Simply Music - A Crew Review

I had a great childhood, but I do regret not having learned to play an instrument. As an adult college student, I did take a basic music class where our final exam included playing a short piece on a recorder, but that was pretty much the beginning and ending of my music career. My husband on the other hand, comes from a musically rich background. In fact, as a child and young adult, he traveled around the United States and occasionally abroad with his family, who played as a family band. It was and is important to both of us that our daughters have the benefit of music in their life. Our girls both play multiple instruments, including the flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, piccolo, and a bit of percussion. What was missing was the piano, and my 15 year old has mentioned a few times that she would like to learn to play that too. Fortunately, we became acquainted with Simply Music and have had the chance to review their Music & Creativity - Foundation Course .

The particular course that we reviewed is free, which is a huge priority for the founder, Neil Moore. He has a heart for sharing music with world, and desires that money should never be a reason not to learn. He has spent 25 years creating his unique learning method. His style is now being taught in 12 other countries, and is the leader in playing based education. What sets this program apart from traditional ones is that as I mentioned, it is playing based, versus reading based. Typically, students are taught to first read music before getting on the piano. Moore believes that for many potential students, this may cause them to lose heart if they cannot grasp the concepts. He believes that everyone is innately musical, and that by immersing ourselves in playing, it will come about naturally.

Getting started is a simple process. All that is required for this particular course is to register an account, and get started. You or your student will be playing from the first lesson. There is a getting started video to watch and get an overview. There are 19 lessons in all, with each comprising of 3 to 5 components. They are taught via video, with durations of anywhere from 5 to 19 minutes. Along with the videos, there is a printable keyboard that will come in handy for practicing finger placement in between lessons. There are also pdf's of a reference book, soundtracks for accompaniment, as well as Neil Moore's book, Music and the Art of Long Term Relationships. That's a pretty sweet deal for the cost of...nothing! 

My teen worked through the lessons at a typical pace of 3 days per week. Fortunately for us, my husband likes to play with the keyboard, so we have one handy. We set it up at our dining room table, which doubles as our school work space. As I mentioned, my daughters are musicians, so they do read music, and are familiar with the traditional reading approach, drills, etc.. She would usually work through several parts of the lesson on each learning day. The first thing that my daughter liked about Neil Moore is well, his accent, lol. Seriously though, she appreciated the relatively short length of the videos, bite sized as they are. She did say that she would like it if there was more presented  about the keys, notes, and hand placement. She also felt that scales and drills are still important, even with this method, and that it would be beneficial for new students to have exposure to that information. Since she has that knowledge, she had an easier time with all of those aspects, but she still felt that she was needing more instruction. Now, for those who have an ear for music, and enjoy experimenting at their own pace, this will be right up their alley. When you consider that this is available for free, this is definitely a program worth trying out and sharing with friends and family.

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