From Gordon Harvey
Never one to stand in his father Neil Moore’s shadow, Chase Moore has carved out a career as a music producer, engineer and hip-hop artist. And now he’s working on a program soon to be offered by Simply Music so everyone can explore modern music creation and production. We talked to Chase about composing in the brave new digital age.
Listen to the interview, followed by Chase’s track All That You’ve Got
From Gordon Harvey
Ray Nelson is a great example of getting back what you give. As a pioneer of Simply Music in the Midwest, as a highly successful teacher, as a mentor to the community of teachers he helped grow, as a Senior Teacher Trainer, and now starting all over again as a pioneer across the globe in New Zealand, Ray has thrown himself into the fray and seen the benefits of an all-or-nothing attitude. As his colleague Lois Anderton says: “I have followed his suggestions and I am making my studio one of “no regrets.”
Gordon: Tell us about your musical background, how you heard about Simply Music and how you got on to teaching the program.
Ray: I started piano lessons at the age of 7 and so music was a big part of my upbringing and I pretty much played piano all the way through school, and was in some church bands and had a chance to play other instruments. In high school I also played French horn in the marching band and the concert band and I played piano in the jazz band.
I pursued a music degree after high school, and graduated from Northwest University in the Seattle area. I was involved for several years with my home church directing musical choirs and programs, as well as teaching a number of piano students. A few years later, I joined YWAM, a Christian missions organization, where I met my wife, while on staff at the University of the Nations in Hawaii, in the School of Worship. We were both a part of developing/training musical teams in churches across the world.
After my years with YWAM, we moved to Oregon and were involved in youth ministry for several years. In 1997 we moved to Kansas City to do further biblical studies, and I began teaching music at a local piano store, which soon developed into a full-time music studio. We started a family, and I continued to teach over the next 13 years, at several performing arts academies – “The Culture House” and “Trilogy Cultural Arts Centre”, the latter which I became the musical director..
Over several years I continued building my studio to around 70 students, and was teaching six days a week most of the year, all in private traditional lessons. I began to experience burnout, and was at the point of seriously considering giving up teaching all together, as I had lost my passion for teaching. I was so tired of seeing students quitting and giving up on music, and finding the traditional methods boring and difficult. I was ready to just throw the towel in and give up teaching music as a profession. Around 2006, while on vacation, I came across an advertisement in a local paper for a free informational session on Simply Music. I looked into it, but didn’t act on anything until a few months later, at the urging of my wife (and desperate for some other way to teach music!) I took a serious look into Simply Music.
After talking to Neil Moore and several other teachers, I became convinced that Simply Music was for real, and not just a quick fix scheme to learning the piano, but a totally new approach to music education. I made the decision to switch my whole traditional studio over into Simply Music, and became Licensed in early 2007..
It’s quite a leap of faith isn’t it? If you’ve been doing something with so many students in a particular way and all of a sudden this brand new radical thing comes along.
I was looking for something else out there to put my energy into and that would really make a difference in the way my students felt about their music and the way they learned. I really wanted to find something that would be different and that I believed in and that would reignite my passion for teaching music again. My wife was my big encourager. She said, “Ray, you really need to do this, it looks great, and you’re just getting burnt out as a teacher, you need to find something else that is going to revitalize your teaching”. So I did that and I haven’t looked back. It was a big head transplant as you can imagine, taking a whole traditional studio, and some of these kids I had been teaching for 10 years, and moving them into the Simply Music program.
G: How did you deal with that transition with your students?
R: well I had 98% of my studio that went with me, which was great! I had to have several meetings with the parents and the students as to why we were doing this, that it’s a new language, and we are not moving backwards, we are moving sideways. We are going to be picking up a lot more tools that you don’t know. Obviously those groups that had a lot more traditional experience went faster, so they were more accelerated, but they loved it, they really loved it. They could see there were a lot of things that were benefiting what they were doing. My first year of teaching Simply Music I taught just private lessons, because that ‘s what I had done up to that point. So I decided to do this in stages. I moved my whole studio into Simply Music and l kept the private environment.
I think towards the end of that year I had a few shared lessons and I loved it, so in my second year of teaching Simply Music I decided to switch my studio all over into groups. I had to have a lot more conversations with parents and families, and several more meetings, as to why I felt the group environment was a superior learning environment. I continued teaching six days a week. A while later I enrolled in several mentoring programs, that Simply Music offers to teachers: “Teaching From the Future” and the “Reinventing Expression and Leadership” programs, As a direct result of what I learned from these two outstanding programs, I decided to cut down to four teaching days and kept my studio enrollment around 110 students! I would say that those 2 programs are the key to where I am today as a teacher and leader, and have had a profound impact on me making the decision to move to New Zealand, as well as learning to take better care of myself as a teacher. Today I run a requirement-based group run studio, with fantastic results!
