3. Transposing music. I love when this topic comes up. People who are frustrated by this are generally VERY frustrated and very tired of trying to accommodate varying voice ranges and instruments. The fact of the matter is that most music is printed in the same key it was recorded. And recordings sound better when they're sung in ranges that are out of reach to most mortals; or in keys that mortals can't play. No problem. Shout Music Manager has three different solutions. First, the Music Viewer feature allows full-scores of publishers' songs to be transposed to any key. But transposing is just the start. Add chord diagrams if your guitarists need them. Want just a lead sheet? Select the option to show melody only, or vocals only, or no vocals at all for just a chord chart. But if it's chord charts you want, Shout Music Manager has something else that will knock your socks off! Transposable chord charts that you can create from your own word processor files! Got a bunch of Word documents with lyrics and the chords typed over them? Paste them into Shout Music Manager and instantly transpose them to any key! And scale them to any size. Oh yes, and regardless of how your original looked, the chords are automatically bolded, making them incredibly easy to read. If you prefer to use our charts, we have a bunch of them already available in Shout Music Manager, and a boatload more in optional add-on modules. How about just creating some music notation for a melody or song? Almost everyone needs to do this from time to time, but they don't want to invest the time or money in Finale. I love demonstrating the built-in Shout Music Editor. Create your own notation, complete with lyrics, chords, you name it, in seconds with just your computer keyboard; no MIDI cables! Then there's always someone who needs to transpose a complete piece of printed music: a piano sonata, a choir octavo, a Mahler symphony, or ANYTHING! No problem. It takes some add-on programs, but we can do it, and I'm always delighted to demonstrate it.

4. Planning services . I love it when people say, "I'm using a different program, and it's just not very intuitive for planning worship services." Actually, despite the name Shout Music Manager, the heart of this program is actually the Event planner. Hundreds of features in the Music Library, People, Groups, and Equipment sections all come together and are intended to facilitate the process of planning worship services. The Event Notepad is a cool little window where music ideas and candidates can be quickly accumulated. The Groups and People sections help identify which person belongs to what group and performs what function or plays what instrument. Create your own event templates; skeletons for orders of worship, equipment and schedules for people and groups. Create a year's worth of services in seconds. Just flesh them out as your ideas and plans develop.

5. Communicating with team members . This is a big time-gobbler. But it's so important, who can choose to not do it? But it can certainly be done better and with much less time. There is never enough time in seminars to show all the incredible ways Shout Music Manager allows for you to communicate. The favorite: Attendee E-mails and Post Cards. Sure, there are lots of programs that let you send e-mails to your team members. Shout Music Manager lets you send e-mails based upon attendance: everyone who was scheduled; everyone who showed up; those who didn't; those who didn't but had a note from their Mom; you name it. But what about people who don't have e-mail? Yes, we all have some. Shout Music Manager automatically prints POST CARDS for them!

6. Creating the projection presentation. It's no accident that Shout Music Manager is in the MediaComplete family, featuring MediaShout. Shout Music Manager and MediaShout not only related; they actually like each other, and they play really nicely together. They share the same data file, so you don't have to worry about changing the lyrics to a song, and projecting the one from a different database. And that service that you put together so quickly, with all the music selected? It's instantly ready to go in MediaShout!

7. Keeping track of the music I've used. Gotcha covered! Forget about keeping your usage history spreadsheets or Word documents. When you put a song in a service, Shout Music Manager takes care of all the details. In fact, it allows you to search for music that's at least moderately familiar at your 9:30 service! Oh, and that CCLI report? You're kidding me, right? You'll never think about it again. Enter a start date and end date and press the button. Not only is your entire music history listed; the dates on which music was recorded or projected are also remembered!

8. Can I customize it? There are hundreds of lists and categories in Shout Music Manager. Every one is customizable. Add what you need. Delete what you don't. No limits.

Invariably, time runs out when I feel like we're just getting started. No matter how long the class, I'm never able to demonstrate more than a small fraction of all that Shout Music Manager does.

My most frequent question for those attending the seminar: Do you golf?

Most frequent answer: I don't have time!

My response: You might have to take it up. You're going to have a lot of free time on your hands.

- Dan Homp
Shout Music Manager Creator

For more details, you can visit www.shoutmusicmanager.com or click here to view products at The Shoutable Store.