Simpedia

Laurie Richards, Nebraska

I’d like to share a few student stories with you. These are inspiring to me as a teacher; I hope you find some inspiration there too.

I taught Josh for about 6 years before he discontinued about 4 years ago. He got through Level 8 and all the Special Programs. I hadn’t seen him in quite some time but happened to run into him a few months ago. He gave me a big hug and said ‘I need to thank you. I’m a freshman at [a local Christian college] and I’m majoring in leading worship. You were such a big part of making that possible for me. I had such a strong foundation from my lessons, and it made this possible.”

Molly went through the whole curriculum and is in college now. We keep in touch. Recently she shared that she had decided to change her major to music, probably music therapy, and brought her music theory text book to show me. She talked about how much she had already understood about theory because of what she learned in Simply Music, how much easier it was for her than for her classmates to ‘get’ college music theory, and said she LOVES it. She also wanted to volunteer some time for me during the summer, so she’s helping me out with a project!

Best of all, my daughter Leah and son Grant both have completed the curriculum and both continue to enjoy playing. Grant wanted to quit for a long time, but it wasn’t an option. Now he enjoys it, plays songs he loves, and continues in his class with 2 other students as SM graduates. Leah has always enjoyed it, so I get to hear her play a lot when she’s home. Makes my heart sing!

If you’re in the beginning stages of teaching SM and don’t know where it’s heading, I can attest it’s nowhere but GOOD!