Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Delaware County, PA (Delco"") and the surrounding Philadelphia Metro Region.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Kimmy Carney Unlocks Piano Playing Potential With Her Keyboard With Kimmy Instruction
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Kimmy Carney Unlocks Piano Playing Potential With Her Keyboard With Kimmy Instruction
The magical world of childhood piano education unfolds in this enlightening episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast through the conversation Host Bob Blaisse has with Kimmy Carney, founder of Keyboard With Kimmy. With warmth and wisdom, Kimmy shares her journey from six-year-old piano student to passionate educator, revealing how her own experiences shaped her teaching philosophy.
What does it take to become an exceptional piano teacher? Kimmy emphasizes the critical importance of musical literacy – learning how to read music, and how it means you can play anything put in front of you for the rest of your life. You'll hear how Kimmy's approach balances technical mastery with honest communication, treating even her youngest students with the respect typically reserved for adults, and how this foundation of trust becomes essential when guiding students through the challenges of consistent practice and musical development serves Kimmy's students.
For parents considering piano lessons for their children, you'll hear invaluable guidance on selecting the right piano instructor, understanding reasonable expectations for progress and recognizing when a child might be ready to begin. Kimmy also dispels common myths about starting ages, confirming that while first grade is typically her minimum, age 10 is not too late, or even if an adult of any age is interested in starting. This inclusive perspective reflects Kimmy's belief that music education offers lifelong benefits regardless of when the journey begins.
Perhaps most touching in this episode is Kimmy's genuine delight when her students approach or surpass her own piano playing abilities. As she watches her high school students tackle challenging Beethoven sonatas, she embraces the opportunity to continue growing as a musician herself while still wishing that all her students would surpass her own skills playing piano one day. This embodies the generous spirit that makes time spent on the Keyboard With Kimmy and her music education a transformative event.
Keyboard With Kimmy
KeyboardWithKimmy.com
music@keyboardwithkimmy.com
484-222-0649
--- About The Show--- Good Neighbor Podcast is a spotlight on local businesses in and around Delaware County, PA (“Delco” ) and Beyond... The executive producer and host, Bob Blaisse, is a community sponsorship advocate, business branding specialist, and publisher of several hometown magazines, including: Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Edgmont Friends & Neighbors, mailed monthly to more than 12,000 homes in Western Delaware County, PA, and also available for reading online.
Welcome to Good Neighbor Podcast
Speaker 1Hello, delco. This is Michael Barkan, welcoming you to the Good Neighbor podcast, where fans of local businesses and their neighbors come together. It's my pleasure once again to introduce my friend and neighbor, our host Bob Lacey.
Speaker 2Hello, michael, and thank you again everybody for tuning in downloading this latest episode of the Good Neighbor podcast. Thank you, michael, for that introduction. Everybody, welcome again to another episode of the Good Neighbor podcast. This one will be different. We've done one in the past that had to do with music. I'm tipping my hand here. It's about music tonight, but I do want to just get a chance to first welcome everybody who's listening for the first time to the Good Neighbor podcast.
Introducing Keyboard with Kimmy
Speaker 2If you've ever liked to see all of our episodes, you can go to gnpdelcocom and we call it gnpdelcocom, and Delco is short for Delaware County, pennsylvania. That's where we're coming to you from the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, just north of the state of Delaware and west of the state of New Jersey, right below the city of Philadelphia. We're in the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, delaware County, lovingly referred to as Delco, and this podcast, the Good Neighbor Podcast, delco and Beyond, aims to bring really what we know to be good neighbor businesses in our community that stretch out beyond our borders and that we'd like to let everybody know about because of what they do, how they serve the community, who they are, and it's with great pleasure that tonight I get to bring to you another great guest. We want to welcome the owner and the founder of Keyboard with Kimmy, and certainly it's Kimmy that we're introducing the stage.
Speaker 2Welcome to the program, kimmy Carney. Welcome, hi, bob. Thanks so much for having me. Well, kim, we've been looking forward to this because we love the subject of music, we love the subject of anything that has to do with children, but, more importantly, this has to do with keyboarding, particularly piano, and, more often than not, probably piano lessons for children. Is that correct?
Speaker 3Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 2Kim, to dedicate your really mission, your job, your career, your passion to, to teaching children to play piano is a noble cause and one that I think you really do see pay off, because as you instruct they get better and maybe even better. And I've got to ask at this point in your career, have you had that case of where the student surpasses the teacher? Are there some really radically good keyboarders, piano players, that you've taught?