I was the first Simply Music teacher in the Kansas City area. After teaching Simply Music for several years, I had grown my studio from 70 to 110 weekly students, and decided that I need more teachers to cope with the demand!
And I was still the only music teacher at that point in Kansas City. We really needed to start bringing up some other teachers because I can’t handle all this, Kansas City is a little town of you know 2 million, so there’s plenty of other students out there. So I started promoting it in the teaching community. A lot of it was just through people I knew or people I knew that knew other people, and in about another 2 years time we had a bunch of other teachers on board, so I formed a local Kansas City Simply Music Teachers Association. We now have about 16 members, all within the Kansas City metro area.
And I was kind of able to work myself out of a job when a year ago the opportunity came up to move to New Zealand. My wife is from New Zealand, and so we always knew we’d be here some day again but we didn’t know when, and so when we felt like it was the right time I had enough teachers in place where I could sell my studio, which I did, to 5 different instructors in Kansas City. The timing was right. I had enough teachers on board, as well as several upper level instructors to take my more advanced students.
Now Kansas City is having its first conference this month! I am so excited to see how this group of teachers has developed, and their enthusiasm and passion for teaching and sense of community. I feel so lucky to have had the privilege of working with this high quality group of teachers. If I could have hand picked them I would have!
There’s something about the kind of standard you establish from the beginning, whoever is the first person in an area sets the precedent for everyone else’s standards. So it seems to me that you’ve probably set that up for yourself, you attract the right kind of people because you’ve created that high standard and high quality of teaching.
I’ve got a quote from Marty Simmons “I run my studio very much like Ray runs his studio”. I think that’s evidence of that. I think it’s really important in an area like that that whoever takes up the mantle of leader creates the kind of standard that other people can rise to.
Yes, I agree. If you’re a level 5 leader, 5 being strong, you want to attract other level 5 leaders rather than just level 2 or level 1.
Marty’s great. She’s actually taken over the leadership for me of the Kansas Simply Music Teachers’ Association. She was one of my Moms – I taught her daughter who had never had piano before, up thru level 7 as a Simply Music student.
I think that also teaching Simply Music has given me a love and a passion for mentoring, and so part of my goal in moving to New Zealand is not just to teach, I want to mentor other teachers. I love to train and coach and share ideas together as teachers. And so in the next season, I want to be a part of that next level as well.
In New Zealand here I hope to help other teachers get off the ground and see them be successful in their studios too. And so teaching Simply Music has given me my passion for teaching again.
The whole group dynamic, I never thought that it would have worked the way it has worked, I’m a huge advocate of it! I just love being a part of this international body of teachers where you don’t feel like you’re on your own. In traditional environments you’re teaching pretty much the same methods as everyone else out there but you just feel like you’re on your own and like everybody’s competing against each other. So I really love the support and non-competitive attitude that SM teachers have.
Its been encouraging to see here in New Zealand the openness to this method, you know at first I didn’t know walking in, I always say it’s an Australian developed method and there’s somebody coming from North America, what are they going to think, some big American guy’s got some great idea or something.
It’s been neat to see older folk have a renewed passion for music that they never thought they could learn. I have a lot of retired people that I teach now. It’s neat to see kids find an avenue to learn music in a way that’s not frustrating them. They get frustrated when they learn music at school here, and it’s okay but it just doesn’t tickle them much, it doesn’t do much for them. In New Zealand its very big to get music tuition at school.
So with me being set up down here and offering something that’s totally different to that it’s been good to see the response so far. People realizing there’s’ another way to learn, and you don’t have to go through that channel of grades and exams and auditions.
Here in New Zealand I have my studio location in a commercial space, and that’s a new experience for me, I’m downtown, very visible and representing my own business, and its been a good experience for me to connect into the business community and be a part of several business chapters, which is a great way to connect with people.
It’s hard work any time you make a change and start over again, but it’s been worth it.
It sounds like you’ve had the opportunity with Simply Music to contribute some of your own particular skills and your own particular interests. I attended a blues presentation you did at one of the symposium, and also of course you were involved with a worship program using Simply Music technology. Obviously these are things that are part of your background and it’s great that you have the opportunity to share some of your particular expertise with the wider public.
