Both piano students and teachers benefit from our innovative SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system. Here are some reviews on the success of our programme.
What piano teachers say:
"Before training with you, I would have taken an ePiano with me on holiday and had to practise for an hour every day. But now I see everything from above and no longer get lost in the details and am so much calmer and more relaxed." (April 2023)
"I wanted to tell you Mailyn how THANKFUL I am for your work in making this system available to us piano teachers. If only everyone could know what's REALLY behind it." (April 2023)
"I'm so glad that I plucked up the courage and went for it. And it works really well online. Thank you Mailyn Rebecca Henseler for showing yourself on Facebook and letting me get to know you. It enriches my musical life immensely, not just in my piano lessons. I also get new impulses for my choir work." (March 2023)
Last week a recording of Korngold's Op. 9 with Valerie took place at short notice at SWR in Baden-Baden. Coffee cups and teacups actually helped with the efficiency of my short preparation time. 🙂” (April 2023)
"It's not just a piano school. It's a fundamentally new philosophy that completely renews pedagogy in depth! It is a treasure! I am infinitely grateful to have met you, Mailyn. It's not just a method for beginners. It is just as valuable for us professionals! We teachers have to integrate these new processes before we can pass them on to our students! For me as a piano teacher, this further training (Module I) is UNCONDITIONAL, on which all other methods can then be built." (March 2022)
"As I live in Germany, the training was really an investment for me and it was the first time I had spent so much on myself. But it was really worth it! Thank you for sharing this valuable knowledge with us! It's so much fun to work with." (November 2022)
What is amazing, however, is the fact that I started composing from one day to the next. Thanks to my newly learnt knowledge of the structures in music, I find it extremely easy to write piano pieces. My heartfelt thanks go to you at the Uri Music Academy! (October 2017)
The pianistic and methodological experience I have had at the Uri Music Academy since summer 2009 is simply marvellous: confidence, effortlessness and motivation all along the line, not only for myself but also for my students. And at an incredible learning speed!
I am convinced that this learning system will permanently change the pianistic and piano pedagogical landscape in the coming years. (October 2017)
Findings from the latest brain research are implemented completely logically in this piano learning method. This is very much in line with our own way of thinking. Facts such as looseness (optimisation of movement sequences) and fun (learning with joy and a sense of achievement) are defined as clear building blocks for success and are just as important as effortless note reading and memorisation and musical sound design.
After more than six years of experience in this type of teaching and working, our students are on average at the same level after one year as they were after three years. As a piano duo, we ourselves still need just under half the effort to rehearse piano works to achieve a reliable result. This gives us pleasure and encourages us to continue our training.
We would like to thank Mailyn and her team for a far-reaching experience! (March 2016)
"As I regularly revise for grammar school exams, this is a huge relief. I approach new pieces more calmly and manage to grasp their structure and flow more quickly. This has the extremely positive effect that I can deal with the musical expression and interpretation earlier. For me, the SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system is a wonderful enrichment." (August 2017)
Through contact with the SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system, I found much of what I wanted to do in this method, and much better presented and worked through than I could have imagined.
They transpose with ease. I always wanted to do it in lessons, but got stuck.
Reading music: I had worked out a really good approach that also worked. The ideas from the SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system are easier to grasp, quicker and stick better in my memory.
Theory: Unique suggestions from the SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system make theory child's play.
Flow of play: Suitable exercises prepare the nervous system.
In my eyes, this is educationally revolutionary.
Sight-reading: Is greatly encouraged by promoting keyboard contact and recognising musical structures.
Courage to play heavy pieces: I didn't have enough in the past. Much better now.
The SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system has given my pedagogical work a boost and has also had a positive influence on my own playing. I can now easily play pieces that I couldn't before. (June 2017)
This also helps me in my lessons, I can recognise my students' problems very quickly and they can overcome blockages with targeted exercises. And the best thing is: my pain is gone! Playing is fun! (January 2018)
It was clear to me that they didn't lack musicality, but quite simply a lack of solution strategies. That's why I started to look into learning processes. This is how I became aware of the SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system, which utilises the latest findings from brain research for this purpose.
