Mayron Cole

Mayron Cole In 1969, I fulfilled a lifelong dream and created The Mayron Cole Piano Studio in the living room of my home. From the beginning, I was not pleased with the then available piano methods. There was too much focus on reading fingering numbers and too little emphasis on teaching rhythm counting and note reading. Concepts were presented too fast with practically no reinforcement in later lessons. My students were floundering. That’s when I decided to write the piano method that I’d always envisioned. I theorized that playing the piano involves three basic steps: The first step is a thorough understanding of playing and counting rhythm. The second step is exploring and understanding the keyboard. The third, and most difficult of the three steps, is staff note reading. All of my piano teaching material follows these three basic steps of learning. I then began placing some students with the same piano playing abilities in small groups and teaching all of them at the same time. Surprisingly, the group piano classes created an unexpected surge in enthusiasm and lesson preparation by the students. And, I could easily see that the group taught students were becoming stronger musicians than my few remaining privately taught students. Their rhythm counting and sight-reading skills were superior in every way! I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but those first group piano students were also testing all of the music for the thousands of students who would eventually study from my books. Since 1985, I have been publishing my piano method and selling it to piano teachers, schools, and students worldwide. When I was seven I learned Moonlight Sonata in two weeks, and performed it on the radio when I was eight. I then moved on to Bach two-part inventions, and by my ninth birthday I was playing Scott Joplin and Frédéric Chopin compositions, my favorites of which are in Level 9 of my method. So when I was ten and my piano teacher said to me, “Mayron, you know a great deal about music and playing the piano; but when you die, you are going to take all of that knowledge with you…unless you teach it to others,” I decided that very night that I would become a composer and a piano teacher. Therefore, to honor Mrs. Morris who taught me so much about life as well as the piano, I decided many years ago that after I pass away, I want my family to issue a nonexclusive license to anyone who wants to use my music. To those who know me, not to worry, I am alive and well, and as I approach my 80th birthday I realize that I want to be here to enjoy the festivities of giving my piano method to the dedicated piano teachers and aspiring piano students around the world! So here it is! The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free. A gift from me to you. I hope you enjoy my method, compositions, and illustrations. I plan to continue writing new material for my method and will be adding it to this website for many years to come. (visit FreePianoMethod.com) The Mayron Cole Piano Method is lovingly dedicated to the thousands of students through the years who have laughed as they have played my theory games, smiled at jokes hidden in some of my mystery messages, colored my illustrations, practiced all of my compositions and said they loved them, and asked me to write more. You will always be dear to me. A special thank you to my daughter Colleen for designing so many of my books and creating this beautiful website. And to my husband, Bill, who always knew I could - and would!