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

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...

I haven't done one of these posts in a couple years, and I realized I missed doing it! Even if it's for no one else's sake than my own, it's really fun to look back over the year to remember and delight in the different things students have accomplished throughout the studio year.  So I'm inviting you to have a look back with me and celebrate some of the highlights and student accomplishments from the 2022 year in the piano studio!  Winter Piano Parties Our first event of the year in January 2022 was a piano party! These bi-monthly events give students an opportunity to dig into some different musical topics that may not always get a spotlight in lessons. This year we've had 5 piano party themes with a full house each time: Rhythm, Music History, Music Theory Game Night, Look Inside the Piano and, most recently, Improvisation!  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dawn's Piano (@dawnspiano) Preschool Student Central In the first ...

Last week we wrapped up our Summer Session here in the studio, and with it we also completed our 9th annual Young Composers project!  What is Young Composers? In this project each summer continuing students work on creating original music, from coming up with musical ideas to typing up sheet music and eventually recording a track of the completed work.  This project is an excellent way to solidify the music theory knowledge that we learn throughout the year, while also getting to enjoy a little change of pace and focus for the summer months. Working on typing and recording the music also gives students a little experience with the digital side of creating music - an essential skill for many of today's musicians. I intentionally choose to use software that has free versions available for this project, so that if students want to continue to explore composing on their own, they've learned on software that is easily accessible to them. (We use Noteflight for notation and Garage...

Drumroll please! I am proud to present our 8th annual Young Composers Project for 2021! What is Young Composers? Each summer at Dawn's Piano, continuing students get to dig into creating original music and learning about the composing process. In just a handful of lessons, students write, notate, practice and record tracks for their original music. This is a highly anticipated season by the students, and I am often asked throughout the year 'when will we get to do that thing where we write our own music again?'. For this project, I also intentionally choose to use software that is free or included with an OS ( Noteflight for notating, GarageBand for recording), so that the programs we learn can be accessible for students to continue exploring and creating on their own if they are so inclined.  For students who truly enjoy the process of creating music, this opens doors and helps them find ways into exploring that. And for all students, whether they're jazzed by creati...

It's that time again! We are unveiling our Young Composers Project for 2020.  This project is highly anticipated by both teacher & students each year because we get to enjoy a change of pace for the summertime, and turn our attention towards writing original music.  Engaging in writing music has several great benefits. It enhances our understanding of music theory, note reading and music fluency, while exercising some creativity.   How Young Composers works:  Each year in the summertime, all of our piano students explore creativity through writing music. The ways we approach this are adapted to all levels, from preschool up through advanced students. AND continuing students who have a working knowledge of note reading, as well as at least 6 months of playing experience, also have the opportunity to notate their original music using Noteflight notation software, and to record a track of their composition during our recording week in the studio. For online stu...

Today's blog post is a Senior Spotlight featuring the studio's graduating senior of 2020, Tamara Masri.  Performance Program:  Night Thoughts by Barbara Arens Graffiti by Barbara Arens These pieces are from a collection of Nocturnes called Rendezvous with Midnight , in which each piece has a short poem associated with it. You'll see the text of these poems in Tamara's video. And without any further ado, I will turn it over to Tamara to introduce herself & perform her selections.  Hi, my name is Tamara Masri. I am a graduating high school senior and I have been playing piano for 14 years. In the fall of 2020, I will be studying Neuroscience at UCLA.  Learning to play piano has made music a very important part of my life. Playing an instrument is a huge stress-relief, as well as an effective way to express myself. And if you wanted to hear a little more from Tamara, she's also written two original pieces of the music over the past c...