Learning to Play Piano: DecPlay for Seniors

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast. Here's our host, Dr. Joseph Casciani.

Well, hello to everyone joining us today on our podcast. You're listening to the Living to 100 Club, and I'm your host, Joe Casciani. You'll enjoy this conversation today if you have any interest or know of anyone who has an interest in learning about an innovative approach to learning to play the piano. Before I introduce our guest, I'd like to remind everyone that I'm available for public speaking events, particularly to community organizations and senior groups. I love to talk to others about aging well, keeping a positive frame of mind, and making it over those hurdles. There's an option on my website to set up a call to arrange a presentation for your group. I also offer a free 30-minute lifestyle audit for individuals to look at lifestyle practices, attitudes, and outlook. This audit gives us an idea if one-on-one counseling with me may help to bounce back from those challenges and setbacks. Set up a call with the button on my website to get started. And one last item of self-promotion: if you're looking for a consultant or trainer On clinical topics like dementia or depression, this is my specialty. So feel free to contact me if there's a need in your organization. Contact options are on my website, again, livingto100.club. Now on to our podcast. Our guest today is Declan Cosgrove. He's created an easy-to-use format for people aged 50 to 90 and over that's easily accessible to beginners as well as those suffering from arthritis, eyesight problems, and dyslexia. DecPlay is the name of the program. We'll hear more about that from Declan, but first a little of his background. Created by classically trained musician and IT entrepreneur Declan Cosgrove, DecPlay has been endorsed by the BBC, as well as Oscar-winning songwriter Glenn Hansard, and has attracted students from 72 countries around the globe. Declan decided to develop his idea after hearing years of complaints from friends about how they would love to play the piano but found traditional methods just too hard. Having spent years studying both classical music and alternative methods used by popular musicians such as Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon, Deklin set about creating a method that eliminates the barriers that prevent many people from being able to play the piano. In response to requests from students, additional resources were also created to make the course accessible for people with challenges such as low eyesight and arthritis. Welcome to our program today, Deklin.

Hi, Joe. Nice to be here.

Great. Glad to have you with us. I always love to ask our guests to tell us a little bit about the journey that brought you to where you are today.

Yeah, sure. Yeah. Uh, I'll try to keep it concise because, uh, yeah, it's quite a story, but basically I started playing piano when I was age 6 and like most children, I just did what I was told to do by my parents. So I was sent off to a piano teacher. And in those days, the only option was a classical tutor. So, age 6, I didn't know anything about Chopin or Mozart, but, you know, probably just wanted to play some of the cartoon themes that might have been on the TV, but, you know, but that wasn't available. So what you had to do was the examinations, scales, and the classical way. So I'm one of 6. Kids and the other 5 all gave up within a year or so. And I wanted to have to give up. I didn't enjoy it at all. But because all the other 5 had actually given up and my mum said that, you know, that with all the money she'd invested in, I was like, somebody had to get something out of it. So I had this deal with my mum that I could stop when I passed Grade 7. That's the second to the highest level. She wanted grade 8, but I bartered with her. So we arrived at this deal that I could stop when I did grade 7. And so that's what I did. So I just stopped. And that was nearly the end of my piano journey. And I was a teenager then. Fortunately, I was about 13 or 14 at the time. And I saw some people playing in a band in school. So they were singing some, you know, pop songs. There was Elvis, there was Beatles. And they were just jamming, you know, just picking up an instrument and playing guitar chords. So, yeah, and I was going, hold on a minute, they're just playing a few chords and they can play a song immediately. I've been trained for years and I can't play anything. And even if I then was to get hold of the sheet music, which in the old days involved I had to jump on a bus, go down to the town, hope that that particular song is in the music shop, come back with the sheet music, practise it for a day or two and then try and join in, which obviously wasn't very practical. But even then, you know, that again, I found that the music that you get isn't the same as how the pop stars would play it. You know, it's a simplified version. So basically I found then that that wasn't an option. So I had to find out a new way of playing a piano. So the chord books that were there, and in one was a Beatles chord book, a guitar book. All I could go from was that, so I had to invent a way of playing based upon those chords. And it took me a while, but I found that was a much easier way of doing it. And then over years then, I just acquired the skill, you know, of playing to a much higher level and playing as Paul McCartney would play or John Lennon. And then I played in bands, I wrote songs, you know, was on the radio, that type of stuff. And then over a period of time, I acquired the skill of playing by ear. So if I heard a song, I could work out within a second or two how to play it.

