dawn's piano

This last post in the Ship Shape Pianist series is a little different because it's for the piano teachers & small business owners out there who follow the blog. Before I dive in, I feel it is most important to say that if the idea of running your business' online presence doesn't bring you joy, outsource it. Do the things in the running of your business that you really like doing and hire someone else to do the rest. Don't burn yourself out. On the other hand, If you're like me and you like the creative challenge of running your online brand, but are having a difficult time keeping all the pieces moving, in this post, I am sharing the things that have helped me go from a twice a year blogger to being able to keep to a once a week schedule. The tricks that helped me move from a meager handful of student videos & photos on the Dawn's Piano Facebook & Instagram accounts over the last several years to several per week this past year. So, here goes: ...

I think when people envision piano practice, they see you sitting down and playing through pieces beginning to end. It's a completely understandable assumption, and this is also what our students think until we teach them otherwise. The reality is that a good, effective & dedicated practice has a lot of work that isn't just playing through pieces. So the third post of the Ship Shape Pianist series gives you 5 tips to making your practice more effective for 2018. If you want to see some real progress in your playing, try implementing these. If you aren't sure what resources to use for any of these, just ask your teacher what they'd recommend. 1. Scales & Technic: Warm up your fingers & your brain with some scales & arpeggios. Practice them at different tempos from slow & deliberate to very quickly. Play them legato & staccato, or try a swing or drop-roll pattern. Work on finger placement & thinking ahead to eliminate any pausing. Then tr...

Ever had an entire week go by, remember it's piano lesson day, and then with horror realize you haven't opened a single piano book since the last lesson? You're not alone, so in our second post of the Ship Shape Pianist series, I'm sharing 4 tips to help you schedule piano practice and stick to it. 1. Schedule a set time. Consistent practices throughout the week are much more effective than a binge practice every so often. Sit down, look at your weekly schedule, and set a regular time that piano practice will happen, even if all you can comfortably manage is a 10-15 min window a few days a week. Then stick to it.    2. Set reminders. Whatever system you use for keeping your piano kids on a schedule, add piano practice to it. If you use physical planners, add piano practice at your chosen time. If using a digital calendar, set alerts or reminders. Or, if you need to practice after brushing teeth, put a "Practice Piano!" sticky note on the bathroom mirror...

Happy New Year! And what better way to start off 2018 than some tips for organizing your practice space. This is going to kick off a series of posts for the month of January I'm calling the Ship Shape Pianist in which I share some of the ways I try to stay organized & on schedule. (Not that I'm all that great at it all the time, but I hope that you piano parents, students & teachers out there will find something that helps you too!) So, if your piano has ever looked like the one in our photo here, I'm sharing 3 tips for keeping your music collection under control.  You may have noticed that putting your piano books back in the bench after every practice can feel pointless when you know you're just going to pull them out again the next day, so stacks of music happen. They happen to all of us. And, if you think about it, practicing so often that you don't want to put your books away is a good problem to have! But if you're tired of stacks of boo...

Since we'll be taking next week off for the winter break, I wanted to use the last post of 2017 to look back at the year, and share a few of my favorite moments. So here they are! The highlights: We put on 2 fantastic recitals with over 100 performers in both the spring & fall schedules. We had another successful summer of Young Composers where 20 students participated in composing, notating & recording original pieces of music. Many of those students have received awards from the Reflections Art Competition for their compositions. Click here to see the finished results. We launched a couple practice challenges , and, I might add, several of our students are rocking it in both the 100 day & 40 Piece practice challenges - keep it up everyone! Follow @dawnspiano on Instagram for regular updates. We started a little side-hustle selling sheet some music. Click here to see our store. Dawn gave an interview with Piano Parent Podcast . Mallory published an article ...

Are you already getting a little weary of "Jingle Bells" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" this season? I don't blame you, I can usually listen to KOST 103.5 for about 20 minutes before I start hearing repeat songs and make my own playlist instead. The good news is there's actually a huge wealth of holiday music out there besides the radio favorites.  Last year, I actually attended my first Sing-along Messiah (pictured). I was nervous, but guys, it was really fun! It was a great way to put my sight singing into practice (a bit rusty, hadn't done that in a while!) and participate in bringing a 275 year old piece of music to life again. Now, you don't have to sing if you don't want to, you can just watch and enjoy, but I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot. Just stand next to someone who looks like they know what they're doing and sing whatever they sing.  So, if you'd like to enjoy some classical Christ...

When is it too early to start thinking about holiday music? Well, if you're a music teacher, the planning for new music begins in early fall at the latest. Before September was over I had already placed 2 large orders for new holiday sheet music collections & downloaded several studio licenses for individual pieces to start preparing for the holiday season! Part of this is because heading into the holidays is one of my personal favorite seasons. I get excited by how life speeds up in anticipation of slowing down, and I truly enjoy the music that surrounds this time of year, and how people share it with one another. I also recognize that not everyone feels this way about holiday music, so I made sure to include some lovely new wintry piano solos from Musica Ferrum in the planning this year instead of all Christmas & Hannukah classics. One factor that really makes my piano teacher heart happy this time of year is that students are excited about reviewing music from prev...