
The Playground
The Simply Music blog

Simply Music Teacher – Jy Gronner
When your teacher has been a choir accompanist, singer, classically-trained pianist, conductor, classical piano teacher, singing coach, guitarist, violist, flautist, trumpeter and Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus Clown College alumnus, you know your musical voyage will be an adventure. Jy initially learned piano…

A New Kind Of Piano
The piano’s exact birth date is lost in the haze of history. All we know is that it was invented by the Italian harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. He developed his new music machine to overcome the limitations of the keyboard instruments…

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,…

From Neil Moore
Firstly, let me start by extending a heart-felt “welcome” to you. Thank you for taking some to check out this first edition of Simply Music’s newsletter, “The Playground”. This has been a project that has taken quite some time to bring to fruition, however, we…

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…