Melissa's spent a ton of time working on the order form, and she feels she's finally gotten it looking and working the way she wants it to - so log on to www.GPSMusic.biz and give it a try! Let us know what you think! And if you type in the code PATIENCE, we'll give you a ten percent discount on your order for being so patient with us! Thanks!
Gordon and Melissa Smith, publishers, GPS MUSIC
Sunday, January 27, 2013
We've hit a BULLSEYE!
It's exciting to have the band directors in southern Idaho working on our song "BULLSEYE", which we donated and dedicated to the Idaho District IV Middle School Honor Clinic Band. Gordon remembers those first Saturday rehearsals where large portions of the 200-member band would gather to run through the selected music for the first time. Since most of the schools only send a handful of students to the Honor Band, those Saturday practices are often the first time the students and directors really get to hear the songs. It's been great to hear all the positive feedback on "BULLSEYE" from those directors over the last week - and here's hoping it spreads to those directors (and you!) taking another look at the rest of our library of great concert band music (and so much more!)
Sunday, January 20, 2013
To all the members of our GPS MUSIC COMMUNITY - Thank you.
Every start-up business is difficult, and GPS
MUSIC is no exception. We have a product and a business philosophy we
deeply believe in - original and unique music, with a PDF-based delivery
system and the same create-a-family
atmosphere we used as teachers. But those won't by themselves make us a
successful, profitable enterprise able to help the thousands of music
directors we hope to eventually reach with this creation. Your
following, your belief in us, your participation in the GPS MUSIC
COMMUNITY is what will make our dream come true. Thanks for your help -
we'll continue to do our best to make this what you need it to be!
- Gordon and Melissa Smith, publishers, GPS MUSIC
- Gordon and Melissa Smith, publishers, GPS MUSIC
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Carving more new niches...
In the process of trying to deliver what our patrons want, rather than what convention dictates, encouragement from several directions has led us to a new category of music coming to our web site in the coming months - the Massed Band Collection.
The need for pieces to play as combined band programs is being left completely unfulfilled - either your high school students are bored playing sixth grade music or your beginners are in way over their heads playing the older kids' pieces. The selections we're creating are three-level medleys which will work in single band performances, or in any combination of two versions, or the whole enchilada of all three versions working in conjunction. Some sections have everyone playing together - and the parts interlock and support each other - and some have individual bands playing their own material, so each band can have its own moment in the spotlight. (When you play just one or perhaps two of the three bands' parts, there are easy slices to be made deleting those unused solo sections.)
The benefits of combining your bands are many and obvious to experienced band directors, but for novices: realize that the best recruiting tool you have for your younger members is your older membership! And that the one of the best motivations for your older kids is the enthusiasm of younger players who idolize them!
There are two medleys in the works at this point, both of which should be available in the next few months: The First Hundred Years, a collection of early American folk songs (it begins with three contrasting versions of Yankee Doodle from the three bands, for example), and Christmas Collage (in which "Jingle Bells" is given the same treatment). Other combination pieces are on the drawing board - but if you have suggestions of ideas that you might use in this form, pass them on in the comments and we'll see what we can do for you!
Gordon was working on the Christmas medley over a year ago, when he was still teaching the Jerome band program, with the intent of using it in the year he chose not to teach band. Melissa encouraged him to explore the genre once she realized what he'd been developing, and then a few others thought this would be a useful and marketable creation. The biggest thank you goes to Gordon's longtime colleague April Peterson, who told us how she couldn't find anything to fit this bill for the Kuna program Gordon'd left her years ago, and wouldn't we be interested in creating something for her? That was the straw that broke the dam, to mix our metaphors.
Check out the GPS MUSIC Massed Band Collection as it appears over the course of 2013 - and if you teach in a program that can use something like this, drop us a line!
