Simply Music

Firstly, let me start by extending a heart-felt “welcome” to you.  Thank you for taking some to check out this first edition of Simply Music’s newsletter, “The Playground”.  This has been a project that has taken quite some time to bring to fruition, however, we look forward now to this being a regular feature, and hope that it becomes one of your overall music resources.
Our intention is to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on in the Simply Music world, as well as to provide you with a selection of other music-related matters that you may find valuable, entertaining, educational and inspiring. You can look forward to regular features such as: audio interviews with accomplished individuals from within the music and entertainment industries; book, DVD and CD reviews; featured teachers and students (including performances and compositions); links to valuable articles and video clips etc.
Essentially, our focus is about being in communication and providing you with a valuable, information resource. Please feel free to forward along this issue to anybody who you think might be interested in what we are offering.
Finally, thanks for being a part of the Simply Music community. Whether you are a student, a parent of a student, a music educator, a performing or recording artist or one of our associates, thank you for your commitment to music and its importance in the world.

Keep playing!

Neil Moore

Simply Music Founder

An Interview with Ben Niles, Director and Producer of the Award Winning documentary, Note By Note – The Making of Steinway L1037

In this installment, Neil Moore talks with Ben Niles, the Director and Producer of the Award Winning documentary, Note By Note. This documentary follows the journey of a tree – from forest floor to concert hall floor, as a 9 foot, Steinway Grand Piano.  It explores the relationship between artist and instrument, master craftsmanship and raw materials.  Ben talks with Neil about his experience and the process as a whole.

Download the Ben Niles Interview or use the player below.

Learn more about the movie.

Kerry Hanley, Melbourne, Australia

My name is Kerry Hanley (nee Halbert) and I am a Senior Associate Teacher and a Senior Teacher Trainer with Simply Music. I have had the privilege of working with Neil Moore since 1992, longer than anyone else in the Simply Music organization. I was one of the two people who introduced Neil’s Simply Music program into Australia (with Gordon Harvey) and I believe I am the only teacher to have taught the program on two continents!

I have been involved with music for most of my life. I studied classical piano as a child and have also studied both voice and double bass. I have a Certificate of Music (in Jazz) from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and have been teaching piano for more than twenty years – I taught a more traditional approach for nine years and have been teaching Simply Music since it’s inception in 1998.

I consider myself fortunate to have been born to a family in which music was an enormous part of our lives. We lived on a farm outside a very small country town called Cunderdin, in the wheatbelt of Western Australia.

Both my parents loved to sing and had beautiful voices. My late mother was an accomplished pianist/organist, and played for the local church, directed the church choir and put on musicals in the town. Her church singing group released an album and performed around the state – many of the songs she composed. My father still sings in a choir.

I am the eldest of five children who all sing. We all had to learn the piano and ended up learning at least one other instrument each. My parents often had visitors on weekends and typically, everyone would end up gathering around for a sing-along while my Mum played the piano – sometimes assisted by one or more of us on guitar, double-bass, flute, violin or trumpet.

I did traditional piano lessons from the age of eight, but mostly hated it. Piano teachers didn’t stay long in the country, and I had seven different teachers in nine years. Each new teacher wanted me to review what I had been doing and I would end up spending 18 months on the same six songs and some scales! I was bored out of my mind, but I wanted to be able to play like my Mum and that was what kept me going. Apparently, I used to say to her, ‘there must be an easier way to learn this!’

On weekends, I would spend hours at the piano – not practicing what I was ‘supposed’ to, but poring over the hardest music I could find in my Mum’s music collection and painstakingly working out 4-note chords, note-by-note. In High School, I told my teacher I was going to quit lessons if I had to continue doing exams, and if I couldn’t learn what I wanted to learn. She reluctantly agreed. I chose much more advanced songs and a wider variety of styles and began to enjoy it.

The goal of Simply Music is to ‘maximize the likelihood of students having music as a lifelong companion’. It has definitely been that for me. I remember as a teenager going through times of anger and frustration with my parents, and how being able to sit down at the piano and just play, helped me through it. I had a very dramatic piece of music that I loved to play, and within seconds, all my anger was gone and I was lost in the music. I played when I was happy, sad, angry, lonely and depressed. The music always filled me up so much that it felt as if my heart would almost burst with joy! And it still does.

Piano was a great foundation for other musical pursuits and I participated in singing groups and bands (double bass) and ‘busked’ (street performing) in London Underground Train Stations while I lived there in 1984, and subsequently in Perth.

I began teaching piano in 1989. For nine years, I taught a more traditional approach. In 1992, I met Neil Moore, when he joined the organization I was with. We worked together from opposite sides of the country and then from opposite sides of the world, after he and his wife and children moved to the US in 1994. When Neil started developing Simply Music and I heard of the results he was achieving, I wanted to do the same. I traveled to the US with Gordon Harvey, (who had been working with us also), and participated in the first official Teacher Training for Simply Music at the beginning of 1998. Gordon and I returned to Australia and started Simply Music in our respective cities. I had around 70 students at the time and changed them all over to the Simply Music method. I saw results, unlike anything I’d ever witnessed previously. I had never loved teaching so much and my students had never loved learning so much.

