Playing it Their Way: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Piano to Individuals with Physical or Mental Disabilities.(Book review)

* Playing it Their Way: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Piano to Individuals with Physical or Mental Disabilities, by Karen Z. Kowalski. Mousebox Books, 2007. 68 pp. $15.95.

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Playing it Their Way takes a personal and informative look at teaching music to students who possess physical or mental disabilities. The author, Karen Z. Kowalski, discusses her experience of teaching students with disabilities by combining the skills she has acquired through her work as an occupational therapist with those she has developed as a musician. The result is a general manual about teaching music to students with disabilities, with great emphasis on the rewards that teachers may encounter.

For music teachers who have never taught a student with some type of physical or mental limitation, this book is a valuable beginner's manual on the subject. Kowalski writes in a straightforward manner and presents the medical jargon in an easy-to-understand style. However, the scope of the material does not lend itself to more in-depth study for those teachers who currently have students with disabilities in their studio or those who are hoping to acquire more information on a particular disability.

A useful and informative aspect of this book is Kowalski's explanation of the various body systems such as vision, muscular and nervous. This information is most helpful when she puts it in context of how the ...