Hal Leonard's ScorePlay program has proven a popular method of allowing band students to preview and engage in brand new music pubications. has been very successfully employing with its ScorePlay promotional tool on YouTube. ScorePlay lets band directors and students – and anyone visiting YouTube – view complete conductor scores while listening to professionally recorded demo recordings that coordinate with the score on screen. The page turns sync with the music automatically, and visitors can see and hear the entire piece of music.
Hal Leonard began implementing ScorePlay on its YouTube channels for Marching Band, Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble and Orchestra before the start of the last school year. Now, all new releases at all levels are promoted via ScorePlay as soon as they are available in print. The publisher is even going back and making some perennial favorites available in this format.
Michael Sweeney is the director of band publications for Hal Leonard, and a noted composer and former educator. He comments, “We conceived of ScorePlay primarily for band directors, but we’re finding from the screen comments that it’s wildly popular with students. They enjoy making recommendations to their band directors, and feeling empowered in helping to choose which pieces their bands will play.”
How popular can a piece of school music on YouTube be? Very popular, it turns out. Highlights from Frozen arranged by Sean O’Loughlin for concert band has had more than 146,000 views in a mere four months.
Sweeney continues, “Anyone we show ScorePlay to absolutely loves it. They enjoy seeing and actually hearing the music in a setting they are very comfortable with, all for free. They can subscribe to our YouTube channels with no obligation, and get to experience all of our new releases.”
Hal Leonard is continually adding ScorePlay pieces to its YouTube channels. Please visit and subscribe to Marching Band, Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble and Orchestra.
