Free Online Piano Lessons with SimplyMusic {Crew Review}
Recently the Homeschool Review Crew had the opportunity to check out the Music & Creativity - Foundation Course from Simply Music. This course is free so every member of your family, with their own email address, could create their own Simply Music account. With their own accounts, they can move through the program at their own speed and keep track of where they left off. If you have thought about piano lessons for yourself or your children but are unsure if it would be worth the time and investment you'll want to check out this free online piano course.
As part of the Leadership Team for the Homeschool Review Crew, I do not typically write reviews. I volunteered to write this review. Originally I was thinking I would have family members use this program and tell me their thoughts and I would just tell you about the program. I set up an account for myself and then I encouraged my family to set up their own accounts. Honeybear, Turtlegirl, and BooBear all set up accounts. After working through several lessons myself, I really want Tailborbear to set up an account and give this a try.
While my family did poke around a bit and give me some of their thoughts, I decided to take this review in a different direction because I started really using the program and fell in love. I did watch videos and mark complete to get feel for the whole program but what I saw just blew me away so I started using the program for real while still "moving ahead to watch videos" for purposes of the review.
There is a six-minute video overview of the Music & Creativity Program from Simply Music right on the home page. Scroll down to find it and if you click on the watch on YouTube you will be able to watch using full screen. Neil Moore, founder of Simply Music organization and creator of the MAC Program introduces himself and the program. I encourage you to watch the video to hear it for yourself but I'm going to share a key point that sets this program apart.
Mr. Moore calls this a breakthrough program. Based on what I have read (so far) in the FREE eBook, Music and the Art of Long-Term Relationships, by Neil Moore, I agree this is a breakthrough in thinking and approach to teaching music. It is different than anything I have experienced as a student or as a parent of a music student. I think it is important that we understand why Simply Music's MAC Program is set up the way it is. It is their overall focus to "contribute to causing breakthroughs in creativity for humanity." Their fundamental premise is that "everyone, without exception, is deeply, naturally and profoundly musical."
In the book Mr. Moore lists four goals that the Simply Music Organization has:
With the Music and Creativity Program - Foundation Course Simply Music lays the foundation. While you won't learn how to read music with this course, you will experience music as natural self-expression. You'll begin to build a repertoire and learn skills that will allow you to continue to build that repertoire. This course lays the foundation for growing the ability to self-generate and I have been having a highly positive, self-affirming experience so far!
Mr. Moore's approach is very different. He has a learn-by-playing approach that gets students playing real songs from the start. Mr. Moore calls it a "playing-based method." This method allows you to see music in terms of shapes and patterns.
In the video portions of the lessons, Mr. Moore breaks down the songs into the shapes and patterns that you need in order to play the song. For example, in Lesson 6 we learn more chords. In this screenshot, we see Mr. Moore's hand as he teaches us how to build the shape of the chord with the first, third and fifth fingers.
It is easy to look at the table of contents and see 19 Lessons and a Quick Start Lesson and think "oh I can finish this course in about 20 weeks. I can do one lesson a week." But that isn't how it works. To quote Neil Moore: "How long will it take? As long as it takes."
Some lessons are going to take longer. If you have some experience with the piano you may find that you move more quickly. One of the reasons that some lessons will take longer than others is the content of the lessons. Some lessons have multiple videos to watch as you can see from this screenshot:
Other lessons only have one video:
As you can see from both screenshots the resources you need for that lesson are available right there on the page. I liked being able to get to the music tracks or resources from the lesson page instead of having to download them to my computer and then transfer to my tablet.
There are different types of lessons. Some lessons teach a learning strategy, while others teach a song. There are lessons that build on each other for learning improvisation and accompaniment.
The first learning strategy lesson is Lesson 2 where we are taught the strategy of learning slowly in slow doses and "controlling the event." Mr. Moore refers to these strategies several times. He defines a learning strategy as an approach you would apply to any piece of music you are learning. It isn't specific only to the piece you are working on at the moment. So working slowly and in small doses is a strategy that we can apply to all the songs we are learning and it helps to minimize the number of errors and mistakes we will make.
