Where Musical Learning and Human Nature Meet
Reflections on Meryl Danziger's "Music House"
Finding a Kindred Spirit
Last week, while attending the MTNA TEMPO virtual conference, I had the chance to sit in on a presentation by a teacher named Meryl Danziger.
I wasn’t expecting much more than some helpful teaching ideas.
Instead, what I discovered was a story that resonated on a much deeper level — with my own journey as a teacher, with the playing-based foundation of Simply Music, and with a belief I've held for a long time:
That musicality isn't something we earn or even learn. It's something we start with.
At the heart of Meryl’s presentation was a small but powerful moment:
She described seeing a young child dance naturally to music playing in a coffee shop — completely free, full of life.
When she complimented the child's musicality, the girl's mother laughed and said,
"She didn’t get it from me — I don't have a musical bone in my body."
This was, for her, a striking moment.
Here was a parent witnessing pure, natural musicality — and yet unable to see that she herself was just as free, just as musical.
That passing conversation stuck with Meryl, echoing a painful pattern she had seen over and over again.
Meryl realized that if the traditional paths of music education were failing so many — leaving adults wounded and disconnected from music — there had to be another way.
Meryl’s story also resonated strongly with me, because that exact phrase (”I haven’t got a musical bone in my body”) is one that Neil Moore, founder of Simply Music, often uses as a demonstration of natural musicality (see this for yourself here).
Similar to Meryl, Neil highlights the fact that musical children often grow into adults who believe they aren't musical anymore — not because the music left them, but because somewhere along the way, the world convinced them that they were not musical. Even more heartbreaking, it can often be teachers and parents that inadvertently shape children’s perception about their “lack of talent” in this way.
Meryl’s experiences mirrored so much of what I’ve seen in my own studio…
When we create environments that nurture, rather than test, a student’s natural musicality, everything changes.
Music becomes something personal again—something connected to life itself.
In this post, I want to share a little more about Meryl’s Music House, explore where it intersects with Simply Music and my own philosophy, and offer some takeaways for any teacher, parent, or student who feels called to reimagine what music lessons can be.
Why This Matters: Healing the Harm of the Mastery-Only Model
As Meryl’s presentation unfolded, I found myself nodding at every turn.
Because the traditional “mastery model” — where technical proficiency is the main (and sometimes only) goal — is deeply embedded in music education.
In the mastery model, the entire lesson revolves around building technical command over a specific instrument.
Scales, sight-reading, correct posture, etudes, repertoire — everything serves the goal of producing a technically competent musician.
For some students — particularly those who naturally thrive within structure and competition — this works beautifully.
But for many others, something vital is left out.
What about the child who loves to make up songs?…
The student who plays by ear?…
The one who experiences music as a form of movement, or story, or personal expression?
In a mastery-only environment, these instincts often get labeled as distractions or indulgences — nice, but not "real" music learning.
Over time, if the heart of what first drew a student to music is excluded or devalued, it's no wonder they lose heart.
The very lessons that were meant to nourish a love for music can accidentally extinguish it.
Meryl’s approach offered a radically different starting point.
Instead of focusing first on skill-building, she focused on engagement.
She trusted that if students felt free to explore, to experiment, to fall in love with sound itself, the deeper skills could grow naturally from there — when the student was ready and willing.
This difference — between a system that prioritizes mastery first, and a system that prioritizes connection first — is not minor.
It's everything.
It speaks to whether students experience music as a living, breathing part of themselves — or as an external standard they must measure up to.
It shapes whether they carry music with them for life — or leave it behind believing they weren't "good enough."
From Mastery to Natural Musicianship: A Different Starting Point
The truth is traditional music lessons are failing, not because teachers lack skill or care — they’re failing because they’re trying to solve the wrong problem.
And that's exactly where Simply Music — and my own teaching approach — offer a different path forward.
In his book, Music and the Art of Long-Term Relationships, Neil Moore points out that traditional music education systems were largely designed to produce adult concert-level performance artists.1
That goal — while noble for a small number of students — becomes problematic when it's treated as the default aspiration for everyone. It also is out of wack with the neurology of learning as we understand it today.2
If the structure of lessons is built around training professional performers, what happens to the vast majority of students who simply want to experience music as a natural, joyful part of life?
Simply Music begins by asking a different question.
Instead of asking, "How do we create future concert performers?" it asks,
"How do we help everyone experience themselves as deeply, naturally musical — for life?"
