Harley-Davidson figured out a secret. Originally written on Medium: November 15, 2018

Harley-Davidson figured out a secret.

They’ve figured out how to capture and grow a whole culture out of riding a motorcycle.

At the surface level, it’s just a brand.

But if you look deeper into what they do, it’s so much more. I admire their company so much. It’s unbelievable what they’ve created.

How many brands do you know have aligned with their customers so well, that those customers are willing to tattoo the brand logo on their arm?

And I know what you’re thinking, it’s already in the culture of motorcycle riders to want to have tattoos.

Yes. I agree. But then why don’t they also have the name of their sunglasses, helmet, or shoe company tattooed on their arm? 🤔

It’s because Harley knows who they are making culture for — the H.O.G (Harley Owners Group). And they know what their bikes are for — riding a motorcycle with a sense of freedom and belonging. They’ve made owning motorcycles into an iconic lifestyle brand and they continue to surprise and delight their almost cult-like customers who are truly fanatical “fans”.

Their devoted customers would never trade in their Harley for a more efficient motorcycle or a faster one. Harley owners care about the feel of the ride. They care about the emotion behind the handles as they cruise along. Their customers care about belonging to a group of riders who sees the world in a similar way and they want to spend time connecting with them about those views. It’s a deeply visceral experience that they only can get from a Harley.

And at Oclef, that is what we’re creating for piano education. A culture and a community around learning piano that is loved and sought after. Members who are parents and students of this community, would never even think of going back to the “old way” of traditional piano education and weekly lessons. The constant shouting and nagging and bribing and hoping and hiding just to “make things work”. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your relationship with your child to have them learn piano — I think that’s ridiculous.

“My daughter does so well in school, but piano has always been a struggle to practice..” a mother says to me asking to join our piano studio. “I just want her to appreciate and love music. To take it seriously. To do well in piano, as she should. To do as well as I know she could. I wish I knew what is wrong and why there is such a fight over practice.”

I hear this story so often from parents looking to join the studio and it keeps me going. It’s obviously not the student’s fault. It’s the journey. It’s the design of the learning experience.

Teaching the same students on a daily basis has shown me that everyone has a “hole in their boat”. As a teacher, you just got to find it, help them learn how to stop it from sinking their boat, and keep an eye on it so it doesn’t become a problem.

To be specific, every student has a natural learning challenge to overcome. Maybe they’re disorganized or not focused. Maybe they are impatient or not thorough. Maybe they aren’t persistent.

Whatever learning challenge they have, it needs to be found and managed daily to prevent the student from wasting time, becoming frustrated, and quitting. And daily lessons has shown me that I can now manage those limiting behaviors and guide the student in the correct direction every day, instead of a once a week adjustment.

This leads me to a weird, but helpful analogy.

What if you could only adjust and reposition the steering wheel in your car 1 time per 10 seconds (like lessons once a week) instead of every two seconds? What about once every 5 seconds (Like Lessons twice a week)? How safe and comfortable would you feel along a long road trip?

A lesson is an adjustment of the student. Not doing it often will guarantee a weekly crash and too many crashes will total the “car” eventually.

I’m calling for lessons 4–6 times a week.

They have to happen often. Adjustments need to happen as frequently as possible to ensure a safe and efficient journey.

So then the question becomes is this model even economically possible? Can a piano education service be built that was similar to the one that was used to teach Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Van Cliburn and any other great pianist (daily lessons)?

Ask a great pianist you know, did they have a parent or parental figure who was always there with them in the early years?

98% of the answers will be yes. I’m one of those 98%.

My grandmother listened to me every day. She said almost nothing, just sat there in the back of the room and listened to me. Every few days she’d comment and say she liked something or disliked something.

So is this model economically and logistically possible?

Yes.

For the last 5 years, I’ve tweaked and tested and twisted and turned and what I’ve found is that many things, actually most things that I’ve been told is a “piano education standard” has proven to be invalid or inefficient or just simply irresponsible.

From all of that we’ve been able to build out the Oclef philosophy and method that can be taught to parents and potential teachers. I’ve been teaching this to parents and student teachers in a class setting. And the surprising thing I’ve found is that even a 16 year old piano student or well trained parent can teach a child better than a PhD level music teacher if they are fluent in this method. It all comes down to being patient, persistent and curious.

A 16 year old, first year driver, can drive a car better than a professional racecar driver if the teenager is allowed to adjust the wheel every second and the racecar driver is restricted to once every 10 seconds. Who’s back seat would you prefer to be in along a curvy road?

And now if you understand that, it all comes back to culture. How can you build a culture around piano education if at its core, most students dislike practicing?

Answer: You cannot.

So although we’ve managed to figure out social connection, creativity, learning, growth and how to weave it into piano education, the very last value (and probably most important) is love. And as long as practice happens in solitary, most students will not “love” piano practice. And they will not succeed. If we can get students motivated through solving piano education’s biggest issue — practice — then the culture that we’ve been building for the last 5 years will be whole.

It’s never been about piano. All of this effort and drive and passion I have is about one thing. The truth. How do you design piano education so that almost anyone who wants their child to succeed at learning can do so? Up until now, there is no certain answer to that question. Some parents get lucky and their kid figures it out and others have to break their backs and pull out all their hair fighting with their child every day for 8 years or more (if they don’t drop out first).

For me, It’s always been about the pure joy that the parents feel when they see their child learning, growing, and succeeding. When they see their children achieving and becoming what they always knew they could be. When parents are able to actualize the journey they envision for their children.

And by solving the practice problem with daily lessons and securing an authentic culture of learning, creativity and growth — learning piano will never be the same.

I’m loving this ride.

We’re almost there.

The tortoise always wins,
JT