REJOICE Used Church Choir Music anthems songbooks cantatas trax & more!

Visit REJOICE Music for quality used choral music, at a fraction of the cost of new! I am committed to exceptional customer service, a good product at a good price, great communication, and fast shipping at a fair price.

My online store features traditional choral music, contemporary, praise & worship, spirituals, gospel choir music, cantatas / musicals, and much more!

I am also working on a new website, which will soon become my "flagship store." It's still a work in progress, but also has a nice selection of choral music, as well as accompaniment tracks and more! Visit my new website today!

America the Beautiful - Ray Charles

America the Beautiful, sung by Ray Charles. No one sings it better, and with more feeling, in my opinion.

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Choral Resources

Here are some sites that have good information on choral music repertoire, free sheet music, free monthly sheet music downloads, arrangements for purchase, etc.

Choral Music Repertoire Lists: Choral Net is a great resource for finding good choral repertoire, by theme, voicing, instrumentation, country or culture, holidays / seasons, etc. Need suggested music for a European choir tour? Looking for a good anthem for a retiring minister? Visit CHORAL NET today.
Hymn Arrangements by Benjamin Harlan: Composer / arranger Benjamin Harlan has some great arrangements available on his website. He has arrangements of familiar hymns, for choir and congregational use, with keyboard accompaniment. Each arrangement costs $8.99, and there are sample pages available of each arrangement. There are also a few FREE arrangements as well!
Praise Charts: Praise Charts has professionally produced Christian sheet music and Christian chord charts for more than 600 praise songs featuring the best of Integrity, Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, Don Moen, Casting Crowns, Israel Houghton, and Matt Redman. They also have a FREE arrangement available every month.
Great Worship Songs: "Through the Greatworshipsongs.com web site, worshippers and worship leaders will be able to download new worship songs, as well as many of the top CCLI worship songs of today. Songs made popular by many of today's top Christian artists-including Michael W. Smith, Casting Crowns, Third Day and Selah, among others-will also be accessible for congregational worship." FREE song downloads are available every month.
Sally DeFord Music: This is an AMAZING site containing choral, duet, solo and instrumental sheet music (PDF), with demo recordings for most selections (MP3).
Everything is available for FREE download, or your convenience, the entire site is also available on CD-ROM. You may print and copy as many selections as you wish for non-commercial use. All other rights are reserved, including the creation of derivative works.
Worship Resource Center: Worship Resource Center is a great site to have book-marked. The website has information on over 3000 praise & worship songs in their database, repertoire lists, resources for choir directors on software, videos, and other worship resources.
Musica Viva - Free sheet music downloads: Musica Viva is "the internet center for free sheet music downloads. [sheet music for piano, for guitar, for flute, for violin and ... for most any instrument you can think of!"

Anybody can find and print sheet music for free - no payment required. But if you want to download the music, or if you need high-resolution prints (and prints without the banner ad) you should sign up as a Musica Viva member. It only costs $30 a year, and it gives you access to the PDF files, and also lets you get rid of the banner ads on the pages.
Free Download - Sibeluis Scorch: Scorch is the free software which lets you view, play, customize and print Sibelius scores on the Internet.

* Scorch makes scores interactive
* Top print quality
* Scores download in moments
Sibeluis Music Store: There are also 9000 scores available in the "Worship" music section of Sibeluis Music. Need music in a hurry? Everything can be printed out from your home computer (using the Scorch download)
Hymn Site.com: A good resource with Free Hymn Texts, Tunes, and Sheet Music, Lectionary and Psalter Resources, Audio and Data CDs, Free Downloads and more!
WorshipMax.com: WorshipMax began back in May 2003 as MoreWorshipIdeas.com. Since then, hundreds of worship leaders have enjoyed the practical ideas, downloads, and the hard-to-find worship resources links. Renamed WorshipMax in January 2006, the website takes a new, improved step in making life easier for contemporary worship by helping him or her get the most out of their computer and Internet connection. Great downloads, Powerpoint backgrounds, sermon ideas, lead sheets and MORE!

SheetMusicPlus

SheetMusicPlus can be a good resource for your music needs. They have very reasonable shipping - here are a few links to get you started:

Click here for the 387,000 sheet music titles

Concert Band Music at Sheet Music Plus - 10% off most full band sets. Methods and scores also available. Shop now!

School music at Sheet Music Plus. General music, choral music, band sets, jazz band, orchestra and more. Shop now!

Organ sheet music at Sheet Music Plus Music for beginners and experts. Solo, duets and accompaniment music. Shop now.

Choral Music Definitions

Or .... so what's a "split trax"?

Confused by the difference between a split trax and a listening CD? What's an anthem? What does "SATB" mean? How is choral sheet music different from "sheet music"?

First, a basic definition: Sheet music generally means an song, often for solo voice, piano, guitar, or a combination of the three. CHORAL sheet music is specifically arranged for a CHOIR to perform, so an arrangment for 2,3, 4 or more voices with accompaniment.

Anthem, also called an octavo, is a single song, arranged for a choir, usually SATB w/piano accompaniment (but may be in other voicings as well such as TTBB, SAB or unison/2-part).

Accompaniment Trax, CD, track or tape- A recording that provides a full orchestral accompaniment for an anthem, cantata/musical, or collection. See Split trax and stereo trax for more detailed descriptions.

