There is a Simply Music teacher living in California who I am proud to call my friend. Her name is Bernadette (Bernie), and she's a bright light. She recently finished a book that I just have to talk about, called "A world where everyone plays" which, in my opinion, is a perspective changing book to match a world changing piano method. We who are involved in teaching the Simply Music method probably sound like evangelists, we're so enthusiastic about this method, but when you read this book, and the testimonies of people from all arenas whose lives have been permanently changed for the better by discovering Simply Music, you'll understand.
In the traditional world of music, variations of the same approach to learning music have been used for centuries, and as a result, we now stand in a world where true musicmaking seems to belong to the talented few, while the rest of us passively sit in our cars, or in our homes, listening to someone else make music. That's not what music is supposed to be about! Human beings are designed to actively participate in making and doing music!
Let me expand on this theme, briefly. How many people do you know who took piano lessons once, quit, and then spend the rest of their lives wishing they'd stuck with it? Or, who keep starting lessons but just can't seem to stick with it? Perhaps even you are one of the people I'm talking about? Can you think of someone you know who is currently taking piano lessons? Are they having fun? An unnatural majority of people who have or are taking piano lessons have either quit because it was too hard, or aren't really enjoying themselves at the piano, having to pound through scales and exercises, and sweat through workbooks and worksheets to acquire the reading skills they believe they need to play the songs they like. They learn to read so that they can play, and then they perform in a terrifying experience called the recital, only to stop playing, and eventually forget, the songs they so arduously learned so that they can learn new songs for the next terrifying recital! That's my own experience in a nutshell. I did stick with it, and in 14.5 yrs of the above process I did learn how to read music very well, at an advanced level. What I couldn't do speaks volumes: lead sheets with chords more complicated than major or minor were a mystery to me, composition, improvisation, maintaining a large repertoire, or playing the piano for fun when I didn't have access to my music books - were all unknown qualities for me. The only difference between me and the supposedly "untalented" guy next door was that, while he sat listening passively to someone else's music on the radio, I was able to sit and play... someone else's music on the piano! By the time I graduated from college, I had a love/hate relationship with my piano and left it sitting, dusty, in my home for years, just to recover from the abuse!
So, perhaps you can understand why Simply Music teachers are evangelical. We have, in most cases, "stumbled" upon a piano method that develops a love/love relationship with the piano, where we can start playing songs, both new and familiar, right from the start. We are able to set aside the workbooks, the scales and exercises, the arpeggios and theory books, and instead, begin playing, and playing, and playing. And what's even more exciting is that we are able to share this with students, and see them stick with it, and get good - I mean really really good! Simply Music is redefining who can play the piano. And it is redefining who can teach the piano. The title of Bernie's book is dead serious - EVERYONE.
