The Playground
The Simply Music blog
My Big Fat Playlist
My big fat Simply Music Playlist… how will I ever keep it all alive?! Do you have a hard time managing this aspect of your piano lessons? It’s fun to learn new pieces but sometimes it can seem like a lot of work to remember…
From Neil Moore
Do we reap what we sow? I’ve been thinking about this and want to talk about a recent experience. A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a 17 year-old young woman called Maira Ramirez. Maira asked if I would be willing to…
Building Confidence as a Beginner with Simply Music
I was a beginner when I started Simply Music lessons. I had a lot of confidence issues with my musicality. I had tried to play the piano on my own for about a year and just couldn’t get it! I could not coordinate my hands; I could kind of…
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…
Learn The Entertainer
By popular demand, Ernest Amstalden, Simply Music Teacher and renowned ragtime player, has created a version of that perennial favorite, “The Entertainer,” that relatively inexperienced students can take on. In this video, Ernest leads you step-by-step through his arrangement. If you can read music, you…
Teamwork – Playing with Others
“Teamwork, Teamwork, how ‘bout it?” Being a musician promotes versatility as it teaches many musical and real-life skills, such as cooperation in playing as a team, traditionally called ensemble playing. Ensemble playing in Simply Music lessons can be quite simple. Starting in Level One,…
A Team Effort – from Neil Moore
Some of my earliest memories are centered around the piano. I have an older sister and three older brothers, the eldest being only 7 years older than me. As each of the boys turned 7 years old we began piano lessons. It was one…
Playing with Others
My first memory of playing the piano with others is sharing the bench with my two older siblings. Since I was the youngest in the family, I would get to sit on the end of the bench during trios with my brother and sister…
Learn Soulful Grace (Amazing Grace) – The final piece
Hello again, Simply Music community! This is the third and final article in my Soulful Grace series. Here I’m presenting an introduction and an ending for Soulful Grace that, while relatively simple to play, give a quite sophisticated (and gospelly!) sounding result. Let’s begin!…
Are You a Musician?
I spend a lot of time investigating online articles about music and its role, and which examine our musicality. In many cases they may be discussing research, which usually serves to confirm that we are innately musical, but I often find the comments left by…
