“Blues” Take the Drudgery Out of Kids’ Piano Lessons

From The Brooklyn World-Telegram and Sun, December 7, 1962

Thousands of children have squirmed in agony on piano benches as  they picked out notes penciled by their teachers on music exercise books.

Counterpointing their tuneless efforts with yawns, snorts, moans, and groans, youngsters put in seemingly endless hours at the keyboard before progressing to music with recognizable melodies and lyrics.

“That’s not the way to learn,”

said Albert Rozin, a man who squirmed through enough exercises to become a proficient pianist, organist, and music teacher.

Musical exercises fail to excite the beginning student, Rozin feels.  After playing the repetitive, titleless collections of notes for several weeks, many youngsters become discouraged, and believe they will never get to real music.

Rozin has helped change all that.  He writes simple music for piano that is designed to take the drudgery out of daily practice.

Students who have even the most elementary knowledge of the piano or organ can plunk out little Rozin tunes with amusing lyrics.

“I give the pieces modern titles and try to make them amusing.  All the pieces are graded from the very simple to the more advanced levels,”  Rozin said.

A child using Rozin’s music might sit down to a sheet of music called, “Examination Blues.”  Above the music is a dedication, “To the students who are unduly jittery about their examinations.”  The piece, appropriately, is a rhythmic blues, comically melancholy.

A younger, less accomplished student can open a book of tunes called, “Let’s Play a Joke” and chant simple little jokes which are lyrics to Rozin’s elementary tunes.

“I try to associate fun with learning,”

the composer-teacher said. 

“If music is made pleasant for the student, then he wants to learn.”

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