Black Cat Music meet friends from FMS at Manchester Music Show

Brigitte Downs & Martin Loft

“It was wonderful to meet our friends from FMS,” said Brigitte Downs of Black Cat Music after the company exhibited at a lively Music Show staged at Manchester Central last weekend. 

For Brigitte and colleague Martin Loft the Music Show was a great opportunity to meet customers in the north-west and present the latest developments in music education equipment products. Black Cat Music enjoys exclusive distributorship of Wenger Corporation’s extensive product range - acknowledged as the largest manufacturer of fully-guaranteed staging and music performance equipment in the world. 

Music Practice Room really made a difference for Trent College

The installation of a large 6m x 4.8m Music Practice Room at Trent College dramatically transformed the facilities available to the school’s music department. The new structure provided a dedicated percussion room located in the existing music school which allowed the percussion teacher to hold lessons without disturbing other music classes taking place in the rest of the facility. 

Director of Music, Steven Henderson, explained: “As soon as it was installed, the percussion department could see that it was going to make an immediate difference. The percussion teacher, who spends four days of the week inside the practice room teaching, just loved it straight away.” Steven continued: “Now we can have string quartet rehearsals in one room and percussion going on in another room, and various other things happening at the same time as each other, and that’s really made a difference for us. It was installed in a few days and we were able to get in and start using it straight away.” 

Overall, Steven was delighted with the immediate difference the new Music Practice Room made to his Music Department: “It provided a space which worked really well, it answered the question really quickly, and it offers me flexibility for the future, and those are the three key criteria that I needed it to meet.” Black Cat Music’s sound-isolating music practice rooms offer a solution that controls noise at source, providing an ideal rehearsal space for musicians and singers. The modular design allows for a wide range of sizes to accommodate musicians from a solo singer to a choir or a band. The rooms can be relocated, if and when major changes in use and allocation of space are planned. For comfort and to create a pleasant environment, the rooms are supplied fitted with integral lighting and fan-assisted ventilation. Thanks to balanced internal acoustics they also make excellent recording studios with high sound quality. 

Have you signed up to save when buying music education equipment?

At Black Cat Music we know that budgets are under pressure everywhere. That’s why we wanted to remind customers of our Education Discount Programme, where you can save money each time you buy products for your education establishment. 

It’s simple, free to join and you can start saving 5% on all standard products purchased for schools, colleges and universities – in fact any education establishment located in the United Kingdom. Just log on to the Black Cat Music web site to complete the online application form. We will then send you a confirmation email and your discount code to use each time you make a purchase of standard priced products. 

And don’t forget to check your post, because there will be a limited edition Black Cat Music coffee mug on its way to you as a welcome gift. Look out too for our special monthly offers. As a member of our Education Group you will enjoy previews of these offers typically up to a week before everyone else – great news when stocks of discounted products are limited. Finally you can follow us and join in the conversation on Twitter, Our blog and Facebook for all the latest buzz, news, our take on inspiring music and a weekly fun spot. 

Get a new set of stands plus move and store cart ready for the Christmas concert season

A package offer from Black Cat Music that proved so popular before, is back for November. As a special promotion, 20 x Classic 50 Music Stands plus a large size Move & Store Cart are offered by Black Cat Music with a saving of £122. 

The package normally priced at £1,215 is on offer throughout November at just £1,093.50 plus VAT and delivery. Schools and colleges looking to equip with new music stands designed for robust and regular handling can take advantage of this great offer to be ready in time for Christmas music events. 

Already a top seller, the popular Classic 50 Music Stand doesn’t compromise on a design that is tough enough to handle the hardships of regular classroom use thanks to a formula of advanced polymers offering inherent tensile strength that will not bend or dent like metal stands - a design that also makes it quiet and rattle-free during performances. And the scratch resistant desk surface also incorporates a unique recess for keeping pencils in place. When the performance, rehearsal or class is over, stands can be stacked on the easy to load Move & Store Cart for transport and convenient, compact storage. 

