Being a SGM fan, I just read the article about Signature Sound performing at the Baxter-Stamps School. I know a little about the school,but my question is what is this school all about from someone that has attended it?

Thanks!

I think that you mean the Stamps-Baxter school. I have never attened that school but I have attended others. Music schools like the Stamps-Baxter have been an important part of SG music since it’s very early days. The curriculum for the schools include music theory, sight reading, Ear Training, and conducting. Additionaly, the schools like Stamps-Baxter offer private lessons in voice, piano, and other instruments. The format is generally an intensive two week program with classes all day and group singing at night. Some of the schools do a recording durring the second week of all of the songs the students have learned in the two weeks. I must say that those recordings rival some of the studio recordings put out by professional SG groups. When you consider that the students are recording songs that they have had two weeks to learn as a choir it is pretty impressive. The Stamps-Baxter school has been the most well know of the schools because it is located so close to Nashville and it has been supported by some of the bigger names in SG music.

I appreciate your response!!  Very enlightening!!  Is this school (and other comparable schools) similar to Juilliard (Classical) where you have to apply and be accepted based on your potential high talent and skill level?

By no means. There is a placement test for students but it is really just to see which class you should be in. Since the cost of attendance is normally a few hundred dollars it generally filters out those with no talent. The theory training is on a level with classical training at least at the upper levels. The ear training is not quite up to the level of a classical program but the sight-singing training actually rivals what is offered in a classical music education.

I’ve been an instructor at the Stamps-Baxter School of Music now for 7 years and was a student three years prior to that. In the past it’s been held at both Belmont University & Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, and we just completed our second year at Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro. It is very intensive and the daily schedule is as follows:

7:00am Breakfast
8:00   Devotions
8:30   Classroom Theory & Sightsinging/eartraining
10:30 Group singing (all together, singing out of the convention book)
12:00 Lunch
1:00   Classroom Theory & Sightsinging/eartraining
3:00   Elective Seminars (performance training, songwriting, non-profit, music business, conducting, etc.)
5:00   Dinner
6:30   Group Singing
8:00   concert (in the past, groups like the GVB, Greater Vision, Perrys, SSQ, Bowlings, etc. have performed)
9:30   Performance Opportunities for those students who would like to perform.

The last evening, we hold a closing program, featuring group singing from the whole student body as well as a select number of people chosen from auditions the night before. These are soloists, instrumentalists, trios, quartets, etc.

Long days, but great fun. At the beginning of the school, each student takes a placement survey, and they’re then placed in one of 9 different levels of classroom theory, usually age appropriate and suitable to their level of knowledge. Online registration is now available for the 2011 school session, July 10-22) at http://www.stampsbaxterschool.com.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

degmusic - 28 July 2010 10:19 PM

I’ve been an instructor at the Stamps-Baxter School of Music now for 7 years and was a student three years prior to that. In the past it’s been held at both Belmont University & Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, and we just completed our second year at Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro. It is very intensive and the daily schedule is as follows:

7:00am Breakfast
8:00   Devotions
8:30   Classroom Theory & Sightsinging/eartraining
10:30 Group singing (all together, singing out of the convention book)
12:00 Lunch
1:00   Classroom Theory & Sightsinging/eartraining
3:00   Elective Seminars (performance training, songwriting, non-profit, music business, conducting, etc.)
5:00   Dinner
6:30   Group Singing
8:00   concert (in the past, groups like the GVB, Greater Vision, Perrys, SSQ, Bowlings, etc. have performed)
9:30   Performance Opportunities for those students who would like to perform.

The last evening, we hold a closing program, featuring group singing from the whole student body as well as a select number of people chosen from auditions the night before. These are soloists, instrumentalists, trios, quartets, etc.

Long days, but great fun. At the beginning of the school, each student takes a placement survey, and they’re then placed in one of 9 different levels of classroom theory, usually age appropriate and suitable to their level of knowledge. Online registration is now available for the 2011 school session, July 10-22) at http://www.stampsbaxterschool.com.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

This is fantastic information!!  I am just a SGM fan but I am sure there are other fans that will be enlightend by this.  The bottom line is that if you desire to be a better singer, you need to strongly consider one of these schools. It really sounds like a summer camp, but a very intensive one.