Category Archives: Sightreading

Glasses and pen sitting on top of sheet music

Sight Reading Central

Make sight reading simple! Pender’s has tons of resources for practicing sight reading skills. These products will help your students grow their sight reading abilities and feel confident prior to competition!

Previous UIL Sight Reading Pieces

Texas UIL Band Sight Reading
Texas UIL Choral Sight Reading
Texas UIL / PML Orchestra Sight Reading

Other Great Sight Reading Resources

Band

Something to Read by Jerry West
Something to Read – Level 1 by Jerry West
Something Else to Read by Jerry West
Progressive Sight Reading Tunes by Roger Winslow

Choir

SMART (Sight Singing Made Accessible, Readable, Teachable) Series by Denise Eaton
SMART (Sight Singing Made Accessible, Readable, Teachable) Modulations by Denise Eaton

Orchestra

Progressive Sight Reading Tunes (Unison Edition) by Roger Winslow
Progressive Sight Reading Tunes (Harmonized Edition) by Roger Winslow
Sight Reading Book for String Orchestra by Jerry West

Pender’s Shop & Save School Loyalty Program

Stretch your school budget with our new loyalty program! Every time you make music purchases for your school at Pender’s, you will gain loyalty points up to 15% of the cost* of the purchase!

Schools with $500 minimum total paid purchases by April 30th, 2020 will receive a coupon up to 15% of the cumulative music purchases from July 1st, 2019 to April 30th, 2020!**

All school accounts will be automatically enrolled. The program kicks off July 1st, so start shopping to save today!

*Does not include registrations, shipping, or previously discounted items (i.e. All-State Music Packs, Choral Workshops, etc.)

**Customer account must be in good standing to use credit coupon. Coupon may be applied toward in-stock items only. No special orders accepted for payment with coupon. 1 point = $1 in additional free music for your school. The points have no actual cash value, and must be used to select additional music for the school. Coupon is the property of the school and may not be transferred to another party. Loyalty Program year ends June 30th and may not automatically be renewed. 


Get Ready for 2018 contest season

It’s Time to Prep for Spring 2018 Contests!

The 2018 contest season is just around the corner, and here at Pender’s we have all the band and orchestra music you need! Our prescribed music lists make it easy to find your sheet music, and our friendly staff are experts when it comes to performance requirements for state contests — they can help you find whatever you’re looking for!

Check out these lists on our website to find new music, marching materials, sightreading, and more!

Texas UIL Band PML Additions 2017 – 2018
Texas UIL Band PML
Texas Concert Band Marches
Texas UIL Band Sightreading
Texas UIL String Orchestra PML
Texas UIL Orchestra Sightreading

Oklahoma OSSAA Band
Oklahoma OSSAA Orchestra

Mississippi Band
Mississippi Band Sightreading

Don’t forget to order competition scores for the judging panel! For assistance locating materials, give us a call at 800-772-5918. We’d love to help, and best of luck competing in 2018!

Mississippi Contest Music

Mississippi Bandmasters Clinic

Pender’s Music Company will be exhibiting at the 78th Annual Mississippi State Band Clinic. Visit our booth to find music from the Mississippi Sight-Reading Contest list for band, as well as sheet music for instrumental solos and ensembles, jazz band, pop band, warm-ups, gifts, and more.

Plan ahead for the competition season! Our website will guide you to the appropriate music selections for your band. Click here to begin: Mississippi Concert & Sight-reading Contest

Looking for something specific? Let us know before the clinic and we’ll bring it for you! Give us a call at (800) 772-5918 or email band@penders.com. Our knowledgeable staff are well-versed in the performance requirements for state contests and can guide you in selecting the right composition. If you aren’t sure what you’re looking for, we’d be delighted to help you find exactly what you need.

Come See Us at the Mississippi State Band Clinic
Natchez Convention Center
211 Main St. • Natchez, MS

Exhibit Times
Thursday, December 10, from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Friday, December 11, from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm

What is MSMISP? -or- Who Wants $1000 of Free Sheet Music?