After setting up a network of teachers in Perth, an opportunity arose for me to move to the US and work in the Simply Music Global Headquarters in Sacramento, to help with growing the organization there. Neil called me one morning in September 1999 and said that an investor had come on board and that they would be commencing filming of an infomercial and new Teacher Training and Student Home Materials in 10 days time, and that if I wanted to come over and participate, I would need to be there by then. I handed over my 70 students to the other teachers in Perth, packed up, sold belongings and left!

My years in the US were incredibly exciting and also some of the most challenging in my life. I learned so much about myself, made many mistakes and (I hope!) grew an enormous amount. I made some wonderful friends and had some incredible experiences.

However, after four years and much deliberation, I decided to move back to Australia to be nearer to family. I moved to Melbourne, Victoria – on the eastern side of Australia – where I felt I would meet the man of my dreams, which I did in 2005 and married him six months later! I have become a stepmother to my husband Michael’s three teenage daughters.

I teach from commercial premises in North Balwyn, in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Currently, over half of my students are adults. From time to time, I conduct workshops for Simply Music teachers and offer private coaching sessions for teachers.

I love this program! I want my students to experience the joy of playing music. I want to pass on the gift that was given to me by my Mother, using the vessel that was given to us by Neil Moore. I share the dream of a world where everyone plays music, and where people learn in a way that’s fun, simple and gets great results quickly, and I love supporting teachers in achieving this with their students. After more than twelve years, I am still thrilled to be a part of this organization and its huge vision, and I am excited about what the future holds. I look forward to being involved and contributing in whatever way I can, long into the future.

Wade Myers, San Jose, California
By Bernadette Ashby

“That was really good. Is there any way that I could buy the score for Constellation of Snow?” the mom asked after the student concert. She was a classically/traditionally trained musician. “Well, uh, no,” my girlfriend, another Simply Music Teacher, replied hesitantly. “That is his original composition.”

My journey with Wade began seven years ago when I became his Simply Music Teacher. It is amazing to me to think that Wade has come this far especially since I remembered him as a squirrelly strong-willed six year old boy who could barely follow instructions and sit at my piano bench. At that time, his music teacher at school told his mother that he was not ready for music instruction. But what his mother understood about Wade is that he would resist the standard course of music instruction. Looking for alternatives, they were so thankful to have found Simply Music.

Since then, I’ve seen so much growth in him. Today, he is still strong-willed but now uses his creativity and energy to pour into his music. Wade composes on a regular basis. He has taken the freedom and permission given to him to explore and discover music in his own terms – contributing his creative talent and compositions to the world. Even at the young age of thirteen! His next piece will be for his eighth grade graduation in June.

Wade, no doubt, has become a generative musician fulfilling one of the goals of Simply Music. He has taken the tools and strategies that he has gained through Simply Music and uses them constantly to be able to play a variety of songs in all musical genres, to read music, to write music, to compose/improvise music. He has the ability, for example, to take a piece of music that he loves and analyze it so he can break the concepts down to a manageable state in order to learn the music. Eventually, he puts the sheet music away and can play it anytime, anywhere, and anyplace. The song is his for keeps, it’s his for life. He entertains himself and he entertains others.

One of the most important things Wade loves about Simply Music is that it has given him freedom in expressing himself, not only musically but in many other ways. Musically, he’s developed his own style in the tradition of George Winston. As a result, this has given him great confidence and acceptance of self as he prepares to take on other challenges as a young adult. He understands what it means to experience success because he’s lived it by being a Simply Music student – walking away with a sense of victory at every lesson. Of course, over the years, there were the typical ups and downs of piano lessons but with unswerving commitment and the support of his loving parents at his side (and always at his piano lessons) I can assuredly say that music will be a companion to Wade for the rest of his life. What a gift!

Wade has developed into a fine musician. It has truly been a privilege to be his coach and teacher in his musical journey. I don’t know what the future will hold for Wade but I do know that music will always be a part of it. In the meantime, there is talk in his family that Wade should set up a website so he can begin to sell his music. If that is the case, I’ll be the first to purchase.

It was a tribute to the life-changing power of music (as well as the wonders of the internet) when the world was charmed by the story and the voice of Susan Boyle when she sang this song on Britain’s Got Talent and showed us that everyday people can genuinely offer the world surprising and wonderful gifts. Of course, it helps to have a fabulous voice, but the rest of us can still find great joy in playing this powerful song as a simple Accompaniment.

You’ll find this song at the Simply Music website by clicking on Sheet Music Search and entering I Dreamed a Dream in the Title field. The search may reveal several titles. I recommend you choose the version with Artist listed as Les Miserables and format Piano/Vocal/Guitar. This format is very versatile and can be used as a reading-based piano arrangement, a lead sheet you can use to create your own arrangement, and an accompaniment which allows others to sing or play the melody on another instrument.

With our printable sheet music you can change the key to fit your voice, but if you don’t need to, keep it in the original key (three flats). That way you could even play along with a recording of Susan. If you don’t even know what a key is, no problem – using our Accompaniment strategies, you don’t need to know about key signatures at all.

