
The Playground
The Simply Music blog

Learn “Don’t Know Why” by Norah Jones
This song hit the radio in 2003 and I loved it. My kids couldn’t believe that Dad would even listen to something that played on ‘their’ radio stations. My son Paul bought a compilation album of hits of ’02-’03 and I immediately ‘borrowed’ it to…

Simply Music Student – Ronen
Simply Music is all about music as a lifelong companion. Not necessarily a calling or a career or a life-force, but occurring in a way that our musicality becomes an everyday friend, a natural part of how we express ourselves in the world. Sometimes, though,…

Filmmaker Ben Niles Interview with Neil Moore
In this installment, Neil Moore talks with Ben Niles, the Director and Producer of the Award Winning documentary, “Note By Note – The Making of Steinway L1037.” This documentary follows the journey of a tree – from forest floor to concert hall floor, as a…

Simply Music Teacher – Kerry Hanley
My name is Kerry Hanley (nee Halbert) and I am a Senior Associate Teacher and a Senior Teacher Trainer with Simply Music. I have had the privilege of working with Neil Moore since 1992, longer than anyone else in the Simply Music organization. I…

Simply Music Student – Wade Myers
“That was really good. Is there any way that I could buy the score for Constellation of Snow?” the mom asked after the student concert. She was a classically/traditionally trained musician. “Well, uh, no,” my girlfriend, another Simply Music Teacher, replied hesitantly. “That is his…

Learn I Dreamed A Dream
It was a tribute to the life-changing power of music (as well as the wonders of the internet) when the world was charmed by the story and the voice of Susan Boyle when she sang “I Dreamed a Dream” on Britain’s Got Talent and showed…

Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks – Book Review
Oliver Sacks is a neurologist and author known for his books exploring the strange and remarkable world of people with brain damage. In the 1960’s he published Awakenings, a study of his work with post-encephalitic patients who, after decades of immobility and non-communication, could be…