dawn's piano

Practice Pie by Nicola Cantan is a step-by-step guide to helping your child enjoy their music practice. After I heard about it on a recent episode of the Piano Parent Podcast , I wondered if it might be something I'd want to recommend to my studio piano parents, so I grabbed a copy to check it out.  A few things I really liked: First, the book is short. At only 50 pages, it doesn't take long at all to read, making it perfect for busy piano parents. And at the same time it's to the point, and chock-full of encouragement and practical steps for piano parents to try with their piano kids in home practice. Nicola writes in a very conversational style, so it sort of feels like you're just having a chat with someone who has some really fun and helpful ideas.  You can probably tell from the title, but the book uses baking a pie as an analogy for practicing an instrument, from choosing the right pie dish, to each of the ingredients for the crust and filling, each element of the...

At the beginning of September a new book came out called Why is My Piano Black and White? by Nate Holder. I listened to an interview with the author on the Piano Parent Podcast discussing his earlier book I Wish I Didn't Quit as well as his upcoming release  Why Is My Piano Black & White , and I really liked what he had to say so I pre-ordered a copy of the book. Today's blog post is part book review and part practical application with a few simple recommendations to how I think this book could be used at home to supplement a piano kid's musical journey, to grow their understanding of the instrument and to learn more about the long history of those who have played and composed on it.  The book doesn't read so much as a single story, but as a collection of short stories about various composers and artists starting with Classical music and working up through the 20th century. Once the book gets to the contemporary music, it splits out into genres instead of moving pu...

Anyone who's followed the studio for a while will know that I love to arrange music for my students on request. However, sitting down to arrange a piece of popular music with a specific level in mind, while retaining enough of the song's elements that it sounds right and is still fun to play can sometimes be time consuming. Some weeks, I simply don't have the time to dedicate to arranging and engraving (typing notation) music. On those weeks, enter Jennifer Eklund over at FM Sheet Music . I'm not affiliated with FM Sheet Music in any way, it's just a resource I've come to really appreciate, so I'm sharing about it. Especially as I know students sometimes like to look up and download new pieces on their own, and if that's you, this may be a good place to start.  So there are lots of places online to buy digital sheet music you can print at home of popular works. Why is FM Sheet Music becoming my go-to? Here's what I like about it.  The arran...

Sometime last year our studio contributed to a kickstarter for a tabletop card came called ' Lord of the Chords' , and several months later received our physical copy of the game. Not too long after that I scheduled a game night with a couple local music teachers so we could get the hang of game play before implementing this game in our teaching. Today I'm writing up a short review of Lord of the Chords, and how I look forward to implementing it in lessons.  A short sum-up of game play: You try to build chords, and when you've built a chord in the chosen key signature, you get that key signature tile. Whoever gets 3 tiles first wins. It sounds fairly simple, but there's lots of fun strategy opportunities built in like 7th steals, and action cards that create all kinds of surprises as you go along. Also, when you first sit down to play, you look through the instrument cards and decide which one you'd like to be. Each instrument offers different advantages spe...

Today's blog post is a throwback to when I was a bookseller in the Children's Department at Vroman's Bookstore, and one of our regulars was a music educator, and singer/songwriter, named Emily Arrow. Emily frequently writes songs based on popular picture books ( here's her youtube channel ), and would often stop by to check out the new releases and visit about kid's books. And just last month, she released an instructional book on how to learn the ukulele that I'm very excited about.  Ukulele is one of those instruments that's pretty easy to pick up, especially for kids with some musical experience. A beginning instrument is not very expensive, and the neck & fretboard are the perfect size for little hands to get a start on a string instrument. With this book they'll learn about tuning, strumming, playing some beginning chords, learn up to 24 folk songs, and (my favorite) use the Song Recipe to write their own songs on the ukulele. The format ...

Every so often, I like to share an music education app that will help with home practice, and today, I'm sharing one that is sure to be a hit called Staff Wars. This will be especially helpful for students who are preparing for the upcoming Progressions evaluations, and we will be using it in lessons for the next month or so to help build their confidence for the written portion of the exam. Staff Wars is a note reading app that can be played on an tablet or phone. It's set in outer space, and would be especially great for Star Wars fans, as the ship you are in looks remarkably like a public domain X-wing, and your objective is to shoot enemy notes out of the sky.  As you get notes correct you will level up, and the notes will start moving quicker to increase the challenge. After your three lives are used up, the game is over, and you can play again, trying to improve on your last score.  There are 2 ways to customize the notes you'll be trying to identify, especial...

