About Play Based Piano

Hi, I’m Alexis. I teach three year olds to play the piano.

I’ve spent 25 years teaching young children piano through play. Play Based Piano is everything I do in my studio, rebuilt so you can do it at home with your own child, ten minutes at a time.

The phone call I get every fall

A mom, sometimes a dad. Their child is four, maybe five. She’s been picking out sounds on the keyboard at Grandma’s. He sings everything. They want to start piano, and they’ve already made a few calls.

The first teacher said come back when she’s seven. The apps all put the child in front of a screen. And near the end of the call, quietly, the parent says the real thing: “I took lessons as a kid. I hated it and I quit. I don’t want to do that to her.”

I built Play Based Piano for that parent.

What I believe about young children and the piano

Children this age want to make music. In 25 years I have never had a child who didn’t want to come to the piano. When a child stops, it’s almost always because a grown-up sighed at their noise. Nobody meant anything by it. But the child heard it.
They should play real music on the first day. Not after weeks of drills. A real song, sized so it’s not too easy and not too hard, that they can win at in ten minutes. A short piece written for a four year old is a real piece. A lot of great music was written by teachers for their own students.
They’re more capable than we think. I don’t dumb things down. I give children the real words, with a handle attached. A four year old can learn that a finger is “2” as easily as she learns the name of an animal.
“Too hard” is my problem, not theirs. Learning music is like filling a toolbox. If a piece needs a tool your child hasn’t been given yet, it feels impossible. That’s a sequence problem, and fixing it is my job. Your job is to sit beside them and say, “Let’s figure it out together.”
A lot of music is learned away from the piano. Rhythm especially. At the keys, a child wants to make sound, and that competes with the idea you’re trying to teach. So some nights we clap, march and chant in the kitchen instead. That still counts.
The piano stays open. A closed piano is a decision a child has to overcome. An open one is an invitation sitting in the room all day. The thirty seconds your child spends at the keys on the way past is exactly the relationship we’re building.

How that turned into Play Based Piano

You’re the teacher, and I coach you. Every song comes with a short video for you, watched after bedtime: what to say, and how the song goes. Your child never sees a screen. Just the piano, the book, and you.
The book opens anywhere. Most piano books go in order and need a grown-up to explain every page. Mine has very few words and big picture clues, so your child picks a page by the picture and works it out. Three and four year olds don’t want to go in order. They don’t have to.
We start on the black keys, and stay there a while. Without the black keys, a keyboard is just a sea of white. A small hand can find the group of two anywhere on the piano, so your child is never hunting for a note. Long before they see a staff, they learn that the top of the page means the right side of the piano. That’s the whole idea of reading music, and it arrives as a game.
Ten minutes, a few times a week. Nobody this age sits for thirty. Children learn by coming back to something, not by pushing through it.
Activities sorted by energy. Some nights your child is bouncing off the walls. Some nights they want to color. The activity books are sorted for both, so you look at your child and pick.
Alexis AI, trained by me. When it’s 9pm and the session fell apart, you can ask. It answers from my games, my scripts and the questions parents have asked me for years, and it tells you plainly that it’s an AI.

Who’s behind it

Two people. I write the method, the books and the games, and I’m the one on camera. Matt builds everything around it: the website, the videos, the members’ site and Alexis AI. We read every message we get.

Frequently asked questions

What age group is best for Play Based Piano?

Children ages 3 to 7. Three is the floor, and I say so out loud. If your child is 2, join the list and we’ll invite you when they turn 3. If your child is 8 or older, the first books will feel young for them, but join the list anyway and tell us their age. One membership covers every child in your house.

Do I need musical experience to help my child?

None. You don’t need to read music. Every song comes with a short video for you that shows exactly what to say and how the song goes, and the cards tell you what to do next.

How do online lessons work?

Your child never takes a lesson on a screen. The online part is for you: short videos you watch after bedtime, and the books you download and print. Then your child plays at the piano with you, ten minutes at a time, a few times a week.

What materials will I need for the course?

A printer and something to play on. You don’t need a piano to start, because there’s a printable keyboard that works fine for the first couple of weeks. After that, any keyboard with full-size keys works.

Want in?

The first group of founding families starts December 1. Doors open November 17, and the waitlist hears first.

Join the waitlist