Paloma Piano is 8 Years Old
Paloma Piano had another birthday this year and we are celebrating with a new website.
We have been growing and we have definitely outgrown our old website. We want to offer a sincere Thank You! to all of our loyal Gold, Platinum Basic, and Platinum Members who have been with us through the years. Many of you have contributed great ideas for music and content through your participation on Facebook and through comments and email feedback. Many of our users have also had suggestions about ways to make the website easier to use. We have been listening.
We hope that you will be just as thrilled as we are with the performance and features of the new site.
What is New for Paloma Piano Members?
This blog post addresses what is new and what is changing for our current Gold, Platinum Basic, and Platinum Members.
Membership Names and Access Levels
Paloma Piano has 3 access levels for our content: Free, Essential, and Premium.
Gold Members – Access to Free Content Category
Our current Gold members have access to any “Free” content. Your membership continues to be Free and will never expire. All of the Free content can be found in the content category Free Music and Games
Platinum Basic Members – Access to Free & Essential Content Categories
Our Platinum Basic members have access to all Essential and Free content categories. These can be found in Essential Solos and Duets, Essential Method Books and Resources, and Free Music and Games
Platinum Members – Access to Everything
Our Platinum Members have access to everything on the site. This includes all Premium level materials in the Premium Member Area, all the Essential content in the category Essential Solos and Duets and the Essential Method Books and Resources category as well as all of the Free content in the category Free Music and Games.
Check out our Membership Page for a detailed description of what is included in each level of membership.
PayPal Billing Will Stay the Same
Our Platinum and Platinum Basic members will continue to be billed through PayPal. There is no change to your current billing or your monthly or yearly payments. To access your billing information you will need to go through PayPal. You will also need to go through PayPal to cancel your payment plan if you decide to quit. That cannot be done on this website.
Our Contact Email Address Has changed
Our new contact email address is support@palomapiano.com
How to Manage Your Account Settings
On the Account Settings page, you can manage your account. Note that the cancel account button will cancel your account here but will not stop the PayPal billing. If you want to stop payments you will need to go to PayPal or contact us at support@palomapiano.com
What is New on the Website?
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
We no longer have our music organized in pages based on skill level for Beginning, Early Intermediate, and Later Intermediate players. We also don’t have separate pages for Method Books, Games, Resources, etc.
Instead, all of the music is organized into Content Categories based on the Access Levels Free, Essential, and Premium.
There are four Content Categories:
Free Music and Games – for Platinum, Platinum Basic, and Gold members.
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 – for Platinum, and Platinum Basic members
This category has our method books plus other instructional materials.
Essential Solos & Duets – for Platinum, and Platinum Basic members.
This category contains all of our individually packaged solos and duets plus all of the individual First Classics series.
Premium Member Area – for Platinum members only
All 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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