We’ll see that this song is just a small number of related chords, with a LH that travels downward.

Starting from where the singing begins, our first chord is an Eb Major, which you’ll know from your lessons is an upside down triangle shape. Play it slowly with a 1:2 ratio.

Next chord is the same in the RH, but the LH comes down to D. We know this by the slash symbol. Remember not to get confused – the LH note is written to the right of the slash. It comes down again to a C, but now the RH has changed to a C minor. If you don’t know how to make a C minor, here’s how: play a normal C Major, then move the middle note down a half step to the black key. You’ll see it’s a triangle shape. Very simple.

But there’s an even handier trick in this instance: if you get the Eb Major chord, and move the top note (Bb) up to C, you’ll be playing another version of the C minor chord. You only have to move one note! That’s extra handy when you see the next chord is back to the Eb Major. How can this different-looking chord still be C minor? It’s what’s known as an inversion of the chord, but again, you don’t need to know that, just know that it’s okay.

Next chord is an Ab Major, another upside down triangle, then, like earlier, we stay there in the RH while the LH continues its downward path.

Now for another handy trick: the next chord (F minor 7) is a little more advanced, but if you just keep the RH right there on the Ab Major and move the LH down to F, guess what? You’re playing F minor 7! How can this be? Again, just know that it’s correct. The theory can come later.

Next chord is Bb Major, a curve shape (as an Australian, I see this as a boomerang shape). The LH has finally finished its descent, and comes up to Bb. Then we’re simply back to the beginning again, and repeating the process.

This time, there are a couple of small changes to the chords. The first chord on page 2 is C minor 7 instead of C minor, but this is actually easier! Just like our F minor 7, if we keep the existing chord in the RH and just move the LH, we magically have the correct chord. The cycle repeats again with no change until the last line of page 2, where you have a Bb6 chord. If you’ve already learned how to find a 6th chord, great, but otherwise a plain Bb major will do fine.

Line 2 of page 3 introduces a brief different passage. The LH doesn’t have quite the same clear descending pattern, but you can still spend some useful time uncovering the path it takes, and distinguishing it as a pattern. This section includes an F minor. Like C minor, and Eb minor a little further on, you can find it by playing the Major and bringing the middle note down a half step. Then there is C7, which, if you don’t already know, you can find by moving the bottom note down a whole step.

The last two pages are in a new key, which turns out to mean simply that you’re playing the same sequence of chords a whole step higher, and the same tricks apply. For the second last chord, C9, just play C7 and add a D with finger 2.

Make sure you sing while you play. Have fun!

Oliver Sacks is a neurologist and author known for his books exploring the strange and remarkable world of people with brain damage. In the 1960’s he published Awakenings, a study of his work with post-encephalitic patients who, after decades of immobility and non-communication, could be suddenly and temporarily ‘awakened’ into lucidity by the drug L-dopa. The book was later made into a famous film. Another of Sacks’ works, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, was also made into a fascinating film, an opera adapted from the real story of a patient who was incapable of recognising anything or organising the simplest task until he discovered he could sing perfectly well, and could go about his daily tasks if he sang them.

Musicophilia is all about music and its relation to brain function, and is full of amazing stories of music’s ability to transform the lives of people with serious psychiatric illness, such as Clive, an amnesiac with a memory for any experience of literally a few seconds, and yet who can play, read, conduct, improvise and remember enormous amounts of music. How is this possible? Sacks speculates that musical memory is different to other forms of memory, because experiencing music happens entirely in the present. For many people like Clive, music is a cornerstone of life and the only way they can feel fully alive.

Sacks, a musician and music lover himself, draws a distinction between music and other forms of communication, and notes music’s ability to touch parts of the brain (and the heart) in ways nothing else can. Even language, while very closely related to music, appears to originate from a different part of the brain, although the brain is a wonderfully flexible thing, and when parts used for one skill are damaged, others can adapt and begin to take over their role. Interestingly, though, Sacks points out that although it’s crucial that basic language skills are learned from infancy, musical skills can be learned at almost any age.

Sacks points out that music is something unique to humans, and something that plays a unique role in people’s lives. We can recreate musical memories and experiences spontaneously in our heads that are almost as rich as actually listening and playing, and can reappear decades after the original experience, long after other memories have gone. Somehow something about music has a more direct connection with the brain. Perhaps, like dreams, music, with its more abstract way of addressing emotions, is a safe way of experiencing feelings. He reminds us that music, while causing us to feel emotions like grief more deeply, provides solace at the same time. There are stories in the book of people who are for various reasons unable to express emotion of any kind, until they sing and are, like the L-dopa patients, awakened into full self-expression. It’s only during those times that they and the rest of the world can connect with each other.

The endlessly inspiring stories in this book cover the extremes of musical experience, from musical seizures, synaesthesia and hypermusicality to the wonderful contribution of music therapy. Although in the end the book probably tells us more about the brain than about music, I ended it clearer than ever that to be human is to be profoundly musical, and that a life without music is a life that isn’t fully self-expressed.

Musicophilia is published in by Alfred A Knopf (USA) and Picador (Australia)