- Gordon and Melissa Smith, publishers, GPS MUSIC
The need for pieces to play as combined band programs is being left completely unfulfilled - either your high school students are bored playing sixth grade music or your beginners are in way over their heads playing the older kids' pieces. The selections we're creating are three-level medleys which will work in single band performances, or in any combination of two versions, or the whole enchilada of all three versions working in conjunction. Some sections have everyone playing together - and the parts interlock and support each other - and some have individual bands playing their own material, so each band can have its own moment in the spotlight. (When you play just one or perhaps two of the three bands' parts, there are easy slices to be made deleting those unused solo sections.)
The benefits of combining your bands are many and obvious to experienced band directors, but for novices: realize that the best recruiting tool you have for your younger members is your older membership! And that the one of the best motivations for your older kids is the enthusiasm of younger players who idolize them!
There are two medleys in the works at this point, both of which should be available in the next few months: The First Hundred Years, a collection of early American folk songs (it begins with three contrasting versions of Yankee Doodle from the three bands, for example), and Christmas Collage (in which "Jingle Bells" is given the same treatment). Other combination pieces are on the drawing board - but if you have suggestions of ideas that you might use in this form, pass them on in the comments and we'll see what we can do for you!
Gordon was working on the Christmas medley over a year ago, when he was still teaching the Jerome band program, with the intent of using it in the year he chose not to teach band. Melissa encouraged him to explore the genre once she realized what he'd been developing, and then a few others thought this would be a useful and marketable creation. The biggest thank you goes to Gordon's longtime colleague April Peterson, who told us how she couldn't find anything to fit this bill for the Kuna program Gordon'd left her years ago, and wouldn't we be interested in creating something for her? That was the straw that broke the dam, to mix our metaphors.
Check out the GPS MUSIC Massed Band Collection as it appears over the course of 2013 - and if you teach in a program that can use something like this, drop us a line!
- Gordon and Melissa Smith, publishers, GPS MUSIC
Sunday, January 6, 2013
ABOUT the ORDER Form...
We're hearing that the Order Form page on the website isn't working the way we wanted it to. Melissa's pulled it down for the time being, but that doesn't mean you can't keep ordering from us - just drop us an email at GPSMusic@rocketmail.com and tell us what you want to order! Thanks!
- Gordon and Melissa Smith, publishers, GPS MUSIC
- Gordon and Melissa Smith, publishers, GPS MUSIC
Creativity, or Daring To Be Different
For us, one of the joys of composing for the general public (instead of our own bands and choirs) is the chance to bring a different type of music - pieces and shows that are creative, humorous, and...well, different than many of our teachers are used to. Let's look at some samples:
The Alphabet Song is one of the newer pieces in the choral catalog, and it's a great example of a very different piece for your group. The lyrics are all letters of the alphabet, and they move from a zombie-like "A" (as in "brAins...") from the basses to the boys repeating "P-P-P-P-P-P...." and looking around as if somebody HAD, to the snoring Z's at the end of the song. Another choir selection coming any day now is our "Caveman Love Song", which allows your boys to be a little bit, um.... Neandrathal. Your girls have some lovely melodies, though, and you'll love the lyrics and back-and-forth. We'll get that up on the website within the month.
In the beginning band department, you've got songs like Samurai Warrior available to you - your youngsters can call and chant like Japanese samurai, and your drummers can be first year players and still have a taiko drum-style feature. For your higher-level middle school bands, try A Children's Carousel, where your band can present a host of nursery songs in a wild array of forms: "Mary Had A Little Lamb" in 7/8 and 6/8, "Twinkle" in a whole tone scale, "Hot Cross Buns" with any number of percussion 'toys', and "Old MacDonald" with some singing, honking, and buzzing from the clarinets and trumpets.
