Online Music with Simply Music - A Review

This month, we had the opportunity to use and review the beginning course Music and Creativity - Foundation Course offered online by Simply Music. 

Simply Music  

Music & Creativity - Foundation Course

Music & Creativity - Foundation Course

This introductory course is available to anyone free of charge. As someone who has never had formal piano lessons, I was intrigued by the claims made in the promotions for this course on the website.

"It has students of all ages improvising and playing great sounding blues, classical, contemporary and accompaniment pieces - immediately - from their very first lessons." 

I did take guitar lessons as a child. I was taught by, what Neil Moore describes as, the reading-based approach. I learned to read music in those lessons and gained some basic musical exposure and understanding. I enjoyed learning to play but, I did really want to play more familiar and popular songs sooner than that approach allowed. The most fun I had with guitar at that point in my life was the mini concerts my neighborhood girlfriend and I put on for, well, no one! We sang our hearts out though, I strummed along and thank goodness there wasn't a video or phone wielding mom around every corner at that time in history!

As far as my piano skills, my musician husband has shown me a few piano basics here and there. He has also given basic lessons to our children when they showed an interest. I invited my husband to participate in reviewing this product with me for the Homeschool Review Crew which he graciously did. As a teacher of music himself he was interested in the teaching approach and the online lessons provided.

The Simply Music; Music and Creativity - Foundation Course, includes 19 lessons. In each, Neil presents the lesson. His lectures communicate each concept simply and clearly. The foundation course is geared toward beginners. I appreciated his easy to understand explanations of what to do and how to practice. The lessons also include quality recorded sound tracks for play along participation. Amazingly, it really does only take a few lessons to actually be able to play along with those sound tracks to some degree. The fun of experiencing actually playing along provides the motivation to continue more lessons and practice that is often lacking for students.

There is also a reference book that includes simple diagrams that provide a visual aid offering another way to understand the material presented. Given what the objectives of the course are; to get a student playing along fairly quickly, it probably isn't necessary to include traditional notation but, it also probably wouldn't hurt to have that in the reference book as well. A downloadable practice pad is also provided but I am certainly glad we have our piano to practice and play on.

My husband and I viewed some lessons together but watched most separately.

His notes are as follows:
Learn without notes first.
Learn slowly but multi-sensory.
Speak, vocalize through what you are attempting to do, to really know it.
Very methodical.
Play along with orchestrated recordings (Sound tracks)
Get into playing songs quickly, not scales or technique exercises.
Combined piano playing with sound tracks is fully orchestrated.
Re-interprets pieces in a new style and tempo for a challenge.

An 84 page e-book is included that goes into more detail about Neil Moore's insights and philosophy of music education. In it he shares his thoughts on how to create opportunities for more participation and enjoyment of music by more students. He poses some intriguing questions about music participation in our culture and how he believes the approach he has developed, to teaching music addresses concerns he and others may have. Based on my own experience and working through about half of the Foundations course, I do think the teaching in Music and Creativity - Foundation Course addresses the issue of impatience or boredom that can accompany a reading music and technique first approach that causes many students to quit pursuing an active involvement in music.

It is not clear if additional courses on the Simply Music site may provide more instruction in specific technique and reading music. This Foundation course has been fun to participate in. Given that it is offered for free, the course only requires that a student follow along and join in, it is an opportunity to discover the joy of playing piano. The reward provided by actually playing along in this course makes it definitely worth the effort. And who knows where it might lead a beginning student.

To read more reviews by the Homeschool Review Crew of Simply Music's Music and Creativity - Foundation Course click the banner below.

Coppelia

Traditional ballets have some commonality with traditional fairy tales. Old stories of good and evil with a healthy dose of romance. Beautiful princess', handsome princes and strange characters offering temptations, fulfilling their own desires with magic or granting wishes for a price by way of poison apples, witches spells, dolls coming to life to dance or by some other wizardry. Maybe the common aspects come from the time and place originated. It is my understanding that the Grimm brothers weren't the actual authors of the many tales they recorded but the collectors of the tales. Many of both fairy tales and ballets have a dark aspect, a kind of creepiness included.