Yes I would love to be a part of curriculum development. Ernest Amstalden and I are going to be teaching a worship workshop in Kansas City this month and we have talked about developing a worship accompaniment program for Simply Music. I also have a real passion for the blues and improvisation, and to see that also developed further into a multi-level blues program for Simply Music. The whole area of improvisation and contemporary worship styles has been a big part of my musical journey over the years. Coming from a traditional musical background as a kid, and developing into the creative areas of my musical playing today has been a great journey, and I would love to be able to pass that on to teachers and students alike. I would love to be able to help Simply Music teachers have the freedom that I’ve learned in my playing, both in the context of playing in bands and groups over the years. I have really enjoyed having the opportunities over the past several years, to teach at the SM symposiums, and of course I always learn so much myself from all the teachers, and the community that we all share together. That is a real gift that we as teachers can share in together. I enjoy giving in that way cause I receive so much back as well, and am a better teacher for that.
With so much of what you’ve done with your background and your interests, your background in church music for example, and your interest in sharing your skills and your experience in making that change from private students into groups and how much you’ve loved the groups, that sense of community is coming through. I get the sense that community music making or sharing music on a community level is important to you.
Yes it is. I play a lot in groups and bands and that’s a community right there, and being able to share that with your classes, that whole sense of community. Music is an individual thing, but it’s really to be shared with others in a shared context. And I love that about music in general and the more we can share together the more I feel like the learning curve goes up. That’s what I’ve learned the most over the years when I’ve played with other musicians. That’s where I’ve been challenged the most.
To me there is a 3rd dimension added, playing with others. It’s greater that the sum of its parts. To me that’s what’s exploited the least in music education.
There’s such a shortage out there of piano players that can accompany. Can you accompany the singer that’s going to sing a song tonight? Oh no, I need my music and I’m only used to playing the melody, you know. And I think one of my passions also is to mentor the next generation of piano players. The way music is done out there in the real world you’ve got to have freedom to express yourself and improvise and follow and listen with other musicians. I think Simply Music is a great context to do that thanks to the tools you have. My heart’s in the worship and the blues and just to help kids to get those skills that they can use. And it might be a hobby for them but they’ll be able to go so far with it and do so many things with it if they have the ability to accompany and to play.
Have you had the opportunity in New Zealand to share music with others?
I have. I play at the church I’m part of, I play in a worship band, and my wife’s family’s very musical, one of her brothers is the worship pastor of the church we go to, one of her other brothers is a semi professional guitarist here in New Zealand, who also teaches, a lot of her relatives are musicians in their own right so we’ll get together for a family reunion, we might have five keyboardists, two guitarists and four drummers in the room.
So how do you envision a world where everyone plays, as we say here, what would a world like that look like?
It would look like this: what if we had a open market on a Sunday, which they do here in Cambridge and businesses are welcome to put out little booths, or people can come in with their produce but it’s like an open market. What if we had a keyboard set up outside of my shop and students would feel totally comfortable playing in front of people they don’t know as people walk by, they wouldn’t be self conscious, and not only kids but 65, 70 year old adults, not be self conscious, just to sit down and play on the spot not worried if there’s one person watching or 50 people watching. To me a world where everyone plays is where people know how to play piano lets say, are comfortable whether they are at a family reunion playing in front of people that they know or they’re on the street playing at a market venue playing in front of people they don’t know and they can play comfortably anywhere any time they want to and for all ages.
So a world where everyone plays is where we, so to speak, get on the rugby field and participate, nobody’s on the sidelines saying I wish I could play. Everyone is able to get into the game. No grades, no theory tests, no exams, we’re not being graded on our performance, we’re just playing.
That spontaneity, nobody’s self-conscious, they are just having fun, and that’s what I like about the shared group environment too, you can really begin to break down the walls of being self conscious about playing. You get used to playing in front of people every week you know so again, music I believe is to be shared with the world, not to keep it to yourself.
I love music. I have a passion to see other people enjoy music. I have a passion to see other teachers enjoy teaching and I just really enjoy seeing people from all backgrounds and cultures, expressing their musical gifts and having fun sharing that experience together!
From Robin Keehn
What do raising children, going to school, holding down a job, and taking piano lessons have in common? They each start with a goal that requires a long term commitment! In Simply Music , we talk about the goal of having music as a life long companion. Reaching that goal requires that we go through the cycles of long-term relationships including peaks, valleys and plateaus. These ups and downs can last for short, medium or long periods of time. Let’s make it real…
I’d like you think back to any lasting friendship that you have had. You can likely recall the beginning of the friendship, when things were exciting and you couldn’t wait to spend time with that friend. Every time you were together it was great and you were happy. Eventually, the excitement became a little less intense and things felt a bit calmer but there was a steadiness and a good feeling when you were together. Maybe at some point in the friendship, you fell out of touch. Perhaps you didn’t even talk for weeks at a time. You eventually became a bit complacent, even bored. However, you continued to call and spent time when you could. The friendship was important to you so no matter how busy you got, you worked at it. At some point, things changed with that friend and suddenly, it was exciting again!
