It’s getting to that time of year once again, and we’ve put together a page to help with ideas for musical kids and musicians alike.

~Posted by Sarah Morris

Arrived in today:

P Plate Piano books 1 -3

The new AMEB series, to help the young beginners get ready for future AMEB exams.  Three fun books with full colour pictures and information about all of the pieces, these books offer students the opportunity to get a feel for proper exams (still held by AMEB) and get awarded a certificate at the end for their great work.

The books retail at $34.95 each, but for a limited time only they are available in a pack with all three for $79.95, saving you $24.90!

Also in:

AMEB Cello series 2

AMEB have finally released a new series of cello books, with Preliminary – Grade 4 (plus the new technical workbook) now available.  These range between $29.95 – $49.95, and of course students get special discounts!

We also have a great range of second-hand print music available as well, including single sheets from 50c, second-hand books from $2.50 and old (but new) stock books at $10 max!

Come in and have a look, because you’re sure to find something!

~Posted by Sarah Morris

And click the thumbnails below to view our November newsletter.

It’s time for a post not neccesarily related to the store or music, but more related to Morris Brothers staff member, Anna!!

Three weeks ago I was hanging out with one of my best friends Drew, in Tokyo! In true Anna style, I decided to go at the last minute when Drew invited me to come over and hang out with him. Luckily, I was allowed time off ( Thank you Mark). I’m so glad I decided to go. Tokyo is an incredible city.

Here are some reasons why Tokyo is Awesome:

* The train system is incredible. There is a train at least 2, 5 or 10 minutes away all the time! There are so many train lines, it’s incredible. It’s pretty daunting at first, but you do come to understand how it all works. People are really quiet on the trains, and are always playing on their mobile phones. Salary men ( Business men) seem to always be catching up on well needed sleep while on the train.

* Japanese people are so kind and polite. They are constantly saying please and thank you, and bow all the time. It is so cool.  A few times when I went into a department store , the sales person came out from behind the counter and bowed when i left. Also,  if you ask for directions, they will make it their mission to get you to where you’re going, and if they can’t they apologise profusely.

* The Music scene there is incredible. I went out clubbing, and it was one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life. People absolutely love and know their house and disco music so well. They all know the words, sing along, dance and are just having so much fun. They are there purely for the music, and it creates the best vibe and atmosphere.  Very cool! International Bands, and D.J’s who are quite underground, are there every weekend and playing to packed crowds!

* They have the coolest stuff at convenience stores, which are open 24/7, and are on every single corner on every single street. They sell the best bakery sweets. Things like little sweet buns with Melon flavour inside and chocolate scrolls, and cool tirramasu type desserts. You can buy essentially, an alcoholic cocktail in a can, or any beer at any time of the day or night, as well as hot or cold coffee or tea sold in cans. Sushi triangles are really yummy too! Everything is pretty cheap too. I discovered plum wine when I was there too, which is really sweet and strong. I can only really have one glass at a time ha ha!

* For so many people, and massive amounts of packaging ( They like to wrap and package everything so beautifully) the city is always clean. I don’t think I ever saw one scrap of rubbish ever. Try and find a bin out in public though…they don’t exist.

* The fashion is incredible! It is a true past time to go shopping in Japan. Department stores are open till 10 or 11 every single night, and the shops and streets are always packed till late. Girls really love fashion there, and I went to a store in Shibuya called 109, which had 9 levels of girls fashion. Each level had about 7 stores to look at. I think I went a little nuts after going in there. They had every type of fashion style available. Cute, elegant, punk, rock, hippy, american hip hop style,pretty…everything!! Girls really know how to dress, and go to all lengths to look good. Coming back to Australia, you notice that we are quite  conservative in how we dress. Over there you always see people wearing cool hats, lots of accessories, and just generally looking pretty out there but still great. Even the guys take the time to look cool.

* I saw a store, next to a guitar store, which I think was something like 3 levels, dedicated to Ukuleles!