For full details on the November offer can be found on the Black Cat Music web site where ords can be placed using the Discount Code “CLASSICCOMBI” at checkout. 

Black Cat Music customers half price entry to Manchester Music Show

It’s half price for Black Cat Music customers attending the Music Show, which runs alongside the new Music Mark conference and takes place at Manchester Central, 15 & 16th November. 

Great savings of 50 per cent are on offer for “on-the-day ticket prices” for Black Cat Music customers using promotion code “BCM3009” who will have the discount applied at checkout. 

There will be a great opportunity for customers in the north-west to meet the staff from Black Cat Music and examine the latest music education equipment products. Music Show event supporters, Black Cat Music, are planning to exhibit a number of products at the show selected from its comprehensive programme of music performance equipment. Examples include music stands, staging, choral risers, music folders and conductors' equipment. Black Cat Music enjoys exclusive distributorship of Wenger Corporation’s extensive product range - acknowledged as the largest manufacturer of fully-guaranteed staging and music performance equipment in the world. 

The event also offers the chance to discuss any noise problems with experts from Black Cat Acoustics and sister company MusicPracticeRooms.com, who will also be in attendance at the show. In addition the company’s Mark Rasmussen and Martin Loft will be running a workshop – Simple Solutions to Noise Problems - scheduled to take place at 1.30 pm on Friday 15th November. Black Cat Acoustics provides authorative guidance to steer anyone experiencing noise problems quickly towards pin-pointing a solution. Or, if preventing noise related nuisance is the issue, then sound isolated music practice rooms can provide the answer. Discover also the additional benefits these custom built self-contained, air-conditioned acoustic spaces provide for the comfort of musicians and sound quality, not to mention the improved utilisation of space that can be achieved. 

For further information about the The Music Showand for the latest announcements visit http://music-show.co.uk/cms/. 

Time to re-order music folders with your own crest

If your choir, music group or school has previously ordered music or choral folders with your own crest or logo from Black Cat Music, now is a good time to order extra copies in time for Christmas. 

When we create a die to imprint your crest on music folders using our traditional gold-blocking technique we keep the die ready for future use. Just give us a call if you need to add to your set of folders. 

If you haven’t previously ordered from us you might like to know that Black Cat Music offer a gold-blocking service on all of our choral and orchestral folders, so you can add your logo or school crest to the front of the folder. We can also add gold-blocked lettering, and many customers choose to gold-block the instrument name or number in the corner of the music folder. Our choir folders and band folders from Black Cat Music are elegant, high-quality music folders to help you organise your sheet music. Whether you belong to a professional orchestra, chorus, school band or church choir, our choral and orchestral folders will give a sense of identity to your music group. 

We want your festive music themed photos for our Christmas card

Black Cat Music is looking for a great image to feature on the company’s 2013 Christmas card by inviting entries to a photo competition. 

Announcing the Black Cat Music Christmas Card Competition, Sales Manager Teresa Rogers said, “This is a great opportunity to put your school, college, music group, choir, band or orchestra in the spotlight this Christmas. The competition is open to anyone involved in music and entries can be submitted by either individuals, or on behalf of music groups. With a theme of ‘Music at Christmas’ there is plenty of scope for some exciting images. The winning photo, selected by a judging panel will feature on the official Black Cat Music 2013 Christmas card and the winning photographer will receive a voucher for £150 to be used when purchasing products from Black Cat Music.” 

So whether you are a choir of angel voices, male voice choir or barbershop, soloist, band or orchestra, it is time to bring out the digital camera and create a winning entry. Church bells, tubular bells, jingle bells or cute black cats in santa hats – whatever your creative concept, send in your entries, but hurry the closing date is 25th October.

Photos entered in the competition should be 300 dpi and emailed to marketing@blackcatmusic.com . Please provide full contact details with your email including the name of the photographer, the music group, email contact, daytime telephone number and full postal address. The winner will be asked to assign copyright and confirm anyone featured in the image has given written individual approval for publication by Black Cat Music.