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Does anyone have any experience transitioning a "simply music" student to regular, music reading, classical type piano? I've read the simply music threads and haven't seen this information. I'm considering opening a "Simply Music" studio in my town but I have always given traditional piano lessons. It seems to me that the transition from the Simply Music style to classical would be kind of a hard one. Any thoughts? Thanks.

What is 'simply music'????!!!!!

Wiki Write-up
Simply's home page with overview, approach, philosphy
Curriculum Overview (PDF)
(It was interesting, so I read on).

How funny - Australian in origin and I've never heard of it!!

Absolutely beautiful graphics/art work, and while there are some specific statements/perspectives I don't agree with, the basic thrust of the method seems spot on. [not having seen any of the materials]

Pianolance - later today I will make an effort to answer the content of your question, rather than simply rabbiting on about what simply music is or isn't....... (busy with my 3 year old now)

I looked into it. The main thing I didn't like about it was the cost. It reminds me of a particular vocal "method" out there that is nothing more than a multilevel marketing scheme. Simply Music, of course, does not have "up-lines" and such, but it is a huge investment and I'm not so sure that it's worth it.

If you like the idea of using the ear to help a student learn music, why not teach in that manner yourself? No need to pay someone thousands of dollars. Do your own research and compile your own method for such things. I incorporate some learning by ear along with the reading. I think it helps tremendously and that it's not a crutch as long as you know if you are dealing with an "ear" person or and "eye" person and adjust accordingly so that they become well-rounded.

I don't know anything about this program, so I spent some time yesterday looking through the materials and watching youtube videos of students. It looks interesting, but as to the OPs question of how easy it is to transfer to regular lessons, or take it beyond the early rote playing, I don't know. I looked on youtube for some examples of older students who had begun with SM and perhaps went on to conservatory or something, but didn't find anything. Doesn't mean they aren't there.

20 years ago, when we were looking into violin lessons, we were skeptical of Suzuki. My husband is classically trained, and had concerns. Then the newspaper did a big spread on the newest members of the violin section of the orchestra. Five were classically trained, and five had gone the Suzuki route. The fact that they all ended up in the same place showed us that there is perhaps more than one "right" way.

As I said, I couldn't find anything pointing one way or another to a similar route with SM students.

I did note that SM requires all students to commit to at least 6 days a week, 15-20 minutes practice (at least for the beginners.) And I thought that if I could only get that kind of commitment from my beginner students, perhaps I could sell my method, too.

I don't like the fact that you don't have to be an accomplished musician to teach it.

From their website:
"It can be taught by piano players who are not advanced musicians; It requires no formal qualifications to facilitate teaching the program; No prior music teaching experience is necessary prerequisite." Ugghh....

It's a 'play-now-read-music-later' approach. They make a big deal that they are 'pioneers in music education', but the ear-before-eye approach has been done for decades with programs like Yamaha, Harmony Road, Suzuki, and others.

It costs a small fortune, I think you pay royalties, and if you stop teaching the program, you have to return ALL materials.

No thank you.

I am an Aussie that is currently learning the Simply Music method for piano and have been learning for roughly 1 year. I chose this particular piano method as surprisingly almost all of the teachers that were near me taught only this piano method.

At first I was quite skeptical about the piano method as many people would be as it seems to promise too much too quickly. (e.g. playing a song with two hands in the first lesson)

As described above, I haven't been taught to read from the beginning but was taught songs through instruction and video using patterns. SM students learn a large number of short songs that they use to build up their technical skills from piano playing played from memory. Each class is about learning more and more of these songs. It seems each of the songs contain various things in them that teach student various different rhythms, are finger exercises or are there to be referred to later on when they student learns to read notes.

On the side, the teacher may also start the student on an accompaniment program where they learn to play chords and how to use it to accompany songs.

When a student starts to learn to read notes (where I'm currently at), they start by learning to read rhythm and go through a book full of rhythm clapping exercises. Then after they have progressed through that they then start to learn to read pitches. The method used to teach pitch reading is intervalic reading.

It seems that they have enough materials to last up to 6-7 years of lessons according to the website, although despite being a SM student, I don't really know what the syllabus is or what i'll be learning next.

I hope that helps with what it is like to be an SM student.

I'm not aware of what traditional piano lessons are like, but I think you should teach the SM student how to read while teaching them some songs by demonstration, I think that would be the best way to start out with the student.

I don't know this method book, but learning to play before learning to read is straight from Piano Teaching 101 and has been well known for at least decades, if not centuries.

Any method that requires a teacher to "buy in" is just a money grab. It might be very good, it might be not so good, but it's a money grab in any case.