I recently went to the Simply Music Symposium in San Diego, Wednesday through Sunday.

There were 110 teachers there. Almost every session far exceeded my expectations. I attended workshops on teaching composition, improvisation, worship music, and blues. By request I played my accordion just before they brought Neil Moore up for the keynote address. (You know, Neil’s the guy with the Australian accent who teaches the lessons on all the DVDs. Remember back to my story at the free introductory session about Neil teaching the blind seven year old boy how to play the piano? Neil is the brilliant man who founded and developed Simply Music.)

I observed Lyndel Kennedy teaching her Play A Story program to kids and talked to teachers who absolutely love teaching that program. Play A Story is the Simply Music program that uses stories to help children express themselves through piano improvisation and play. I hope to start a PAS class soon for 4-5 year olds.

I was introduced to the Songs for Children and Duets for Children, and knew immediately which of my students would love those books.

I was so full up with information by Saturday that I decided to sleep in and skip the early morning session titled Early Childhood Music Education. The Play A Story and Songs for Children presenters had both touched on early childhood music education, so I figured I knew enough, for now. The session turned out to be the first introduction of a new Simply Music program called Musical Rhapsody, Lynn Kleiner’s music and movement program for birth to age 3. Lynn was an inspiring presenter. So I’m told. Alas. The training will be in June and I’ll be sure not to miss that.