Fort Mill shop offers music lessons for the digital age

By Julie Graham - Special to The Herald

FORT MILL -- Traditional private music lessons sometimes get a bad rap. Parents invest their money, but students don't always remember everything they're taught, which can make practicing at home frustrating and progress slow.

Tega Cay's Eddie Zimmerman says he can change that.

To encourage practice and commitment, Zimmerman's Playroom Academy of Music in Baxter Village uses a new high-tech method of teaching that posts videos of lessons online for students to view later. With the ability to review entire lessons at any time, the theory goes, instruction is never forgotten.

Zimmerman has equipped each room of the Playroom Academy with video and high-definition sound equipment to record lessons. He developed this new method over the past two years to make music education fun and appealing to children growing up in the digital age.

"Music is what's it's all about for me," said Zimmerman, a professional musician since 1985. "This is the best way to teach the 'Guitar Hero' generation."

The "Playroom Method," for which Zimmerman has applied for a patent, allows students to watch their most recent and past lessons at any time, encouraging practice at home and faster improvement for a life-long love of music, he said.

Parents like the videos because they can monitor their investment and help reinforce the teacher's goals and expectations.

The Playroom Academy opened in early December in the Exchange Building at 951 Market St. It currently has about 80 students, ages 5 to 73, and a dozen teachers, most having earned college degrees in music. Weekly 30-minute lessons on 25 different instruments and music-related topics are priced at $140 per month.

With drum sticks in hand, Sean Malinski went to a 30-minute lesson on Tuesday. The 12-year-old has been playing the drums for six months. "I like hitting stuff," he said.

Sean, who is home-schooled by his mother, Donna, watches his most-recent lesson at least once daily during practice time at home. He spends an hour and a half a day on the drums.

"I learn a lot that way. I recap what I learned," he said. "I spend 30 minutes practicing what I learned during my lesson, then play the whole set."

Donna Malinski believes music is important to learn as a child. Her son, Tyler, 10, plays the guitar, and her daughter, Jenna, 8, is learning how to play the piano.

"We came from musical families, and we wanted to teach that to our children," said Donna Malinski, a native of New Jersey. "At their ages, they pick it up so easily."

All three children take lessons at the same time with different instructors. The Playroom Academy has five lesson rooms, each upfitted for the best acoustics. The children share their recorded lessons with family members who live out of state.

At the beginning of March, the Playroom Academy plans to start a new program for children ages 2 to 4 called "Tots Rock," designed to instill a love of music in toddlers. Zimmerman said he will work with parents to develop the program.

"It's a current way to musically engage young kids and their parents," Zimmerman said. "We're bringing a totally modern curve to the standard way kids learn about music."

For more information, call 803-802-6683 or visit theplayroom academy.com .