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  • Dawn Dixon, left, goes over a piano lesson with Desiree Baird. Although Baird is hearing impaired, she is an avid music student and will even be teaching art and sign language lessons at Dixon’s Gardendale studio on Tarrant Road twice a week.

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September 1, 2010

Music teacher says arts keep students out of trouble

By Ben Montgomery The North Jefferson News

GARDENDALE — Dawn Dixon has been teaching music for 25 years, and she’s just opened a new studio in Gardendale.

Although she teaches piano, she said she’s best at teaching the instrument everyone carries with them: Their voice.

“You have to learn the right way to make sound and air come out,” said Dixon. “It’s like a pipe instrument. Like a bagpipe, really.”

She said teaching good musical technique is important at a young age.

“Technique is very important to being successful,” she said. “If you don’t teach good technique when children are young, you can’t fix it after they turn 16 or 17.”

Dixon is an alum of Birmingham Southern College. After she graduated she trained under Birmingham opera singers, and then started her business when she moved to Birmingham in 1992.

In addition to her Gardendale location, she also has studios in Trussville, Greystone and Vestavia Hills. Although she employs other teachers, Dixon said she does a lot of traveling between the studios.

“I work around the clock,” she said. “I work from lunchtime-onward every day... I probably work 50 hours a week.”

Dixon chose Gardendale as the site of her new studio for a reason.

“I’ll actually tell the truth. School systems won’t let arts in. It’s what’s wrong with schools... kids get into trouble when there’s no outlet for talent,” she said.

Dixon said there are still some schools in Gardendale, however, that support the arts.

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