HISTORY

Anybody Can Play began over 50 years ago by Karla Johnson Hastings Crossett. She has loved music all her life and, since her own public musical debut was at the age of 3 (singing), she has always been interested in teaching the young learner. With her unique background of music and languages, she was able to devise a method which parallels language. This makes it possible to teach very young children how to play the piano. Reading skills are not needed - only speech.

The benefits of early applied music (that is, actually learning to play an instrument - piano being "highest on the list") are incredible. However, the method of teaching has to be appropriate, workable and enjoyable.

Intrigued with the learning process, Karla read Dr. Maria Montessori's books, Dr. Suzuki's books and others, and coupled with the memory of the way she learned to read music as a young child before adults realized she was already reading music notation, she developed her successful piano and violin curriculum for young children. She had studio programs as well as pre-school programs in her area, then set up a pre-school piano program in the US and Canada for a major piano company in the late 1980's. She used the latest technology at that time - would you believe, audio cassette tapes?! 

She has continued her interest in technology over the years.  She has an inter-active piano app which teaches beginners as young as three-years-old (some even younger!) how to play the piano - and read music notation. The app works with touch screens - or can be used with a midi keyboard or controller that can be attached to a computer or tablet with either a touch or non-touch screen. It is quite amazing to watch young children immediately understand and play the keyboard with the Anybody Can Play PIANO app.  Children truly can use this app independently.

With the great interest these days in learning via the internet Karla is culminating her long career by designing a piano lesson program with lesson activities, games and fun worksheet pages on the anybodycanplay.com website....all free for anyone who wishes to use them.  Many instructional videos are also on YouTube.  And yes, she does have 4-year-old "associates" who test all the materials to make sure they all work well. The lesson materials are complete in themselves, but do also complement the app, so both can be used together if desired. The only non-free item is the app which costs 99 cents. - - -Actually there are also curriculum books on Amazon for those who want to purchase "real" books.

Studies have shown that learning to play an instrument promotes incredible brain development…mainly because both sides of the brain need to work together. The younger the instruction begins, the greater the development….and this is transferable to other skills.

It is exciting to think about the greatly enhanced academic success - and confidence - this can give to children who have learned to play songs on the piano as well as read music notation!

Karla Crossett is a conservatory trained musician who plays several instruments, was graduated summa cum laude (in languages) was married for 47 years to her late huband, who was a pastor, and has since remarried.  She has 5 chilrdren, 2 step-children and 11 grandchildren.

Anybody Can Play PIANO APP

To subscribe to the Anybody Can Play PIANO app in Windows 10/11 click here.
Cost is only 99 cents!