A popular jazz pianist with a knack for inspiring piano students will speak this week in Tooele.
Jerald Simon, the author of 21 music books and a motivational poetry book, will speak at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Tooele Valley Academy of Dance, 291 N. Main Street in Tooele.
The event is sponsored by the local chapter of the Utah Music Teachers Association.
“We chose Jerald to start the school year out, because he is always so much fun, and has so many good ideas,” said Jenean Christensen, chapter president. “Any music teachers, students, parents or anyone interested will be welcome.”
Simon is a composer, author, poet and music mentor/piano teacher. His piano teaching focuses on theory, improvisation, composition and arranging.
He grew up learning the piano, organ and string bass. His father had sung tenor in a performing group in Wisconsin, and the Simon family often played together at a retirement home.
Simon said he began teaching piano lessons in 2003, and started his own company called Music Motivation in 2004. Initially, he used the company to help him find venues to perform on the piano, but he also wanted to use it to motivate and inspire his piano students.
About that time, Simon published his first two music books: “An Introduction to Scales and Modes” and “Variations on Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
“Because of those two books, I had piano teachers calling me left and right, telling me about their students who weren’t as motivated,” Simon said. “They wanted to know if I could motivate them. Most were teenage boys. In a matter of months, my piano students went from 40-something students to over 88 piano students.”
To help motivate his new students, Simon asked each one what kind of music they liked and wanted to learn to play. He offered to write an original song just for them based on the style they chose.
“It was fascinating, because the next week they’d come back and not only had they practiced their piece, but they’d perfected it, and at the next lesson they challenged me to do something new,” Simon said. “It wasn’t that they didn’t want to play the piano, they wanted to play something they liked.”
Several years and published books later, Simon still teaches some piano students. He also does teacher workshops and motivational speaking. To try to reach more people, he also posts weekly musical theory instruction videos on YouTube.