Joining us for Small Business Saturday UK and our Christmas Shopping Weekend (3-4 December 2016)? Scroll down to browse a sample of what we have to offer:

- Usborne’s beautiful and educational Christmas Carol Sticker Book;

- star tenor Jonas Kaufmann on DVD as Andrea Chénier at the Royal Opera House;

- specially-designed piano lamps to spare your eyes at the keyboard;

- discounted packs providing everything you need to get started on guitar;

- and Mozart and Beethoven as teddy bears!

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Guitar and Musical Instrument Department

CRAFTER GUITAR PACKS

– Crafter Lite guitar with gig bag, stand, tuner, strap, plectrum & spare strings

Available with the following models:

- Crafter Lite T/CD acoustic guitar – £260 (was £281)

- Crafter Lite TE/CD electro-acoustic guitar – £369 (was £429)

Like the Lani ukulele packs we featured a couple of weeks ago, our specially-assembled guitar packs are ideal for those looking for a high-spec, solid-top but affordable first guitar, or for more experienced players who want a second instrument to travel around with.

Each pack includes everything you need to get started straight away:

- Your choice of Crafter’s T/CD acoustic and TE/CD electro-acoustic guitars from their ‘LITE’ range (built to be comfortably light in weight), each with a solid cedar top and laminate mahogany sides for a warm tone;

- a padded gig bag to keep the instrument safe in transit and a Stagg stand to park it on at home or on stage between sets;

- a Korg PC-1 tuner, which sits on the headstock and is small enough to fit inside the case;

- plus a Rotosound strap, a plectrum and a spare set of strings.

The electro-acoustic model has a built-in pick-up for amplification and a cutaway to make it easier to play higher up the fingerboard.

All of our packs are put together in-store by our specialists in the Musical Instrument Department and are ready to play immediately, so if you’re buying one as a gift, there’s nothing else to worry about before handing it over!

Read more & buy online

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Sheet Music Department

THE USBORNE CHRISTMAS CAROLS STICKER BOOK

£6.99

Perfect for use at home or in the classroom, The Usborne Christmas Carols Sticker Book has been published in association with The National Gallery, London, to provide an engaging guide to the songs we sing at this time of year, often without knowing anything about them.

Here words, music and pictures combine to tell the stories associated with 11 much-loved carols in a volume that will be equally enjoyable for parents and children.

What sets this book apart is the interactive element: the pictures are printed faintly in the first half of the book so readers must cover them with the full-colour stickers from the second half in order to look at them more closely. In this way, children are introduced one-by-one to a wide range of great seasonal artworks by the likes of Botticelli, Bosch, Raphael, the Bruegels, Hogarth, Lear, Monet, Gauguin and Matisse.

And alongside the images are interesting and easily digestible facts about the artworks and the words and music of the carols, including fascinating insights into their social, historical and religious contexts. In one painting by Beerstraaten we see people playing an early form of golf on a frozen river during the ‘Little Ice Age’ that gripped the UK and the Netherlands from the mid-17th century. And opposite the music to Silent Night is a reminder that this was the carol sung during the Christmas truce of 1914 – the common ground between English, French and German troops.

The skilful piano arrangements are simple enough for a child of about grade 1-2 standard to play comfortably but full enough to provide effective accompaniment to solo or group voices. Each carol has an introduction of a few bars to help singers pitch their entries, and guitar chords are also included throughout.

Read more & buy online

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Piano Department

STAGG LED PIANO LAMP

£135 (was £150)

When we featured the 125ET piano stool by CGM a few weeks ago, we mentioned the importance of ensuring that your seating arrangements at the piano enable you to play freely and avoid injury. The same is equally true of lighting: our eyes are as susceptible to damage as our hands and backs.

If you find a ceiling light is not enough for you to read music by comfortably, and that standard desk-lamps cast as many shadows as they dispel, come in and try this purpose-built piano lamp by Stagg. With 10 LED lights on an extended shade, it spreads light more evenly across the page, and you can toggle between two brightness levels. Powered from the mains or by battery, the lamp is firmly anchored by a padded metal base and is available in black, chrome and gold finishes.

Read more & buy online

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Recorded Music Department

GIORDANO – ANDREA CHÉNIER (DVD)

£15.20

Jonas Kaufmann, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Željko Lučić

Royal Opera Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Antonio Pappano (conductor) & David McVicar (director)

Once the realm of gods and royalty, opera expanded its range towards the end of the 19th century to concern itself more closely with the real lives of men and women of the present and recent past. Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana of 1890 is usually considered the first such ‘verismo’ opera, and Puccini’s Tosca (1900) the most famous, but Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano (1867-1948) has remained popular since its premiere at La Scala, Milan, in 1896, thanks largely to its extraordinary – and demanding – leading tenor role.

Jonas Kaufmann rises to the challenge magnificently. As The Independent reports, he “brings down the house with the sheer beauty of his singing”, while The Guardian finds “it’s hard to imagine him bettered” as André Chénier (1762-1794), the Greco-French poet who supported the ideals of the French Revolution but was ultimately executed for criticising the Jacobins’ ruthless practices.

Meanwhile, director David McVicar’s production is a welcome return to classic Covent Garden values, one which both respects the work’s historical setting (meticulously realised) and trusts in the power of the music and musicians to communicate effectively without grafting on extraneous ideological or choreographic distractions. This newly-released DVD perfectly captures the drama of the 2015 Royal Opera House run in high definition and surround sound.

Read more & buy online

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Musical Gifts Department

MOZART & BEETHOVEN BEARS

Mozart (7 cm) – £8.90

Beethoven (11.5 cm) – £11.90

These soft, cuddly composer bears are popular all year round and can be found sitting on many of our customers’ (and colleagues’) pianos, but at this time of year even more of them are taken home to sit on our Christmas trees.

But beware – you might find they have a life of their own: here we caught Mozart listening in on Beethoven composing his fifth symphony on a 3D grand piano greeting card…

Read more & buy online