Curriculum
Happy Birthday in Any Key
A teacher asks if Happy Birthday is in the Curriculum. Neil Moore teaches how to play it in any key. How to Play Happy Birthday in Any Key https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xna4kPYHIHQ&list=PL3o0aF_9qHn4F2sy8QRuPb_jf_r4D9823&index=21 Original video posted March 27, 2017
Transitioning from Learn-at-Home Program
Neil Moore discusses the Learn-at-Home Program: its origins, transitioning students from it into the Simply Music Piano curriculum, differences, materials. Transitioning from the Learn-At-Home Program to Simply Music Piano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4VuAPnbf08&list=PL3o0aF_9qHn4F2sy8QRuPb_jf_r4D9823&index=19 Original video posted April 4, 2017
Remembering Compositions
Below is an email from a parent. Any advice on strategies I could suggest? This student has been with me for about 6 months. He is in first grade and is moving through Foundation pieces at a just-under-average pace. I have noticed memory is an…
Moonlight Sonata 9th
Question on Moonlight Sonata. In bar 8 the last beat, the 2 notes are 9th apart. Are we expected to play that in one hand? Here’s how Kerry. Moonlight Sonata. How to Play the Interval of a 9th, in Measure 8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9kR8AXLjVo&list=PL3o0aF_9qHn4F2sy8QRuPb_jf_r4D9823&index=15 Original discussion started…
Importance of Improvisation
Visiting a teacher’s lesson recently, Neil Moore was asked by one of the students, to say more about the importance of improvisation. Here’s his response. Importance of Improvisation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgLauBzhxTc&list=PL3o0aF_9qHn4F2sy8QRuPb_jf_r4D9823&index=13 Original video posted May 11, 2020
Stories Behind the Songs for Students
Neil Moore – can we share the videos of you telling the stories behind your compositions? If so, what’s the best way to access them? Any chance they could be on the website for students to easily see? I’ve made the videos public. They’re in…
Location Point Example Pieces
In the Reading Notes program, how are students supposed to decode Low C-1 and Low C-2 (pp 18-19) when they haven’t yet learned the location points of bass C and middle C? They’re not decoding it so much as recognizing it. You tell them what…
Roman Numerals for Amazing Grace Variation 2
I have a question about the Amazing Grace Variation from book two. How would you write the last line in I IV V format – from the vi, then F/D, F/G, and Fm. You wouldn’t write IV/2nd would you? Is it IV/6th? I have a…
Blues Infusion vs. B&I
I would love some feedback please… as I really love the Blues Infusion Program (what I have seen so far of it) but also the Blues & Improvisation Program… My F6 student (who has also just completed TFMM and is working through the second part…
0246135 Order
Have a random question about 0246135 in Accompaniment 2 (I checked simpedia and here before posting): What is the reason we go in the particular order of notes on the keyboard by skipping up to F# from E and back down to its natural scale…