* I ended up at this random kids Pokemon tournament with Pikachu mascots walking around, and got my photo taken with one. I felt like I was 5. It was great!

Here are a few photos from my Trip:

Don't get lost...

Music store near Asakusabashi, Tokyo.

Ukulele store in Shibuya, Tokyo

Shinjuku

Disk Union Record store in Shibuya

Morris Brothers are proud to announce that the Leblanc Bliss clarinets are in stock.

Feedback so far has been great, and students are loving the sound and how they play.

We’ve also been receiving in new violins (the lovely antique Gliga II and Raggetti RV7 among others) which have all been out to receive their professional setup from Mark Holt.  A new brass and woodwind shipment will be arriving at the start of October as well to compliment our current range.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

~Posted by Sarah Morris

After the last few weeks we’ve been in renovation mode, and the good news is that we’re (finally) almost done!

It looked like a bomb had hit when first pulled down the side wall, but after some new paint, new carpet, a lot of cleaning and some rearranging it’s starting to come together.  We now have a much better brass/woodwind/strings area, guitar string area, and when our new print music cabinets arrive in there’s going to be a much easier to browse print music section with even more books to display.  Finally, we’ll even be able to have a proper percussion area as well.

While we’re not quite finished yet, the store is still looking great at the moment.  Much more room, brighter and easier to navigate.  As they say: change is as good as a holiday.

More pianos have also been arriving in over the last week, and I’ll be getting onto the Morris Brothers Piano Gallery tomorrow to make all the new changes.

Come on in and let us know what you think!

Posted by Sarah Morris

New into stock is the Parkwood PW310BM Acoustic Guitar.

This guitar features all solid hand selected Australian timbers, with beautiful Solid Victorian Blackwood back and sides. It is made by the largest Acoustic Guitar maker in the world, Cort.

It has the same specifications as the Maton A80 Model, which is priced at $2500.

It is an exceptional guitar, at an incredible price. The feedback we’ve had from guitar players testing it out, has been very positive!

The Parkwood guitar is $995 with a deluxe padded case.

Posted by Anna Sonnenburg

Twilight Instrumental Solos

The first of the AMAC print music orders have started to arrive, and I just finished unboxing these babies today.  Finally the band instruments get Bella’s Lullaby, Decode and all of your other favourites from the hit movie Twilight.

We’ve also gotten in boxes upon boxes of other new music, including the latest piano and guitar books.  There are also some fun book and CD sets to help give the kids who are too young to play an instrument a good musical start.  We’ve even started to get in a bit of the Christmas music if you want to get practising early for the holiday season (though we won’t keep it out on the shelves yet, but let us know at the front counter if you’d like to see our range).

And that’s only half of the print we’ve ordered, so pop in to see the other great new titles we’re going to be getting in over the next week!

Posted by Sarah Morris

Posted by Sarah Morris.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend a seminar held by Julian Bliss, acclaimed British clarinettist and now clarinet designer. Together with Morrie Backun (who develops clarinet bells and barrels, which can sell around the US$800 mark and more – just for the bell or the barrel!) and Leblanc clarinets they’ve designed the new Leblanc Bliss clarinet.

My first thought? It is an amazing looking instrument. Before I get onto the technicalities I have to take a moment to get excited about the visuals.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of rings around the joints of the clarinet, and the bottom of the bell. Along with with giving a better quality of sound – there’s nothing interfering with it as it travels down the body – and eliminating the problems the rings can have with chipping and splitting, it just gives the clarinet a very sleek and modern look, and also makes it a lot lighter. The keys appear rather silver in this photo, but they’re actually a darkly shining black nickel. There are benefits to this (with a very low copper content it is very resistant to tarnishing and pitting), but again it just makes the clarinet look very dark and wicked. This is topped off with all black pads as well.

