dawn's piano

During our summer session, one of my Elementary students asked to start learning this piece by Luke Bryan, so I set to work arranging it for her and ended up with this Elementary Piano Solo version of a country hit that is now available in my store on Sheet Music Plus .  While it is arranged for Elementary Piano, a familiarity with the song and cadence of the lyrics will help young students grasp some of the more challenging timings, or may even allow them to learn some passages by rote. Some of the quick repeated notes will offer technical practice, and overall the structure of the song offers an opportunity to familiarize students with the common parts of a popular song (Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Instrumental, etc). You can preview the sheet music, listen to a sample of the arrangement, and view purchasing options using the links below, or on the Sheet Music Plus website.  look inside Rain Is A Good Thing - Easy Piano ...

Can you believe we're already thinking about the Christmas Festival again?! For those of you just joining in, each year our local Piano Teachers' League hosts a Multi-Piano and Guitar Christmas Festival wherein area students prepare holiday duets, we line 8 pianos up on stage, and students & teachers perform these duets in a lively piano ensemble. This is a highly anticipated event each year, and we have been brainstorming how to carry on with this favorite performance in 2020.  Given the caution around COVID this year, naturally things are going to be a little different. But we piano teachers have brainstormed and come up with an idea that we are pretty excited about that will continue to give your students the opportunity to get ensemble piano experience, AND we will be able to avoid large gatherings and do our very best to keep everyone healthy. So, here's the current plan: Students will prepare their leveled duets in lessons as usual. On December 11th ...

One of my projects during our studio break in May of this year was to get the artwork on our studio walls sorted out to be a little more thematic, and 'put together'. One of the things that had been holding me up in this previously was that I didn't have any art to hang right behind the piano that would really help bring the room together. So, during our downtime, I decided to go ahead and create some studio art that could fill this space! You can see the image below with the 5 original prints hung in a collage form behind the studio piano. We will also be using these as our grand prizes for the studio practice challenges this year! Each student who completes their 40-hour Piano Maestro Challenge will choose a print of their choice to be personalized with their name & achievement, framed and presented at our Spring Recital! Now for the freebies! The Treble Clef print pictured here is free to you as a digital download if you would like it. All you ...

Did you know that day old infants will breathe differently depending on if they are listening to Mozart vs. Stravinsky? This is because a s soon as we are capable of hearing music, we are already responding to and interacting with that music as a vehicle for emotional and cognitive development.  Traditional methods of teaching music have often started children around 7 or 8 years old with instrumental & technical learning, but a lot of research is now available to show that early childhood music education and integration is so incredibly valuable for essential development. In today's post, I'm sharing two different articles highlighting the benefits of early childhood music education. One is from the National Association for Music Education and the other is from Carnegie Hall.  This first article from NAfME outlines their position on Early Childhood Music Education, and that every child deserves play-based and developmentally appropriate music education. I'm dropp...