Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Rocket, Piano for All, or Piano in a Flash

It would be nice to have a tablet PC for that. Just hate having to scroll down each page on a normal laptop screen.

Thanks, Rosanna! I just want to add that the chords are all printed out in my video captions, and there are PDF lead sheets available with the videos and in my forum. I also answer all questions posted in my forum in detail. As mentioned, though, just to be clear, I don't teach the basic chords. My videos mainly demonstrate song arrangement and embellishment techniques.

When it comes right doen to it, printed books work well enough. If you are just starting a DVD might help because it can shown things like posture and hand position and shape. But most of what you need is printed music with graduated exercises. Any method book will have this. And then you put in 20+ minutes a day.

Thanks everyone for the useful information you've been a great help. Now if my wife will let me near the new Kawai CE200 I bought her this week.

Hi all,

Scott Houston here to try and clarify a few things I saw in this thread as it mentions my book and/or DVD Play Piano in a Flash. Thought it best to come from the horse's mouth.

I don't have any complete "program?" or method like it seems you are discussing with Rocket Piano and the others mentioned. I have no reason not to believe they are all quality materials, though I have seen none of them personally.

I have many different things available for sale such as DVDs, my original Play Piano in a Flash paperback book, etc., but to be clear it is not a "Method" per se. It is meant for people that are interested in this non-classical style that I work with exclusively on my TV show and other materials. A big tenet of my philosophy is that unless you give a hoot about the tunes you are playing, the instruction will probably not "stick" too well. That is why everyone who uses my stuff tends to create their own path and purchase stuff that is relevant and interesting to them personally.

Someone mentioned a pdf of my Play Piano in a Flash paperback book as though the paper and ink book wasn't available... not true. That pdf is sold separately by my publisher Hyperion as an ebook for a buck or two less than the cost of the book in any major bookstore. It's not part of any "full program" I sell (nor is it public domain to be distributed freely).

The only "capital M" Method (i.e. week by week, lesson by lesson) I have is limited for use exclusively by students of my "Play Piano in a Flash Class" nationwide group lesson program offered at Host Sites nationwide. I don't want to plug the program on this forum so if you need the web address you can contact me...

Just wanted to clarify that the comparisons of the other seemingly on-line programs and mine are not really apple-to-apple. Mine is more "ala carte" and a "pure play" of the style of things you see me discuss on every episode of the TV series.

Hope that helps!

Thanks Scott for the info. I did get a copy of your paperback.

And to be fair and LEGAL, the right thing to do is not distribute pdf copies of Scott's materials. They are a product of his work and he is entitled to the proceeds of the sales.

So to clarify, the forums are not to be used to facilitate distribution of unauthorized copies of copyrighted works.

Ken

Just so I'm clear I bought Scott's book

Thanks guys

A person enquiring about my course referred me to this thread, so I'm here to find out what has been said. Although it's an old thread, it apparently is still being read by PianoWorld visitors, so it seems fair that I should have the opportunity to respond. (If I had known about it sooner, I surely would have been here sooner.)

As the author/instructor/owner of PianoMagic.com, I would like to clarify a comment above that mentions my course, because I recognize the posters screen name...and he left out a few important details.



I completely agree that Psalm23 wasted his time and money in PianoMagic, but it wasn't because I didn't try to work with him. According to his own comments (still posted and available within the PMMO Forums), Psalm23 was attempting to work through several courses at the same time, and asking questions within PianoMagic, that revealed he was not studying or developing the important principles taught in PianoMagic.

His posts revealed he was not following instructions. When he would post a question in my Forums, I would provide an answer based upon the very principles I teach. Very often, I ended my detailed responses with a few questions of my own. Psalm23 never offered a single response to any of MY questions, nor followed up with a related comment or question. Although I asked if he understood my responses, he never posted a follow-up response...EVER.

Our last communication was via email, when Psalm23 politely asked for a refund. Unfortunately, unlike other courses mentioned above, I don't offer refunds because I sell no product, so students have 'nothing' to return. In essence, I am 'the product', and members gain direct access to participate with ME for a year. Granted, there are well over 100 videos, 100 audios, and thousands of pages of written guidance posted within PMMO Forums, but ALL were created in response to members who participate 'with' me in the learning process. What's more, I continue to provide new content, and it's instantly available to ALL my members 24/7.

I won't post Psalm23's email, but I see no harm in posting MY last email to him, because it contains what I consider to be a 'common sense' and 'logical' approach to working with ANY instructor...in ANY setting that expects student participation.


I received a brief email response, but no questions or comments related to my message.

Psalm23, if you read this (and I hope you will), I notice your last visit to the PMMO members area was March 7, 2009, so you basically allowed the last 7 months of your membership to expire with total inactivity. If you should ever decide that you're willing try again - focusing upon only ONE course of study at a time - I will gladly extend your expired membership by an additional 7 months: But you would still be expected to participate 'with' me in the learning process, because that's how we 'do it' in PianoMagic. (I limit the maximum number of members for that very reason.)

