HUNTLEY – The thought of taking up a new instrument can seem daunting at first, with all the keys, notes, and chords looking like a foreign language. But one local music store is using different techniques to help students avoid getting lost in translation.
MECA student Sue Glaze of Gilberts helps instruct Sun City resident Marge Sterrett (N24), a third-year organ student at MECA, in the Huntley Prime Outlets Mall. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
The Music Education Center of America (MECA), located in Huntley Prime Outlets, offers music lessons to all ages, including organ lessons targeted toward seniors.
“Once you start understanding that you can play and it’s simple, and then being shown some of the features on the organ, it just kind of blows your mind away that you can actually make sounds like that and sound like you know what you’re doing,” Sue Glaze, a MECA student, said.
MECA general manager Eric Abernathy, said lessons at the center are tailored to fit the busy schedules of active adults.
“Basically, we take all of the exercises and the scales and the rigorous practice component out of it and we just teach them how to play songs,” Abernathy said. “And that’s what’s fun is that they’re actually learning to play songs.”
The center teaches students several genres, such as jazz, big band, pop, and classical, suiting their individual tastes.
“If people are playing things that they know, then they’re much more interested in playing, and it’s actually very addicting,” Abernathy said.
The organs at MECA allow beginners to play chords, which would typically require at least three fingers, with just one finger. As they develop as players, they can play with a more involved style.
Sheet music for the lessons features larger type than standard notation with one clef instead of two and has the names of the notes on the staff. Abernathy said within one or two weeks, students usually learn where the notes are on the keyboard.
The classes match different skill levels as well. Glaze said beginner classes are smaller so they can focus more on hands-on mechanics, while more advanced classes are done in a classroom-lecture style.
The atmosphere at MECA makes learning the organ a more communal activity than most typical lessons.
“You get involved, and we do social things,” Glaze said. “Sometimes we’ll go and play at a benefit someplace or maybe a senior citizen’s place, trying to get other people interested. And there are other projects we do that are community services – food banks and stuff like that. So we act kind of like a social club as well as this music club.”
According to Abernathy, the center has held three concerts since September and tries to hold one every one or two months. Concerts are most often in the store but have also been held in Sun City or offsite locations.
MECA held a concert on November 30 featuring professional organ players sponsored by Lowery. Glaze said there were about 100 people there, and these concerts usually attract many students.
“They’re professionals of the highest quality; it’s not just some old lady playing chopsticks on the organ,” Glaze said. “These guys are really artists.”
Of course, students get a chance to perform at concerts as well, but even the most practiced students have a tough time managing their nerves.
“We all are nervous ninnies when we get up there,” Glaze said.
Abernathy said MECA does not do heavy advertising; instead it gains new customers through word-of-mouth.
“The students that we have are so enthusiastic they typically will tell their friends,” he said.
Anyone interested in learning the organ can sign up for a $39.95 six-week introductory course by calling the center at 847-741-3324.