Let’s talk about piano. At the beginning of learning to play it is very exciting! You cannot wait to learn the next song and you want to play every chance you get. Maybe you have to set the timer so you can get other things done. Maybe you skip a meal just so you can play! Eventually, at some point, weeks or months into learning to play, you start to relax and things aren’t quite as exciting. You are still enjoying learning but you are not quite as enthusiastic. A few months later, you find you have to make yourself go to the piano. Your playlist sits at the instrument and it is looking like it needs some attention. You just don’t feel like working at it.
What I have just described are the peaks, valleys and plateaus of a long-term commitment. These cycles are a normal and expected part of any long-term relationship and you can expect to have them, no matter what it is you are committing to—a friendship, a job, a marriage, college, or acquiring music as a life-long companion. When you experience a peak, valley or plateau you need to understand that it won’t last. It will change, no matter what. When it is a valley or plateau, armed with the information that this is normal, you don’t have to worry that you (or your child) isn’t good at piano or it just isn’t their thing or that there is something wrong with you, your piano teacher or the method. It is just the nature of long-term relationships.
Some of the most memorable songs have been among the simplest – a single voice accompanied by just a strummed guitar or simple chords on a piano can concentrate the attention on the way the melody interacts with the chords. This song is a case in point.
The piano part is a simple accompaniment with a small number of chords, and broken up the same way right through.
If you’ve been through the Accompaniment 1 program, you could play the chords in root position and break each one up ‘bottom, middle, top, middle’ four times each measure and it would sound great. But it takes very little extra effort to make the piano part sound almost exactly like the original.
Firstly, go to http://www.simplymusic.com/PrintSheetMusic and purchase your copy of the song using the link on the main page.
Although I name a lot of notes in this guide, the idea is definitely not to memorise every note. We are going to process the song by looking at what happens from one chord to the next, and reduce this down to a series of clues. I recommend you get pretty confident with each section before moving on to the next.
Let’s start with the verses (the first couple of pages). Don’t worry about breaking up the chords just yet. It’s best to handle one thing at a time, and playing the chords as simple block chords will help you focus on what’s happening from one to the next. The first chord is A major, which if you’ve begun Accompaniment 1 you’ll know is a triangle shape with the thumb on A (if you don’t know that much, just play the notes A, C# and E). For the next chord keep the top two fingers in place and bring the bottom finger down a half-step to the next black key, G#. For the next chord you’ll do a stretch out from the middle – keep your middle note in place (it’s best to use finger 2 for this note) and bring the bottom note down and top note up, to F# in both cases. F# is the bottom note of the group of three black keys. Finally, keep the top note in place and move the bottom back to the A where it started, and the middle note up a half-step to D.
Do this again, taking note of how the chords shift: triangle, bottom down, stretch out, bottom two up. Say it as you go. You’ll have it memorised in no time. When you’re ready, break up the chords bottom, middle, top, middle four times each and you’re done.
The left hand is just four notes: A, G#, F#, D. Did you notice that the first three are the same as the bottom notes of the right hand?
On page 3 we then have a little bridge with three chords: the first is the bottom two black keys of the group of three (F# and G#) with an E on top. For the second just move the middle note up a half-step to A. For the third, bring the top note down one white key to D. So only one note changes each time. Left hand is just E, F# and D. Timing-wise, there’s a small change: the first two chords are played twice each instead of four times.
Play this pattern twice. If you want it to be even closer to the original, the second time you play, play the third chord twice instead of four times and then (as Adele sings “over”) go back to the first chord two times, but keep your left hand on the D.
Then we go to the chorus, which, according to the chord symbols is almost the same as the verses, and could be played that way, but the original is played differently. Firstly, the chords are played twice each instead of four times. The first chord is played as A, C#, and the next A up – a large, odd-shaped triangle. For the next chord everything comes down, to G#, B and G#. A great way to remember this is that the colours (and the triangle) are reversed from the previous chord – black, white, black. For chord three, even though the chord symbol is different, you’ll play the right hand exactly the same as chord one. Finally, for the fourth chord, just bring the middle note up a half-step to D.
Repeat the pattern, observing and saying the changes. The left hand is A, E, F# and D.
On page 5 we have another short bridging passage: Start with G#, B and E, move them all up to A, C# and F#, keep the bottom note in place and stretch the other two up to D and A (an octave from top to bottom). Then move all up to the next white keys, then squeeze in to C#, E and A. In the final measure of this passage (on page 6) keep the A on top and bring the others up to D and F#, then finally keep the shape and bring all up to E, G# and B. So the clues might sound like “black on the bottom, all up, stretch up, all up, squeeze in, bottom two up, all up”, but if you see other clues – colour combinations, shapes, common notes – use them.
The first three chords are played four times, the remainder are played twice. The left hand plays B, C#, D, B, C#, D.