The story of Coppelia is one of the early ballet stories. The music was written by Clement Philibert Leo Delibes, a french composer of the Romatic era (1815-1910). The ballet is based on a short story written by the German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, (the same writer of the original novel the more commonly familiar Nutcracker ballet was based on). The ballet includes a comedic twist within it's theme of the potential havoc that results from a man attempting to create a live human replica based on his own desire.

As for traditional classical ballets, the stories are old and probably also based on stories from the oral traditions where they first appeared. Usually they include a romance, good and evil or at least some mischief and the everyone dances around happy ending. Or as a favorite stand up comedian, Brian Regan, shares about his efforts to understand ballet performances, "he loves her, she doesn't love him, she loves someone else and they all dance around for a couple of hours" his description could be a condensed version of Coppelia with the addition of  the wedding finale. In the story of Coppelia, one of the someones is a mechanical doll created by the toy maker Coppelias. The addition of the characterization of mechanical dolls adds to the variety of  physical dance movement, delightfully performed by the ballerinas.

Why am I writing about a specific ballet? (besides to share and brag a little) about the accomplishment of our last graduating home school student. Mostly, I want to share and give an example of learning by following a students interests, how so many subjects including academics can be covered by, or at least touched upon, by interest led learning. I want to share our experience so that it can serve as an illustration of the value of doing and learning in the bigger world. Participating in the world by following interests can lead to intense and relevant learning for any student.

 

My daughter's participation in this production is just one of the examples from our homeschooling experience of how it really can work. That most, if not all, subjects can be learned through actual participation in events, projects and work. Sometimes homeschool families need encouragement to follow the lead of their students. Sometimes, it is the students themselves, who need reassurance of the value of what they are doing. For some students, confirmation of that value may not come to them often enough before they venture into the real world as young adults.

My daughter, the aspiring ballerina/dancer was cast in the role of Swanhilde for this classic ballet. As a homeschool student, completing high school, we considered her acceptance of the role as a part of her completion of her homeschool high school journey. The many hours of learning and practice fulfilled more than one requirement for her transcripts. This was an interest led unit study. An extreme interest led unit study.

Based on learning this role, there was immersion into the story as told through the dance and the classical music of this ballet. Through her participation, she covered to some degree; subjects of music, western civilization & history, themes in literature, art history, technology, internet based research, performance, and business. For some of these topics her awareness was simply increased, for others a deeper understanding was achieved. There were the many hours of the physical demands of dance needed to learn the choreography. That combined with the listening, learning about the music and the history created an intense unit study. The dedication to continue was supported by her learning about the importance of attention to her own needs for rest and good nutrition. There was learning about planning, organization and following through on a big commitment.

An added bonus to this kind of a homeschool approach to learning: If you, as a homeschool parent, continue to have any reservation about the big question of socialization or are still confronted by the question from others, is how this answers those questions. An approach that puts you and/or your children right smack in the middle of projects like this offer a very real opportunity for what the goals of socialization really are; to interact in a real, professional way with people of all ages who are working to accomplish a common goal, where the outcome is dependent on dedication, trust and the need to support everyone involved to do their very best.

I am most happy to say that this is, in fact,  the thing I am most proud of about my daughter's participation in this production. She handled herself with grace while consistently working over time to achieve the goal of knowing and performing her part to her full capability. Her character traits of a strong work ethic, support for other cast members, respect for teachers and of avoiding drama or gossip were evident throughout. These are all qualities that improve the result of any endeavor. Seeing this and practicing it in real situations provides value far beyond what I or an isolated classroom experience could hope to impart. Wherever my daughter's dance career takes her, these qualities will create the most value to herself and those she interacts with through out her life.