Neil Moore (musician)

Neil Moore, the creator of the Simply Music Program, was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1957. The youngest of five children, Neil began taking piano lessons at age seven with his four brothers. Although Neil was taught using a reading-based approach, he didn't learn how to read music until much later in life.^[1] Because of this, Neil has spent most of his life actively involved in ‘playing-based’ music learning.^[2] He composes and arranges much of the music used throughout the Simply Music program, and his experience includes teaching in schools, leading seminars and workshops, teaching in a maximum security prison, as well as owning and operating a network of music teaching studios. He regularly conducts training programs that are presented internationally. Neil’s most extensive field of focus has been the training and coaching of music teachers.^[3]

Early life

Neil's passion for music started at an early age. His older brothers had started piano lessons at the age of seven and there was always music filling the house. Following in their footsteps, Neil also started piano lessons at the age of 7. Although he had a passion for music, Neil never connected the music written on a page to what he was playing.^[4] He would watch his teacher play and then reconstruct what he heard using different shapes and patterns. Neil spent the next several years pretending to read the music in front of him. He thought he had fooled everyone, but little did he know, Neil's teacher had reported to Neil's mother early on that he wasn't reading the music. Luckily, Neil's mother wanted music to be a pleasure to her children, so she let Neil continue on with lessons.^[5]

At the age of 12, Neil was able to hear a song on the radio and work out the melody and chords. During this time, Neil also taught himself how to play drums and even joined a band. By age 15, Neil had built a repertoire of classical, blues, pop, jazz, ballads, accompaniments, and was even composing some of his own music, all without the ability to read a single note of music.^[6] During the next 15 years, Neil had numerous piano teachers, all who tried to teach him how to read music. All were unsuccessful and Neil became very frustrated. He continued to play piano into adulthood, never thinking he could turn his passion for piano into a career.

Adult life

Although Neil continued to play piano into adulthood, his career consisted of owning several successful restaurants. He also married his wife Cathy, and had three wonderful children. Despite a successful career and a great family, Neil was still unhappy. In the late 1980s, the worldwide stock market fiasco left the Moores in a financial crisis.^[7] Eventually they were able to recover. They became partners in another restaurant venture that allowed Neil to return to school and fill in his technical gaps while Cathy took a lead role in operating the restaurant. During this time, Neil was looking to borrow a piano when he was approached by a man who was recruiting teachers for a new music reading program. Neil joined the program and soon learned that he was a natural teacher. In less than a year, he had one-hundred-and-twenty students and was also training other teachers in the program.^[8]

Simply Music

The idea for Simply Music came when Neil was asked to teach an eight-year-old blind child how to play piano. Obviously, traditional methods using sheet music would not work in this case. Instead, Neil broke down the music into shapes and patterns that the child, Wade, could understand. Within a few months he was playing a range of blues, popular and classical pieces.^[9] When Neil asked Wade's father if he was happy with the progress Wade was making, his father responded with "…not only are we happy with his progress, but he’s started to teach his 4 year old sister how to play, and she’s blind too."^[10]

Neil wanted to expand and explore this new way of teaching piano. He began creating the materials and introducing the program to young children. He eventually created a pilot group of over 120 students ranging in age and musical background. The results were incredible. Students were playing music from their very first lesson. Within a few months, students were building repertoires of contemporary, classical, blues and accompaniment pieces.^[11] Not only did everyone who start the program learn how to play piano, but those who started out as beginners were now teaching others how to play.

Neil spent the next few years building the curriculum for the Simply Music program and in 1998, he opened up five Sacramento-area piano schools. Simply Music is now offered in over 500 locations worldwide and is available on 3 continents. Neil has also created a Learn-at-Home DVD program, which is based on the Simply Music curriculum.

References

1. ^ Ashby, Bernadette E. (2011). A world where everyone plays. Efting Press. ISBN 978-1-60330-001-8. 
2. ^ http://www.simplymusic.com/AbouttheFounder
3. ^ http://www.simplymusic.com/AbouttheFounder
4. ^ Ashby, Bernadette E. (2011). A world where everyone plays. Efting Press. ISBN 978-1-60330-001-8. 
5. ^ Ashby, Bernadette E. (2011). A world where everyone plays. Efting Press. ISBN 978-1-60330-001-8. 
6. ^ Ashby, Bernadette E. (2011). A world where everyone plays. Efting Press. ISBN 978-1-60330-001-8. 
7. ^ Ashby, Bernadette E. (2011). A world where everyone plays. Efting Press. ISBN 978-1-60330-001-8. 
8. ^ Ashby, Bernadette E. (2011). A world where everyone plays. Efting Press. ISBN 978-1-60330-001-8. 
9. ^ http://www.simplymusic.com/AbouttheFounder
10. ^ http://www.simplymusic.com/AbouttheFounder
11. ^ http://www.simplymusic.com/TheSimplyMusicStory

External links

• Simply Music official site
• Simply Music and Casio in Inner City Schools
• Homeschooling Method Review
• Simply Music and Autism - World Herald News Article
• Teacher Training Booklet

Persondata
Name	Moore, Neil
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1957
Place of birth	Melbourne, Australia
Date of death
Place of death