[007] PRAISE AND GRACE COMBINE WITH TECHNIQUE AT MUSIC SCHOOL

PRAISE AND GRACE COMBINE WITH TECHNIQUE AT MUSIC SCHOOL
Ben Speer’s Stamps-Baxter School of Music Promotes Southern Gospel Tradition

(MURFREESBORO) – Ben Speer’s Stamps-Baxter School of Music, based in Nashville, will provide instruction in the performance of Southern Gospel music July 12-24 on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.
Subjects for daily classes include theory, harmony, songwriting, sight singing and ear training. Private lessons are offered in voice, piano, guitar and bass guitar. Electives include classes on how to lead congregational singing and how to build a successful career in gospel music.
“Of all the shaped-note singing schools, this is the most professionally oriented,” says Dr. Stephen Shearon, professor of music at MTSU. “Many of the faculty have professional performing careers in the Southern Gospel and contemporary Christian music fields, and some of them are regulars on the Bill Gaither ‘Homecoming’ videos, which are quite popular among this culture.”
Gaither, a mentor to many rising gospel stars, is quoted on the school’s Web site as saying, “It is one of the most important things that young people today can take advantage of and something that is so necessary if we are to retain the quality of musicianship that our Gospel Music pioneers possessed.”
The Gaither Vocal Band, Allison Durham Speer, Greater Vision, Ivan Parker, Little Roy Lewis, Earl Scruggs and The Florida Boys are among the artists who have performed free concerts at the school in the past.
“The Stamps-Baxter Publishing Co. was, in its day, the premier publisher of Southern Gospel music,” says Shearon. “It’s a very familiar name to many people in the American Protestant world. Ben Speer, the current eminence grise (elder statesman) of Southern Gospel, now owns the Stamps-Baxter school name and employs it here.”
For more information, go to http://stampsbaxterschool.com or contact Shearon at 615-898-5984 or sshearon@mtsu.edu.