We had the good fortune to speak with TMEA about the MSMISP grant program more in depth. They were very helpful in providing answers to some of your most frequently asked questions. We thought we would share what they had to say.

 The Middle School Music Instructional Support Program (MSMISP) is a grant program from TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association) for 6-8th grade Choir, Orchestra and Band directors in Texas. It will provide $1,000 (yes, a full grand!) for sheet music to programs who are selected in the 2014 – 2015 school year. If you end up going over the grand TMEA will give you then your district will be billed for the difference. Penders is offering free shipping so you can make full use of your thousand without worry.

In order to qualify the director must have current membership with TMEA and teach at a Texas middle school. Applications may be submitted from September 15, 2014 to October 15, 2014. There is a total of $500,000 that will be allocated based on current funding and size of the program. So, if you want a snapshot of your program’s chances of getting this money, simply divide your budget by the number of students you have. If your dollar-per-student is lower than the state average you will have a great shot at getting a grant.

TMEA has told us that as of September 24, 2014there are only 230 applications filed, that means that even if you have a million dollars in the your budget you should still apply. There are currently 2,800 qualified campuses in Texas so odds are most of you haven’t even heard of this program. Even if you teach programs at multiple schools you can apply, the grant money is program specific not director specific. Even private school programs can get this money so you really have no reason not to apply.

Let’s get one thing straight, though, this music may only be used for sheet music designed for a full ensemble so you won’t be able to fund your next few years of solo and ensemble with this money. It also can’t be used for pop pieces such as show tunes or accompaniment CD’s. A limited number of sight-reading pieces will be acceptable in TMEA’s view. Finally, choral applications with less than 10 individual sheets per piece will be asked to bring that number up to an amount that can serve a choir rather than can be used for perusal. TMEA’s explicit goal is to place challenging music in front of every middle school choir, orchestra and band student in Texas.

Your application will need to be submitted with a quote from a qualified vendor that includes shipping (again, Penders has free shipping on all MSMISP quotes). TMEA will review each piece and let you know if something doesn’t work for the use of the money. If you get the grant the quote will then be sent back to the vendor who will fill your order will be paid directly from TMEA. They are considering allowing refunds and exchanges in extreme scenarios only but will be subject to an approval process at TMEA before they can be completed.

On their site TMEA has outlined some criteria to help you select music appropriate for this program.

Quickly they are:

  • Works that offer insight into significant composers.
  • Works that have cultural, historical relevance as defined by the TEKS.
  • Works that extend the technical demands and musical limitations normally associated with middle school repertoire.
  • Works that can be related to other artistic genre such as dance, visual arts and literature

If you were confused by some of these points don’t worry, so were we.

First, we asked what their definition of a significant composer was. They told us it is going to be anyone of historical or musical significance to include contemporary composers (think Tichelli, Whitacre and the like) and those doing Hollywood music (John Williams, Danny Elfman, Howard Shore and others). But again, NO POP.

In regards to the last point about relating to other genres, they said a piece would qualify under this condition if it could be related to another academic subject and specifically quoted ‘Of Sailors and Whales’ by Francis McBeth to relate to literature, ‘Solitary Dancer’ by Warren Benson to relate to dance and any piece with multiple time signatures or difficult rhythms to relate to math. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list so be creative when applying this one.

While these may seem restricting, TMEA has told us that anything on the UIL list that is appropriate for the average 6 – 8th grade ensemble will be fair game but they stressed that pieces grade 3 and above are their preference. This list is primarily meant to guide your selection of music outside the UIL list.

TMEA wants to work with you to provide your students with the best music education available. They will be reviewing each application personally and will do line by line acceptance of pieces rather than whole application rejection or acceptance. If something you selected is outside their expectations they will contact you. But feel free to contact TMEA or Penders with any questions or concerns you may have.

 TMEA wants to give you $1000 in music and my barber always told me to never reject money more than once.

 Get your application in now! Penders can help you do it. If you have any more questions then please email or call us (our information is below). You can also send us your list of music and we will return your proposal within one business day so you can get your application in quickly.

 Pender’s Music Co

 band@penders.com choir@penders.com orchestra@penders.com

1 (800) 772-5918