Maybe it’s shallow, but a cool looking instrument always helps a child’s enthusiasm. I took up alto sax when I was twelve just because I fell in love with black saxophones, and I constantly see kids get ridiculously excited and enthusiastic when they have something unique and cool looking to show off to their friends. Normally only the guitarists get this kind of thing, with different paints, straps and picks, so it’s nice to see the woodwind players get a turn for once!

Of course, the clarinet doesn’t just look cool – it sounds, feels and plays beautifully as well! Bliss and Backun obviously sat down together and said “now, what are the weak points on a clarinet, and what can we do to fix them?” because it seemed that every question we asked was met with a “yes, we thought of that, and this is how we solved it.”

There are three models of the Leblanc Bliss:

• Composite
• Composite with wooden barrel
• Grenadilla Wood

Today, however, I’m going to focus on the Composite Bliss.

Plastic clarinets are normally made out of an ABS plastic, and it does the job but it isn’t the best material for producing a great tone. Bliss was involved in developing a new material which he is jealously guarding (one of those ‘if I told you I’d have to kill you’ moments), and I wasn’t entirely convinced until I heard it, but everyone in the room was blown away by the sound for what is being marketed as a student clarinet. It’s also a very durable material, which is great considering I’ve seen kids sword fight of all things with their instruments before. The clarinet got dropped several times while being passed around, and Bliss detached the bell to throw it around the room in demonstration.

Along with being very resistant to tarnishing and pitting, the keys also allow for a very smooth and quick action. When you listen to the video I’m going to post at the end you’ll know what I mean!

Along with the keywork, the holes themselves have been reshaped. This is called over and under-cutting, which means they’ve been given more of an oval shape which allows the player’s fingers to slide easily into place, and to cover the hole more securely. The best part about this? It really helps new students with the problem of squeaking! There are few things more frustrating and embarrassing to a beginner player than being in school band and having a loud SQUEAK overpower the rest of the instruments. It’ll also make practise time a lot easier on the ears for the parents of budding musicians!

Another great feature is that the action is very quiet. Bliss was very clear about his dislike for loud CLACK-CLACK-CLACKing keys, and that was something he was very keen to help solve.

As far as durability goes, I already mentioned how resilient the material is, but there’s more to keep the instrument working better and lasting longer. Instead of cork on the bumpers which wear and need to be replaced fairly frequently, the Leblanc Bliss has pre-compressed felt. It won’t wear, so you won’t find that you have to alter your playing as your corks change shape over the years, and won’t have issues with constantly replacing them. Perhaps the best thing is a reinforcing bar that goes over the keys towards the bottom of the clarinet. No matter how often we tell new clarinet players not to grip the keys when they’re putting their instruments together, we still get plenty of instruments in for repair for key readjusting, and sure enough when we ask to see the child putting the instrument together keys are being gripped. It might not seem like such a big thing, but woodwind instruments have very delicate keywork, and when they’re gripped tightly as the body joints are being turned it can knock things out just slightly, and often ‘just slightly’ can be enough to stop notes from playing. With this bar the kids aren’t touching the lower keys and rods, and this can solve an awful lot of problems!

I could easily keep going, but this post is long enough, so I’m going to shout a couple of final facts at you and leave it for the night. I’m still excited by the instrument, so feel free to email through or call me up on 3356 3299 if you’ve got any other questions.

• 10 year warranty
• Fully made in the USA
• Designed by top players, top technicians and by a leading clarinet brand.

And now, the part you’ve all been waiting for:

It’s affordable!

It’s going to retail under $1,000, and of course we’re going to be offering special student prices as well! We can’t be entirely certain about the release date of these yet, but keep watching this spot for more details!

~Sarah

As a final treat, I managed to get a recording of Julian Bliss playing ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ on the wooden Bliss (I was unfortunately too slow to get my camera out for the composite clarinet demonstration).

I didn’t get a chance to ask permission to film him, so enjoy lovely footage of the piece of paper on my lap instead. Also note that he never pauses to take a breath, using circular breathing (the way a didgeridoo is played).

Click here to listen!