Teaching music to today's children can be a truly gratifying profession, but it often takes hard work and long hours. That's why we've created a unique magazine full of new music, information, and other valuable resources that you will start using with your students from the first day you receive it.

We have designed this to be a "hands-on" magazine packed with usable, accessible material. We've talked to a lot of teachers and continue to change our mix of music and articles to best fill the needs of today's music teachers.

This is probably why we hear from so many subscribers telling us how Music K-8 has helped their programs. Teachers in their first year and teachers almost ready to retire all tell us the same thing: "Thanks for creating a magazine for me." No wonder, then, that more than a third of our new subscriptions come as a result of recommendations from other teachers. We consider this to be the highest compliment, and we strive to make our magazine worthy of these recommendations.

So, what is so special about this magazine?

Listen for yourself! Here are excerpts of just a few of the dozens of great songs from the past year of Music K-8 magazine.

New Music In Every Issue... An Incomparable Value!

Each new issue of Music K-8 includes eight or more, never-before published works with full rights for you to photocopy them for use with your students. In fact, the magazine has averaged more than eight songs per issue, including one complete musical revue per year! Each full-length song is carefully arranged with a playable piano accompaniment and chord symbols (if appropriate). Created by respected composers and arrangers, these songs come in a variety of styles (Latin, rock, country, jazz, rap, ballad, and hip-hop, to name a few), with such options as teaching suggestions, student instrumental parts, and/or simple movement. Students love these quality selections, which are available nowhere else.

You'll get five music-packed issues per year, arriving bimonthly throughout the school year. If you use only one song per issue, you will have saved more than the price of a subscription... a real value in these days of shrinking budgets.

The optional Student Reproducible Parts, a Plank Road Publishing innovation, can save you even more money, as well as time.

The nineteenth year of Music K-8 (the 2008-2009 school year), is full of more great music, including the new musical revue Americans We. As with our first eighteen years, you will find that each song in the revue will stand on its own if you aren't performing the whole work. In addition, there are seasonal and other topical works in each issue to add more to your teaching repertoire.

Performance/Accompaniment Compact Discs

A special Performance/Accompaniment Compact Disc is available for each issue, at a very reasonable cost ($15.95), with each containing the recorded music from a single issue. The recording gives you two fully orchestrated versions of every song: one in full performance with children's voices, and one with accompaniment only, to free your hands in rehearsals and give you more polished performances. Since the first CD is free, the cost is less than $1.50-2.00 per song, a real bargain when you compare it to the quality and price of other recordings on the market, which often cost as much as $15.95 per song! Order our Free Sampler CDs and hear the quality we build into everything we do. If you prefer, you can download our samplers or subscribe to our Music K-8 Sampler Music Podcast.

Network - Teachers Exchanging Great Ideas

Share ideas with teachers around the country in this unique forum. Every issue features several pages of great ideas from our subscribers, including bulletin board ideas (often with photos or illustrations), games to help teach musical concepts, songs, rounds, unit ideas, lesson plans, ideas for classroom management, rewards, discipline, performance concepts, listening aids, and anecdotes about the world of elementary music.

The regular Photo Journal feature includes idea-filled pictures from teachers all around the world. And since we pay for everything we publish, you may find that your good ideas and pictures will pay for your subscription.

And Much, Much More...

As if this weren't enough, each issue also includes Reproducibles, Games, Special Features, and/or Seasonal Resources, all designed for immediate use in your classroom. And to top it off, there are regular features like Quodlibet, full of fun, philosophy and handy information. All of this is just $49.95 for magazines only (with one free CD), or $104.75 for magazines and CDs.

This is one magazine you won't ever want to throw out. Stop missing out: Subscribe now!