Mr. Moore is quick to point out that making a mistake is not a problem and that we're going to make them. But breaking down learning the song into small doses and going slowly as we process the skill we will have faster success. Controlling the event is making sure we understand the process and that we tell ourselves which fingers play and in which order they play.
The "control the events" part of the learning strategy brings an auditory component to the learning as we explain out loud to ourselves exactly what each hand is going to do. In this screenshot Mr. Moore explains that we are going to say out loud exactly what we want the left hand to do and exactly what we want the right hand to do:
Another learning strategy teaches the difference between "what to play" and "how to play" and how separating those ideas helps the brain to focus and makes learning faster. The final learning strategy teaches you how to use the sustain pedal.
Because this is a free course I think it is worth the time to check it out just for those learning strategies!
I highly recommend starting by watching the video on the home page that gives an overview of the program and then start reading the Music and the Art of Long-Term Relationships. The program has you begin with the Quickstart lesson but during the video, it says to skip that lesson if you want more of the background. To skip you'll need to mark it complete. If you skip the improvising Eliza in the Quickstart you'll want to come back to it after Lesson 3 and before Lesson 4 where you build in that first improvisation.
I watched most of the video lessons so I could write this review but then I went back to the beginning to actually use the program. I was thrilled with the idea of doing improvisation on the black keys. I have been playing around using only the black keys for a couple of decades but never thought of it as improvisation because I found an arrangement I really loved and never really varied from that concept. Oh and by "found" I mean by playing around with keys and liking what I did. In the video, Mr. Moore showed me that I could do more. I am actually looking forward to doing more improvisation.
I confess I did skip ahead a little bit and took what I watched from Lesson 6 about chords and have tried to add some of that into my own black key improvisation. It has rekindled my love of music and makes me feel that maybe just maybe I can be creative with music.
I am forcing myself through Lesson 3 which is learning Dreams Come True. I have mastered the RH and I think I've mastered the left hand but I need to continue working on putting them together so that I can get to the fun part of playing it with instrumental track provided by Simply Music. I really want to try the idea of listening to the instrumental with earbuds on a device and plugging headphones into the digital piano and wearing the headphones over the earbuds to get a full sound immersion.
Having peeked ahead I love that I'll be learning more about Jazz and Blues and more about accompaniment.
This quote from Neil Moore spoke to me. In many of the videos, he mentions having music as a lifelong companion. On page 26 of the Music and the Art of Long-Term Relationships ebook, Mr. Moore states:
One of my regrets is that I didn't make music more of a priority for myself. I was frustrated with self-teaching books and I couldn't afford lessons for myself. I wanted my children to have lessons so we made that a priority. I feel I have pushed music aside and neglected a huge part of myself. I have rediscovered my love of the piano and of music. I feel that Mr. Moore is giving me the ability and the freedom to play for myself for the simply joy of music. When my mother would say "Tess plays the piano." I felt the need to correct them and say "no, really I play with the piano." I feel like I have permission now to "play with the piano.'' I have tools now that were missing.
This program isn't for everybody though. Some folks like Turtlegirl may find it difficult to change from a more traditional approach to this play-based approach. Turtlegirl was looking for something more theory-based to help her with composing music.
If you are a classically trained player like my BooBear you may find it very difficult to wrap your brain around this approach. She struggled with it. She has this to say about the program based on her background and experience:
I, on the other hand, have enjoyed this so much that I am seriously considering purchasing the next course which is the Foundation Enhancement Course which builds on what you learn in the Foundation course.
Several members of the Crew and Leadership took the time to explore Simply Music's Music & Creativity - Foundation Course. I encourage you to visit the Homeschool Review Crew Blog to find links to those reviews and read more reviews. My review is long but I didn' cover everything so do go read those reviews! I also encourage you to check out the MAC Program for yourself especially if you have ever wanted to be able to play the piano and felt you couldn't. This program will show you that you can!
As part of the Leadership Team for the Homeschool Review Crew, I do not typically write reviews. I volunteered to write this review. Originally I was thinking I would have family members use this program and tell me their thoughts and I would just tell you about the program. I set up an account for myself and then I encouraged my family to set up their own accounts. Honeybear, Turtlegirl, and BooBear all set up accounts. After working through several lessons myself, I really want Tailborbear to set up an account and give this a try.