We then return to the chorus, but again the chords are played a little differently. We start with C#, E & A, pivot down to B, E and G#, all down to A, C# & F# (my clue for this is two whites to two blacks) and bring just the middle note up to D. Left hand is A, G#, F# & D.
We finish off with a little coda: D, F#, A all below middle C, top two up to G# and B, up again to A & C# top note only up to D. The last chord is played four times, the others are played twice. The left hand is held on D. Finally, we close off with an A chord played low.
There are a few details that I haven’t covered, but after mastering as much as I’ve described, you can go to your Simply Music Teacher and have them show you more. If needed, he or she can also help you with repeats of the different sections, but if you have a recorded version of the song, you should be able to work it out.
MSO Learn
iPhone, iPad – free
The orchestra is the world’s most powerful, complex and expressive musical instrument, or at least that’s how it feels when you’re witnessing all its parts coming together in a great performance, as if it’s a living, autonomous organism. Of course, it’s really made up of a collection of instruments and their expert operators. This app has been created by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as a guide to the orchestra and its players. It’s both entertaining and educational, giving us a personal insight into the real people who make the orchestra work, and a look at the instruments. Senior players from the various sections of the orchestra talk about the experience of being a musician and a little about themselves. It feels a bit like a fan magazine as they tell us about their favourite restaurants or most embarrassing performance moments, but it serves to remind us that these serious-looking besuited musicians are as human as the rest of us when they confess they also happen to love show tunes or 80s power ballads. You can also zoom into each section of the orchestra and learn about each instrument. A valuable feature is Recommended Listening, which takes you to iTunes links to great performances of important pieces. I’d have liked the Instruments section to be a little more comprehensive. For example, it doesn’t look at the individual instruments in the percussion section. Overall, though, this is a great way for young musicians to picture themselves as part of this wonderful musical machine, as well as an opportunity for music lovers of any age to educate themselves about how enthralling orchestral music can be.
Discovr Music
iPhone, iPad – $1.99
This app from Australian developer Filter Squad is an intuitive way to expand your knowledge of music. Search for an artist you like and a diagram appears with other artists in some way connected to them. Tap on the picture of one of those connected artists and the diagram grows like a cell colony under a microscope, giving you a chance to look further afield. Double-tap on any artist and you go to a biography, sample songs, links to iTunes, YouTube, blogs, reviews and other resources, and you can also share your finds on Twitter, Facebook and email, and create favorites. I tried to stump it but found it even had a decent coverage of areas like classical, world and modern art music. If you’re a bit of a music nerd like me, this provides hours of fascinating exploration, and plenty of cause for discussion, too. A search on the Beatles draws a connection with Jimi Hendrix and the Beau Brummels but not the Beach Boys. How are the connections chosen? I’m not sure, but it’s all about expanding your knowledge and exploring paths you didn’t know existed.
MadPad
iPhone, iPod Touch 99c
iPad $2.99
From Smule, the makers of the hugely popular Ocarina, comes this clever app which, at the very least, is an opportunity for lots of bizarre and funny attempts at music, but could also be a genuine creative tool. All you need to do is find anything that makes a noise – a saucepan, a crunchy carrot, a purring cat – point your camera at it and hit Record. An image of the sound source appears on a grid. Tapping on the image plays its sound. Gather a full set of images, tap out a pattern and you have your own found-sound composition. It’s amazing how many interesting sounds can be made by everyday objects, and how musical the results can be, and of course you can even record actual musical instruments. Before you know it, you’re your own Pomplamoose. You can record your song and create mixes, including the ability to create loops and change pitches and volumes. You can then share it via YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or email, and access others’ creations.
Just one note: because of its lack of a camera, the iPad 1 can play and edit shared tracks, but can’t record new tracks.
Of course, there’s always more you could do. It would be great to add a few further features of a typical sequencing app such as Garage Band, especially quantization (correcting rhythmic errors). Smule are famous for adding live sharing to some of their apps, including duetting. It’d be fun to hook up with others for online jams. Maybe that will be part of an update in the future, but as it is, this is an enormously fun app.
From Jill Linton
I would like to introduce you to Khamis and Alam Buol, two talented and hardworking students I have had the privilege of teaching for the past eighteen months. They are aged 13 and 11 and are refugees from the Sudan. When we met, they had been in Australia for a couple of years after spending most of their lives in a refugee camp in Kenya.
Our association started by chance. I give lessons in a local primary school as well as at home, and one recess I was chatting with a lady who came in to support the refugee students. When she discovered that I taught piano, she was keen to find out if I could do something for Alam because she had noticed him gravitating towards the piano in his previous school and trying to pick out a tune. She also made it clear that little or no payment could be involved.