I've recently received our studio copy of a brand new picture book that puts teaching the treble clef notes into a story format, it's called Here Come the High Notes and is written by Marin Marka, illustrated by Alexandra Tatu.  I am looking forward to using this book in lessons, especially with my preschool and primer students, as a way to both introduce and familiarize the treble staff. Learning note reading takes time, and the directional reading and abstract thinking required for music notation can be difficult for younger learners. This is why I use so many resources that gamify this skill. And with the addition of this book to our studio library, we can start putting the treble notes into the context of a story as well! One thing that I enjoyed in this book is that each note is given a little bit of personality that comes into play as they choose their place on the staff. This helps differentiate them without weighing down the story with too much detail. The book d...

Since I am in prep week between the summer and school year sessions, this post is all about how you can prep at home by setting up Piano Maestro, AND how we can use it to encourage practice by enabling the Home Practice challenge. I've had several parents recently ask me about the piano lab set up after watching their kids sit down and be self-motivated to sight read music using the Piano Maestro app. And that's because this app uses the best parts of gaming technology & the psychology of gamification to create an environment where piano students are learning new notes and technic while actively sight reading and practicing on their actual piano (not just interacting with the screen). All the while, they are receiving in-game rewards and milestones that keep them excited to work for excellence and to progress forward. What you need: A piano (acoustic or digital both work) and an iPad. First step: let me know that you'd like to try Piano Maestro at home and I w...

I recently finished up reading "This is Your Brain on Music" by Daniel Levitin, and I found some of the information he shares about what goes on in our brains when we listen to or make music to be really fascinating. So in this week's blog post, I'm sharing some of my favorite parts with you, and how they can relate to our work in learning to play the piano.  In the introduction of the book Levitin writes "What artists & scientists have in common is the ability to live in an open-ended state of interpretation and reinterpretation of the products of our work." (p. 5) and I completely agree - at least with the musician part of it since I can't really speak for scientists, but as artists we never stop learning. Even when we've completely mastered a piece of music, each time we play it, it is a new & original interpretation. We may strike the notes just a little differently, or emphasize a phrase another way, we may try it slower or faster or...

One of the things I was very excited about in setting up my new home studio was establishing a Piano Lab area where students can practice self-led study, explore and use technology to increase their sight reading, ear training & reinforce musical concepts. And it's been a great success thus far. I am seeing beginning students become confident in what they're learning, and growing in their ability to self-correct, try again and their mastery of musical terms & concepts. And one of the ways I keep students on their toes is to choose an "App of the Week" on a little blackboard that hangs above the piano lab.  Auralia So my app reviews today are about the Musition & Auralia apps that I've been rotating through the App of the Week position. These could easily be incorporated into home practice, especially if your piano kid was struggling with a particular concept. The Musition apps focus on creating stronger music reading and include Note Readi...

In the past year, I've reviewed a few different sight reading apps, because as we all know, I think sight reading is important . But today's app is a little different, Meludia is an Ear Training app that works on developing good aural skills in musicians. Aural skills are what we use to play a song by ear, to take a melody we've heard and translate it into keys, steps, skips, intervals & chords. It's what helps us learn a song by rote - when there isn't any sheet music and we're taught note by note. It's also what helps us catch when we've played a wrong note. And the more notes being played, the harder it can be to catch small mistakes within the chords or passages, so our ears have to be well trained to picking up each tone of a chord, or each note in a phrase or pattern. Ear Training is an essential skill to being a well-rounded musician. And Meludia is a terrific way to build that skill. It is very easy to play and free to install with 1...

