The Playground
The Simply Music blog
Simply Music Student – Isabelle McGrath
What would be a child’s dearest dream? Go to Disney? Meet her favorite athlete or movie character? Isabelle McGrath wished for a blue piano. At age 8, Isabelle was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer in her lymph nodes. While fighting the disease,…
Songwriting – Recording
As songwriters (just as parents of teenagers), we are at once blessed and cursed to live in the current era of technological accessibility. The sheer amount of options available now for recording songs and sending them out into the world can be both exciting and…
Meet the Team – Stephanie Iadanza
We asked Stephanie some questions to gain some insight into her role here at Simply Music, what lights her up musically and some facts that make her the person she is. Your full name: Stephanie Iadanza When did you start and what is your role…
Wander Your Way to Improvisation
With my Simply Music students, I do a lot of improvisation and composition. It’s one of my favourite aspects of being a musician, having been writing songs and creating instrumental pieces for most of my life. One of the most enjoyable and challenging things I do these…
How Music Works by David Byrne – Book Review
Let me say from the outset that David Byrne is one of my all-time heroes. I may not have pursued music at all without the revelations that were Remain in Light and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. From his early career in Talking Heads through his…
From Neil Moore
I’m excited about this forthcoming year. It’s shaping up to be like no other. A couple of weeks ago, the entire Simply Music staff, from Australia and the USA, gathered in Sacramento, locked ourselves away for the best part of a week, and undertook a…
Accordion Master Patricia Bartell Interview with Neil Moore
Patricia Bartell is a pioneer in the study of classical accordion, international championship winner and judge, and now co-developer with Neil Moore of the brand new Hohner-certified Simply Music Accordion program. Here she talks with Neil about her multi-instrumental background, how she stumbled on Simply…
Simply Music Teacher – Kim Nelson
Zippo lighters or piano teaching? Luckily it was piano teaching that won out. Even though Texas single mom Kim Nelson had never played piano she wasn’t going to let that get in the way of pursuing a vision and building a thriving studio. Kim is…
The Poetry of Playing Freely with Nancy Reese
Gustavo Dudamel, “The Dude”, and Dreams Come True have a lot in common. When he was a child in Venezuela, this dynamic conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic would line up all his toys on the floor and then conduct his “toy orchestra”. By watching him conduct…
Simply Music Student – Molly Fisher
“On a recent visit to my in-laws at an assisted care living center, I got to witness my daughter Molly Fisher, give an impromptu concert to the residents living there. When she started playing, the only audience Molly had in the commons area where the…
