This Simply Music approach focuses on the fun and sheer pleasure of playing music. The ‘hands-on’ nature of the program and the immediate results that are produced actively dispel the notion that learning to play means enduring years of lessons, boring practice sessions and relentless hours of drills. Without a doubt there is a multitude of myths that surround music lessons. These include such things as, “learning piano is hard,” or “if you didn’t learn when you were young then you’ve lost the opportunity,” or “it takes a special talent.” These are common misconceptions. In act, everybody has the ability to express themselves musically. So how did these myths emerge in the first place?
The common and traditional entry into learning piano is a ‘reading-based’ approach. In other words, students are first taught the fundamentals of music reading as the means of learning how to play. As a result, progress is commonly slow and frustrating, and many students never develop a love for the process. Because of this, students never really acquire the ability to play the instrument, nor retain it as a life-long companion. In fact, teaching music-reading as a means of learning how to play, is like insisting that very young children first
learn how to spell and read as a means of learning how to talk! In reality, children learn to talk long before they learn to spell and read. Furthermore, we all learn to tie our shoelaces, brush our teeth, button up our shirt and thread a needle by doing those things, experiencing them directly and never by studying the ‘theory’ of the subject or referring to notes. In other words, we learn by doing.
Our ‘playing-based’ approach is founded on the premise that everybody, without exception, is musical. Life is musical, profoundly so. Our hearts beat to a steady ‘thump’ - that is rhythm, the foundation of all music. Walking is a highly rhythmical, graceful, musical act. Conversation is made up of spoken sentences and phrases of astonishing musical complexity, yet is easily and naturally available to us all. Our innate connection to music is precisely what gives us the ability to talk. The Simply Music program both draws
on and ‘feeds’ the natural sense of music we all possess, and teaches students to play the piano by immersing them in the actual process of playing. The Simply Music method begins by translating pieces of music into a unique series of simple concepts that unfold directly onto the keyboard. Beginning students, with no attention on having to read music, are free to relate directly to the piano. Within months, they easily and naturally establish a ‘hands-on’ and personal ‘feeling’ for the instrument and build a playlist that includes contemporary, classical, gospel, blues and jazz styles. The bottom line is that students get to experience the absolute joy that comes from being able to immediately play a broad repertoire of great sounding music. Typically, students in their second year of lessons (and with a repertoire of 35 to 50 pieces), go on to learn how to read music and understand more theory. Their ability to play piano so well provides a natural and ideal foundation. Simply Music students - children, teenagers, adults and seniors alike – are discovering that they have an ability to learn piano more easily and naturally than they thought possible.