While my family did poke around a bit and give me some of their thoughts, I decided to take this review in a different direction because I started really using the program and fell in love. I did watch videos and mark complete to get feel for the whole program but what I saw just blew me away so I started using the program for real while still "moving ahead to watch videos" for purposes of the review.
Background Information about the Program
There is a six-minute video overview of the Music & Creativity Program from Simply Music right on the home page. Scroll down to find it and if you click on the watch on YouTube you will be able to watch using full screen. Neil Moore, founder of Simply Music organization and creator of the MAC Program introduces himself and the program. I encourage you to watch the video to hear it for yourself but I'm going to share a key point that sets this program apart.
Mr. Moore calls this a breakthrough program. Based on what I have read (so far) in the FREE eBook, Music and the Art of Long-Term Relationships, by Neil Moore, I agree this is a breakthrough in thinking and approach to teaching music. It is different than anything I have experienced as a student or as a parent of a music student. I think it is important that we understand why Simply Music's MAC Program is set up the way it is. It is their overall focus to "contribute to causing breakthroughs in creativity for humanity." Their fundamental premise is that "everyone, without exception, is deeply, naturally and profoundly musical."
In the book Mr. Moore lists four goals that the Simply Music Organization has:
- Experience music as a natural self-expression
- Play a huge repertoire, covering a wide array of musical styles and genres. We want our students to be able to sit down anywhere, at any time, and play lots of music.
- Develop the ability to self-generate, meaning they can progress on their own. They are equipped to teach themselves, including having the ability to read music, and then set the page aside, carrying the song with them in their mind, heart, and hands.
- Have a highly positive, self-affirming experience throughout the process.
I will share the quote from the book about the overriding goal in a bit when I talk about my thoughts ane experiences with the program. Here is a diagram from the eBook (page 28) that lays out the overriding goal with the 4 goals I've listed above.
How It Works
Mr. Moore's approach is very different. He has a learn-by-playing approach that gets students playing real songs from the start. Mr. Moore calls it a "playing-based method." This method allows you to see music in terms of shapes and patterns.
In the video portions of the lessons, Mr. Moore breaks down the songs into the shapes and patterns that you need in order to play the song. For example, in Lesson 6 we learn more chords. In this screenshot, we see Mr. Moore's hand as he teaches us how to build the shape of the chord with the first, third and fifth fingers.
Lesson Set Up
It is easy to look at the table of contents and see 19 Lessons and a Quick Start Lesson and think "oh I can finish this course in about 20 weeks. I can do one lesson a week." But that isn't how it works. To quote Neil Moore: "How long will it take? As long as it takes."
Some lessons are going to take longer. If you have some experience with the piano you may find that you move more quickly. One of the reasons that some lessons will take longer than others is the content of the lessons. Some lessons have multiple videos to watch as you can see from this screenshot:
Other lessons only have one video:
As you can see from both screenshots the resources you need for that lesson are available right there on the page. I liked being able to get to the music tracks or resources from the lesson page instead of having to download them to my computer and then transfer to my tablet.
There are different types of lessons. Some lessons teach a learning strategy, while others teach a song. There are lessons that build on each other for learning improvisation and accompaniment.
The first learning strategy lesson is Lesson 2 where we are taught the strategy of learning slowly in slow doses and "controlling the event." Mr. Moore refers to these strategies several times. He defines a learning strategy as an approach you would apply to any piece of music you are learning. It isn't specific only to the piece you are working on at the moment. So working slowly and in small doses is a strategy that we can apply to all the songs we are learning and it helps to minimize the number of errors and mistakes we will make.
Mr. Moore is quick to point out that making a mistake is not a problem and that we're going to make them. But breaking down learning the song into small doses and going slowly as we process the skill we will have faster success. Controlling the event is making sure we understand the process and that we tell ourselves which fingers play and in which order they play.
