Stephen F. Austin State University

Forget everything you ever thought you knew about piano lessons.

Banish the image of the little gray-haired lady with a ruler poised to rap your knuckles at the first mistake.

Set aside the notion that you must practice scales and arpeggios 30 minutes a day, if you want to learn to make music.

And think, instead, of just how fun it would be to learn to play your favorite "Cold Play" song.
Mario Ajero, coordinator of class piano and pedagogy in the Stephen F. Austin school of music, has now made that possible through "Mariocast."

Ajero and his piano students at SFA perform for a global audience through the video sharing Web site "YouTube."

The benefits of video sharing are two-fold.

First, students' performances can be seen and heard by music-lovers all over the world. Second, they are able to facilitate the sharing of knowledge in a popular, accessible forum.

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what a video is worth," Ajero said.

Ajero first became interested in technology for teaching purposes in the summer of 2005, when he discovered podcasts. A podcast is an audio or video file distributed over the Internet for playback on mobile devices or computers.

"I saw this whole alternative media that allows you to host your own radio or TV show to reach anyone, anywhere in the world," Ajero said.

His first attempts at podcasting were in the form of audio files.

"You can use audio files to teach piano, but I quickly realized video would be better," he said. "I started experimenting with videos that would either be of interest to those who already know how to play the piano or to those who want to learn."

Ajero received feedback from across the United States and Canada after posting his first few videos.

"It motivated me, and I began to think maybe I was on to something," he said.

Ajero syndicated his podcasts to sites such as the podcast section of the iTunes Store, YouTube, Google Video and Blip TV. Since then he has gained subscribers from countries including Brazil, the Netherlands and Singapore. "These sites make it easy for users to upload videos," he said. "Anyone with a video camera and a computer can now have a forum to share with the world what they know best."

Subscribers to Ajero's podcast range from professional musicians to "those who have always wanted to learn to play a certain song on the piano," he said.
Ajero said his greatest reward is hearing from subscribers who were never motivated to touch a piano until they stumbled across his videos.

"Some have e-mailed me to tell me they were motivated to buy a keyboard and start taking lessons," he said. "As far as service to the profession of piano teaching and performance, there is no greater reward than hearing comments like that."

Ajero's piano pedagogy students, who are learning how to teach piano, participate in the process.

"We edit videos together," he said. "I hope this will inspire other educators to use technology to reach a greater number of students all over the world."

Ajero recently received feedback on YouTube from a student at the University of Arizona.
"I wanted to thank you for how easy you made it for me to learn piano," the student commented. "I'm in a music theory class and I've never played piano before. But now I'm learning tunes I love at my own pace without taking time out of my way-too-busy college life for lessons. Keep doing what you do!"

SFA has a top-notch music program, Ajero said, and it is his goal to spread the word: "If you're interested in studying music, SFA is the place to do it."

He said videos of student and faculty performances and recitals are also popular online. One of the most often viewed videos is a performance of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto by the Orchestra of the Pines directed by Gene Moon and featuring guest pianist, Amy Cheng, he said.

"Next week, we'll be featuring (SFA student) Chris Reeves in his performance of Gershwin's Piano Concerto with the Orchestra of the Pines," Ajero said.

Reeves, an SFA senior from Kilgore, said video sharing is popular among students because "anyone can access it, and it's free."

"It's much more interactive than a textbook," he said, with regard to the use of video sharing in an educational setting.

Reeves said he's received questions and comments on the podcasts he has shared on You Tube, and he appreciates the capability of interacting with learners all over the world.

SFA School of Music professor and chairman of the keyboard department Dr. Andrew Parr said sites such as YouTube have great possibilities to benefit students.

"I've taught piano lessons over the phone before, but having something like YouTube enables (a teacher) to work with students who are far away," he said.

Sites such as YouTube can also be valuable recruitment tools, Parr said.

Those who work in the keyboard department at SFA have discussed revamping their Web page to include video performance clips of students' lessons and recitals, as well as faculty performances for recruiting purposes.

"The Web has already revolutionized recruiting," Parr said. "Many students find us online. We don't always have to go to them."

In the future, location will not be as important as it has been in the past, Parr said.

"We will be able to make the world small enough to include participants from around the globe in our classes and lessons," he said. "We've already begun this with distance-learning, but it will become more immediate and the experience will be more as though everyone were in the same actual location."