The learning system delivers what it promises. You build on a solid foundation right from the start and are therefore quickly able to learn pieces independently. This gives everyone the opportunity to actually make music on the piano and not just press empty keys. (May 2017)
What piano students say
"I experience Vreni as an extremely patient piano teacher, who accompanies the course participants individually with her calm manner and responds to the wishes of the individual." (March 2023)
Not so with you Mailyn. Our daughter Julia has been coming to you every week for almost 3 years now (since she was 4 years old) and usually enjoys the lessons very much.
The way you deal with children, how you can motivate them and how you can laugh with them is brilliant.
Julia was able to get to know the world of the piano in a playful way without having to painstakingly learn the notes by playing the keys up and down.
Using animal names and other funny terms, she quickly learnt how to play children's songs with both hands.
Julia now plays many different types of music. Together with you, she can choose the pieces she likes and doesn't have to struggle to learn something she doesn't like.
In addition, as a mum at home, I can go into more depth with Julia and get to know the wonderful variety of the piano.
Thank you dear Mailyn, keep up the good work and many people will enjoy playing the piano. (May 2017)
I discovered the power of classical piano music as a child and it has always inspired me and had a significant positive influence on me. My love of music gave rise to the great dream of one day learning the fine art of playing the piano. However, as I had never played an instrument, I was always completely overwhelmed when looking at sheet music, and a certain (I'll never manage that) attitude developed.
Shortly after I heard about the Schneemann Piano School, I was able to get to know the SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system in a first taster lesson.
The initial awe of this instrument was quickly transformed into joy and motivation.
Step by step, I learnt a wide variety of tools that quickly became anchored in my head through images or stories. With the help of these tools, I was taught an overview of the keyboard in a playful way. Surprisingly quickly, the first real notes emerged, something that every beginner longs for.
By using the tools learnt, more and more beautiful sounds and melodies are produced, creating a great curiosity about what is yet to come.
Like an exciting book, you read/play your way further and further into the world of music and begin to understand it.3 months after the first piano lesson of my life, I look back and marvel at what I have already learnt.
For me, this method is exactly the right thing to achieve my goals and I am very happy to have taken this step. But the really nice thing about the SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system is that it makes the world of music accessible to everyone in a fun, exciting and quick way.
After all, music is for all of us.
I always look forward to my lessons with Mailyn. I can play my practice pieces on a wonderful-sounding grand piano and receive professional feedback. By playing melodies and various clapping and finger exercises, I receive a guide and learn something new every time. The exchange of experiences and impressions is also very pleasant. In short, I feel that I am in the best hands with Mailyn. (April 2017) Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
For me, your learning system is more democratic and not so elitist. The method is intelligent and ingenious, the approach, the toolbox with which the world of the piano and music can be experienced playfully, physically and sensually.
You can go directly into resonance, into vibration, experience yourself as making music and experience it playfully and don't have to go through the jungle of hard, laborious work, constant practicing, cramming, until you then, if you hold out long enough, come to enjoy understanding yourself in the music and perhaps get an overview of it/your own access to it.
I'm sure that talent is also exactly that: you intuitively understand the structure of the piano and the music and have a clear, efficient access/view from above. If you are "talented" in advance, you feel directly at home in the music and you can probably open up this world more easily than others.
But here, with the "SCHNEEMANN® Piano Learning System", you become more talented, more intelligent through "the method", because you build up a holistic understanding, a feeling for the music.
You are less concerned with "hauling stones" and presenting the results and more with creating, understanding and discovering, which in turn opens up the brain and mind and forms new neural networks. You work and practise, but on the essentials and in a brain-friendly way.
This learning system is not for everyone. Many people have a static self-image of right and wrong, rich and poor, intelligent and stupid, talented and untalented. I don't forgive myself for mistakes either, but I agree with my professor: talent is interest. You can develop it if you want to.
And your system is like a toolbox that, with its structure, images and approach, offers you the opportunity to work on the essentials, to get to the essence of the music more quickly, which arouses interest and builds talent - in the process.
