dawn's piano

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...

We've wrapped up our Pianovember practice challenge! If you want to see the final leaderboards on the challenge website you can head over to pianoparentpodcast.com/pianovember . Our studio collected 4,395 total tallies. And here are some shout-outs to our top 5 Pianovember practicers:  1. Elliot S - 895 2. Emory W - 659 3. Ruby T - 569 4. Gentri C - 393 5. Sloan S - 252 Way to go!  For the month of December we'll have another little rest from practice challenges while we finish preparing for the Christmas Festival on the 14th, enjoy some holiday themed theory games, and work up some short playlists of Christmas pieces to entertain family over the break.  When we resume lessons in January, we are going to kick off the Happy Birthday Practice Challenge. This one is actually quite easy, we just have to learn how to play "Happy Birthday"! I feel this is an important song for students to know because when birthdays come around, playing a piano accompaniment a...

Today I'm sharing a fun idea, that is not by any means new, to bring some music to the holiday table at your upcoming celebrations and family dinners during the holiday season: Musical Crackers! Christmas Crackers are a holiday tradition in the UK that sort of resemble the celebratory poppers full of confetti that we sometimes use here in the states during the 4th of July or other celebrations. However instead of containing confetti, they usually contain a paper crown and a small gift, favor or joke. Christmas Crackers make appearances in Harry Potter and other iconic British shows and books that have scenes taking place around Christmastime, and are traditionally opened at the end of the holiday meal while still at the table. The sets that I am highlighting today are musical because each cracker contains the traditional paper crown and joke, as well as a small numbered instrument (chime, whistle or bell depending on the set you choose). They also come with some simple guides ...

Going into this discussion of repetitive stress injuries, I want to take a second to re-frame the way we think of playing a music instrument. I think for a lot of us who may not regularly play, sitting down to play an instrument seems like a relaxing, somewhat sedentary activity. And while there is a calming element to playing beautiful music, I would argue that it's more our mood or spirit that feels the calm, while our bodies are very engaged in the fine motor movements that make the music. A colleague of mine from the McPherson Area Piano Teachers' League describes playing an instrument as being a 'fine motor athlete.' And that is exactly how I want us to frame our thinking as we head into a discussion about technique.  I think to some extent most of us can understand the importance of learning proper form when playing a sport so as to avoid injury. We need to to do the same with learning to play an instrument. So my first two tips are going to be about form:  ...

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...

Welcome to our Fall 2019 Online Video Recital! Thank you for tuning in.  Over the past month or so, piano students have been working hard both at home and in the studio on their recital selections, and once a piece was prepared we would grab a video for this online performance. What you'll watch below is a compilation of all those collected videos. This online format for our first recital of the school year provides a lower stress performance opportunity, while still providing the essential practice in working a piece up to a performance level. It also provides a way for all of Dawn's Piano students, in McPherson and online around the country, to participate in a recital together. And I especially really like this format is because it's perfect to share with out of town friends and family who want to cheer on your piano kid but might not be able to attend a traditional recital setting.  Parents, friends and family, thank you for supporting your piano kids on t...

This post is a huge pat on the back for all of you studio parents who are giving your kids the benefits of a music education. There is always new research being published about the positive effects music education has on brain health. In this post, I'll be sharing two studies that illustrate both the immediate academic advantages of practicing and instrument and the long-term role that music study can play in protecting the brain from effects of aging. The first study I'll be sharing is a large-scale study performed by Peter Gouzouasis at the University of British Columbia. In his research he compared the academic test scores of high school students who had studied music in elementary school, and continued to study it in high school , with those of their peers who had not. The findings were that across the board, regardless of socioeconomic factors, teens who had studied a musical instrument not only scored higher than their non-musical peers, but were on average 1 year ah...