About Flying Leap Music

Like many musicians, Anna Dembska and Joan Harkness teach as well as perform. In the course of their work in concert and educational settings, they perceived a longing in both children and adults for a friendly, unintimidating way to learn in-depth musicianship skills.

Joan and Anna founded Flying Leap Music in 1999 to publish friendly music education materials that teach in-depth music skills by activating and integrating the senses, intellect, and imagination. Their first book, You’ve Got Rhythm: Read Music Better by Feeling the Beat (2002) was enthusiastically endorsed by Library Journal, Bookwatch, and music teachers throughout the U.S., including Don Campbell, nationally-known author of The Mozart Effect, who said: “...With this creative text, you can integrate mind, body and magic into your musical skills... A must for every serious light-hearted music student in the new millennium.”

In 2003 Joan and Anna completed their new piano course, seven years in the making: Piano, Body and Soul: Learn to Play and Become the Musician You Always Wanted to Be, which introduces adult beginners to the pleasures, joys, and challenges of playing the piano, including piano technique, reading music, improvising, grooving, and how to practice.