One of my favorite times of year in the studio is when we get to dig into composing. And it's a favorite of a lot of students too! The Young Composers Project has been a summer highlight in the studio since 2013. In that time, in  addition to composing & recording hundreds of student pieces, these students have also had great success learning to do professional looking notation using noteflight.com .  Now I know that there are other  music notation programs that may be more comprehensive in certain ways , but let me tell you why I've chosen Noteflight for student compositions. Noteflight is user-friendly & has a very intuitive interface . The site is incredibly easy for today's tech savvy kids to use both on desktop and mobile devices. I've had students as young as 4 participate in Young Composers who are able to type out their music with just a little bit of teacher guidance. And as students progress into needing to use more notating tools or expressio...

By now you all know I'm a huge fan of gamification. So here's another great app you can use to supplement your piano student's practice time at home and grow their sight reading skills. Flash Note Derby is a race where your horse runs faster when you play the correct notes. If you get too many wrong, you may fall behind. I really like this app because it rewards careful consideration, and 'guessing' will end up hurting your chances in the game.  Another great thing is that you can customize which notes will be used, AND those customizatons can even be shared by email. This means I as the teacher can send you a preset each week with a specialized set of notes that you can practice at home. Just open the email on your device with the app, tap the link in the email, and you are good to go!  If you are able to use this app in your home practice time, please let me (or your teacher) know so we can be sure to help you get set up each week, and create presets that ...

Sight reading is one of the *big things* we expect piano lessons to teach us. It's also not easy, for many kids it's as difficult, or even trickier, than reading English. It requires a lot of abstract reasoning power, repetition and work to really "get it." We know that a well-rounded musician pairs the ability to see and hear the notes with their awareness of the relationship between notes as they form intervals and chords to interpret and create music. So being able to SEE those notes is a very important part of that puzzle.  And being a huge believer in the power of gamification, today I'm going to tell you all about NoteRush ! A great game that will help students with sight-reading. The game aspect will motivate them to achieve the repetition and practice necessary to internalize the notes, while the expanding levels will continue to stretch and grow the inventory of notes they can confidently read. Piano Parent Podcast also recently featured the app...

Looking for a new app to mix up your practice routine? Want to improve your rhythm and hand-eye coordination? If you said yes, get ready to get hooked, because this article is all about The Most Addicting Sheep Game.  A constant theme in piano lessons is anticipation. Some days I feel like a broken record because I'm always reminding students to think ahead. One of the very real cognitive hurdles of playing the piano is that you have to be reading several steps ahead so you know where you're going while maintaining the music you are already playing. This is definitely an acquired skill that is not easy, and requires a lot of what neurologists call "regulation." It can also be a very difficult concept to explain to young students, and sometimes even harder to implement. The good news is there are a lot of tools we can use to build this ability naturally, to train the brain into regulating tempo and wiring hand-eye coordination to match it. And many of these trai...

Looking for a way to round out your child's music education? Or to squeeze in some practice when you are away from the piano? Just peruse your local library or bookstore's performing arts section. I headed over to Vroman's last week to see what was available and found some great choices! I was also glad to see some of my long-time favorites are still in print. This list is mostly picture books   meaning that if you read the book, then went on YouTube and listened to the artist or piece you read about, these would be a perfect fit to substitute for a 15-20 minute practice time. Children's Book of Music by DK Publishing (pictured) This book is an incredible survey of music history from early ancient to popular & film music of today. It comes with a CD to listen along, and has the photo and information block layouts that we've all come to love and expect from DK nonfiction books. This is an excellent book to take on a trip and study a few pages each day. (W...

Sometime in the summer of 2015, I finally got around to signing up for a Piano Book of the Month Club with Teach Piano Today. I'd had my eye on it for a while, but never committed. The first book I received was called the Silver Screen Playbook. These were exciting pieces modeled on film scores, perfect for keeping teens engaged for the summer, and I was immediately hooked. Fortunately, so were my students!

I get a lot of music from MakingMusicFun.net, as many of my students have commented after seeing this website at the bottom of many of their music sheets. So, I was quite pleased to find out that they were creating an app!

Sight Read MTA is an app I came across recently that has been getting a lot of use in my lessons the past few months.  And since it is something I have found incredibly helpful, I'm reviewing my experience so far.

It's been about 9 months since I did my first Favorite Apps post, and I've definitely had time to explore and discover several other apps that I absolutely love! I have to say technology has given us some great teaching tools, and in doing so opened up many more avenues for presenting material to a wider audience. I will start off with my new favorite app EVER: