In this episode of Web Piano Teacher's Artist Series Carole King's compositions, musicality, and creativity is highlighted through her most popular album - Tapestry.  Shawn identifies five distinct characteristics of King's music that give her the signature sound we all know and love.  Once again, the music and life of Carole King inspired an original song titled "She Goes Before".  This was our most collaborative song to date and in this episode you can hear all about the approach we took in attempt to mirror and honor her legacy of songwriting.  Our whole family got to know the Tapestry album and I'll always hold dear the memory of watching my daughter in the rearview mirror of our car sing her heart out to "Beautiful".  Our hope, is that you will listen to King's music with a new curiosity for all the musical gems she weaves into each and every measure of her songs.  

In this episode of Web Piano Teacher's Artist Series we turn all our attention to the life and songs of Willie Nelson.  Willie Nelson, the ultimate story-teller, uses his unique resonate voice to weave timeless stories we not only hear, but feel as if he wrote it just for our life too.  After reading his memoir It's A Long Story, we were struck by his strong poetic prose in the re-telling his life story.  Shawna imagined the recollection of his memories as a beautiful song and tried to honor the foundational relationship between him and his sister Bobbie.  This episode focuses more on the storytelling, which we believe is Willie's signature sound.  Learn how Willie came up with a few of his most popular songs and why writing a Willie Nelson style song proved to be more difficult that writing an Elton John style song; imagine that. 

In this episode of Web Piano Teacher's Artist Series the spotlight is on Elton John's music.  What makes Elton John's music distinctly recognizable as something that keeps generations of people interested and intrigued?  After learning about his unique song writing technique with Bernie Taupin, we decided to put ourselves in their shoes and write a song separately together.  Throughout this episode you'll hear a live performance of an original song written in the style of Elton John as well as examples of his techniques and genius played on the piano by Shawn. In the end, we hope you learn something new about Elton and walk away with a better understanding of his music with a fresh appreciation for his God-given talent.