Wow.

Which is great fun at, you know, at parties. So if anybody shouted out a song, if I've heard that song ever, I could just scan it in my head in a second or two and then start playing it. So that was great fun. Yeah. What happened then is lots of people were saying that they wished that they had learned how to play piano. And they were all talking past tense. You know, they wish their parents had sent them to lessons, or they wish they'd persevered at lessons, or— and I was saying, well, just, just learn. And then people had all these reasons why they believed they couldn't. And I got really frustrated because I thought, well, if I can work it out in my head in a second or two, it can't be that hard. So one guy called Patrick, he got me so frustrated that he would not believe it was possible to learn. That I bet him that I could teach him how to play some rock and roll within a couple of weeks.

Wow.

At the time.

Yeah, that's motivation. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I didn't— I just thought, well, I mean, rock and roll is very, very, very simple patterns. So the keys you play can look very complicated and you're playing a lot of keys really fast. However, they're based on really, really simple patterns. And there's 3 chords effectively. Most of rock and roll is just 3 chords. So At the time, I didn't know, I just felt it's so simple, you know, a couple of weeks would be dead easy. But then I actually sat down to try to work out how to explain it. But all the language that I had acquired over the years, you know, to understand how to explain it, I realised that anybody who hasn't learned that language, they won't understand what I'm talking about, all the terminology about octaves and chords and keys and different things. So I realised explaining it and taking it out of my head and explaining it to a person who's never played piano was more of a challenge than I thought it was. So the playing bit was relatively simple, but the explaining it bit wasn't. So I set about basically to actually create a simple explanation that would let people play a song incredibly quickly.

So you knew if you try the traditional approaches to explain it to somebody else, they might be just as frustrated as when they first tried. So you had to adjust that, kind of move away from that traditional approach and come up with another approach, another style to teach.

Exactly, yes, because the tools that you learn in classical music are extremely unsuited to songs. And that's why, again, when I started playing songs in a band, I realized that most of the skills that I'd learned weren't useful because in classical music, they never teach you any patterns. Every single note is written as a separate dot on a page and you've got hundreds and hundreds of these dots and your job is to replicate all those dots. Well, that's a very, very slow, tedious process in an abstract a visual sheet and that there aren't any patterns shown in that. Whereas when you realise that lots of songs, I mean, Let It Be by the Beatles, you know, you can play that with 4 chords. So yes, if you write it down in dots, it's hundreds and hundreds of dots. It looks just as complex as every other song looks complex. But inside that is these patterns which are incredibly simple patterns, and this is how Paul McCartney played, you know, he never learned any of the classical ways. And in a film actually that only came out a few months ago, McCartney 321, he actually shows that all you need is these chords here. And he shows these simple chords, which is exactly what I actually came up with as my starting point for the course, which lets people play songs often within hours. A person can play their first song. And that's exactly what Paul McCartney showed in that film. So yeah, so I had to then take these new techniques, which I was doing, and find the simplest way to explain them to people that have no knowledge at all of any of the terminology of music.

Yeah. So Paul McCartney was taking your lead almost and, uh, kind of translating all of those chords into patterns that were easily understood and I mean, facetiously saying he took your lead, but yeah, I think he was doing it before me.

