For the Love of Music

Beautiful piano chords aren't reserved for music prodigies, insists Shelley Wilson-Murdaugh, co-owner of Piano Craft Inc. She says budding musicians can learn to tickle the ivories in just eight weeks.

The piano and keyboard retailer is expanding its Play Piano In a Flash lesson program to entice more would-be musicians to take up the keyboard, organ or piano.

"We've tried other lesson programs, but this is the method that works, and it changes people's lives," Wilson-Murdaugh says.

Unlike traditional piano lessons, Play Piano in a Flash doesn't depend on students learning to read music notation, which can take years to master.

Instead, the classes are designed to provide an easy environment for learning to play a keyboard using a chord-style, lead-sheet-based approach.

For $199, students receive eight one-hour weekly group classes, the Play Piano in a Flash book and an additional hour of one-on-one instruction. The students use a practice keyboard to mimic the hand positioning that the teacher demonstrates.

The teacher tapes the names of each of the notes to the keyboards, which correspond to the lettered notes in the book. Students learn basic left-hand chords, such as C, F and G, but they otherwise don't have to learn how to read music.

"A lot of the students just match up the note on the page with the note on the keyboard," Wilson says. "It's just amazing, and it works."

Class sizes average eight to 10 students, and the next classes begin Sept. 17.

"Most people just want to learn how to play and don't want to spend years learning to read traditional notation," Wilson-Murdaugh says. "They just want to play a song they like or a tune at a party."

Most students move on to a second class. "After 16 weeks, our students know how to play 72 songs," the piano instructor claims.

"I loved it," says Lanelle Hunt, a Piano Craft student, who lives in Little Rock, Ark. "I had a piano and never learned how to play, so when I retired, I said that this is what I was going to do."

After two eight-week classes, Hunt says she's playing country music, hymns and the blues.

Wilson-Murdaugh co-wrote the Play Piano in a Flash books with Scott Houston, Emmy Award-winning host of "The Piano Guy" weekly public television series, Indiana-based music instructor Rebecca Grausam and Deborah Story, who teaches piano in Illinois and Iowa.

Wilson-Murdaugh's husband and Piano Craft co-owner, Greg Murdaugh, grew up in the piano business.

At age 21, the Springfield native became a district manager for Roland, a leading manufacturer and distributor of electric instruments, and he later worked in management for piano manufacturers Kawai, Baldwin and Viscount.

Wilson-Murdaugh, Piano Craft's vice president, started playing piano at age 7 and went to work in 1980 for Baldwin piano factory in Conway, where she built and serviced pianos. After 12 years at Baldwin, she worked as an independent tuner for universities, grade schools and individuals. The couple opened Piano Craft in 1999.

Wilson-Murdaugh first teamed up with Houston in 2007 when Piano Craft hired him for a piano lesson seminar for 175 students at Ozarks Technical Community College. The systems were such a success, the book authors then performed two test markets in Springfield and Little Rock to determine which songs work best for beginning piano students. The group has since written four Play Piano in a Flash books and two more are on the way: a holiday songbook and one for children.

"We're going to include songs that they want to play, like songs from the movie 'Twilight,'" Wilson-Murdaugh says.

There are now 30 sites in the country offering these classes, but only one piano school in each city can market them. It's a way for music instructors to differentiate themselves, Wilson-Murdaugh says.

Lessons account for only 6 percent of Piano Craft's revenues, which reached $2.2 million in 2008. Although the couple says their goal of providing lessons isn't to peddle pianos, keyboards and organs, the classes have helped to boost brand awareness. Piano Craft currently teaches 130 students weekly.

"It's bringing in more customers," notes Greg Murdaugh, who serves as president. "One of the biggest obstacles to buying a piano is that people don't know if they can learn to play it."

Piano Craft opened a second location in Little Rock in December 2007, but the store closed by second-quarter 2008. "It lost money every month, and it was bad timing, right at the beginning of the recession," Wilson-Murdaugh says.

The venture gathered a large student base, however, and Piano Craft continues to offer its Play Piano in a Flash lessons in Arkansas through instructor Ron Nichols.

On Sept. 3, Piano Craft started a satellite lesson location in Joplin with the help of instructor Megan Sabo, who is teaching Play Piano in a Flash at the Allegro Piano Studio.

"We're seeing music being taught less in schools, and I think this is a good way to learn," Wilson-Murdaugh says. "I can't imagine a day without playing music."[[In-content Ad]]