{"id":446,"date":"2013-01-16T01:11:54","date_gmt":"2013-01-16T01:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pianowizardacademy.com\/campus\/?page_id=446"},"modified":"2024-01-16T11:46:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T16:46:50","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pianowizardacademy.com\/campus\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now is the time to restore the rightful place of music education in the life of every child - and in all our lives.<\/h1>\n

The Piano Wizard Academy Virtual Campus is an online resource for those looking to learn how to play piano<\/strong>. Our teachers can provide lessons, guidance, tips and tricks, support, and much more as you persue your music journey. But this is just where it starts. We'll cover all aspects of music learning such as music theory, technique, and other fundamentals that can help create a strong musician - perhaps an accomplished one - or maybe even a famous one!<\/p>\n

The Campus will gather some of the best online pianos lessons and bring it all together in one \"happy\" place. It's also a great place to make friends, share ideas, ask questions, and get support. The Campus is much more than a place too learn - it's a complete social network<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But we didn't just come from nowhere. It is the culmination of many years of work - the putting together so to speak of the final pieces of the puzzle of the mission that started on the day Chris Salte<\/strong>r created his Piano Wizard<\/strong> software.<\/p>\n

\"Piano Chris<\/em> first thought of inventing the Piano Wizard<\/em><\/strong> game shortly after graduating from Southern Illinois University. He entered the University in 1978 to study cinematography and began producing films about music. Shortly after, Salter met piano instructor Don Beattie<\/strong>, who came to the School of Music in 1979, and dropped into a group piano class, and stayed for 4 years, ending up with a double degree in Music and Linguistics from SIU, and went on to get his Master\u2019s in Musicology from UCLA. Quite literally, Don\u2019s teachings changed Chris Salter\u2019s life, and led indirectly to him founding this method and company. While Beattie helped Salter learn to play piano before he graduated, Salter said he never mastered reading music.<\/p>\n

\"Piano<\/a>A few months after graduating in 1983, Salter took classes to learn how to type. Salter felt the lessons were frustrating until he played a typing game, and soon he was typing 40 words per minute. It was then that he had the revelation that a piano keyboard is nothing more than a bunch of buttons like a typewriter and it dawned on him that a piano video game<\/strong><\/a> could have the same effect. After years of consideration, Salter decided to form a business to develop and manufacture the Piano Commando<\/b> game - which went on to become Piano Wizard<\/b>. Music Brain Training Co. was born.<\/p>\n

Step \u201c5\u201d (at the real piano) was always our true mission, to use the game to get people into the world of making music, playing real music on real instruments. We knew the game was great, but the missing link from the game to true musicianship remained a puzzle. We realized that the Piano Wizard\u00ae game, combined with the careful step by step song progression built into EASY MODE, plus a teacher who knew how to utilize the game as the tool, was far more powerful combined than any one of them alone.<\/p>\n

\"Piano For the past eleven years, Don Beattie has served as Master of Ceremonies for the World Piano Pedagogy (the Art of Piano Teaching) Conference. He and his wife Delayna have provided notable leadership for this Conference since 1994. In 1984, Don founded the Beethoven Society for Pianists that has captured international acclaim with hundreds of festivals that brought young pianists, teachers, communities and some of the greatest artists of our time together in new ways. Involved in local, state and national activities for the Music Teachers National Association since the outset of their careers, they recently showcased the Music Wizard Academy\u2122 at the March 2007, Collaborative Conference of MTNA in Toronto, Canada.<\/p>\n

Their \"Beethoven Goes to School\" music assembly program for school children has taken them from coast to coast. They have performed presentations for 5,000 children in Anchorage, and 4,000 children in Boston, highlighting this program. Don presented 200 piano teacher workshops as clinician for G. Henle music publishers. His published works with Edition HAS have been performed for US Presidents and audiences worldwide.<\/p>\n

Don and Delayna authored four volumes of the \"Beethoven Library of Piano Works\" for Warner Bros. and are recognized for significant contributions to teaching the early works and artistry of Beethoven. Their direction of a world premier performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 for piano ensemble and choir in Orlando, Florida in October 2001 captured the attention of President George Bush and colleagues worldwide. They remain active as performers and are frequent concert artists in Rochester, MN for events hosted by Mayo Clinic.<\/p>\n

Salter kept his connection with Beattie and with the SIU School of Music and the Piano Wizard Academy work sprang from our research at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale as to how piano teachers could best utilize the game in their classrooms. In fact, in a short summer boot camp program (as seen in the video above<\/em>), 90 minutes a day, for a mere 4 days, those children learned 12-20 songs, and on the 5th day were reading sheet music and playing at the grand piano, effortlessly, more importantly, PAINLESSLY - in a single week! These results were nothing short of amazing and the Beatties knew they uncovered something special.<\/p>\n

After the success of the boot camp, in the fall of 2005, the Beatties founded \u2013 and directed \u2013 the Piano Wizard Academy<\/strong> at Southern Illinois University<\/em>, Carbondale. Their work as Academy Directors opened new horizons for young children<\/b> and adult beginners of piano<\/b>. Don and Delayna authored a 100 Song Lesson Series<\/strong> that is now the \u201cAcademy music curriculum\u201d for the game. Music Brain Training Co. and the Beatties then collaborated in the development of Tutorial DVD and Songbook lessons for the Academy Music Library.<\/p>\n

The Beatties are pioneering a completely new way to teach piano musicianship<\/strong> and the love of music. In Piano Wizard Academy, children, as young as age three, are so enthused about playing piano that their parents are astonished. It is an amazing thing to experience their children\u2019s newfound love of music and the piano.<\/p>\n

We realized that not everyone would be able to attend the Piano Wizard Academy, so we brought in the cameras and recorded the lessons with Don and Delayna. These DVDs \u2013 combined with songbooks and hundreds of dollars worth of bonuses<\/strong> from select partners<\/strong> \u2013 create a compelling and complete piano learning system designed to simply and intuitively teach you and\/or your children how to play the piano and read music. It requires no previous experience and it makes the process fun.<\/p>\n

Our trademarked method has allowed us to secure licensing deals with select partners. The first was with Fisher Price as they incorporated the Piano Wizard method into the popular \"I Can Play Piano<\/b>.\" We are also in the process of incorporating the method into other instruments, such as guitar.<\/p>\n

Our Mission<\/h2>\n

The mission of Allegro Multimedia is to:<\/p>\n