Love to Play

Learning to love music is an underpinning philosophy of Pleasant Mountain Music. Music is the only universal language that can be learned at any age and can be pursued from a number of different approaches. No matter the starting goal of our students, we aim to support all students inclusive of the older beginner, mature students, and even seniors (our eldest client is 72 years young)! When in lessons with us we will encourage listening to music, choosing level-appropriate repertoire, and exploring a range of genres for your instrument of choice. We know that some students love opera or 20s jazz, and that some love ska or death metal. And that’s okay!

Whatever your goals might be, we are confident in our ability to support your development of the necessary skills to match the musical self-expression you seek; whether you aspire to learn a specific piece of music, understand the nuances of hybrid time signatures, listen to music with intention, or want to sing and play around the campfire with your friends, building music into your day to day life is what we aim to do. Let us help you learn to love music in your own unique way.

In our Love to Play stream, students are not required to take exams, or participate in festivals and competitions, however to provide a healthy amount of structure to class, our teachers may still recommend some method books or materials to students, especially during the first few months of learning.

Recommended method books for piano: Adult Piano Adventures, My First Piano Adventures for the young beginner, Alfred’s Basic Piano Course for Adults, Alfred’s Premier Piano Course, Bastien’s Piano for Adults.

Suggested method books for voice: Hal Leonard Voice series, Alfred’s Teach yourself to Sing, Faber’s It’s never too late to sing.

Suggested method books for guitar: The Hal Leonard Guitar series, Essential Elements for Guitar, Rock House “Guitar for Kids”, Alfred’s Basic guitar method.

Suggested method books for ukulele: Essential Elements, Hal Leonard Ukulele Method, Easy Ukulele Method (Gempler), The Big Book of Hymns for ukulele, The First 50 songs you should play on the ukulele.

Suggested method books for wind instruments: Measures of Success, Essential Elements, Standards of Excellence, Sound innovations, ‘I Used to Play…’ Series, The Big Book of Songs” series.

Suggested method books for percussion and drums: Measures of Success, Essential Elements, Standards of Excellence, Hal Leonard Drum method, Alfred’s Drum Method, The Best Beginner Drum book.