Welcome to Paloma Piano!
We are so glad that you are here!
This post will show you everything you need to get started using our website and help you understand where to find great Piano Teaching Resources for your Studio. Let’s get started.
About Paloma Piano
Paloma Piano’s creator, Doreen Hall is a 35-year veteran piano teacher, composer, accompanist, and Montessori-trained educator. About 10 years ago, Doreen had the idea for a web business that could provide music and other teaching materials to piano teachers like her who were constantly struggling to find decent resources to use in their teaching studios.
As a composer, Doreen was addressing the problem by using modern music notation software to create new music and other teaching aids for her own students and she thought that her music could be useful for other teachers. Way back in 2015, Paloma Piano – the website- was born with just a few hundred pages of music – consisting mostly of Doreen’s original Method Books, that she was using with her students and a handful of individual resources on Music Theory.
Over the past 8 years, Doreen has interacted with hundreds of piano teachers discussing their approaches to teaching, running their studios, and working with all sorts of teaching and business challenges that piano teachers face. During that time, Doreen has written over a thousand pages of musical resources and has written over 100 blog posts addressing all aspects of the piano teaching business. She has even written and published several books available on Amazon.
With all of that experience and her amazing variety of resources, Doreen has made Paloma Piano into a one-of-a-kind location on the web for all piano teachers whether you are just starting out or you are a serious professional with a thriving studio.
Becoming a Member
We have 3 membership levels:
The Free membership is… well… Free and we have two paid membership levels: Essential and Premium.
Our free membership gives you access to dozens of pieces of music that you can download today if you Join.
We also have 2 paid levels of membership with 1000s of pages of music and other resources for your teaching studio. And best of all, Doreen is always adding more.
You can find out details about each of these membership levels on our Membership page. Or if you would like to just get started as a free member you can go to our Free Member Registration page. No credit card is needed. You will get added to our mailing list and can expect to get about 1 email per week and a bi-monthly Freebee.
Logging In
When you click on the Log In link in the top Menu Bar, it takes you to the login page.
Just enter the Email address and password that you signed up with and click the Login button. If you are not on a shared machine, you can check the Remember me box before clicking the Login Button. This will allow you to stay logged in between visits as long as you are in the same browser. If you have forgotten your password you can click on Forgot Password, which will take you to a page where you can enter your email address and get a link to reset your password. If you do not get the email, remember to check your Junk mail or Spam folder.
Getting Started
Once you are Logged in the site will take you to your Dashboard. On the Dashboard, you have access to My Favorites – where you can access any of the content that you have added as a Favorite, My Account – where you can access all of your account information and Help & Support – where you can get answers to FAQs.
In addition, there is a link to the Getting Started page on the right and a listing of the Latest Content below.
You always have access to the Dashboard, the Library, and the Events Calendar on the left side menu bar.
Finding our Resources
All of Our Downloadable Content is in the Library
All of the music and resources available on Paloma Piano are accessible in the Library link on the left sidebar.
We Have 4 Content Categories based on Access Level
All of the resources are organized into Content Categories based on the Access Levels Free, Essential, and Premium.
There are four Content Categories:
All of Paloma Piano’s Free Resources are in one super easy-to-find place. We have all of our games plus a selection of music.
Essential Method Books & Resources
This category has our method books plus other instructional materials.
This category contains all of our individually packaged solos and duets plus all of the individual First Classics series.
Premium Member AreaAll of our premium collections and teaching books including books formatted for 2-sided printing.
Note that anyone can explore the materials in any of the content categories but only members that have access to that content category can download the PDFs.
In Each Content Category, You Can Filter Your Results
Once you enter one of the Content Categories you now have the ability to Filter Your Results using the Content Types on the right side of the page.
Example: Essential Solos & Duets
When you open the content category Essential Solos & Duets there are a total of 183 solos and duets in the category with the latest additions shown on top. Notice the Filter Your Results section on the right side of the page. Go ahead and experiment by checking the Content Type boxes and see the changes in the number of results.
The Content Types are listed below:
Skill Level (Preschool, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) – The Later Intermediate pieces from the old website have been separated into either Intermediate or Advanced.
Composer (Classical or Paloma Original) – This content type filters Doreen’s compositions from the Classical Composers in our First Classics series.
Resource Type (Games, Instructional Materials, Method Books, Other Resources, Piano & Vocal, Piano Collections, Piano Solos, Piano Duets) – This content type allows you to filter different types of content that you are looking for.
Genre or Style (Blues & Jazz, Folksongs, Religious) – Useful for looking for a specific type of music.
Holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day) – Useful for finding holiday music.
Seasonal (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) – Useful for finding seasonal music.
You Can Clear Your Filters
If you are using a filter and want to start over again, just click on the Reset Filters link at the top of the Filter Your Results section of the Content Category page.
You Can Also Use the Keyword Search
The Keyword Search field in the Filter Your Results section on the right allows you to search by keyword within that content category. For example, if you wanted to find anything in the Essential Solos & Duets category that has the word “ostinato” in it you would just enter the word in the search box and press enter or search.
Use Website Search to Look Outside of the Content Category
The Keyword Search looks only in the content category. If you want to see what else is available in other content categories or elsewhere on the website, you can use the Search field on the Top Menu Bar. The example below shows a website search for the word “ostinato”.
Click on the Title or Image to Get Specifics and the Download
When you are in a content category or on a search results page and you have found something that you want to view, you can get more information and the download link by clicking on the image or title of the content. This will take you to the content page for the piece. All of our content has a Look Inside Previewer that allows you to see exactly what is in the PDF. You have access to a description, an audio or video of the piece if one is available, and a Download link in the Resource section at the bottom of the page. For this example, we will look at Amazing Grace which is a Free piece. You must be logged in to see the Download Link.
New My Favorites Area to Save Your Favorite Content.
If you love a piece and want to access it easily, you can add it to My Favorites by clicking the Add to Favorites button on the content page (shown in the middle right of the above image). If the piece is already in My Favorites the button will change to Remove from Favorites
To find My Favorites just go to the Dashboard and My Favorites is in the Quick Links
Downloading a Piece
The most important functionality for our users is the Download link. Each piece that you have access to will have a Download link in the Resource section at the bottom of the page. When you click on the link, the piece will download. If it does not open automatically, look for it in your downloads folder on your device. The file name will always be in the format “PalomaPiano_ThePieceName.pdf” where “ThePieceName” is replaced with the piece’s actual name in CamelCase format.
We now have an Events Calendar
Doreen will be hosting various events for our Members. You can find these on the Events Calendar on the left sidebar.
Getting Support
I would like to thank each of you with whom I have interacted over the years past 8 years. I am more than happy to help you with any questions or concerns that you have. Doreen and I are just a 2 person team. But the good news is that I retired from my corporate job over the summer and now have more time to invest in Paloma Piano to make this the best user experience ever.
I must say, that as I was moving the content from Doreen’s old website to the new site I was overwhelmed with the amount of great resources that she has created for all of you. I am super excited about the new website capabilities and I hope you will be too. I look forward to you having a great experience and ask that you feel free to reach out to me or Doreen for anything big or small. Again our contact email is support@palomapiano.com.
Have a great teaching day!!
Sincerely,
Stewart Hall – Paloma Piano, Technical Support
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