Inside the fun, accessible method helping piano students win competitions | 60 Minutes

I've been teaching piano very successfully for thirty years. These ideas and concepts are not new or revolutionary. You just have to know how to guide and connect with each student and their particular needs.

Just casually throwing in an interview with Hans Zimmer is crazy

On her own at around 6 years old, my daughter liked to play backwards sitting under the keyboard and she would often put Pokemon cards on the music stand and improvise to the mood of the card. She didn’t become a competition winner, but she is 34 and still loves playing piano. When I visit, I enjoy an afternoon listening to her play.

I hate to be so cynical, but this seems like pure grift to me (and frankly makes me wonder if there is a producer somewhere in the chain who is an investor in this company.) I absolutely think that starting with a goal of fun and joy in the simple pleasures of making music is an admirabke goal, and one that *can* sometimes be lacking in music education, just as in all education (particularly for children whose parents have got them in the "preschool to international competition pipeline.") But I adored the vast majority of my musical education, from elementary school all the way through college, and knew many others who did as well. And my ultimate goal when I was teaching was always to help students of all ages be able to feel that same joy that I felt. That's why I clicked on the video, despite my reservations, given the recent staff changes. But. Nothing about this is innovative whatsoever. And the claims are clearly way overblown, both in a negative and a positive sense. It is simply not true that all piano education is drudgery. It may have been more likely 50 years ago, but it still would not have been true all of the time, and it's bizarre that piano is treated here as so much more difficult and prestigious than any other type of musical education. Other red flags include the fact that he states his students achieve "diploma" status 8 years sooner than most piano students. Why have I never heard of this "diploma"? The U.S. does not have a standardized, graded system of difficulty like the Royal School of Music in the UK. And whichever diploma this is, it is highly suspect that he is saying his students reach it in xyz amount of time, without taking into account previous training, talent, or practice time. You mean to tell me a student who practices 10 minutes a week accelerates their skill level at the same speed as a student who practices an hour a day? Make it make sense. Lastly, I do think we have to address the subject of the piano playing itself that we hear in the video. I first want to state that nothing I say here is to disrespect the students in this video. I don't doubt for a minute that they are working hard and pouring their whole hearts into their performances. The issue is not with them whatsoever, but with their teacher(s). The exercises we saw the young students doing were just the Suzuki method, but less catchy. The compositions we heard, from all age groups, were simple arpeggios with very simplistic melody lines thrown over top. I 've never heard of the competition he states his students are winning, but I acknowledge that PTA's are no longer much of a thing in the part of the country where I live, which has generally shifted to more inclusive models. If this is actually a respected composition competition, someone please correct me. I Can say that when I hear of a stunningly talented piano teacher whose students are sweeping competitions, I didn't necessarily expect it to be the Van Cliburn, but I did expect it to be competitions that are at least nationally, if not internationally, well known and prestigious (and for actual piano performance, not exclusively composition.) The few "advanced" students he presented exhibited playing that was full of just plain wrong notes, without even getting to the level of critiquing the playing itself. Again, I want to be clear that this is Not the students' fault. They are doing the best they can with the level of instruction they are being given. But I would suggest to parents of these young people to have their children do an assessment at a well-respected music school in their nearest city to see where they are as far as standard expectations for dedicated students who have been playing x amount of years. And if anyone reading this is considering enrolling a student who is brand new to piano, perhaps consider a month of training under this "new" method and a month of training under a teacher who is trained and experienced with the real Suzuki method (which, btw, when taught properly, is designed to produce sfudents who are dedicated peace builders as well as dedicated musicians.) I think the worst-case scenario here is that these students make it all the way to the actual competition circut or even college before finding out that this "exciting new method" left them with training gaps that it is too late to fill.

I had violin lessons that were not fun and yet I love violin.

This was nothing more than an infomercial for yet another "miracle" product or service. If it were actual journalism, we would have seen experts interviewed and not just investors.

This feels like a product launch video for a business with high profile investors seeking to expand nationally. I would be cautions of the claims made in this piece given the lack of broader peer review.

This is basically the Suzuki method. Kids do love it

Is somebody in 60 min investing in Payam Method Schools? Considering the HQ of 60 min is in NY where hundreds of gifted young pianists reside, I can't believe they bought this. Payam Music charges over $100/hour to students but paying $20 ~ 38/hour to teachers. The basic requirement for the prospective teacher is not even experience or knowledge in music. 60 Minute, why didn't you research a little bit more before airing?

I don’t understand the persistent “learning piano the ‘traditional’ way is not fun; piano lessons aren’t meant to be fun” theme in this video (and the related 5-6 min video). I know some students hate lessons, but is that really the _majority_ opinion of students? I’m in my 50s and started lessons at age 7. My first teacher was awful and really shouldn’t have been teaching little kids. She was too impatient and mean. My parents found me a new teacher a few weeks later and she was fantastic. She quickly figured out I had perfect pitch, which explained why I was so stubborn about sight-reading. She adjusted our lessons by playing pieces she wanted to teach me so I could hear them first. That gave me a reference and made learning to sight-read so much easier. It also made me excited to learn to play what I’d just heard. She taught me music theory, composer biographies, good playing/posture technique (the little girl at 1:33 will develop carpal tunnel if no one corrects her wrist position), and got to know what types of music I was really into and enjoyed playing most. I was transposing and improvising within my first year with her. I was composing pieces around age 10. The only times I felt pressured or stressed out were during National Guild Auditions. I enjoyed the hell outta playing piano. Maybe I lucked out by getting the only fun “traditional” piano teacher, I dunno. But I have to believe plenty of other piano students also had fun learning and playing, even back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.