Gift ideas for music lovers: your first Christmas album, Korg\'s latest synthesiser, rent-to-buy pianos, composer biographies, and... socks
As the holidays edge ever closer, parents with children just starting out in music will be particularly interested in two of our latest gift ideas. Our rent-to-buy pianos, from as little as £10 per week (plus transport costs), are ideal for families who want to encourage a beginner but who also want to wait and see how they take to it before committing to buying an instrument. And, new to our CD department, My First Christmas Album is the perfect introduction to the widest range of seasonal music for all the family.
Our specialists’ choices also include two welcome updates to vintage favourites. Korg’s latest synthesiser, the Volca FM, is a high-spec but user-friendly version of the iconic but notoriously hard-to-use Yamaha DX7 from 1983. Meanwhile, six volumes of the classic Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers, popular with readers in the 1970s and ’80s, have been revamped for a new generation: the revised editions, which now also include recordings, are available in store and online at special reduced prices.
Read on for information on all of these ideas, as well as our ever-popular range of music-themed accessories: this week, we bring you socks, scarves and ties...
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Recorded Music Department
MY FIRST CHRISTMAS ALBUM
£6
If you have never explored classical music yourself but want to support a child who is enjoying learning an instrument, it can be hard to know where to start. Naxos’s enterprising series of “My First …” albums is designed not only to introduce children to classical music but also to help their parents navigate what might be new territory for them too.
Following the success of My First Classical Music Album, Naxos released individual collections of music by Mozart, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky as well as others focusing on violin and piano. Each of these themed discs presents core repertoire spiced with lesser-known pieces and accompanied by an informative and beautifully-illustrated booklet.
New this winter, My First Christmas Album offers an impressively wide range of seasonal music in its 30 tracks. Popular carols and songs like Silent Night, Jingle Bells and Winter Wonderland are interspersed with extracts from the major choral works – Handel’s Messiah, Britten’s Ceremony of Carols – and instrumental classics such as The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky and Corelli’s Christmas Concerto.
The accessible sleeve notes do an excellent job of revealing the unfamiliar origins of old favourites – Good King Wenceslas, for example, is the story of a Czech king sung to a melody from Finland – as well as identifying the recognisable elements of songs that will be new to many of us, such as the contributions from The Netherlands, Poland and Venezuela which round out this inspired selection.
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Guitar and Musical Instrument Department
KORG VOLCA FM
£137
The Korg Volca FM is an easy way into FM (Frequency Modulation) synthesis.
Inspired by the legendary Yamaha DX7, this synth packs an immense amount of sonic potential into its compact size. There are plenty of presets including fast-attack keyboards, organs and pianos, pads and strings, guitars and basses and a 16-part sequencer. The real fun lies in the amount of ways these voices can be manipulated, especially by switching between the 32 algorithms on board. A great, creative and fun tool that can get you experimenting with sounds fast!
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Piano Department
RENT-TO-BUY PIANOS
from as little as £10 per week
(plus transport costs)
The enthusiasm we have when we start a new instrument can be hard to maintain if we don’t have ready access to an instrument to play on at home, but committing to purchase an instrument – especially a substantial one like a piano – when we’ve only just started can be a big step.
That’s why we offer a rent-to-buy scheme. Here’s how it works:
-- Choose any new or second-hand acoustic or digital piano with a selling price of between £495 and £4,700;
-- Pay upfront for 12 weeks’ rental plus the return transport costs;
-- Enjoy having a piano to play at home while you decide whether or not to purchase it.
If you decide you would like to buy the same piano (or an alternative model) within six months, 100% of the rental costs to date, plus all (ground-floor) transport fees, will be deducted from the price of the instrument. Even if you need longer to decide, six months’ worth of rental and (ground-floor) transport costs will still be offset against the purchase price. We can also offer finance facilities to help spread the remaining cost of the piano.
It’s always best to come and try out a range of instruments before deciding for yourself which one is right for you. Our friendly specialists are always happy to help guide you. Here are representative prices for some of our most popular instruments:
-- Roland F20 digital piano: rental for £10 per week (purchase price £495)
-- Second-hand Yamaha U1: rental for £17 per week (purchase price £2,690)
-- Kawai K300: rental for £35 per week (purchase price £4,599).
Return transport costs from £180 for acoustic pianos and £96 for digital ones: the exact cost, which will vary by distance and difficulty (stairs, corners, etc.), will be calculated upon enquiry.
For more information on the full range and prices of our rent-to-buy pianos, please visit us at our showrooms on Deansgate in the heart of Manchester or call 0161 834 3281, extension 211.
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Sheet Music Department
ILLUSTRATED LIVES OF THE GREAT COMPOSERS
Special Forsyth price – £10.95
(RRP – £12.95)
If you were reading about music in the 1970s and '80s, you will almost certainly remember the enormously popular series Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers. These comprehensive but concise volumes presented both the general reader and the specialist with hugely readable biographies of the major composers, generously illuminated by high-quality reproductions of manuscripts, letters, portraits and other artworks.
Now a new generation can benefit from these classic texts, and they are even better than they were before. Six of the volumes – on Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, Mahler and Mozart – have been reissued, fully revised and updated, and further enhanced by the addition of a specially-produced CD featuring a selection of each composer’s greatest works.
With text, images and audio, these biographies are now the complete one-stop package: the perfect way to gain a thorough understanding of the life, times and works of these pivotal figures. And they make the perfect gift: if you enjoyed getting to know these composers through the original Illustrated Lives in the '70s and '80s, you can let your students, friends and relatives do the same with these new and improved editions.
At the moment, we are offering all of these books at the special price of £10.95 each, saving you 15% off the normal retail price.
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Musical Gifts Department
And finally, our ever-popular range of musical socks, scarves and ties are available for you to browse in-store and online...
Posted On: Nov 25, 2016
Categories: The Forsyths Blog