Yeah, but yeah, yeah, um, but what, yeah, what, what it is is people— well, virtually all pop stars play by patterns, but a bit like he found his own patterns, like I had to find my own. And, uh, they're all based on the same idea of it is patterns and it's not to do with all the dots. You don't do, do any dots at all. But everybody has their own variation on how they find that, and it might take them years, or a person might show you a portion of it. But the problem is that works great if you're singing, as he was. But the missing link is if you don't want to sing, which most people that want to play piano actually want to play the part that a person would sing as well as the other music. So the accompaniment is all the backing. So that's what Paul McCartney plays and he sings the melody. So the missing bit, there's never been a way of writing down the melody other than using the dots. Oh, so that's the bit that I found the actual solution to that problem. And then what I did, then I took it a stage further and there's 12 different musical keys, which are known by letters. So every song is playable in 12 different ways, and there's a lot of chords, you know, there's lots of things going on. So I found a way of bringing all these 12 things down to 1. So it's a 12th of the work, as well as the melody is in it. And that's why people can play a song often in the first hour. So I've taken the type of things that Paul McCartney did, that he found by his method, and I found my variation of that by my method. But I've taken that concept of what he does and then evolved it with those extra bits, and I've translated it in a way then that it's very easy to understand so people can play, you know, incredibly quickly.

So the patterns that you talk about, there are different patterns then. I mean, a collection of notes, you might develop Pattern A and somebody else might develop Pattern B.

Yeah, there's basically, there's a few patterns. Like, there's chords, which are groups of notes in a predefined order of keys. So on the keyboard, you know, there's a distance in between the notes that is preset, and that makes a chord. And there's different types of chord, you know, there's major chords, minor chords. But basically, that's what a chord is, is normally 3 notes, which is in a preset order. And then a song will we'll choose a few of those chords and we'll have that as the backing of the song. Now that's pretty much set that it is those notes, okay? But it's possible to actually play those in various different ways by choosing which, what area of the keyboard you play those notes. If you double up certain notes, what rhythm you play those notes in. This is what changes it from being a beginner's style through to a professional style. And the difference between a jazz version of that same song and a blues version of the same song is a slight variation to those chords. So styles and playing level from beginner through to advanced, it's the same notes, but you can add in a few extra bits or change the order of the notes, and that's what dictates styles. So that's what where Paul McCartney will have his slight variation on what patterns then he puts his hands in to play those chords can vary. So there's various patterns, like the chords are patterns, but how you play the other chords, there's patterns on how you do that. So that it's, it's various different levels of patterns. And what I've also done to make it really simple is I've, I've introduced colours on the song sheet. So it's very simple to actually see the patterns of chords. They normally repeat in very, very simple orders. So for example, Imagine by John Lennon, if you look at that in normal music, it's just lots of dots, you know, again, hundreds of dots. Whereas if you look at it in the pattern of the chord, so I have— there's two chords used in the verse and that's it. Just 2. So if you place your hand in a chord shape and you play the first chord and you keep the shape and you move your hand up by 4 notes and you play the second shape, that's the entire music for your left hand for that verse. Now, so I color those and it shows that pattern then. So it's green, blue, green, blue, green, blue in vertical lines. So it's very simple to see the pattern of repeating chords. Which then makes it easy to actually memorize songs. So there's all these different types of patterns.

Sure.

Um, and my job then was simply just to take the, just the ones that are essential to play songs that people love really quickly. So there's lots more stuff which you could learn, and there's lots of theory, and there's lots of stuff that I learned in classical music, most of which I think is a total waste of your focus when there is just a few key bits, a bit like a recipe. If you just get the essential bits and you put them in the right order and you just focus on that, it's amazing how easy it is then to play songs.

Yeah, kind of like building blocks that you can create variations on those basics. So, so deck play is different from traditional music in that traditional music you'll have a sheet of all the notes and the measures and you need to understand where the notes are and how they're played. But for you, you grouping or clumping these notes so there's a single pattern, if the person learns the pattern, then they can progress through that, that whole song sheet.

