Simply Music Workshops

I love teaching Simply Music. I love seeing people's delight when they find that they can make music so quickly. I see children feeling good about themselves. I see adults who have always dreamed of playing piano making that dream come true.

And now there is a new opportunity. For those of you who aren't ready to commit to piano lessons, or who just don't believe that Simply Music could possibly work as well as we claim it does, you can now take just four weeks of lessons with no further obligation. You get a taste of what this method can really do.

Please contact me, or look on the Simply Music website to find a teacher in your area and give yourself a chance to be musically expressed. It is a wonderful gift that you can give to yourself, or to your children.

The Spiritual Value of Musical Expression

I have an adult piano student who has a really stressful, icky job. She deals with some of life's most tragic situations on a daily basis.

This week she came into her lesson with an unusually high number of horror stories from her work. But then about halfway through her lesson she commented that when she is in her lessons she is able to forget all of that. "It's like dipping a flower into cool water," she said.

There are so many befefits to musical expression. But in my opinion this is one of the most important. Music creates an outlet, an escape from everyday problems. It gives us a way to express our emotions at times when words just won't do. We can throw ourselves into the music and come out refreshed, with a clearer perspective.

Piano Progress

I love teaching the Simply Music® piano method. It is so amazing to see these kids progress so quickly. I taught a group today with students who have been playing for about 5 1/2 months. I am astounded at all they can do.

I start off each lesson group class with checking each student's practice record and listening to a song or two off of their playlist. Today I picked songs from our arrangement program. Several of the songs are accompaniment pieces where the student plays and we all sing along. It just sounded wonderful. I wish all kids could have that kind of musical experience.

It sure is different from what I had when I was a child. I took lessons for years and never did really feel like I could play very well. It seemed to take forever just to get to songs that used both hands. I'm grateful that my kids, and my students, are having a better experience.

Mr. Putter and Tabby

I love sweet books for kids. One of our family favorites is the Mr. Putter and Tabby series by Cynthia Rylant. It is a series of stories about an old man and his cat. He picked this cat because it was a little old and hard of hearing just like him.

They have many adventures together from painting the front porch (and having animals run through the wet paint) to flying a toy airplane. They are such sweet stories and I think it is so nice to have a book with an older person as the main character. Older people aren't nearly as respected in our culture as I wish they were, especially as I get older.

They are nice stories that will bring a chuckle out of kids and adults alike.

The Importance of Parents

It is amazing the difference that parents make in a child's life. As I teach my piano lessons, I insist that the parents be actively involved in their children's music education. They sit in on the lessons and are held accountable for their children's practice time.

I can tell exactly which parents are really involved in their children's music education. Those children make quicker progress, know their songs better, and are more confident.

I think sometimes we forget that our children are children. We expect them to be self-motivated. We are surprised when their not. Kids get bored. When something feels new it is fun and exciting and wonderful. But as the newness wears off they can get bored. Or when something gets difficult they can get discouraged.

It is interesting to see how parents handle this. Our natural instinct is to think that something is wrong. Or maybe this music program isn't as fantastic as we thought. What we lose sight of is that in any long-term venture we go through highs and lows. How many of us have had perfectly blissful marriages or careers where we never felt bored or discouraged or thought of quitting?

Of course children will go through this too. And as parents, we have a responsibility and a great opportunity. We can teach our children how to weather the lows without quitting. What kind of an impact can that have on a child's future? How much better prepared for life's ups and downs will our children be if they are trained to make it through some lows without quitting when they are young?

I believe that by training our children in this way we are helping to develop into their characters qualities like integrity, determination, and perseverance. That is where success comes from.

The Rhythm of Humanity

I have been teaching my 10 year-old piano with the Simply Music® method since the beginning of October. She can play about 17 or 18 songs up to this point. And she's having a blast. She'll play for anyone who will listen.

I was listening to her practice the other day and marvelling at how smooth and even her rhythm is. Once she has a song comfortably in her fingers she plays it perfectly evenly. Now, understand, I am not teaching her rhythm per say. She has no idea what time signatures are yet, or that she is playing eigth notes, or quarter notes. She isn't counting along while she plays.

If you've had a traditional piano background I know this makes no sense at all. But that's the way this method works. Now, she will learn time signatures and note values and be able to read music like a champ. We just don't start there. And if you are thinking, "well, I don't know. It doesn't sound real." Then ask yourself this: how many piano students who start off trying to learn to read music from the beginning can play 18 songs with both hands after 4 months of lessons?

The reason this works is that we all have a natural rhythm. In fact, we have so much natural rhythm that we couldn't function or even survive without it. Human beings, every one of us, are deeply musical. That doesn't mean that we could all win American Idol or Dancing with the Stars. But we all have deeply ingrained musicality.

We use it all the time- with the beat of our heart and with every breath we take. And those are involuntary! Think of all the things we use our natural rhythm for: walking (just try to do that unevenly), brushing our teeth, cutting with scissors and on and on.

I have a family member who considers himself completely unmusical. But over the holidays I heard him chopping an onion with one of those choppers you can buy in the mall - the ones where you push on a plunger and the blades rotate against the cutting board. Anyway, the perfect, even rhythm was almost comical. He would do 7 plunges and rest for exactly one count. It was perfect. You could have danced to it.

The problem isn't that people aren't musical. The problem is that people are so profoundly musical that many of them don't even notice.

Crossing the Generation Barrier

I started a new group piano class today. I actually combined two smaller ones and added a new student. In the class are children as young as 8 (with their parents) and even a retired adult. They had a great time together. They learned a whole new song from beginning to end and learned how to play arrangements for two other songs.

I love how universal music is.