The "control the events" part of the learning strategy brings an auditory component to the learning as we explain out loud to ourselves exactly what each hand is going to do. In this screenshot Mr. Moore explains that we are going to say out loud exactly what we want the left hand to do and exactly what we want the right hand to do:
Another learning strategy teaches the difference between "what to play" and "how to play" and how separating those ideas helps the brain to focus and makes learning faster. The final learning strategy teaches you how to use the sustain pedal.
Because this is a free course I think it is worth the time to check it out just for those learning strategies!
Using the Program:
I highly recommend starting by watching the video on the home page that gives an overview of the program and then start reading the Music and the Art of Long-Term Relationships. The program has you begin with the Quickstart lesson but during the video, it says to skip that lesson if you want more of the background. To skip you'll need to mark it complete. If you skip the improvising Eliza in the Quickstart you'll want to come back to it after Lesson 3 and before Lesson 4 where you build in that first improvisation.
I watched most of the video lessons so I could write this review but then I went back to the beginning to actually use the program. I was thrilled with the idea of doing improvisation on the black keys. I have been playing around using only the black keys for a couple of decades but never thought of it as improvisation because I found an arrangement I really loved and never really varied from that concept. Oh and by "found" I mean by playing around with keys and liking what I did. In the video, Mr. Moore showed me that I could do more. I am actually looking forward to doing more improvisation.
I confess I did skip ahead a little bit and took what I watched from Lesson 6 about chords and have tried to add some of that into my own black key improvisation. It has rekindled my love of music and makes me feel that maybe just maybe I can be creative with music.
I am forcing myself through Lesson 3 which is learning Dreams Come True. I have mastered the RH and I think I've mastered the left hand but I need to continue working on putting them together so that I can get to the fun part of playing it with instrumental track provided by Simply Music. I really want to try the idea of listening to the instrumental with earbuds on a device and plugging headphones into the digital piano and wearing the headphones over the earbuds to get a full sound immersion.
Having peeked ahead I love that I'll be learning more about Jazz and Blues and more about accompaniment.
Final Thoughts:
This quote from Neil Moore spoke to me. In many of the videos, he mentions having music as a lifelong companion. On page 26 of the Music and the Art of Long-Term Relationships ebook, Mr. Moore states:
This specific, overriding objective is far more important than a goal that focuses on a certain standard of musicianship. For me, whether a student emerges as agreat player, a good player or an average player isn’t nearly as important as whether a student develops to a stage where they can have music as a lifelong companion.
One of my regrets is that I didn't make music more of a priority for myself. I was frustrated with self-teaching books and I couldn't afford lessons for myself. I wanted my children to have lessons so we made that a priority. I feel I have pushed music aside and neglected a huge part of myself. I have rediscovered my love of the piano and of music. I feel that Mr. Moore is giving me the ability and the freedom to play for myself for the simply joy of music. When my mother would say "Tess plays the piano." I felt the need to correct them and say "no, really I play with the piano." I feel like I have permission now to "play with the piano.'' I have tools now that were missing.
This program isn't for everybody though. Some folks like Turtlegirl may find it difficult to change from a more traditional approach to this play-based approach. Turtlegirl was looking for something more theory-based to help her with composing music.
If you are a classically trained player like my BooBear you may find it very difficult to wrap your brain around this approach. She struggled with it. She has this to say about the program based on her background and experience:
I am more a fan of highly technical and theory-based training as that worked best with my brain and personality. But I could see for those who rebel against highly structured training this might be a good fit. I think there is some value in both. Improv can encourage creativity but also studies have shown that the theory and technical aspects of music can have huge impacts on brain development.
I, on the other hand, have enjoyed this so much that I am seriously considering purchasing the next course which is the Foundation Enhancement Course which builds on what you learn in the Foundation course.
Several members of the Crew and Leadership took the time to explore Simply Music's Music & Creativity - Foundation Course. I encourage you to visit the Homeschool Review Crew Blog to find links to those reviews and read more reviews. My review is long but I didn' cover everything so do go read those reviews! I also encourage you to check out the MAC Program for yourself especially if you have ever wanted to be able to play the piano and felt you couldn't. This program will show you that you can!
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