Our two sons studied music for over 12 years until they went to university. They had great teachers and played beautifully. I loved listening to their practices and attending their concerts.

I have been wanting to play the piano myself for many years but hesitated to start. The conventional way of learning the piano takes so long. Our sons and their friends only played simple songs for the first few years. I would quickly lose interest in playing these songs. I was fortunate to find the Cercone Piano Method program. The system is so revolutionary that a student learns to speak the “music language” and plays “real” songs using the entire keyboard right away. I take lessons every two weeks over the Internet. In 20 months and just 40 lessons, I have already learned 9 early intermediate level songs.

I have an excellent teacher, Janice Staynings. Janice gives so much in each lesson. Our one-hour Zoom lesson covers all aspects of piano playing: songs, technique, and theory, along with some chatting and banter. She makes sure that I progress fast while having fun. Janice is a very experienced piano teacher and fully leverages the Cercone method in her lessons. I will share some of the delightful surprises I had with my piano lessons:

– I learned Concerto in Chords No. 1 by David Carr Glover, an intermediate level song, in my first lesson. We used the whole keyboard and the pedal. It was nerve-wracking and fun.
– We colour our songs and use a funny picture for each note. It takes away the fear of sheet music.
– We see a song as words, phrases, and paragraphs. When Janice breaks down a complex song into these patterns, I can play it and even memorize it.
– I learned all 7 White Major scales in 5 minutes, no need to painstakingly count the sharps. This is just one of the many ingenious ways Donna Cercone invented.
– Janice allows me to choose my own songs. I am working on a song to sing along with my husband. I look forward to surprising our sons with our “performance” soon.

I am having such fun playing the piano these days. I hope many more people will learn about the Cercone program and enjoy playing music.