Yeah, well, uh, how it works is on a song, if you write down the lyrics of the song, then what I do, instead of underneath that having all these dots— so if you're playing 4 notes at the same time in your hands, it would have 4 dots dots right under that first word. And then, you know, under the second word, you'd have more, lots of dots. Mine still shows exactly the notes which you are playing. So the melody is shown exactly the same as the dots would be, but I do it in a number from 1 up to 7. So a person then doesn't need to learn the abstract language of the dots. It's a number. So if it's key 1, you press note 1. If it's key 3, it's It's 2 keys higher than key 1. So a child of 4 could play that melody within, you know, 3 minutes or so. As could a person of any age, which, you know, that's why we've got people in their 90s can play songs within half an hour. It literally is that simple. And it's the same exact same notes, which the melody is shown in notation. Now, all the rest of the notes, the notation, which is the dots, shows every single individual note. And they miss the point that if you just draw a big line around all those other notes on that part and call that a chord, so you call that, you know, chord 1 or chord 4, it's the same notes. But then if you learn the pattern to put your hand in, you don't have to think of all the individual notes. Just think of the first key that your hand goes on and your hand has that pattern. And you keep that pattern and just move it up. If it's chord 4, you move it up to 4. If it's chord 3, then you move it down 1. If it's chord 5, you move it 1 up. And that sounds amazingly simplistic, and it is, but the music you're playing can be— that's what Paul McCartney showed. That's exactly what he said that he does. And that is how Let It Be— that's how he played Let It Be. Well, you know, so, so yeah, so it's the same level of playing as all the dots, but it's a much simpler way of, of actually reading it and playing it.

Sure. So you created this model, this approach to help people learn to play music, learn to play the piano, and try to dispel some of the myths about learning to play the piano. What are some of those myths that are, are still out there and people hold on to but are not really valid?

Yeah, uh, quite often people think that you have to start playing if you're young, you know, so that you need to start playing as a child, or don't bother. That's one big myth. The second big myth is that you have to practice for years before playing anything, you know, of any reasonable level. Um, and again, lots of people say, I'm too busy, you know, I don't have time to, to, you know, to play for hours a day for years before then being able to play a song. And the third most common myth, I think, is that people think that you have to be part of a musical family or have a musical gene to play music. It's like only special people have this magical gene, and they might try music, find that they struggle, and then think that they are— they don't have this magic gene. That— whereas I've shown with the thousands of people I've taught that everybody has a natural musical ability, um, and if you use the right intuition type to harness that and a type which is appropriate for the style of music, then everybody can play. And I've taught special needs, very young children, you know, people in their 90s, across the spectrum, you know, whole, you know, people who suffer from a lot of physical challenges, dyslexia, arthritis, and not a single person could not play if the appropriate tuition method is used.

Well, that's, uh, that's encouraging. As I mentioned to you, I'm trying to learn to play the drums, so I don't think I have any musical genes, but after hearing this, maybe I, maybe I have to dig deeper to find them. So that's great. Um, you don't have to start young, you don't have to practice for years, and you don't have to have this natural ability, uh, kind of built-in musical heritage or in our family. Anybody can can learn. That's great.

Yes.

That's the beauty of it.

I mean, yeah. I mean, I would actually say that everybody has the musical gene. I mean, there isn't a magic, magic gene. It's like everybody has it. So I explain this by if you like music, you know, if you enjoy hearing a song, um, if you hear it on the radio, then what your brain is doing is you can hear the different tones of the music. Are they high? Are they low? And there's a reason why you like that piece of music and don't like other pieces of music. So you have the natural ability to hear all the key things that you need to actually play music. There's a tiny percentage of people who are actually tone deaf that cannot hear a high pitch or a low pitch. So if they hear a song, it's just like noise to them. They do not hear it's going higher, it's going low. Now there's a tiny percentage of the population are like that. And, you know, they are actually tone deaf. So yeah, they would really struggle. Now they can still play if you follow the instructions, but they would have, you know, an actual more of a challenge. However, people use the tone deaf phrase just meaning that they're not very good at singing. So people are not tone deaf. You know, you're like everybody that says they're tone deaf, I bet virtually none of them are tone deaf.

Well, that's interesting. Sure. So, um, I know you have provided this online. We'll talk more about, um, the course itself, but who are your typical students, Declan? Who, who do you, um, who do you attract with your program?

