"Payam Method" reimagines music education, piano lessons for kids

Payam Khastkhodaei thought it was the biggest accomplishment successful the satellite erstwhile helium placed 2nd successful a state-level soft competition. Then his students started sweeping competitions crossed the United States. 

The 32-year-old lad of Iranian immigrants has travel up with a caller method of teaching that has students loving their soft lessons and performing astatine precocious levels. Khastkhodaei says his students person higher occurrence rates and are learning much rapidly than students learning soft via accepted methods. 

"Our students don't conscionable larn piano, they emotion piano," Khastkhodaei said. "And that's 1 of the biggest keys to it."

What sets Payam's soft teaching methods apart?

In astir each country of a converted location successful the Seattle suburb of Bothell, Washington, Khastkhodaei and his squad of young teachers — each erstwhile students of his — are giving soft lessons, and having fun. Students are charged from $75 to $100 per lesson, and scope from preschool beginners to precocious schoolhouse talents.

"In soft we person this happening called the diploma, which is benignant of similar the achromatic loop of the philharmonic world," Khastkhodaei said. "Traditionally, astir 1-2% of students scope diploma level, and it takes them astir 12 years. In our school, 96% scope it and it takes them astir 4 years."

The "Payam Method" begins not with expanse music, but with ABCs and 123s, and with really penning numbers connected soft keys.

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"They're not speechmaking notes. They're not adjacent sometimes looking astatine expanse music. We're playing a game. And it's amusive for them," Khastkhodaei said. 

Students are shown numbers to play, not notes.

"What they're doing is gathering this coordination," Khastkhodaei said.

Students yet displacement to expanse euphony arsenic they determination done the 18 levels of the program and, each the while, they're learning to play — and constitute — songs they enjoy.

Most of Khastkhodaei's students don't aspire to beryllium performance pianists, but his playful attack seems to person them loving their lessons. What truly sets him isolated is that he's besides teaching his students to constitute archetypal songs astatine precise young ages. Delara Rahmatian, 12, precocious showed disconnected her third-ever composition. 

Even erstwhile they're learning different people's compositions, Khastkhodaei's students are encouraged to play astir with tempo, benignant and mood.

"Try it erstwhile and you'll understand," Khastkhodaei said helium tells immoderate skeptics.

Bringing the "Payam Method" to students crossed the U.S. 

The Payam Method is spreading thanks, successful part, to Hadi Partovi, the begetter of 1 of Khastkhodaei's students and the co-founder and CEO of code.org. Partovi sees a batch of parallels betwixt his platform, which has been utilized to thatch coding to hundreds of millions of students, and the Payam Method.  

"One is, we don't thatch coding with ones and zeros or, you know, space brackets and semicolons. We thatch it with blocks and dragging and dropping to marque it easier," Partovi said. "Similarly, Payam Music teaches euphony starting with ABCs and 123s earlier you larn the codification of however euphony is written."

Partovi is present CEO of Payam Music, with the extremity of taking the tiny school, present with conscionable a fewer 100 students, national. 

Partovi's son, Darius, began lessons with Payam Music 7 years ago. Partovi says helium knew from time 1 of his son's lessons that helium wanted to assistance standard up Khastkhodaei's operations. The program is to person schools crossed the country, each with 5 to 7 euphony rooms to beryllium capable to enactment astir 150 students. 

"It'll instrumentality america astir 100 schools to get to 10,000 students," Partovi said. "The question is, however rapidly tin we get there?"

He's raised wealth to money the enlargement from an awesome database of investors, including Hans Zimmer, the Oscar-winning composer down the philharmonic scores for much than 150 films. Before helium became a renowned composer, Zimmer was a frustrated euphony pupil who was kicked retired of 8 euphony schools. 

"To this day, I conscionable retrieve these soft lessons arsenic being horrible. And here's a antheral who figured retired a mode of giving children this accidental to person implicit happiness, you know? To emotion euphony and emotion themselves," Zimmer said. 

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The composer said he's drawn to the playfulness successful Khastkhodaei's method. 

"It's precisely what I privation I could've had," helium said.

Zimmer visited Khastkhodaei's archetypal caller location, successful Santa Monica, California, and listened to prima pupils play their compositions, including 1 by Partovi's son, who present writes his ain music.

"Over time, we'll beryllium capable to person the euphony constitution that this caller mode of teaching is better," Partovi said. "But close now, we conscionable request to person parents. And the easiest mode to person parents is erstwhile they ticker their lad oregon girl autumn successful emotion with music."

The "Payam Method" payoff 

Khastkhodaei's teachings are producing award-winning pianists. In 2024, 41 of his students submitted archetypal compositions to the National PTA's Reflections program. Nationwide, astir 300,000 students were competing, truthful his students made up conscionable a tiny fraction of the participants. 

"But we won 13 retired of 15 territory winners, we won 5 retired of 5 Washington authorities first-place winners. And past those 5 students went connected to vie nationally and 4 of them won 4 of the 14 nationalist medals that were awarded," Khastkhodaei said. 

Parents accidental the lessons person been life-changing for their kids, showing them learning tin beryllium fun.

"The champion determination I made," ma Shahrzad Salestani said. 

Mom Saswati Sanyal said her 15-year-old girl Aaniya has gained assurance from the lessons. 

"And you consciousness bully astir yourself," Sanyal said. "So that is truly antithetic astir this school."

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