Accent On Achievement will excite your students through colorful and visually appealing pages! The Teacher's Resource Kit includes special assessment materials for student testing, reproducible music theory and composer worksheets, sample letters to parents, rhythm flash cards and more. The Conductor's Score contains a wealth of helpful hints and suggestions, in an easy-to-use format. Some outstanding features include:

• Meets and exceeds the National Standards for Music Education
• Develops theory, aural, compositional, and improvisational skills
• Based on sound pedagogy for developing proper performance technique
• Includes assessment materials for student testing
• Provides a wealth of classical and world music material
• Correlated books such as Accent on Ensembles and Accent on Christmas offer a chance to provide more performance opportunities.

• Each student book one now comes with an accompaniment CD enclosed! Exercises for the first portion of the book use a live recording by professional musicians, followed by high quality MIDI accompaniments for the remainder of the book. A 2-CD set is also available separately, and contains live recordings for the entire book. These CDs can also be placed in a computer to install "Accent On Interactivity," a MIDI accompaniment program that allows students to record themselves playing, adjust the tempo of accompaniments and much more. This method is a solid choice to get any young band student off to a great start!

Publisher Description:
Accent on Achievement is a revolutionary, best-selling band method that will excite and stimulate your students through full-color pages and the most complete collection of classics and world music in any band method. The comprehensive review cycle in books 1 & 2 will ensure that students remember what they learn and progress quickly. Also included are rhythm and rest exercises, chorales, scale exercises, and 11 full band arrangements among the first two books. Book 3 includes progressive technical, rhythmic studies and chorales in all 12 major and minor keys. Also included are lip slur exercises for increasing brass instrument range and flexibility. Accent on Achievement meets and exceeds the USA National Standards for music education, grades five through eight.

Learning was never so much fun! If you're looking for a band method that builds solid musicianship while motivating your students to practice throughout the year, then you've found it! This band method is sound in its pedagogy, written by leading young band composers and educators, including Robert W. Smith and Michael Story. The integration of important songs from the band world, that are both familiar and fun to play, is one of the stellar aspects of this method. Throughout the book, students experience music from a veritable "who's who" list of great band composers. They'll discover the musical contributions of Percy Grainger, Gustav Holst, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, John Williams and John Philip Sousa as well as classical composers. Some of the notable features include:

• A wonderful variety of melodies that span various styles and periods, including many popular themes students will know
• A 96-track CD included with each student book spans exercises throughout the lesson book
• Professional accompaniments in diverse styles keep practice fun
• A comprehensive score with related activities and supplementary lesson ideas
• A DVD that complements the content of the lesson and offers short clips that are perfect for recruitment purposes
• Historical notes on some of the most notable composers of band music
• A percussion book that exposes students to performing more than 25 different instruments
• Develop compositional skills, music reading skills, and learn the correlation between art and music
• Includes 9 full band pieces written by Michael Story and Robert W. Smith
• A teacher CD that includes wonderful listening opportunities for the students

Publisher Description:
Learning was never so much fun! If you're looking for a revolutionary band curriculum that builds solid musicianship while motivating your students to practice throughout the year, then you've found it! This full band curriculum is sound in its pedagogy, written by leading young band composers and educators, including Robert W. Smith and Michael Story. The integration of important songs from the band world, that are both familiar and fun to play, is one of the stellar aspects of this course. Throughout the book, students experience music from a veritable "who's who" list of great band composers. They'll discover the musical contributions of Henry Fillmore, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Clare Grundman, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Scott Joplin, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Igor Stravinsky. Some of the notable features include ; A wonderful variety of melodies that span various styles and periods, including many popular themes students will know today ; A 78-track CD in each student book with accompaniments for various songs and exercises throughout the lesson book ; Professional recordings in diverse styles keep practice fun ; Four comprehensive score/teacher volumes with guided lessons, related activities and supplementary experience ideas ; Historical notes and biographies on some of the most notable composers of band music ; A percussion book that exposes students to learning and performing on more than 25 different instruments ; Develops composition, arranging, improvisation, and ear training, as well as music reading skills ; Reproducible worksheets and overhead transparencies to enhance classroom and home learning ; Includes 11 full band pieces written by Michael Story and Robert W. Smith, including Star Wars (Main Title) in book 2 ; Teacher CDs that includes accompaniments, ear training, and lesson-related listening activities for the students Your students will love playing along with the CD accompaniment tracks! And, for the director, the Teacher's Curriculum Package provides the four teacher edition volumes, the Teacher Support Pack (worksheets, forms, and transparencies), the Teacher Resource Guide, and the Teacher CD pack, which make lesson planning easy and enjoyable. The related activities, supplementary lesson ideas, curriculum planning information and much, much more are offered to assist and inspire you.

Band directors have always looked to the Belwin name for quality, and this band method continues that tradition. Along with a clear layout and logical progression of skills, Belwin uses student videos geared to each instrument! In each tape features an introduction by Wynton Marsalis, followed by an artist/teacher who shows basic care and assembly of each instrument, and demonstrates beginning tone production and rhythmic training and ideas for parents. Each lesson in the student books contains theory exercises, music from many countries and styles and easy duets. Also included are full concert pieces written especially for the method by Robert W. Smith and Robert Washburn. A play-along CD is available which offers the music in every student book that add fun to the musical experience for your students! (Numbers are shown for Books 1 & 2. Book 3 is also available.)

Thorough and versatile, this incredibly successful beginn ing band method by band director Bruce Pearson and consulting editors Gerald Anderson and Charles Forque brings together over 65 years of band room experience. With a strong emphasis on unique problems encountered by students of the various instruments, this highly researched an d tested method has earned a well-deserved reputation as one of the premier band methods available.