Tyler's Spring Piano Recital

Tyler had his spring piano recital Sunday afternoon at the chapel at Schowalter Villa in Hesston. It was a wonderful display of talented pianists. I once again realized what I love about Simply Music - a playing-based music education program. Tyler has seen immediate success due to the following aspects of the Simply Music process: 1) playing complete songs from the start with both hands; 2) blues, contemporary, classical and accompaniment pieces; 3) learning how to play accompaniments just from chords; 4) learning how to compose pieces either from a previous song or on your own; and 5) learning how to improvise. There are so many aspects of this method of piano that I wish I had learned at some point. I just feel blessed that Tyler has been able to be exposed to these concepts and learn them.

Here is the first song Tyler played called "Dog?"




This was the composition Tyler made up from the song "Dog?"






One other interesting part of the Simply Music program is that a parent is required to be at lessons with the child. This is so that an adult is aware of the concepts and what the child is to do during the week. Also, group lessons are encouraged, and Tyler is in a group with 3 other girls. It actually is kind of beneficial because you can then learn from each other and see others develop too.

This is the piece that all 4 of the students in Tyler's group lesson performed together. It was called: Storm and was performed as an ensemble. They played it twice, trading parts. The student in the middle position played Night Storm - a piece they've learned. Then one student at the high notes of the piano played "raindrops", which was an improvisation, and the student at the low notes at the piano played "thunder", which was an improvisation. The 4th student played cymbals to represent the "clap" of thunder. Each time they practiced it sounded different due to the improvisation, so that was interesting. You have to admit, it does sound like a "Storm".

Tyler chose to play the Night Storm part the 1st time and the "thunder" the second time.