The Playground

“There’s a lot more to it than actually writing music”.   Screen composer Burkhard Dallwitz has an international reputation for his work, including the Golden Globe-winning score for the film The Truman Show, Olympic themes and the multiple award-winning Underbelly television series. In this conversation…

• Written by SM Admin on Sep 17, 2013

Circle of Life from The Lion King has always been popular for students to learn and its rich chords make it a particularly rewarding project using the powerful accompaniment skills Simply Music students learn very early in the curriculum. Across three projects, Laurie Richards starts us off…

• Written by SM Admin on Sep 17, 2013

Would you take lessons from someone in a band called The Smokin’ Rats? If that person was Page Stegner, we’d recommend it. Actually, in the band he’s a guitarist, but in this interview with Valerie Cotta, he explains how training as a Simply Music Piano Teacher…

• Written by SM Admin on Sep 17, 2013

Jaclyn Holmes is 11 years old and has been learning Simply Music piano for about four years/195 lessons. She’s currently in the middle of Level 10 and is just beginning the Jazz and Accompaniment 2 programs. To make sure she has plenty of opportunities to…

• Written by Guest Contributor on Sep 17, 2013
• accompaniment, jaclyn holmes, jazz, keyboard, piano lessons, simply music piano, terri partyka

Billboard Magazine recently remarked that the year 2013 looks set to boast the most new U.S. Music Festivals launched in history. It’s easy to see why when music festivals have had a renaissance of sorts lately; in the past decade some of the largest ones…

• Written by SM Admin on Sep 17, 2013

“If you can speak, you can sing” With the runaway success of Glee, Pitch Perfect and High School Musical, a cappella is riding high. What exactly is the appeal of vocal music? As beatboxer and star of NBC’s The Sing-Off Richard Steighner explains, “being dorky…

• Written by SM Admin on Aug 6, 2013

“It’s not a metaphor – it’s actually literally what we do all the time, this conversation, we’re improvising”. Kat Koppett lowered the curtain on a classical singing career when she discovered the joys of improvisation. Since then, besides founding the wonderful Spontaneous Broadway, she has developed…

• Written by SM Admin on Aug 6, 2013

“Miss Irene” Stephenson has been a much-loved music teacher in her Ontario community for more than two decades. She discovered Simply Music when looking for an effective way to teach adults, and has since been inspired to create new opportunities for her students’ parents to…

• Written by SM Admin on Aug 6, 2013

Twelve-year-old Ashton Rowe’s path to musical success has not been without its bumps, but has clearly been paved with determination. Starting at age six with Marilyn van Roekel and continuing via Skype with Robin Keehn, in six years Ashton has worked his way through the…

• Written by Guest Contributor on Aug 6, 2013
• ashton rowe, Laurie Richards, piano, piano lessons, robin keehn, simply music

In our May issue, Katie Schmidt wrote a great article: Promoting and Releasing Your Songs. Here, we take that information a little deeper and give you some really specific ideas on how to brand yourself (musician or band) in order to produce results. The main…

• Written by Stephanie Iadanza on Aug 6, 2013
• brand, branding, logo, merchandise, music, musician, piano, promotion, simply music, songwriting, the playground