dawn's piano

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...

Today's post is a wish for a very Merry (and musical!) Christmas and holiday season from our studio to your home.  And I'm sharing with you an elementary leveled piano solo of "The First Noel" that I prepared when I couldn't find exactly the right thing for one of my late elementary students who wanted to learn it this season.  My goal was to create something with movement in the bass clef and to include some intro & interlude sections that would add some sophistication to this piece as a piano solo, but still be an appropriate level for an elementary leveled student.  You can preview what the arrangement sounds like here:   The sheet music is available for purchase on Sheet Music Plus , but for you, dear reader, you can receive a copy as my holiday gift to you by entering your email below! The studio will be closed the next couple weeks so students and teacher alike can all enjoy some holiday down time with family & friends. The blog w...

I am so excited to dive into the '18-'19 school year starting next week. And one way we'll make it fun heading into the fall is with a practice challenge.  Last year was my first year trying out a studio-wide practice challenge, and I loved the energy and motivation that it brought to my piano students throughout the year. Even my most reluctant practicers had spurts where they were goal-driven and focused on working pieces to completion. So I'm doing it again this year!  Now, I know that the studio is just starting back up, and I'm trying not to be too overzealous. So here's my challenge to each of this year's students:  Learn 20 pieces by the end of the term on April 26th. And that's it. Now I know the first question my students will ask when I introduce this to them is "what do I get if I do it?"  Well, I have answers.  If you complete your 20 piece challenge, you will get: A certificate of achievement presented to you on-stag...

I hope you all enjoyed our Ship Shape Pianist series, and found some inspiration & motivation to set up 2018 as a productive year of piano study! Heading into February, I thought I'd switch focus to something a little less business-y and a bit more fun. Huzzah! So, this month, I'll be sharing a series of beginning piano games that can be played at home (or in lessons) to supplement early piano study. And the best part, this first one is a free printable! This game is a classic - a Memory Matching game for music. I started making versions & variations of this game by hand almost as soon as I started teaching 12 years ago, and I have found it to be a very versatile teaching tool that can be played alone, one on one, or in a small group. It can be a great reinforcer of general music knowledge & early theory concepts without making a student feel like they're being drilled. Not to mention, it increases spatial memory, which is so important when playing the pian...

I think it's pretty safe to say all musicians have had the experience of someone saying "play us a song!" and your mind goes totally BLANK. You can't seem to remember a single piece of music you know, let alone how to play it. So today, we're talking about the importance of maintaining a playlist.  Sometimes in the effort of learning to sight read, count and perform, we forget why we got into this in the first place. Was it to play music we've heard before? To share music with others? To create new music? Maybe all of the above? If we actively maintain a playlist of pieces we know how to play, we can do all of these things and more. We can confidently perform for family & friends when they ask.  For some young musicians maintaining more than 1-2 pieces of music at a time can feel like a challenge. It's pretty easy to fall into a pattern of memorizing then forgetting, or mastering a piece and then moving onto the next without wanting to look back. B...