This was a chance for me to make a contribution with the skills I have. I just had to sort out a few issues, such as finding a keyboard for Alam to practise on, and deciding which method to teach him with. I can’t imagine thinking twice about it now, but back then I had just started teaching Simply Music and still had many students learning the traditional way. I was also thinking about the price of materials and whether I was prepared to give them away, and a traditional tutor book was much cheaper. My third problem was how to communicate with him, because he was reluctant to talk to me!
These things gradually resolved themselves. A keyboard was donated by another student who was upgrading to a digital piano, and teaching Alam traditionally failed miserably as he regularly forgot his book and obviously wasn’t interested in playing the simple tunes. The turning point came when he told me his older brother Khamis was teaching himself songs from the keyboard and wanted to have lessons too. So I decided to visit the family and do it properly and teach them with Simply Music. Luckily a Sudanese man was also visiting and he could interpret, so I offered lessons for the cost of the ed fee and a small amount for some second hand materials, on the condition that they turned up for lessons at my house and did the practice. After much incomprehensible discussion, their mother agreed, but I knew that there would not be any parental support or encouragement.
I started teaching the boys in a shared lesson, but Khamis came back to the second lesson with all of level one already learnt, so I had to think again about how to approach things! I could hear Neil saying “Learn slowly to progress quickly” and I felt a bit panicky about how to slow things down, but I also knew that it takes as long as it takes, and if it took hardly any time at all, what could I do? Fortunately arrangements and the accompaniment programme slowed Khamis down a bit, and Alam was going along at a very civilized speed so we settled into a good routine. As the next levels were needed, I asked the boys to do some work at my place to help pay for them, and I now have a painted fence and a lot fewer weeds in my garden. Piano was also an area where Alam could excel and be totally focussed when things at school were not going so easily.
I discovered that my contacts through piano teaching could help the family in other ways too. Parents of ex students were very involved in the local soccer club and they were able to find teams for the boys for no cost, and another student’s mother drove Alam to practices and games. The husband of a lady in my Ladies Piano Evening group took on the job of teaching the boys’ mother how to drive, and he now has a regular stream of refugees waiting for driving lessons. He also became the family’s Fix It Man. Another piano family has given Khamis and Alam their old piano on an indefinite loan. I am very grateful to be part of this community of music lovers!
The boys are up to lesson 62 now and have had a half hour lesson each since the early days. One works with me while the other plays on my old digital piano with the headphones and has the option of recording his composition ideas on a floppy disk (better than nothing!) I love the way they are so at home on the piano and can spend half an hour playing continuously with no reference to books or music.
Khamis has nearly finished level 6 and I feel very confident that he will be an independent learner very soon. Right from the beginning he has had a particular affinity with classical music, which I find particularly interesting considering how little exposure he has had to it. Last week he started playing Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor, which he apparently heard on Karate Kid and looked up on You Tube. He tells me he wants to keep learning piano for as long as he can, and seems to need no repeating of the long term relationship conversation. Alam is almost up to level 5 and has many ideas for composition. He also wants to keep learning “to the end”.
The boys told me that before they started piano and soccer they had nothing to do but watch TV and get bored, and they are very happy to have these opportunities to develop some skills and to have a more interesting and satisfying life! In the future they both see themselves playing music for friends, entertaining people (maybe for money) and possibly teaching piano as well. Khamis is already on the path to earning his keep through his piano playing. The mother of one of his friends told me that he visits their place regularly before dinner and she tells him he can stay for the meal if he plays for her. So she is entertained while she cooks, and Khamis gets to eat!
Every week I am seeing evidence of their developing confidence and how the patterns they are learning in Simply Music are becoming a natural part of their playing and musical self expression. I am very grateful that I can give them a way of learning piano that offers so much more than the ability to read notes off a page.
Watch Khamis playing Last Week of Autumn and Alam playing Autumn Leaves Falling
From Neil Moore
In January of this year my first grandchild was born. His name is Jack and he was named in honor of my father who passed away last year. Baby Jack’s birth was very complicated and he spent the first few weeks of his life in the Intensive Care Unit. With Jack not being able to breathe independently at first, with ongoing seizures and with hemorrhaging occurring in several parts of his brain, his physicians could not definitively say as to whether there would be residual brain damage. Nor could they say how this might manifest as Jack developed over the forthcoming years.
I loved the time I had with him while he was in the ICU. Each time I was with him, holding him in my arms (he was all wired up!), I would sing to him a song that I first sang to my first son, Leon, when he was born. Actually I sang it to all of my children throughout their childhood. The song was a simple lyric that I made up, and I sang it to the tune of Brahm’s Lullaby.
