dawn's piano

As we're heading into an era of rediscovering some 70's-90's fashion, we're seeing the long nail trends coming back in full force, which makes this post both timely and necessary as I'm seeing more of these coming into lessons again. My goal with this post is to provide some considerations that piano parents or non-musicians may not be aware of.   So are long nails ok for piano students?  Unfortunately the short answer is: No, they're really not a great idea. This means that when you head to the nail salon with your piano kid, keep in mind that those really fun long nails can cripple good piano technique. So much so that it can actually cause tension related repetitive stress injury or nerve issues if sustained in the long term. Our hands are part of our equipment for playing the piano, and just like you wouldn't send your child to soccer practice in ballet shoes, you don't want to send them to piano lessons or performances with the wrong equipment on th...

Several times during the year we'll have a Piano Party! These are open to all students who would like to attend.  What do we do at Piano Parties?  Each one has a distinct musical focus on a topic that may not always get the spotlight in lessons: Music Theory Game Night . Often I'll frame this as a 'Bootcamp' with a specific topic like note reading or rhythm fluency.  Look   Inside the Piano . We'll learn more about what makes our instrument so special and all the moving parts that are there to help us make our music.  Improvising . Each year the style of music we improvise or compose may change, this year (2019-2020 Session) I'm planning a Pop Composing class using the 4 chord composing model. Students will write an original pop-style melody to play over a chord progression accompaniment.  Music History .   Students learn about the major periods in the Western Classical genre, and some of their distinctive composers while filling out composer tr...

Enrollment for the Summer Session at Dawn's Piano is officially open! For new beginning students, Summer is a terrific time to try out piano lessons and see if they are a good fit for you before committing to the coming school year.  For existing students, or those who have a little musical experience, summer is when we get to stretch our creativity with a Young Composers project. What this means is each student who participates will work on composing an original piece of music, notating it, and recording it. At the end of the summer we will publish an e-book & album of all the collected compositions. Because tuition at Dawn's Piano is always all-inclusive, this program is no extra cost to you! Check out one of the past Young Composers projects here. Here's how summer session works:  Session runs from June 11th-Aug 2nd (8 weeks). The studio is open for lessons Tuesday-Friday 11:00am-7:00pm Tuition is one fee paid by May 31st, calculated on the cost of 6 ...

Flex weeks are un-billed lessons that are built into the term where either parents or the studio can cancel a lesson if necessary without the loss of a paid lesson, or the need for a make-up. Basically it offers us that flexibility to take a week off when we need it. We have 3 flex weeks built into the school year session, and 2 built into the summer session.  If you're interested in seeing how this all calculates into the studio tuition, here's an example of the math based on a random year's* group lesson rate. There are 37 weeks in the term (end of August through April) 4 weeks are holidays (1 week Thanksgiving, 2 weeks Christmas, 1 week Spring Break) 3 weeks are unbilled flex weeks That leaves us 30 lessons in the term at the all-inclusive (materials included) lesson rate of $22.50 each.  30 x 22.50 = 675. This means the total tuition for the school year session is $675. Divided evenly over 9 months, and the monthly tuition comes to $75.  To put it simply, ...

Thank you for considering piano lessons with Dawn's Piano! There are so many cognitive & emotional benefits of music study, I am sure that it will be an enriching experience for your student. This article is here to help you know what you can expect from me in your piano study, and all the things that your tuition covers. I adapted much of this list from Wendy Stevens' brochure on the ComposeCreate website , please feel free to check that out if you want to hear about piano tuition from someone other than me. Most of the time when we think about the tuition for piano lessons, we account for the time taken to give the lessons, maybe a little of the teacher's education or experience, and probably not too much else. So I just wanted to let you know where your tuition really goes, beyond the teacher's take home pay & benefits: Time in lessons - this is the obvious one. Keep reading to see what tuition covers beyond teacher compensation for time in lessons...