I harbor no ill will, and you are free to maintain a completely horrible opinion of me and my efforts if you prefer...but I would prefer an opportunity to change your mind, by assisting you to understand the thought process you clearly missed. You are welcome to email or call me to accept my offer...or we can discuss it further if you like.

As I tell my students, there's a lot more info about playing piano 'out there' than I know about, have ever heard about, or will ever use...and I'm confident ALL of the available courses are designed around whatever ideas their creators believe to be excellent! To learn, understand and gain that excellence for yourself, you must focus upon the materials provided. If your course of study comes with a living, breathing instructor, work with that person!

PianoMagic was never intended to be the only course of study one will ever need or want...but it's the approach that makes ME the happiest when I play, and I rely upon it to keep myself in business as a professional musician (currently 44 years).


To the moderator: It is not my intent to 'plug' my course, but to fairly present the 'other side' of the story, regarding a negative comment that your readers have brought to my attention, and to offer the poster another chance to do more than waste his time and money.

When I have time, I enjoy reading the PianoWorld forums, always find the quarterly recitals to be enjoyable and inspiring...and it's especially FUN to read about the excitement folks experience when playing the music they love!

As far as I'm concerned, the world is a better place because of the musicians in it. It doesn't matter WHERE or HOW a person learns to play, but whether or not they enjoy it...so my advice is to 'follow the FUN' wherever it may lead!

Thank you for the opportunity to post my response.

Respectfully,


Mike

P.S.
In the posts above, I recognize a few other screen names as former members of PianoMagic, and I hope you're all doing well! I remember that you offered wonderfully supportive and inspiring comments to help me cope with the illnesses my puppy began to experience, and your thoughts were very helpful to me.

Just to let you know, my sweet doggie 'Coco' unexpectedly died this past Sunday. If you have connections with 'the giver of life', I would certainly appreciate a good referral for 'my girl'.

From your site : -



From your post today..



So you'll be giving him a refund then, as per your refund policy quoted from your site? He didn't follow instructions, according to you.

After a cursory glance at your site, I was taken aback with the price for access. Almost $200 for access to videos? I take it you've never heard of Youtube!? Perhaps all the videos there are for people "bright" enough to stay away from your site.

Lypur's channel looks more and more generous every day.

This isn't meant as an attack on your business. It's just grating that rather than attend to an unhappy customer, you instead come here and try and call him out. I'd hazard a guess he's not the only person who asked for a refund.

This forum does seem to have become affected with drive-by posts spamming (or in your case vigorously defending) their businesses.

neither

This discussion about which online piano course is best, seems to come up regularly. I can't say and I believe it's hard to tell which of them is best. Most of them probably have their advantages and disadvantages.

I've got Piano For All and Rocket Piano so I can at least testify about those two. They're just fine and in both cases you get a lot of material for 40 dollars. I've emailed the staff at Rocket Piano a few times for advice, and they've been very helpful.

I agree with some here that Rocket Piano is more geared towards absolute beginners, although a beginner could benefit a lot from Piano For All. We also know that much of the material in those online courses can be found for free, but that takes more work and time, which is also money in most cases.

Finally, about refund policy. This is quite new to me, because it seems consumer rights are so much more respected in USA and elsewhere in Europe (Eurozone,) than in my country.

Still this seems a bit strange, because the seller of an online course has no guarantee the buyer who asks for a refund will not keep the course material on his hard disk and continue to use it. So I'm not sure if I would make use of this option, even if I thought the course was not for me.

Hi Pablo here from Toronto. I just registered to this forum to reply to this specific thread that I read during my research. I play the guitar and sing in a garage band, nothing too pro.. but lots of fun and even some original songs. COVID was a good excuse to learn piano, something I wanted for a while but always considered to be hard and long. I did learn musical notation when I was young, I am 56 now but I wanted something more like chords to sing along.
I did some research I found lots of great stuff but finally settled for piano for all.
Funny but I ended up paying two times for the same thing, one for the complete PDFs and another for the Udemy course.
BUT, I do not mind, I have to confess I am thrilled by the course. I even liked the musical notation again. I would have pay more.... you can get this course in udemy doe $20 .. amazing. Is a no-brainer.

I see that you are new here, and you may not have noticed that you are responding to a thread that is 9-1/2 years old.

Regards,

I bought the Udemy course piano for all as a total adult beginner with no musical background, and tried following for a couple of months, but gave up on it...maybe useful after a couple of years, but not for a total beginner, at least that is my experience. I think your experience with the guitar must have given you an understanding of chords and music, making it more useful for you, and at some point I will probably give it another try.

Good luck on your piano journey!

You cannot go wrong with Piano For All product.

It gives you a very thorough glimpse of various styles of playing piano.

It will provide you with a base from which to move on into a more specific genre as you develop your interests in music.