I’m a bit late on this, but back in May this year 60 Minutes broadcast a report and a followup on a pedagogical system for teaching piano known as the “Payam Method.” This approach is named after its creator, Payam Khastkhodaei, a piano teacher that lives in the Seattle area.
After watching the 60 Minutes piece many of the claims and style of the reporting raised a lot of red flags for me and I bookmarked it and then forgot to do a writeup on it. The other day I came across the bookmark and started organizing my thoughts, but while doing some research I quickly learned that other, more qualified people, have already taken care of this. So I’ve deleted what I had already written and commented on and will leave you with one of the best responses I came across.
I guess that the main thing that bothers me from the 60 Minutes segment is how the reporters didn’t talk to other music teachers to learn how the basic idea Khastkhodaei claims is so unique to his method has been around long before. Music teachers have been selecting music to teach based on student interest since I was a student, and probably long before. Students are encouraged to “play” on their instruments all the time and to try to explore different ways of playing the same thing. Music teachers have been incorporating improvisation and composition into their lessons too. The 60 Minutes segment seems to largely be a fluff piece that comes off as an advertisement rather than actual reporting.