It was a special experience for me to sing this song to Jack, and I took comfort in knowing that I was nourishing his brain with every musical note, with every rhythmical, gentle sway.
Jack is five months old now. For the last four months he has been in weekly (sometimes twice weekly) Kindermusik classes. His grandmother, my wife, Cathy, is his Kindermusik teacher.
When he is over at our home, I take a thick, soft blanket, I position it on top of my grand piano, and, as I did with each of our three children, I lay him on the blanket and then play my repertoire.
As I do this, and watch Jack respond, it is amazing for me to see him open his eyes wide, and move his little arms and legs with a unique energy, seemingly stimulated by the ocean of sound he is immersed and bathing in.
And then there are those moments when he seems a little agitated or grumpy about something, and I take him in my arms as he’s crying, I look directly at him and I once again sing the song that he first heard only an hour or so after he was born. What is truly special for me is that, when I sing this song, he fixes his gaze directly into my eyes and he becomes immediately still. He appears to be totally mesmerized. He is listening. He recognizes the tune, and, somehow it seems to deeply comfort him.
We are a family of musicians and music lovers. Jack lives in a home where music is always being played, performed and listened to. The same thing occurs whenever he is at our home. He truly lives a music-filled life.
Our point of view on the circumstances is that whatever damage may have occurred as a result of Jack’s difficult birth, will not be an issue, and will not thwart him in any way. We believe this to be true because we have a magic wand in our possession. We have music – living, loving music!!
I fully expect that Jack, as he grows and develops, will show no signs whatsoever of any residual damage caused by his birth trauma. I fully expect that he’ll have a deep-seated relationship with music, and I trust that his early childhood experience is laying a foundation that will truly serve him in acquiring and retaining music as a lifelong companion.
I am filled with gratitude that I have music in my life to contribute to the child of my child. What better gift to hand down from generation to generation? I know of no other quite like it.
Neil Moore
Founder and Executive Director
Simply Music International
From Gordon Harvey
“Music is very very old. The rules of music are very young”. The Jazz world is full of textbooks and how-to guides that use theory as the setting for learning jazz – an approach that seems at odds with the instinctive way jazz musicians actually play. Steve Sedergreen is well-known across Australia and internationally as a highly regarded jazz pianist, but equally well-known as a music educator, with a gift for making jazz accessible to people with no background in the field. He has just released a book, “Start Playing Jazz Piano Now!” which is less about rules and more about giving yourself permission to explore. His approach seems to fit well with the way Simply Music works, and is a great pathway for someone who wants to explore the world of chords and improvisation.
We spoke with Steve about playing from the heart. The interview concludes with an excerpt from Steve and Mal Sedergreen’s band Mistaken Identity playing his composition “Musician and Chef”.
From Gordon Harvey
“Bernie, you can do it. You can climb this mountain.” Bernadette Ashby has had plenty of people repeat those words to her, but when you give yourself enough mountains to climb, you develop plenty of supporters. Bernie has never let apparent limitations stop her from climbing mountains, from building a busy studio despite being an adult beginner to creating a book about Simply Music with no prior publishing experience. By her willingness to take the plunge, Bernie inspires that same quality in her students and fellow teachers. You can read about one of those students in this issue of the newsletter, but here we ask Bernie herself about the trials and triumphs of climbing life’s mountains.
How did you get involved with SM?
I’m a lurker. It takes a few times for me to warm up to an idea. So when I met Kerry Hanley, from Australia, at a homeschool conference booth, it wasn’t until the end of the day. By that time, she told me that there was a money back guarantee if I wasn’t satisfied with Simply Music. I circled the booth numerous times, observing her over my shoulder, demonstrating the method to other parents. She was making some incredible claims. I was intrigued. All my life I wanted to play the piano. Growing up, I quit three times just trying to learn. I had no idea that that day would change my life. It’s been ten years and today I call myself a musician, composer, and an educator. It’s been an amazing journey of self-fulfillment and joy.
You freely acknowledge your limited musical background, but that hasn’t stopped you becoming a very successful teacher. Many people would be nervous in your role. What was the scariest thing about taking on the challenge of teaching without the usual extensive music background? How do students respond when they hear about your background?
It’s important to know that I began to play the piano at age 37. I had an intense drive to be musical. This desire got me over the hump of my insecurities in becoming a teacher. There is no way I would have ever taken this route had there been a Simply Music teacher in my area. There were none. And I was driven to play. I’m glad that I took the plunge and became a teacher.