What's more, I think you teach me how to learn effectively and efficiently." (March 2017)
My name is Simone Forster and I am 65 years old.
As a child confronted with a teaching/learning system that was not suitable for children, I was able to convert notes into sound for my own use over the years - but woe betide anyone listening. Just the thought of someone hearing me play made my fingers stiff and unusable.
Five years ago, I decided to change this untenable situation. Firstly, because I was needed as a piano player in the children's Sunday school. And secondly, because I was fed up with my panicky fears.
I remembered a friend in Tahiti who told me about the SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system down there in the South Seas. I googled, found the address and signed up for a trial lesson.
This lesson became the turning point in my musical "career". Step by step, lesson by lesson, my relationship to and attitude towards the piano changed. What had instilled fear in me lost its terror. Accidentals were now just accidentals, not insurmountable obstacles. Complicated rhythms dissolved into cups of coffee and tea, or into tomatoes - and into TamTams, my favourite food!
I live too far away to travel to the Lucerne area every week, far too far away. But Mailyn teaches me to learn. She teaches me to understand. She teaches me how to put her richly illustrated theory into practice at home.
So not only do I sit more relaxed at the piano when there is an audience, I also accompany the singing of my small church congregation on the organ.
Thank you, snowmen and caterpillars! Thank you Mailyn! (March 2017)
It was said that people who had to take piano lessons and didn't enjoy them would also like to learn with Mailyn. At the age of 62, I wanted to try again. I have been a pupil of Mailyn's ever since.
Because the joy is still there today. Mailyn always knows which piece can bring me joy.
The keys are now friends and no longer enemies. I can see the pictures of the keys to the pictures of the notes and can now play from memory, which was never possible before.
The theory is very exciting and logically structured, so that the left and right hemispheres of the brain have work to do. Mailyn knows exactly which one I need to work on. But I can take my time to memorise the new information and if I forget it, no one is angry.
Taking part in the school concerts is always a big effort for me, but I don't want to hide. The children are so carefree. That's encouraging!
Dear Mailyn, thank you and your team for your great commitment to us students.
I hope you enjoy teaching and everything that goes with it!!! (February 2016)
What is amazing, however, is the fact that I started composing from one day to the next. Thanks to my newly learnt knowledge of the structures in music, I find it extremely easy to write piano pieces. My heartfelt thanks go to you at the Uri Music Academy! (October 2017)
By chance, I heard in March 2016 that a piano teacher and her family had moved into the newly renovated Majorenhaus in Alpnachstad and that she would be teaching a completely new piano method called the SCHNEEMANN® piano learning system. I went along to the "open day" and saw Mailyn playing the piano with a few interested beginners.
I received a voucher for a taster lesson. I immediately signed up and was thrilled from the very first piano lesson. First Mailyn took my arms and hands and loosened them up before we started playing the piano. Later, the pictures from the hand zoo were added, such as dog paws, sticky frog, crocodile at the dentist, the transformable snowman, as well as other visual aids. I was supposed to move my hands on the piano keys with my fingers in this position.
At first I grinned, but I soon realised that the way and
the way in which I learnt to play was a completely new way for me and I decided to take more piano lessons. Without any knowledge of sheet music, the Schneemann® technique should make it easier for me to learn to play the piano, probably a completely new challenge for me.
As I am a visual person, this method helps me a lot. I can memorise a new piano piece better with these pictures. I would like to mention that this is the first time in my life that I have been allowed to play on a grand piano, even in piano lessons.
The technical over-mediation of the previous piano teacher, where I almost went to piano lessons with fear, is over. Mailyn's playful, clear and impressive way of teaching makes playing the piano fun again. The piano pieces in the music textbooks she has put together are very well chosen and varied, and in a short time I can already play a few pieces with pleasure.
This is of course due to Mailyn's skill, empathy, warm charisma and logical way of teaching. Since I started a year ago, I've looked forward to going to piano lessons every time, because after every lesson I come home with an aha experience about what I've learnt.
I would like to thank Mailyn for my new experience and for my new feeling for music on the piano. (April 2017)