Speaker 3some really radically good keyboarders, piano players that you've taught. This is something that I've, I think, been afraid of since I started teaching, and I've always hoped that I'd be able to discern when my knowledge runs out for a student. We're not there yet, but I do have a couple that they're entering high school and they're playing some Beethoven sonatas and things that I really have to practice. So it's certainly made me get back to the piano, start practicing again, and I wish for all teachers should be that your student surpasses you, so I can't wait to see what they do.
Speaker 2That's how we want to start this episode, because that's how we know who we're talking with that kind of an instructor. We're talking with Kimmy Carney, the founder of Keyboard with Kimmy and this might sound like a piano teacher, you know working out of her house no, no, not really. This is probably one of the premier piano lesson instructors in all of Delaware County and beyond. She's got a nice new big location right there on Lawrence Road in Broomall, pennsylvania, just up from the entrance of the Blue Route 476 and just down from Sproul Road, and you probably pass by it all the time. It looks like a former church building, although I don't think there's a steeple, but there's a big sign out front that says Keyboard with Kimmy. There's a steeple, but there's a big sign out front that says keyboard with Kimmy. And if you'd like to get a chance to see Kimmy and to actually understand more what she does, you can go to our website, which is that simple keyboard with Kimmy dot com.
Kimmy's Piano Journey
Speaker 2Kim Carney, our guest here today, and, kim, you've set it up for us that your passion is teaching children how to play piano. You've been doing it for a while and yet what I think would be a good start is for us to start at the beginning. First, let's talk about you and your own piano really passion. When did you start playing the piano?
Speaker 3I started when I was six years old, so my mom I don't remember starting. Honestly, I just remember having the same teacher through when I started, all the way till my high school graduation. He was a wonderful, wonderful teacher. I was so lucky to study with the same man the whole time and I learned so much and I loved the piano. I always knew I wanted to be a piano teacher and then when I got to college, I had some fantastic instructors Every single one. I left every single lesson feeling so motivated, feeling so inspired, and I never I've never had a bad lesson with any of my instructors and I think I wanted to. I've always wanted to be that kind of teacher that inspires every single lesson, not just every once in a while well you're, you're living the dream really.
Speaker 2I mean they say turn your passion into your work, your business. I mean they say turn your passion into your work, your business, your hobby into a business and you'll never have a bad day at work. Kim, can I mention that you know your effort to do this is also kind of entrepreneurial and it's a business, but we have to get that out for parents and people listening. Not a bad thing, because when you want to learn something you pay for it, like tuition, and you went to school really for learning how to be a piano instructor and learning more piano. I gather your degree in college was in music in some capacity. Was it piano related or was it more music theory and music history?
Speaker 3Oh, it wasn't specialized, it was piano, it was music and piano was my instrument. So when you go to school for music, you have a main instrument. I may play other instruments, but that's the one that I had a private teacher every single year. We took pedagogy classes learning how to teach that particular instrument.
Speaker 2Right and you know, you can know the piano and you can play the piano. You can even dabble in helping people learn how to play the piano, but it's probably as much of an art to teaching piano as it is knowing how to play the piano. So let's talk about that a little bit. For parents who are listening, who are thinking, hey, it might be time to begin piano lessons. We've had that in mind. We want to find the right teacher. What would parents look for in the right teacher? What would be the wrong teacher, if I may say that? But what sets Keyboard with Kimmy apart in the way that you teach the craft, the art, the musical lessons?
Speaker 3Something that is important to me is that the teacher knows how to read music. That can unlock anything they want to do. You know, if a student wants to listen to a song and play it on the piano, that's a skill that can be taught. But learning how to read music, that means that you can play anything that gets put in front of you for the rest of your life. So make sure that your teacher knows how to read music put in front of you for the rest of your life. So make sure that your teacher knows how to read music. Going to school is important, but at least studying privately for an extensive number of years is important. Piano it might sound funny, but we teach technique to prevent injury. So many times pianists who are using incorrect technique may get carpal tunnel. So we want to be careful and you want to make sure that your teacher also teaches correct techniques so that we can avoid future injury. And so those are. I think that's who I would look for, someone who really has a lot of piano knowledge and music knowledge.
Speaker 2Well, let me ask too, since parents and you're teaching children would be putting their children in your care for the lessons, but also for the time that the lesson takes. Is there a balance between being a firm teacher like we've all had firm teachers in school or an easy teacher, or a caring teacher you know somebody that doesn't get angry, or somebody that says you didn't do your practice I mean, you know and calls them on it. What's the balance there in being a good piano teacher while also really being a good instructor and someone that's going to? You know you're going to be accountable to your teacher.
