of The News-Sentinel
Katie Londini is learning a new song, but there's no music on her teacher's piano — just numbers and letters, in what appears to be a code.
The 8-year-old barely glances at the book. After nearly a year of lessons, she still can't read music. Her teacher, Ian McKinney, can't either. Not very well, anyway.
But Katie can play 30 songs from memory. The Simply Music program emphasizes playing long before musical notation is introduced, McKinney explains, much the way toddlers learn to talk by “playing” with language before learning their ABCs.
In Fort Wayne, McKinney is best known as assistant manager of Young Adult Services at the downtown Allen County Public Library.
In other gigs in other cities, the Texas native was a puppeteer and a street musician. He can coax a tune from at least seven instruments, including the guitar, fiddle and penny whistle.
Yet despite taking piano lessons in high school, he still can't decipher musical notation quickly enough to convert it into a song.
McKinney's wife, Jen, struggled with childhood piano lessons as well, so they explored alternatives for their daughter, Fiona, now 7.
Jen McKinney, a children's librarian who works sparingly while raising kids — they're expecting their third – talked the library into buying a DVD by Simply Music founder Neil Moore, an Australian who developed his concepts while teaching a blind boy to play.
When they couldn't find an instructor in this area, Ian decided to undergo training. He's been giving lessons for a year; Jen recently became licensed as well. They're two of only four Indiana teachers listed on www.SimplyMusic.com.
“If this method is water, then I'm a duck,” says Ian McKinney, who met Moore at a seminar in California earlier this year. “Everybody – everybody – can do this. It's like ... it's just so ... obvious.”
So much so, he adds, “that it took a genius to do it.” Continue reading...
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