here is the video of the March 2009 YouPerform Contest Winner for Musicnotes.com. Who placed second and third? Find out early next week when we offer you an inside look at our own musical contestants who are definitely talented!

The contest deadline for April is rapidly approaching and we’re really excited to see who’s going to enter. We hope you’re considering adding your contest entry, because if we receive a minimum of ten entries — we’ll give more away! Just yesterday we posted that:

Effective for March’s contest and any month going forward, we will award first, second and third place prizes provided we have a minimum of ten entries. For first place the YouPerform contest winner will receive a gift certificate in the amount of $100, second place will receive a $50 certificate, and third place will receive a certificate for $25.

What are you waiting for? We hope you’re so inspired, you’re ready to show the world what musical talent you’re hiding!

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Chopin, Ask Musicnotes and U2 in The Whole Note

Posted on Apr 09, 2009 by Monica.

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According to the Wikipedia entry on Chopin, “Chopin’s music for the piano combined a unique rhythmic sense (particularly his use of rubato), frequent use of chromaticism, and counterpoint. This mixture produces a particularly fragile sound in the melody and the harmony, which are nonetheless underpinned by solid and interesting harmonic techniques.

He took the new salon genre of the nocturne, invented by Irish composer John Field, to a deeper level of sophistication. Three of Chopin’s twenty-one Nocturnes were only published after his death in 1849, contrary to his wishes. He also endowed popular dance forms, such as the Polish mazurek and the Viennese waltz, with a greater range of melody and expression. Chopin was the first to write ballads and scherzi as individual pieces. He also took the example of Bach’s preludes and fugues, transforming the genre in his own Préludes.”

Musicnotes.com is proud to feature this classical composer known for his emotionally-charged works on our classical sheet music page. We’ve added dozens of Chopin sheet music that you can download for your next concert or practice for our Musicnotes.com YouPerform Contest.

Choose from over one-hundred and ninety different arrangements of Chopin sheet music for your needs. Remember, many of these songs are Musicnotes Editions, too!

Did you Ask Musicnotes about Transpositions? Here’s our Answer!

Many of your questions that we received were related to transpositions for sheet music. Specifically, how can you get your sheet music transposed to the key that is more comfortable for you, your choir or your band to play.

When songs are written into sheet music, they’re frequently set in keys that are comfortable for most players and singers. If an “originally-recorded in” key is noted on the sheet, Musicnotes.com tries to offer you a corresponding transposition.

You can transpose many of our sheet music downloads at the time of your purchase, but at this time we don’t offer any tools that allow you to transpose the songs yourself. If you have a song that you want in a different key, we’ll be happy to transpose it for you! Just contact our Musicnotes Customer Service department and request your transposition. Make sure that you give us a little bit of advance notice when you’re requesting transpositions so we can ensure we’re hitting the “right notes.”

Watch for an upcoming post next week where we share more answers for Ask Musicnotes!

Sheet Music for U2 Album “No Line on the Horizon”

U2 made waves earlier last month with the release of their new album, No Line on the Horizon. The CD is a departure from what we’ve come to identify as “classic” U2, and embraces old sounds in new and innovative ways. From the upbeat Get Your Boots On to the lovely melody White As Snow, U2’s new musical venture highlights a potpourri of musical styles that range from 70s throwbacks to world music.