dawn's piano

  Another summer in the piano studio means we spent another couple months composing, notating, and recording original student compositions.  And now that they're all finished, we have a book of the collected sheet music, and an album of the music you can listen to below!  All notation was made using Noteflight, and tracks were recorded using GarageBand. Both are free to use, and so will be readily accessible for any students who would like to take what they learned from this summer project and continue composing on their own.   To download the book of sheet music, click here , or the image below.  And use the player below to listen to the album. You can also find all the audio files for download in this folder.     Dawn's Piano · Young Composers 2026

  If you've tried out some lessons for the Summer Session and are on the waitlist for a regular opening, thank you for your patience! Here are a few ways to keep up motivation and interest in the meantime: Piano Maestro This is an app we use in the studio that gamifies learning notes and building sight reading fluency. With in-game tutorials, popular tunes, and a gradually progressive method, it is a great way to keep the learning going! Need help getting the app set up? Just reach out! Review the music you learned Playing through the pieces that you've learned will reinforce concepts, build confidence, and help ensure that we can pick up right where we left off without having to backtrack.  Share the music  Playing music for friends or family, and getting all the applause and celebration that comes with it, can be incredibly validating in the early days of piano study. Once your piano kid has a few pieces mastered, find a way to share them. This could be: Planning a smal...

It’s a new year and we’re turning a new page - in our studio binders!  Did you know that student binders are our main throughway for communication on weekly assignments between student, teacher, and parent? Every week we write an assignment sheet detailing WHAT, and often HOW, a student should practice that week. Following these assignments plays a key role in practicing intentionally to establish consistent progress! There’s space to track daily practices throughout the week, and a box to add questions or a quick note to let me know how practice went.  But I’ve been noticing this school year in particular, that the binder is barely on many students’ radar despite my weekly reminders at lessons. This tells me I need to do a better job highlighting their importance for both piano kids and studio parents to be checking in on.  Enter our January challenge! Its a ‘Check Your Binder' challenge in which I hide a silly word in the written assignment each week during the month of...

In the final week of lessons for the year, after our big Christmas Festival concert is wrapped up, I like to unwind from the intensity of the last few weeks of concert prep and change up our usual lesson plan.  During this final week of lessons for the calendar year, we usually play through our holiday playlists (using Wendy Stevens' Seasonal Songs to Share resource ), maybe take a video of a favorites to share via the studio’s social media pages, and make a music centered holiday craft! This year for our craft I mocked up a quick Christmas Card, and I’m sharing a free template below in case anyone else would like to use it! Students will be filling in the music notes for the melody of the opening phrase of ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ and can decorate the card in any way they like beyond that. I picked up some festive colored envelopes, and just like that we’ve got a simple lesson activity that can be kept or gifted depending on each student’s preference!  If you’d like to...

Another summertime means another season spent composing original music!  The studio had 30 continuing students for lessons this summer, so we've got 30 brand new, original student compositions to share with you today.  You can learn more about our annual Young Composers project here.   All the student compositions have been notated and recorded, and then collected and published as a book and audio album below. We hope you enjoy the music!  Click here or the image above to view the book of sheet music. Use the player below to listen to the audio tracks from this year, or y ou can find all the tracks in this folder .  Dawn's Piano · Young Composers 2025

Every summer at Dawn's Piano, students who are continuing lessons from the previous school year have the opportunity to compose, notate and record original music with our Young Composers program. At the end of the summer we collect the sheet music into a single book file, and upload the audio tracks of each student piece into an album, and that's what we're sharing with you today!  Composing music is a wonderful way to exercise some creativity and enjoy a change of focus during summer lessons, while putting into practice the music theory understanding that students have built during the school year. It's one of my favorite times in the studio year, and many students also highly anticipate this season of creativity, and enjoy getting to take ownership of their musical journey in a new way. It is important to me that the equipment and programs we use for this project are accessible for any students who would like to continue composing on their own. So  student notation i...

Students have been working on these compositions throughout the summer session, and today's the day we get to share them with you!  Young Composers is an annual summertime project in our studio that started back in 2013. All continuing students (which just means students who have taken lessons with the studio heading into that summer) work on creating an original piece of music. Then they notate it, and in the final week of lessons we have a recording session to lay down the tracks of their pieces.  Composing is such a valuable exercise for music students. It gives them a chance to take a little extra ownership of their musical journey and to put what we learn about music theory throughout the year into practice from a new angle. As a teacher, I enjoy seeing the different approaches that students take to composing, and what they draw inspiration from.  Be sure to let these young pianists know how much you appreciated their music the next time you see them. And for any pia...