When Tony Eyers, Ph.D., was teaching at China’s Zhengzhou University in 2006, he noticed a serious problem: there was a major lack of music teaching resources but a substantial market for learning. Motivated to fill the void, the world-renowned harmonica player and instructor teamed up with a colleague to translate harmonica lessons, music and information into the Mandarin language.
With that material, Eyers created an online music instruction program called Harmonica University. Today, the course serves over 50000 Chinese members and was such a hit that Eyers launched the English “Harmonica Academy” site in 2008.
Now Eyers has released Academia de la Armonica, a Spanish version of this online harmonica teaching program.
Now open for enrollment, Academia de la Armonica (www.armonica.com.es) offers beginner, intermediate and advanced harmonica instruction in Spanish with its freshman through senior level courses.
“It’s blown me away just how successful the harmonica teaching sites have been, and I’m thrilled to debut this concept in Spanish,” Eyers says. “Considering that much of the Spanish speaking world has Internet access, Academia de la Armonica fills the gap for a comprehensive online harmonica course in this language. It’s now available to virtually everyone, no matter a person’s interest or skill level.”
Structured like a four-year college, Academia de la Armonica offers online enrollment and an 81-lesson program. It’s also unique in that it allows students to learn at their pace and study the music of their choosing. While many harmonica courses are limited to learning through blues music only, Academia de la Armonica offers instruction and practicing opportunities in many genres — everything from bluegrass to hip hop. Also, each course offers strength-building exercises, much like weight training at a gym. What’s more, Academia de la Armonica has online high-tech audio players with a “hear it, then play it” approach and features 1,000+ audio tracks.
“With its cutting-edge technology, user-friendly experience and diverse coursework, Academia de la Armonica is attractive to Spanish-speaking people of all ages, types and learning styles,” Eyers says. “You can even ‘play’ with bands before doing so in real life, thanks to special backing tracks that simulate playing alongside others.”
Enrolled members receive a free download of the Tony Eyers CD, “Black Mountain Harmonica”. For more information, visit www.armonica.com.es.
About Academia de la Armonica
Academia de la Armonica offers multimedia online harmonica instruction, music and information in Spanish. It’s designed for beginner through advanced learners using a familiar university format of freshman- through senior-level courses.
The brainchild of Tony Eyers, an Australian native, a harmonica instructor and world-renowned musician, Academia de la Armonica began in China, where Eyers successfully launched a Mandarin-language version of his online program. With an electronics undergraduate degree from Yale University, an education diploma, a telecommunications-engineering doctorate, and an extensive background in harmonica playing and instruction, Eyers has applied his expert skills to create Academia de la Armonica. This cutting-edge website provides harmonica instruction virtually anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world.