Talk about scared! I was staring straight up at the looming ‘Mt. Everest’. I had so many feelings swirling inside of me – feelings of overwhelm and yet exhilaration at the same time. Asking questions like, “What in the world did I get myself into? What will people think of me? How can I do this?” I think the scariest thing for me has been to actually tell people that I didn’t have a traditional background in music. However, this was more of a perception I had because of the fear of rejection. I thought people wouldn’t sign up because of my lack of experience. But for the most part, this hasn’t been the case. As a matter of fact, they never ask me about my background. These days I’m very up front. I tell parents that I am only an adult-trained musician through Simply Music. I let them know that I love this program, the founder of Simply Music is my mentor, and that I CAN teach them and their children how to play the piano. Mostly, I share my passion through how I communicate. Parents and students pick up on this and they are excited along with me.
What was the biggest thing that inspired you to keep going through the early days of establishing a studio?
This journey has had its ups and downs. Often times, I felt discouraged and wanted to ‘throw in the towel’. But there were people behind me shouting, “Bernie, you can do it. You can climb this mountain.” My husband, Myron, is one of them; Cathy Hirata, a fellow Simply Music teacher, is another; and Neil Moore, the founder of Simply Music. I am indebted to them. I would say that a support team or accountability is critical to success.
How many students do you have nowadays?
Over sixty students.
What do you love the most about teaching?
Besides the fact that I work with the most incredible parents and students, what I love the most about teaching is the platform with which to speak into their lives. When new parents and students come into my studio, they think I’m going to teach them about piano, which I am. But there are so many other “life” things we talk about. Things like: integrity, discipline, responsibility, honoring your parents… The satisfaction goes deep for me – the bonding between my students and I are strong. My longest standing student of nine years is like a son to me. He’s spent most of his life having me as a mentor, coach. He never leaves lesson without giving me a hug.
What do you like about teaching and being involved with Simply Music?
Easy answer – the teacher body. I have met some of the amazing people on this face of this earth through Simply Music – friends I will have for life. I have so much respect for my colleagues. Not only for their musical intelligence, but for what they contribute to me as a person. They are inspirational, encouraging, creative, entrepreneurial, to say the least.
You have been a wonderful support in various ways within the Simply Music community. Tell us about some of the work you’ve done.
Well, let’s see. One of my favorite things to do is to give back to the teacher community through sharing what I know. I’ve led chat sessions on various topics for teachers and organized an annual Simply Music International Symposium for training purposes. I’ve been involved in recruitment events and the most recent activity is contributing to a Radio Blog Talk about Simply Music. But the largest project to date is the completion of a book on Simply Music.
You’re obviously talking there about your book ‘A World Where Everyone Plays’. It’s a very comprehensive look at Simply Music and some of the ways it has contributed to people. It was obviously a huge undertaking, and again an adventure into a world you didn’t have much experience of. What inspired you to take on that huge task?
Funny, I never considered myself a writer. All through my educational career, I struggled with English classes. I made straight A’s in all my other subjects. In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would write a book. But I so believed in the message of Simply Music. As an educator, I knew that it was critically important to let as many people know about Simply Music and this ‘New Way of Learning’. If all people had an opportunity to access their musicianship, it could open up avenues of creativity and ingenuity in an unprecedented way, effectively changing the world. This message was my motivation. So once again, I found myself breaking ground in new territory – another mountain was before me. But I knew what it was like to climb a mountain, thanks to Simply Music. It took two years to write and edit the book. To date, close to 2000 books have been sold. 5000 is considered a bestseller so I’m pretty happy about the results. Ultimately, the message about Simply Music is getting out.
You talk frequently about a world where everyone plays, in fact that’s the title of your book. How do you see that music education can make a difference? What would a world where everyone plays look like?
There are so many fine points to music education that are taken for granted. The tragedy is that it is being removed from the schools and devalued to an extra-curricular activity. Without music, we deny ourselves a fundamental expression to be human. I realize that this is a strong statement to make but it is consistent with the idea, a world where everyone plays. If we truly understood and ‘unpacked’ all that music contributes to a person, as a culture we would be chasing after this kind of education with tenacity. Music changes a person in character, intelligence, discipline, and in spirit. A world where everyone plays looks like a world where we can be all that we can be, living up to our full potential, and through Simply Music, using music as an open door to reach out to everyone with this goal. It’s about creating a more musical world, therefore a more beautiful world. It’s possible. It’s happening now, one student at a time.
What’s the music you love the most? What’s the role of music in your everyday life?
I love any kind of music that is uplifting. It doesn’t matter what genre it is. It could be jazz, country, Christian, classical, as long as it’s excellent and encouraging. I’ll make a confession here. I’ve struggled with moments of depression. In these times, when I listen to music, it transforms my mind, heart, soul, and spirit. It soothes me, relaxes me, and brings me joy in the midst of life’s trials. It is such a gift. Playing the piano does the same thing for me too. It takes me to ‘another world’. I like that. I make it a goal to listen to good music and play the piano every day.
Simply Music Blog