Digital Piano Technique Teaches Students To Be Sharp In No Time Flat

This is not your parents’ piano lesson.

The page of music before 9-year-old Brian Lee is a tangle of black notes. He forces his fingers to wade through it, creating a pretty convincing rendition of “Silent Night.”

The modern twist to this lesson is, if Lee doesn’t keep up, the piano will continue right on without him.

The computerized, CD-equipped piano provides background music, an adjustable tempo and a chance before playing to hear the song how nature first intended it.

The instrument is just part of the multi-media curriculum at the Creative Music Learning Center, which opened this fall on the South Hill.

Students of all ages learn to play piano through computer and media-based work centers.

They rotate between stations, watching a tape of a virtuoso performance at the visual station, playing musical computer games at another, listening to a concerto at yet another.

As the theory goes, the mixture of visual, aesthetic and tactile methods means everyone will learn to play.

“If you cover all three approaches, one will click for the student,” said Darlene Theisen, founder of Music Education Center, a Spokane-based company that franchises the centers. “We’re all one type of learner.”

As a result, students can learn two to three times faster, she said.

Cathy Lee says it’s working for her son, Brian. For one thing, he’s more confident - the other night, he plucked out the “Indiana Jones” theme by ear.

In addition, “his timing is better and he’s learning faster,” she said.

Deanna Fredrickson, owner of the South Hill center, said she was hooked on the idea of computer-based learning.

A near-lifelong piano player herself, she said the multi-media approach is more efficient and more fun.

“I taught piano before and it was fine,” she said. “But this just excited me.”

She’s not alone. Business has boomed in recent years for Theisen, a former elementary school teacher. Between 1990 - when she started the company - and 1994, Theisen signed on just four teachers. In 1995, she hit the road with her venture. There are now 50 centers in 10 states. Spokane has two - the South Hill center and another in the Valley.

Theisen sells the start-up instruments, computers and software. Her company also provides upgrading when newer programs become available.

But the presence of computers in the program doesn’t mean tradition will fall away completely.

“They still have to learn to play like they always have,” Theisen said.

At the end of each session, students play face-to-face at pianos arranged in a square, evidence of their hours of practice - or lack thereof - plastered all over their faces. Just like old-fashioned lessons.

“There’s still that certain amount of good competitiveness here,” Theisen said with a laugh.

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Open house The Creative Music Learning Center will host an open house from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15. The address is 2715 E. 31st Ave.