The method begins by immersing students directly in the experience of playing music without any regard for music reading — just as we all learned to speak long before we learned to read.
There's no rush into the complexities of music notation.
Students build a relationship with music first — through playing, improvising, arranging, and exploring.
The premise of Simply Music’s overall philosophy is:
Everyone without exception is deeply, profoundly musical.
This belief is woven into every aspect of my teaching at Piano Belloso Music.
We celebrate creativity as a human trait, not a special talent.
We welcome mistakes as part of learning.
We treat music not as homework, but as a living, joyful language.
Meryl’s “Engagement Model” — letting curiosity lead, trusting that musical learning will naturally emerge — is a living example of these same ideas.
We are not creating performers first.
We are nurturing musical human beings.
Takeaways for Teachers: Building Musical Sanctuaries
If you're a teacher reflecting on your own practice, here are a few takeaways from where Meryl’s insights and Simply Music’s philosophy dovetail:
1. Focus on Connection Before Correction
Before worrying about technique, nurture a student’s emotional bond with music.
Let them fall in love with sound, rhythm, movement — and trust that refinement can come later.
2. Encourage Ownership, Not Obligation
Give students real agency. Create spaces where they choose to engage, explore, and even teach themselves at times — not just comply with assignments.
3. Let Play Be the Foundation
Play is not the opposite of learning — it is learning. Especially in music.
Improvisation, exploration, silly experiments — these are not detours from progress. They are progress.
4. Embrace the “Snowflakes”
No two students are the same.
Some will compose. Some will conduct. Some will sing everything before they ever touch the keys.
Your job isn’t to standardize them. It’s to support each one’s unique musical fingerprint.
5. Redefine Success
Instead of measuring success by mastery alone, measure it by joy, engagement, persistence, and the depth of a student’s connection to music.
A New Vision for Music Learning
Ultimately, what Meryl's Engagement Model— and Simply Music’s approach — both show us is this:
Music lessons don't have to be a battleground. They can be a sanctuary.
A place where creativity is awakened, not crushed.
Where students are free to grow, not forced to fit.
Where music is not something to master before it can be enjoyed — but something to enjoy right now, imperfect and alive.
And in creating that kind of environment, we don't just teach music.
We help people remember they are already musical.
We give them a friend they can keep for life.
Ready to Begin a New Musical Journey?
Whether you're a parent hoping to nurture your child's creativity, or an adult ready to reconnect with the music inside you — now is the perfect time to begin.
Piano Belloso Music offers playing-based lessons that celebrate discovery, creativity, and real musical confidence from the very first lesson.
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Footnotes
1.
"Music education, in one form or another, has been a central part of my life for my entire life... One thing I’ve come to see is that there’s a huge number of adults who regret not taking, or not sticking with, music lessons when they were young…
They’ll make comments like, 'music just wasn’t my thing' or 'I’m not musical' or 'I’m too old now' or 'I didn’t have the discipline'…
These beliefs... are almost always a function of personal experience... tragically misguided, misinformed and misunderstood…
The entire subject of students sticking with music lessons needs to be viewed from a completely different perspective…"
"…in the culture of music education, we’ve inherited certain conditions...
For the most part, music lessons have emerged as a student-centric activity, with the underlying, unrevealed expectation that the student will ultimately become an accomplished musician…
If any of these expectations aren’t being fulfilled, then people commonly conclude 'music wasn’t for them' or 'they just don’t have what it takes.'"
Moore, Neil. Music and the Art of Long-Term Relationships
2.
In his more recent Moore takes readers on a much more in depth journey through history to see how music learning evolved from the “sound before symbol” model to the more formalized
“…system that prioritizes theoretical knowledge and notation over musical self-expression.”
“…Music learning should follow this natural pattern. When we force it into a technical, theoretical, mathematical framework, we create disconnect from our intuitive musical nature. If you’ve ever thought, “I’m not musical,” remember: It’s impossible to be human and not be musical. The problem isn’t lack of ability—it’s the approach that conflicts with our natural way of learning and being…Traditional music education doesn’t just fail pedagogically—it works against our neurological design. The brain, by design, is a pattern-seeking device, yet in traditional methods we force it to process multiple, mathematical, technical, and theoretical concepts simultaneously.”
Moore, Neil. Music on Mars: Why Creativity Is Tomorrow’s Critical Ability, and How to Develop Yours Today