Student Progress and Commitment
Speaker 3Sure, my philosophy. I can only speak to what I do with the students. I have some six-year-olds and I just talk to them like they are regular adults, because when it comes to piano, I'm with them one hour a week. There are 168 hours in the week, so 167, I'm not there. They have to be honest. So we're just building a relationship of complete honesty. If they come in and I say, hey, have you practiced this week? And they say yes and it sounds not so good, I'll say hey, that's a little scary because you've said you practiced three times and this sounds like you haven't practiced at all. I just need you to be honest so that I can help you. So I think honesty is the most important and if that means telling a student, hey, you've got to practice this or hey, I'm sorry, you're not ready for this recital, then you have to tell them that.
Speaker 2Well, there's some honesty right there. Kim Carney, the keyboard instructor. Keyboard with Kimmy is her business. She's a piano teacher, lesson instructor, and you can get to know Kim by looking at her, by looking up on her website or her Facebook page it's keyboardwithkimicom. And if you want to talk with Kimi directly, like we're hearing her talk now, but if you'd like to speak live and ask her questions and then you know, maybe see if she is the right instructor for your child or even a young adult, 484-222-0649.
Speaker 2Kimmy's location, as I mentioned earlier, is right there in Broomhall, pennsylvania, on Lawrence Road, right near the Blue Route, route 476. So easy access from all the way up as Plymouth Meeting and all the way south, as 95, you know, and all those areas in southern Delaware County, even into Montgomery County and out west to Chester County, pennsylvania. Kimmy, can I ask this question too? When parents are making a decision about the investment in lessons, we've talked about really choosing the right teacher and then there's obviously the commitment that the child has to have, the parent has to have, and the practice that has to be done. What's the timeline would you expect that? You know, this child has it, doesn't have it. Whole practice is great. Needs more lessons than just once a week and, let's you know, prepare them to be playing in a group, like a school orchestra or something like that. What's the timelines? How does that work?
Speaker 3So sometimes this is a skill that takes a lot of time. So I would say two years probably need at least that to see. Okay, this is something that's interesting and if the student loves it and they're making slow progress but still making progress, then you could stay and teach for a long time. I usually say with piano, if they make it till eighth grade, all the way through eighth grade, they've got an amazing base of music knowledge. They'll be able to play songs that they love well into adulthood. At that time, by the time they get into high school, they can decide, decide. Oh, I think this activity might take too much of my time. I need to pick something that I'm really focused on, so give it a lot of time. Two years is probably a good enough time to tell yeah, this is going to be something really great, or this is an activity that builds confidence and they enjoy.
Starting Ages and Final Thoughts
Speaker 2Well then, let's round it up with this thought when parents have the thought of maybe calling Keyboard with Kimmy Kimmy Carney for lessons, what are the signs that a parent would see in their child? Like they might want them to play piano, but is there any signs that you know this child's got musical ability, or is there a thing that's too early in their life? When is the signal that they're ready for what's the youngest student that you've ever taught?
Speaker 3We do trial lessons to see if a student's ready, but typically it's first grade and after, so our lessons are structured in small groups. That's why we're here a full hour every week. We're teaching them how to practice, and they need a little bit of schooling, learning how to sit for a certain amount of time before they can be here. But I know many students who have teachers who take students at four. It really will be. If there's interest, feel free to reach out to a teacher, and if your child's already 10, that's not too late. 10 is an amazing age to learn as well. So and if you're 62, that's also fine, you can learn at any time.
Speaker 2So you're taking adults that want to learn piano as well.
Speaker 3Yes, we did. We just started taking adults this September.
Speaker 2Wow. You know it's a, as I said, it's a noble practice because you're teaching music and I think that most people recognize that. People who do have musical skill have learned a musical instrument. They pick up a kind of knowledge that's in between the musical notes and the lines. It helps them in their thinking process. It certainly brings some pride and joy into their life to have a skill set and a talent. It seems like it's never too early if it's first grade.
Speaker 2Moms, dads, think about your child and if you're in the Delaware County area, think about Keyboarding with Kimmy. Look at her up on the Internet keyboardwithkimmycom. It's been great, kim, thank you, and I want to say with a passion that you have for this business and the opportunity for our listeners and people in Delaware County to search you out and take you on as an instructor for their children. It's a business, but it's really a wonderful contribution to our community. It's really a good neighbor business and that's why you were nominated to be on our program. But thank you for the effort that you make in our community. Kim Carney, thank you for being a good neighbor business in our community.
Speaker 3Thanks so much, bob. It's been awesome talking with you and thank you for sharing my business Keyboard with Kimmy with your listeners.
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast hosted by Bob Lacey. This is Michael Barkan inviting everyone to get on the Good Neighbor team. Nominate your favorite local business to be featured on an upcoming episode by going to GNPDelcocom or by calling Bob at 610-557-3745.