What Is the Simply Music Method?

If you've been looking into piano lessons for your child and come across the name Simply Music, you may have noticed that it's described differently from traditional tuition. Playing-based. Notation comes later. Broad repertoire from day one. A method that works across learning styles.

These phrases sound appealing — but what do they actually mean in practice? And why does the approach produce the results it does, particularly for primary school children?

This article is a straightforward explanation of how Simply Music works and why, at Easy Keys Music, it's the method we teach.

The core idea: play first, read later

Most piano methods begin with notation — the written language of music. Before a child plays a song they recognise, they learn to read notes on a stave, count rhythms, and translate symbols on a page into finger movements on a keyboard.

Simply Music begins differently. Students play first.

From the very first lesson, a child learns to play a complete piece of music. Not a scale. Not a finger exercise. A real piece — with a beginning, a middle, and an end — that they can play for someone and feel proud of.

The written notation comes later, introduced once the student has already developed a relationship with the instrument and a repertoire of pieces they can play. By the time notation arrives, it isn't a prerequisite for making music — it's an additional skill that extends what the student can already do.

This sequence — play first, read later — mirrors the way human beings naturally acquire language. Children learn to speak before they learn to read. They build vocabulary, instinct, and fluency through use, long before they encounter a grammar textbook. Simply Music applies the same logic to music: build the musical relationship first, then add the written layer on top of it.

What students actually play

One of the most distinctive features of the Simply Music method is the breadth of repertoire students access from the beginning.

Rather than working through a single style — typically Classical — before branching out, Simply Music students play across musical styles from the start. A student in their first year might learn Classical pieces, Contemporary songs, Blues patterns, and Jazz-influenced arrangements. All students write their own compositions. Some learn accompaniments to songs they already know.

This variety is not just more engaging — it builds a more complete musician.

A child who learns only Classical repertoire develops one set of musical instincts. A child who plays Classical and Blues and Jazz is developing several simultaneously — a different sense of rhythm, a different relationship with harmony, a different way of listening. The breadth of the Simply Music repertoire is part of why students develop genuine musical fluency, not just the ability to reproduce a limited set of pieces.

For parents, this breadth also matters practically. A child who can play something from multiple styles has more music to connect with, more pieces to share with family, and more reasons to sit down at the piano.

A typical student who practises five days a week — 15 to 20 minutes a day — and makes use of their home learning materials alongside weekly lessons can learn 30 to 50 complete pieces in a year. This will include their own compositions and accompaniments to familiar songs. All of them will be complete, playable pieces across a genuine range of styles.

Why this keeps children engaged

Children are motivated by success. Not praise alone — actual success. The experience of sitting down, doing something, and having it work.

When a child's first piano lesson produces a piece they can play, that experience is immediately self-affirming. They came wanting to make music, and they made music. The gap between expectation and reality — the gap that so often drives children away from traditional lessons in the early months — simply doesn't open in the same way.

This matters more over time than it might seem in the first lesson. A child who builds a growing repertoire of complete pieces has something concrete to measure their progress against. They can play things they couldn't play six months ago. They can hear the difference. That tangible sense of progress is one of the most reliable engines of sustained motivation.

The Simply Music method also works across a range of learning styles. Not every child learns most naturally through reading. Some learn through listening, through imitation, through feeling a pattern in their hands before they understand it intellectually. A playing-based method doesn't require any single learning style as the entry point — it opens multiple doors at once, which means more children find their way in and stay in.

The three things that make it work

The Simply Music method is a powerful foundation. But it is one part of a larger picture, and it's worth being clear about what the other parts are.

The first is the teacher. Simply Music is a specific, structured method, and delivering it well requires training and experience. The way a teacher introduces a new piece, supports the development of a practice routine, and responds to an individual child's pace and learning style makes a real difference to what a student achieves.

The second is the support at home. Simply Music is designed to be used between lessons, not just during them. Students receive home learning materials — video and audio recordings, written guides, resources — that are meant to be engaged with during the week. A child who uses these materials, practises for 15 to 20 minutes five days a week, and has a parent who helps protect and support that practice time will progress at a meaningfully different rate than one who doesn't.

Simply Music describes the parent's role as that of a life coach. Not someone who sits beside the piano correcting every mistake, but someone who takes the musical journey seriously alongside their child — who helps establish the routine, stays involved when enthusiasm dips, and understands that consistency over time is what produces a musician.

The method, the teacher, and the support at home. All three matter. Simply Music works best when all three are in place.

What this looks like at Easy Keys Music

At Easy Keys Music, I teach Simply Music to people of all ages including primary school children through online lessons and local shared lessons in Mosman Park, Perth.

Shared lessons — small groups of two or three students — bring an additional dimension that individual lessons don't always offer. Children hear each other play, learn from watching a peer work through something new, and share the experience of building a repertoire together. The social energy of a shared lesson can be a real source of motivation, particularly for children who respond well to learning alongside others.

I hold free information sessions — online and in person — for parents who want to understand the Simply Music approach before committing to lessons. They're an opportunity to see the method in action, ask questions, and get a clear picture of what lessons at Easy Keys Music involve.

Find out more and register for a free information session at www.easykeysmusic.com