Teaching Piano, Organ and Keyboard

Marla Barina puts music in the hands of children and adults.

Barina opened her business, Marla's Music, last January at Highlands Crossing Community Center, where she gives lessons in organ, electric keyboard and piano.

The lessons can be geared toward beginning or advanced players, and can be taught to groups or individuals.

Learning to play an organ or keyboard may be easier than piano, Barina said. Those students only have to learn the melody and some simple chords, she said, adding that in the easiest music books, the notes and chords are written as letters.

Once some of her organ students master the easy chords and want a richer sound, she adds new chords. This technique allows her to adapt the music to each individual's talents.

Organ and piano lessons offer another benefit to her pupils. When people learn to play, they also learn coordination, which can make them more graceful and better athletes, Barina said. The students learn hand-eye coordination - a valuable skill for computer users and people who play sports such as basketball or tennis.

When her students use organ pedals, they learn how to manage their hands, eyes and feet at the same time, she added.

Barina teaches organ lessons on her Lowrey Royale, one of the most complex organs built by the company, she said. Its buttons produce the sounds of bells, whistles, rock 'n'roll, Latin music, gospel and other sounds.

However, Barina said she can teach a person to play any brand of organ or keyboard, whether it's complex or simple.

Students can take organ lessons in class with others, or they can have private lessons.

Her piano students are offered private lessons.

Barina, who was reared in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area of Texas, began preparing for her career as a music teacher when she was 4 years old and started taking piano lessons. She added organ lessons when she was about 12 years old.

She attended the University of Texas at Arlington and majored in music her first two years there. Later, reality struck, and she changed her major to business, Barina said.

But classical music remained part of her life. For 15 years, she sang with three choruses - the Southwest Baptist Theological Oratorio Chorus, the Fort Worth Symphony and the Fort Worth-Dallas Ballet. She had to leave those choruses behind in 2005 when she moved to Bella Vista.

With all of that experience, someone might expect her favorite music to be classical, but that's not the case.

"I don't have a favorite," she said. "I just love beautiful music."

Barina can teach country, gospel, hymn, big band, Broadway, Latin and other tunes. One of her current students is learning how to play music by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.

In addition to providing music instruction, Barina is the music director at Bella Vista Lutheran Church.

For more information about lessons, call 721-7778.