Uh, it's mainly people, uh, aged 50 and over. So most of our students are actually in the 70s and 80s. Yeah, we've got thousands of people, you know, that are in that age group. As I say, I have taught all ages from about 3 or 4 upwards. However, I've really focused on the 50+ age group because I found that they really appreciate it more and it can be life-changing. In terms of— I find with kids, they, you know, they love it and it's great, just as is playing football and, you know, whatever, skipping or whatever. It's all lovely and it's all great. So it's not quite changing their life in the same way. So they might enjoy it and that's great. But I think for people in their 80s or 90s, if they've always wanted to actually play piano, to start playing when, like, Harry's 90.

Yeah.

And he wanted to play as a child and he had a few lessons, but that ended just like You know, at about age 13, he had a few lessons and it didn't work out and that was it. And he always wanted to play, but he just thought that he couldn't. And now, age 90, he played his first song within 30 minutes.

Yeah.

And spent his entire life, you know, wanting to, but not. So yeah, that's, that for me is really fulfilling. So that's why I'm really focusing on this age group. And then I've been able to help them then with extra challenges that this age group has, like arthritis or low sight or other issues like that.

Yeah, that's great. That's great. So this, this age group really can appreciate more the accomplishment, the achievement, and something that they may have had a goal to go after, you know, for years, but now they've, they've faced this opportunity and they're, they're seeing the success. I think that's great. That's great. So it might be, yeah, a greater advantage for the 50+ group than for a teenager or a child who's learning for the first time.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I mean, you know, it, it's great for everybody. I mean, it, it has changed my life, you know, being able to play music. I mean, I was incredibly shy as a child and I wasn't sporty and, um, you know, I had a speech, uh, problem, um, a stammer. And so, you know, there wasn't a lot going for me from a confidence point of view, but music was the one thing then that I could play in the school band and then that I built my confidence around that. So I think it is amazingly powerful for people of all ages. However, I've just felt, you know, as you say, that there's a lot going on for people if they're young and they're trying lots of things and that's great and they absolutely should do that. But I think when people sort of reach the the later stages of life, they more know what they really want to do. And if you really have a passion for something and you've waited decades for it, that to me is more life-changing. And again, there's a lot of physical benefits as well, and also mental benefits, which this helps with. So I personally find this really fulfilling.

Yeah. Can you share a story or two of like a big success?

Can you?

Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned Harry in his 90s.

Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, Harry's a star. He's, he's, uh, yeah, wonderful. Yeah, so Harry, like I say, started playing within 30 minutes his first song. Um, so Harry is 90. There's Jean is 92 as well, and Jean had a stroke 2 years earlier, and she used to play piano, and she had the stroke and she couldn't play. And then she went back to actually start again right from scratch, but she couldn't read the dots, so whatever had happened after the stroke, but her brain then couldn't recognise the dots and she couldn't learn. And the teacher gave up on her. And, you know, she was then facing not ever playing again. And she lives by herself. So, you know, that was a big blow not to ever play piano again. And she joined the course. And then again, she was playing within a couple of days, she was playing songs, and now she's like sending me videos of her playing like loads of songs. And she loves hymns and things. And And she actually talks to the other students as well, as you know, cause she is really kind of inspirational that, uh, you know, she's overcome it.

You have the group, uh, kind of discussions or opportunity for people to share with one another.

Yes. Yeah, we do calls on Zoom, uh, every fortnight. And that's where, you know, I answer any questions people send in and we chat to people. I give tips and I show what's new in the course. And then we go into breakout rooms for people that want to then go and chat to small groups of students. So we have 5 or 6 in each breakout room on Zoom, and people can chat to each other. And we have a Facebook group as well, which is great. There's like hundreds of videos up there, you know, people post them, you know, them playing songs. And it's wonderful to get the encouragement of other people who are sharing that same journey.

Sure. So what type of music Does TechPlay teach?

