Faster = Cheaper = Easier

I think I've been explaining the benefits of the ThumMusic System to music educators in the wrong terms.

• When I emphasize cost reduction, some educators freak out, associating lower cost with lower quality.
• When I emphasize ease of learning, some educators freak out, associating easier with dumbing down.

Instead, I think I need to emphasize "increasing the rate of learning." Music educators don't seem to have a reflexively negative association with the concept of "increasing the rate of learning." By avoiding their negatively-charged reflexive responses, I give music educators the opportunity to form a reflective response.

Cost, ease, and speed are all just different facets of the same gem. If a given level of musical understanding and skill takes a long time to acquire, then it's hard and expensive (in hours invested). If the same level can be gained in less time – that is, more rapidly – then it is easier and less expensive. Increasing speed increases ease and lowers cost.

It's my understanding from research papers that I read on the Web a couple of years ago (I'll look for them again later) that the #1 reason why students quit their music lessons is because they don't feel that they are making sufficient progress to justify the hours invested. Rapid progress is exciting; slow progress is boring. By speeding up the rate at which students acquire a given level of musical knowledge and skill, music education becomes inherently more exciting, so its drop-out rate should decline, and a higher percentage of students should be successful.

This is exactly what I've been saying all along, but I've been saying it in economic terms or ease-of-use terms. These terms resonate very well with investors and technology folks, but have not proven to resonate well with music educators. I'll try casting the ideas in "rate of learning" terms, and see if that works any better.

This is just a choice-of-language issue. I should speak not to music educators in the language of economics any more than I should address a Chinese audience in Japanese. Bad associations, either way.