The Playground
The Simply Music blog
What Song Opens Your Memory Floodgates?
All it takes is a song. Not just any song though, THE song… The one that grabs your attention when you’ve had the radio on for hours but have to drop everything right now because it’s transported you back in time. It might be your ‘wedding’…
Sharing Your Music in the Real World
We’ve talked in this blog about sharing your music online; how to take the tentative steps to “put ourselves out there” in a digital world, whilst safely tucked up in the comfort of our homes with our bunny slippers on! While this offers amazing opportunities these days, we…
Story of a Song – Summertime
A lot of music unites people. Occasionally it divides people. With its contentious depiction of racial stereotypes, the opera Porgy and Bess seems to have experienced the ebb and flow of acceptance over the years, but even its cultural detractors will recognise it as one…
Sharing Music, the Digital Revolution & the Future of Community
Music has always been a social phenomenon. Whenever people have gathered together, music has usually been involved. In some cultures, the distinctions between music, dance and spoken language are blurred and music is part of almost every communication. In others, music might be shared more…
About Lead Sheets
Very early in their learning experience, Simply Music students are introduced to chord accompaniments through songs like Amazing Grace, following written chord symbols represented by alphabetical letters. What they won’t realize at that point is how many applications there are for chords. The seeds…
Songwriting – Branding Yourself as a Musician
In our May issue, Katie Schmidt wrote a great article: Promoting and Releasing Your Songs. Here, we take that information a little deeper and give you some really specific ideas on how to brand yourself (musician or band) in order to produce results. The main…
Songwriters – Working With Other Musicians
Since Neil has so wonderfully helped us all understand the power and influence of arrangements, I am certain that when you write a song you envisage a lot more than just you at the piano and microphone. Working with other musicians can really allow your…
From Neil Moore
I’m sitting here at home looking out of my window. It’s a beautiful morning and it’s very quiet. I’m thinking about what has happened this year. So far, I’ve traveled throughout the USA. I’ve been to Germany and Canada, and next week I head off…
My Big Fat Playlist
My big fat Simply Music Playlist… how will I ever keep it all alive?! Do you have a hard time managing this aspect of your piano lessons? It’s fun to learn new pieces but sometimes it can seem like a lot of work to remember…
From Neil Moore
Do we reap what we sow? I’ve been thinking about this and want to talk about a recent experience. A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a 17 year-old young woman called Maira Ramirez. Maira asked if I would be willing to…