This well-designed and easy-to-use routine of daily warm-ups and technique builders is effective and can be adapted to any rehearsal schedule. After using them each day for only two and a half minutes, you'll see immediate improvement in your band's sectional and full ensemble playing. Long tone exercises, dynamics, lip slurs, and extended technique-building options make this an even more valuable resource for developing bands!

Experience a side of Sousa most people aren't aware of with this very entertaining ragtime-style piece subtitled Dance Hilarious. Ever the consummate showman, Sousa wrote several works in this style which was very popular with audiences at that time. Composed in 1912 for a European concert tour, it is every bit as fresh and entertaining with audiences today as it was then.

This award-winning work was inspired by a poem written by an American Civil War soldier in 1864 after being captured and sent to the notorious Andersonville Prison. The expressive music captures the indomitable spirit of the soldier's words and the underlying sense of optimism in the face of unrelenting adversity. The heartfelt music will leave listeners with a strong sense of optimism for the future despite the many tensions and obstacles we experience in our everyday lives.

The Ritual of the Wolf was an important winter ceremony of the native people of the Pacific Northwest, inspired by their belief in the wolf as a supernatural creature.  In this evocative work, the sound of tribal drums recreates the atmosphere of the solemn ceremony. Dynamic wind parts and hand-clapping impart a supernatural feeling as the work builds to a powerful conclusion.

The aptly named Wonders of the Season combines well-known Christmas melodies in a variety of styles. Opening with a bold setting of O Come, All Ye Faithful, almost every section of the band is featured as fragments of a number of different Christmas melodies are layered on top of one another throughout. Other carols presented are God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen and Silent Night, with Angels We Have Heard on High closing the work in a regal and majestic manner.

The Wooden Clock was composed for students in the early stages of musical development and employs basic rhythms and techniques in a creative and fun manner. Keeping time as a musician is essential, and this clever work reminds young musicians of that important responsibility in music making. Wood blocks are also used to mimic the ticking of a clock, and the entire band gets involved as they whisper "tick, tock, tick, tock" in several places.

This fun and creepy music pays tribute to these gruesome creatures that have brought thrills and chills through books, movies and television. Their popularity has only grown and in the battle for world supremacy they now take over the concert stage, making us a true Zombie Nation! 

They're gruesome, they're frightening, they just happen to also be the biggest craze in movies and television - and your students will love bringing them to their concerts! Imagine the sight of hoards of zombies as they terrorize the countryside in search of victims. As frightening as they are, these spooky creatures will give everyone a thrill as the music brings them to life - sort of - in search of their next adventure!  

Imagine that you are being pursued by a horde of Zombies, the living dead, who have decided to make you one of them. You run inside your house and lock the door, but they come knocking.  You tell them to go away, but they just knock louder and as time goes on their knocking grows more and more insistent.  How will it end?  Listen to this scary piece and judge for yourself.