One Arm Will Do on the Piano

If there was an ironclad excuse for a kid skipping a music lesson, a broken arm would be it. Matthew Rupert, co-founder of Little Mission Studio in San Francisco, won’t let his music learners off that easily. He often teaches piano lessons to students recovering from injuries. Rupert, a composer, wrote Music for Broken Arms, a book of musical pieces that can be played with one hand.

“The book grew out of a need for music that was specifically for that purpose,” says Rupert, who was born in Bogota, Colombia. “Every now and then, a kid will have an injury of the arm, wrist or elbow, and will be in a cast or splint for at least a month,” he says. “The parents will say: ‘Well, I guess we have to stop piano lessons because they only have one hand.’ I say, ‘Well, you still have the other hand!’”

Early Inspiration

Rupert often shares a story from his days as a student at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Renowned pianist Leon Fleisher, a longtime instructor and conductor at Peabody, lost the use of his right hand due to a neurological condition. Fleisher — who died in 2020 — managed to perform a lot of music using just his left hand. Rupert tells his students, if a professional could still perform with just one arm, you can manage to play something, too.

“He’s very inspiring,” Rupert says about Fleisher, who undermined the argument that an arm injury makes playing the piano impossible.

“Students often use an arm injury as an excuse to quit,” says Rupert, who teaches piano and clarinet at Little Mission Studio, which he opened in 2014 with two partners. “But they are also not knowing and realizing there are things we can do with one hand.”

Make it Fun

Rupert encourages injured students by giving them lessons from his book’s songs, which are each named after a real-life injury one of his students had suffered. With fun names like “Basketball Jam,” “Soccer Foul Fandango,” “Skateboard Trick” and “Ski Mountain Mambo,” how can a kid resist?

Rupert created the one-armed music — two-page songs written for either the left or right hand, in different octaves with different fingering — with the idea that students will be sitting in the center of the keyboard keys. Before he wrote the book, Rupert wouldn’t necessarily let injured students take time off; he would offer alternatives, like lessons on music theory and composition. His students — he teaches about 40 students in private lessons each week, and each year, a few have injuries — do well despite their limitations, and they enjoy the way Rupert has put playful touches on their music.

“It’s a way to keep them engaged and playing on keys,” Rupert says. “They really relate to theme songs: ‘Hey, I fell off my bicycle, so I should learn the Bicycle Flight song.’ I write for my students in a particular situation. I like to explore the possibilities with them. What can we do with that? Let’s get creative.”

Feedback from parents has been positive because their kids really enjoyed their lessons during their healing time. Both the parents and children are surprised that piano lessons are even doable with only one working arm, and learning this amazing truth is exciting for them, he says.

Rupert’s “Music for Broken Arms,” published in 2022, is available for purchase as a downloadable PDF.

Future Plans

Rupert — who spent time in Austria doing chamber workshops with members of the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Orchestra — hopes to write more of these fun songs for students with temporary use of only one arm. Already, a few more students have had injuries that could inspire new songs. Eventually, Rupert hopes to put together a second volume of “Music for Broken Arms.”

A program at Little Mission Studio that Rupert is very proud of is the Composer of the Week, where students collect cards of composers that are like baseball cards. The school has covered more than 300 composers, from classical to contemporary, with a diverse lineup that includes men, women, people of color and LGBT people.

“I’m really proud of everything we have built in our little school here,” Rupert, who was recognized as a 2024 Yamaha “40 Under 40” music educator, says.

Outside of teaching, Rupert works as a performing musician in the San Francisco Bay area as a soloist and with groups like the ECHO Chamber Orchestra. Some regional music groups, including ECHO and Fog City Percussion, also play Rupert’s compositions. Outside of the fun ditties for one-armed piano students, Rupert also composes solo and chamber works, as well as full orchestral works.

Wanting to give back, in 2022, Rupert co-founded the nonprofit Make More Music Foundation, in memory of his parents. This organization provides scholarships to music students, facilitates instrument donations and hosts community educational concerts.