Simpedia

Robin Keehn, Washington

For me, its Simply Music or nothing. I only offer Simply Music.  It just makes it so easy.

If they come to an FIS, you have a good chance of having them understand what they will accomplish with Simply Music. I have taught SO many adults who have played before but have never reached their goals. When they ask if they have to start at the beginning, I have the Alphabet Conversation with them. It goes something like this: “So, do you consider yourself an expert on the alphabet?” They reply, “Um, yes.” And, I reply, “Great! So what if I take that alphabet and rearrange it so it is Italian. Would you still consider yourself an expert?” Point made. The elements may be very familiar but the way they are presented is new.

So often when I’ve taken adults with 30-50 years of playing, they are absolutely amazed by what they learn in a few months of lessons. I have one student who has played for nearly 50 years. She plays so well but every week she asks me why she never learned “this” before (some concept or learning tool). She just cannot get over what Simply Music has done for her in six months.

I’ve also learned that adults really like to control the lesson and the content. I’ve learned to have a very frank discussion the minute someone starts to push me. This same student I referred to earlier has a genetic problem in her brain that will kill her unless she does something to keep her brain very actively learning. She is highly motivated to learn and has a sense of urgency. About the second month she told me, “I want to learn this, I want to learn it this way and I want to learn it now.” I told her that I would not do that. I would teach her Simply Music and I would guarantee her results but that I would not deviate. If she wanted something else, she would need to find another teacher. She looked at me with a bit of shock, was speechless for several seconds and then gave me a big smile. She has never pushed me since, and she is very happy.

My favorite saying of the year is: 99 percent committed is much harder than 100 percent committed. Isn’t that true? I know that I am only willing to teach Simply Music. It makes it so easy for me to tell people what I am going to do and what I will not do. It makes setting boundaries and requirements so easy. It takes all of the emotion out of the equation. It’s easy. I have requirements. You either can live with them or you can’t and I make no judgments about it. I teach Simply Music. It may not be what you want. If not, all is well. Go, be blessed and find your happiness 🙂

I hope that helps in dealing with your situation.

Carol B., Kansas

In my opinion you would have to refer them to a traditional teacher. I  have had adult students that I regretted taking for that reason. They always wanted to play by their own rules.

Marg G., Australia

I am now SM only with one exception. The ONLY reason I have an exception is that I started her before I was training. However her son started SM with me and I am doing Accompaniment with her. She is VERY on board with the ideas.

HOWEVER I will NOT take on a new traditional student, now that I’m SM Certified.

I’ve started several folk with traditional prior learning on SM and reassure them that while this is a new way of learning and we are starting from the beginning, they will move more quickly than someone who has had no background. This has been my experience and they get a BUZZ out of progressing quickly through the early stages PLUS discovering the wonderful worlds of Blues and Accompaniment that were foreign to them in traditional learning. SO many new doors open to their musical journey in the first few pieces of SM.

Like Robin, I use the alphabet analogy plus let them know …”Hey – I’ve been playing for over 50 years and I had to start from the beginning so if it’s good enough for me it’ll be good for you too”. I think this helps them realize that it’s not just me telling them what they have to do but that I had to do it too.

Believe that you have the best product to quickly get them:
NEW learning plus get them beyond where you could get them with traditional lessons far more quickly.

Jan D., Ohio

I have had mixed results with adult students with previous experience. I spend much more time with them individually explaining SM and digging to find out what they believe their goals are. Most don’t have a clue that there are actually skills that they need to have other than reading. Several times I have spent some time with them to evaluate what they really know – sort of like a placement test. Most of the time they know less than they think they know. I ask them to play from a few chord charts and lead sheets of increasing difficulty, to read some pieces of various styles and increasing difficulty, to transpose, to play a few scales, to improvise over a chord progression, etc. This doesn’t take long at all because they usually can’t do anything but a couple of scales and some very basic reading. Even when potential students have told me that they know how to do all of this, they usually don’t.

This usually accomplishes several things. They realize there is more to playing than reading and they are not going to gain these skills by taking more traditional lessons. It also helps me determine how to proceed with them – do I stick with foundation songs with variations and arrangements thrown in occasionally or do I dive into arrangements as soon as the foundation pieces are learned, how much do I challenge them with improvisation and composition projects, how quickly I move them through the accompaniment program, etc.

I have had students who decide that this is not what they want. I just had a student who wanted to play Billy Joel, Elton John, and Bruce Hornsby note for note from the music. He doesn’t read well and can’t come close to reading the recorded versions, but he isn’t happy with a simplified version because it doesn’t sound right. He thinks he can improvise, but he doesn’t as well as he thinks he does. He questions everything I present to him. He tore apart the first few pieces in Foundation 1, even though I was teaching him the arrangements as quickly as possible after learning the foundation pieces. He’s an engineer and I tried to work with him because I have been married to an engineer for almost 30 years and understand their analytical side. I don’t believe he has worked out with himself yet the fact that he can’t do what he wants to do, and he’s not really willing yet to do what he needs to do to reach those goals.

I have another adult student who has played for 20 years but only took lessons for a short while when he was very young (4 or 5). He can fool most people into believing that he really knows what he is doing. He doesn’t really know anything but how to play about 50 songs by ear, and he is feeling stuck. He really doesn’t know anything! Even though he doesn’t know anything other than picking out the right notes by ear, he has been attempting to compose and record. He is a sponge and will do anything I ask. Most friends and students know that I have several friends in the music industry. Most of the time I will do nothing more than introduce them if they happen to be at a concert that we are attending because they haven’t proven to me that they are serious and teachable. Because this student is so willing to learn and committed, I’ve already located help for him in the areas which I can’t help him (he’s into writing and recording electronic dance music and I’m not), even though he is still developing his skills.

Adult students who either have no experience or have had a bad traditional experience are usually fine, but those who had what they believe was a successful experience with traditional lessons, have preconceived notions about what lessons should be, or think they know more than they really do can be tricky so it is really important for me to assess where they are and to make it extremely clear what and how I teach and what is expected of them. They ultimately have to make the decision to trust me and do what I ask or to go the traditional route with someone else. Everything usually works out fine in the end, but it’s not always easy getting there. In all of the years I have been teaching Simply Music, I have only had 3 adults with previous experience quit after starting Simply Music lessons because they didn’t believe in the program. One was an 86 year old who only started with me because the teacher he decided he wanted to take lessons from didn’t have an opening and he switched when this teacher had an opening, a contrary 78 year old who I don’t believe would get along with any teacher, and the above mentioned student.