It's aimed at songs. So it's because it's a pattern-based approach, so it's absolutely perfect for songs. Now, this is songs of any type. You know, it might be Happy Birthday, The Star-Spangled Banner, could be Elvis, Beatles, Ed Sheeran, anything like that. It can do certain classical music as well. So Fauré-Lise, which is Beethoven's, probably one of the most famous pieces. The first section of that again is really, really simple. It's the same chords, which are Hallelujah, which is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. It's the same. But it's amazing. Once you start seeing the patterns, you see what's linked. It's a bit like Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 16. The first part of that is chords 1, 4, 5, which is Twist and Shout, which is La Bamba. So it can do a Moonlight Sonata, Pachelbel's Canon, those kind of simple pattern-based classical music, but it's not aimed at complicated classical. It's not aimed at Chopin or anything like that. It is aimed at playing songs that you love.

Yeah.

That we can feel success at. We can feel like we can accomplish this after hours or however long. Yeah.

I mean, people, yeah. I mean, some take half an hour. I mean, some people might take 2 days. I know. So everybody goes at their own pace. I mean, some might take a week. So again, there's a wide range of people's abilities, especially if people have arthritis or different things. So yeah, there's no rush. There's no— yeah. So everybody takes the course at their own pace, but most people can actually play something meaningful almost straight away. And then of course, you know, improve the style and then there's, you know, and then add extra songs in. I mean, some students, like examples like Mike, Mike joined when he was 79, and he had a few lessons as a child, and again, he couldn't read the notation, the dots, and that was it. And aged— so Mike joined us at 79, and again, he was playing songs within a few days, but then he started writing his own songs because he saw the patterns. He goes, is that it? Songs are just these patterns. So then he wrote his own songs and then he started to sing them. So he's now sung songs for our group. And yeah, so it's like the journey then can go in any direction that you want from more songs or playing in public or memorizing songs or just playing to a higher level.

Yeah. So let me get back to— I think this is great. You have these success stories. There's something that occurs after a person can go after this goal, sit down, learn how to play a song or maybe several songs, and they develop that confidence, that self-efficacy. Gee, I've done something that I've strived at for so many years. Why do you think that happens? Where does this confidence-building come from? Why is that so good for the individual to take this on and an accomplishment. Why do you think this happens, especially with seniors, the 60, 70, 80-year-old?

Yeah, I think music is a really powerful force. I mean, it, it, it can block out all the stresses and strains of, of life, and it really connects to our inner soul and is relaxing and uplifting. And I think this then helps us to, to express ourselves or our feelings through the music. So it's like A bit like a feel-good drug that has no side effects. So this, I think, helps the confidence. So when you feel good and you are expressing yourself, especially then if you can see yourself making progress in an area that you never thought was possible, then that makes you feel good. But you also think, wow, I can do something I never thought I could. So this is all, you know, it builds the confidence.

Yeah.

And I think as well, it's a social thing. So, you know, some people choose just to play for themselves and that's totally fine. But a lot of people find it can give amazing joy to other people, you know, playing for the family or friends. And again, lots of stories of people playing to the grandchildren and then they take it up. And it's so simple that, you know, they can often play a tune, you know, if it's Silent Night or something or Happy Birthday, you know, within an hour or two, the grandchild is playing the tune. So it's a very social and fun activity. Again, it's been shown to help with the brain function as well and to offset the challenges, dementia and things like that. There's lots of research that shows it can actually help in those sort of areas as well.

Yeah, I could see that cognitive stimulation, learning something new, and it guards against that inactivity and mental slowing that can occur. So what type of keyboard is needed to get started?

What do you recommend? Any electronic one is ideal because they're a lot more practical than a, you know, a full piano. So there's keyboards, generally any keyboard that has maybe 61 keys. It is possible to learn on a smaller keyboard, but normally 61 keys, they're usually available for under $200. There's some good keyboards, Yamaha, Roland are great makes. I do have a blog on the website that goes in depth about the different ones, and it's got links to, to them. Yeah, but they're reasonably cost effective.

Okay. Yeah, I want to be sure to get to the, uh, the website and the Facebook page before we close. But you have a free lesson for beginners. How does somebody take advantage of this?