On the high school and above level, Marcha Cromatica combines the standard form of the Sousa march with the atonalistic tendencies of Schonberg into a modern march unlike anything you've ever heard. American Folk Trilogy uses "Simple Gifts", "Amazing Grace", and "Chester" layered on top of each other in some simple yet brilliant ways, and you can feature a narrator and brass quintet On The Steps Of The Lincoln Memorial in a salute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. utilizing "We Shall Overcome" using both hymnal and diatonic versions and variations throughout.
Finally, the field shows are probably the most exciting and avant garde - we write shows that have characters and plot lines, stories that the audience can CARE about and follow. Pirates Of The Four Rivers (about, well, pirates!) and MIRROR-RORRIM (a tale of an old woman who longs to be young again...and regrets it) are already available. Two other shows are being finished up as we speak in preparation for the 2013 season: A Color Guard Fantasy, featuring one of your flag team ladies who gets to play a combination of "Alice In Wonderland" and Dorothy from "The Wizard Of OZ" as she tries to move from a band of the old stodgy band director to an exciting marching band (translation: YOU are the villain!), and A Superhero Saga, where you can be campy and cliche and everyone involved can have a great time (Our Hero saves The Damsel In Distress from the evil plans of The Villain, bent on world domination).
Remember, we've taught a long time - these aren't ivory tower ideas. Most of these shows and songs have already been taught and performed successfully, and you're sure to love every one of them! Give one a try today!
- Gordon and Melissa Smith, publishers, GPS MUSIC
The Alphabet Song is one of the newer pieces in the choral catalog, and it's a great example of a very different piece for your group. The lyrics are all letters of the alphabet, and they move from a zombie-like "A" (as in "brAins...") from the basses to the boys repeating "P-P-P-P-P-P...." and looking around as if somebody HAD, to the snoring Z's at the end of the song. Another choir selection coming any day now is our "Caveman Love Song", which allows your boys to be a little bit, um.... Neandrathal. Your girls have some lovely melodies, though, and you'll love the lyrics and back-and-forth. We'll get that up on the website within the month.
In the beginning band department, you've got songs like Samurai Warrior available to you - your youngsters can call and chant like Japanese samurai, and your drummers can be first year players and still have a taiko drum-style feature. For your higher-level middle school bands, try A Children's Carousel, where your band can present a host of nursery songs in a wild array of forms: "Mary Had A Little Lamb" in 7/8 and 6/8, "Twinkle" in a whole tone scale, "Hot Cross Buns" with any number of percussion 'toys', and "Old MacDonald" with some singing, honking, and buzzing from the clarinets and trumpets.
On the high school and above level, Marcha Cromatica combines the standard form of the Sousa march with the atonalistic tendencies of Schonberg into a modern march unlike anything you've ever heard. American Folk Trilogy uses "Simple Gifts", "Amazing Grace", and "Chester" layered on top of each other in some simple yet brilliant ways, and you can feature a narrator and brass quintet On The Steps Of The Lincoln Memorial in a salute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. utilizing "We Shall Overcome" using both hymnal and diatonic versions and variations throughout.
Finally, the field shows are probably the most exciting and avant garde - we write shows that have characters and plot lines, stories that the audience can CARE about and follow. Pirates Of The Four Rivers (about, well, pirates!) and MIRROR-RORRIM (a tale of an old woman who longs to be young again...and regrets it) are already available. Two other shows are being finished up as we speak in preparation for the 2013 season: A Color Guard Fantasy, featuring one of your flag team ladies who gets to play a combination of "Alice In Wonderland" and Dorothy from "The Wizard Of OZ" as she tries to move from a band of the old stodgy band director to an exciting marching band (translation: YOU are the villain!), and A Superhero Saga, where you can be campy and cliche and everyone involved can have a great time (Our Hero saves The Damsel In Distress from the evil plans of The Villain, bent on world domination).
Remember, we've taught a long time - these aren't ivory tower ideas. Most of these shows and songs have already been taught and performed successfully, and you're sure to love every one of them! Give one a try today!
- Gordon and Melissa Smith, publishers, GPS MUSIC
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