Music In Minutes with Mrs Stewart's Piano Lessons
It's true! With Stewart Piano you can make music in minutes.
This video, (available in both DVD and VHS formats), takes you step by step through the basic philosophy of Stewart Piano and the 25 lessons included in Book 1 of Mrs. Stewart's Piano Lessons. It can be used both for general information for experienced teachers and as a teaching tool for those with limited or no musical background when the individual lessons are used one at a time. The instructor is Phyllis Jansma who has taught Mrs Stewarts Piano Lessons for over 35 years. The video was filmed during the 33rd annual Stewart Piano Workshop held at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan.
The philosophy of this method is that learning music should be enjoyable and available to everyone regardless of age, education, or music background experience. By using a scale pattern and a chord pattern that works in any key, students easily become familiar with the keyboard both on an individual key basis as well as the location of all Major chords.
In this way, the songs are recognized by the pattern of scale tones that make up the melody. Once the student knows the scale tones in use, he or she can put appropriate harmonizing chords with the melody line. All this is done before the student is ever asked to read a single note! After all, we don't ask children to learn to read before they know how to speak their language, so it is only logical to allow students to become completely familiar and comfortable with the keyboard before they are required to read notes.
By learning in this order, note reading becomes a simple recognition of notes and chords the students already know and have been playing since the beginning, rather than a tedious and scary chore! Isn't that more in keeping with how you'd like to learn any new skill? This isn't magic, and it isn't a gimmick. It is simply a method that reduces the difficulty of music theory down to its very basics so anyone can do it. It has been used successfully for over 50 years and has proven its usefulness to both do-it-yourself students and professional teachers alike. Those who have been successfully learning and teaching this way want to share this knowledge with others.
