Music Education: A New Paradigm?

You know how we sometimes do and think things without any foundation in fact and think nothing of it? I spent years in elementary school being told that Columbus discovered America and never questioned it. For the past ten years, I have taught students to play piano by learning to read music notation at the same time.

What's the problem with that? Well, like others, I believe that reading music is reading a language. Why should we insist that beginning piano students learn to read before or as they are learning to "speak" (play) the language of music? Do we require that toddlers learn to read words and sentences before they are allowed to talk? Of course not.

I and millions of others learned to play the piano this way because existing piano methods have not changed all that much for centuries. Now, with each lesson I teach using "Simply Music," I'm realizing how tradition does not always show us the best way. If you want to learn a musical instrument easily, learn to play first - then learn to read.