Cantata/Musical - A songbook w/ multiple vocal arrangements (choir parts and lyrics) along w/piano accompaniment, and narration or script in one 6-7/8" by 10-1/4" book. Cantatas are created around a central theme, such as Christmas, Easter, Patriotic, etc.

Performance time can vary from 35 minutes to 60-70 minutes and may include simple staging w/the choir, several solos, and a narrator. Or they can include options for a cast of characters (such as a nativity scene) along with a script.

Choral book - A choral songbook w/multiple vocal arrangements (choir parts and lyrics) w/piano accompaniment. These books typically measure 6-7/8" by 10-1/4". The book may have a central focus, such as contemporary Praise & Worship selections, or Easy Anthems for SATB Choir.

Extended Anthems - choral works w/narration, less than 10 minutes in length. Usually written with a specific theme such as Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, etc.

Listening Tape or CD - Usually a companion piece to a choral songbook or cantata / musical. It contains the audio recording of the entire musical or collection, as sung by a choir, with orchestral accompaniment. Please note these recordings cannot be used as an accompaniment tape since there is no way to separate the vocals from the accompaniment (see split trax for more details.)

Orchestrations contain every instrumental part included in the arrangement of an anthem or cantata, in place of the regular piano accompaniment. Orchestra parts are printed single-sided on 8-1/2" x 11" paper.

Choir Director Resources on Amazon

Here are a few of the resource books available for choir directors on Amazon. Make sure to check out the "used" prices for these books as well. At Amazon, you can get some good quality material to help you in leading your choir, at good prices.

The Wednesday Workout: Practical Techniques for Rehearsing the Church Choir

by: Richard Devinney

Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 07/13/2009)
List Price: $12.00
Used Price: $15.60

Choral Therapy: Techniques and Exercises for the Church Choir

by: Lloyd Pfautsch

Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 07/13/2009)
List Price: $12.00
Used Price: $3.58

Hearts & Hands & Voices: Growing in Faith Through Choral Music

by: Sue Ellen Page

Amazon Price: $26.56 (as of 07/13/2009)
List Price: $34.95
Used Price: $7.00

Choral Music Definitions

(continued)

Practice/Rehearsal Trax - A recording in which each vocal part (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) has been highlighted above other parts and the background instrumentation. So, an alto listening to their tape will hear the other parts softly in the background, while their vocal part is much louder and easier to hear. This is a great way to help each choir member practice and learn their part without distraction from other harmony parts.

Praise Band Charts - for more contemporary praise and worship music, a Publisher may publish praise band charts, rather than a full orchestration, which includes string parts. The brass section may also be less than in a full orchestration.

SATB - means Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. There are numerous other voicings as well - SAB is soprano, alto, and baritone. TTBB means two tenor parts and two bass parts - suitable for a male quartet or chorus.

Solo Trax - a back-up accompaniment for a solo artist to sing a song without needing a pianist (think "kaoroke"). A lead sheet is also provided, showing lyrics and chords. Some publisher provide three (3) different ranges so you can select which key suits your voice best. Often there may a recording of the original artist or group performing the song as well.

Split Trax - A split trax is a normal stereo recording, playable on an audio system that has some means to adjust the levels coming from the left and right channels. On one channel, the recording has the complete accompaniment playing - a full instrumentation. On the other channel, is all the choral vocals (without solos).

There are a number of options and possibilities using split trax. As your choir learns a piece, you can have the vocal part nice and loud against the background accompaniment. You can also route these choral vocals to different speakers. As you get more familiar with the piece, you can lessen the choral vocals and let your group sing out. Or for performance use, you can even keep a certain amount of the vocals running through the choir monitors so the group keeps time with the accompaniment.

Stereo Trax - An accompaniment recording containing only the instrumental accompaniment parts, NO vocals.

Stereo/Split Trax - accompaniment recording contains the entire piece (anthem, musical or choral songbook) twice: once in Split Trax format, once in Stereo format.

REJOICE Music at eCrater

REJOICE Music has an eCrater store featuring new, hard-to-find choral score, solo accompaniment tapes and listening CDs. CLICK HERE to view all store listings.

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Music and Songbooks on Amazon

Amazon is also a great resource for choral songbooks, music for soloists, musicals, etc. They also have some out-of-print music available from Amazon Marketplace sellers (individual sellers who list on the Amazon platform).

The Praise and Worship Fake Book: An Essential Tool for Worship Leaders, Praise Bands and Singers!

Amazon Price: $23.07 (as of 07/13/2009)

African American Heritage Hymnal: 575 Hymns, Spirituals, and Gospel Songs

Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 07/13/2009)

Guitar Worship - Method Book 1: Learn to Play by Strumming Praise Songs

by: Garth Heckman

Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 07/13/2009)

The Sunday Worship Duet Book: Hymns, Classics, and Songs of Praise

by: Tom Fettke

Amazon Price: $15.59 (as of 07/13/2009)

Mel Bay You Can Teach Yourself Gospel Piano (You Can Teach Yourself)

by: Gail Smith

Amazon Price: $9.31 (as of 07/13/2009)

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Great Stuff on CafePress

CafePress can be a fast easy way for you to get music-related items for your choir. Need some t-shirts for your praise team? Want matching shirts for your men's quartet? There are literally hundreds of music-related designs available, and ordering is simple and easy.