Yeah, if you just go to, uh, the website, which is deckplay.com, .com. So that's D-E-C-P-L-A-Y, decplay.com. And then there's a link there at the top right, and we'll send them the link on, onto the free video lesson.

Okay. So just go to the website and they'll see the, the link, the button there. Yeah. Get more information. So, um, people can sign up for the course. You have a tuition fee. And what else comes with the, uh, any, you mentioned the The Zoom group, in addition to the lessons, what else does the—

That's right, yeah. So there's the Zoom group calls and the breakout rooms, there's the Facebook group as well, support from myself and the team. So that's email support for any questions people have and also updates on the course lessons and song sheets which are, you know, added to every week.

Hmm. Wow. Okay. Have you heard of any instances where your students have gone on to perform live events?

Oh yeah. We've got many, many of those. Yeah. We have, uh, Pam joined us. She was 59 when she joined us and she wouldn't play in front of anybody, her husband, or, you know, like she wouldn't play in front of anybody at all. Now Pam has played a grand piano in a hotel foyer.

Oh, wow.

And it's on video. And she's actually written some songs as well. So she's another student that has written songs and played on the radio. So yeah, she's amazing. What a transformation.

So in order to do this, do they need to look at a screen while they're playing, or will they eventually just memorize the song without watching the patterns on a screen?

There's a choice. So they can look at the screen either on an iPad or a computer screen or print off the song sheets. So they can print off a paper version. Now again, quite a few people, because it's so simple, they can memorize it very quickly. So they start off by reading the instruction either on a screen or on paper, and then, like I say, quite often they can memorize that fairly easily.

That's great. Well, kudos to Pam for taking this further. That's great. I love that. I love that. Yeah. So what would you hope our listeners take away from today's conversation, Declan? What would you want them to take away?

Just that, that a playing piano is easy. So if you have a passion for piano, I would recommend that you give it a try. So whether it is Just by looking online, you'll go and get some YouTube, you know, uh, examples, whether you find a local teacher, if you take advantage of my free lesson, whatever way you do it, I would encourage you to just, to, just to start if you have a passion for piano, because it really is very, very easy.

Very easy. That's good. That's the best message of all. Playing piano can be easy. Yeah. And you have a system now to help people really move through that and accomplishment. So gold stars to you.

Thanks.

Great. Yeah.

Thanks very much.

Declan, it looks like we're out of time for today, but before we wrap up, I just want to remind our listeners about a co-sponsor for this program, A Mighty Good Time. Are you looking for ways to engage and stay active? Check out amightygoodtime.com. It's a one-stop shop for events and activities for those 50 and over. It's free to search and it's free to post. A Mighty Good Time dot com. And be sure to visit the Living to 100 Club website to sign up for weekly podcast announcements and monthly newsletters. And while you're there, be sure to download a free copy of my 9 Tips for Living Longer. Lastly, pick up a copy of my book, Living Longer Is the New Normal, all about maintaining a positive mindset in all we do. It's on Amazon as an ebook or hard copy. We've been talking today with Declan Cosgrove. Declan, for those who might want to contact you, what's the best way to do that?

Uh, through the website again, decplay.com. Yeah, okay, decplay.com.

And when the visitors are there, they can see the other opportunities to sign up for the course, take the free course. And once they enroll, they can get access to the Zoom meetings, the breakout rooms, and more training, more follow-up from you. That's a great program. That's really a great program.

Thanks very much.

Yeah, once I get finished the drums, I might move on to the piano.

Great.

Good. Well, thanks again for being a guest on our program, and thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in. Hope to see you next time.

Thanks, Joe.

You're welcome. Cheers.

Hey everybody, Jared Sebastian here, host of Retire Repurposed. This podcast is dedicated to help people transition into fulfilling and Purposeful Retirements. Retirement is a big life change. In fact, the two most dangerous years of a person's life are the year they were born and the year they retire. Few people could just flip the switch from working a career 30 or 40+ years, retiring on Friday, without methodical steps to living what we call a repurposed retirement. To listen now, search Retire Repurpose on your favorite podcast platform, Senior Resource, or Life Audio.