Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Duane Shinn 52 Week Crash Course

Hi. Thanks for this thread. I bought the course years ago but never went through it. I've dabbled a little for fun, but when work is required, I grab my flute. Now that I've happened upon a group of friends-to-be, I'm inclined to start again, although I may wait until after the Christmas busy season. So, everyone have a great holiday season, and as the saying goes, see you next year.

Which brings us to the question I keep forgetting to ask you...
I can't really tell from your vids... how much do you use sheet music in your playing? I see it's always up on the stand but I can't figure out how much are you using it (or if at all)?

Like me.
I've brought it out again, and reviewing the first few pieces. Now at Beautiful Isle Of Somewhere.
Now I work on singing/howling the tune at the same time.
Possibly that will help me to go further into the course this time, until I get derailed again.

The first thing I do is learn how to play a song as it's written. That's what Duane says we should do. I practice right hand, left hand, and then both hands together. When I can play the song as it's written, then I start working on the arrangement Duane has for that song. Usually the score is mostly memorized by then. However, when I'm finally ready to record the song and I first play it how it's written, I have to reference the music some since I've been primarily working on the arrangement and forgot how it was exactly written. So in my videos I'm looking at the music some while playing the song how it's written, but I'm not looking at the music at all when I playing the arrangement.

God Bless,
David

So you're getting pretty good at actually reading score by now? Seeing how these aren't easy chopstick pieces by any means

I'm actually considering getting this course on a month-by-month basis. Four lessons for $100 plus shipping and import taxes is pretty steep but it seems that there's at least three month's work in there so it might be a way to spread the cost, even if it does accumulate to probably twice the price by the time I'm done with it. But since 52 weeks are likely to spread over 520 weeks, it might not be too bad.

How far do first four lessons take a person?

Here is a link to the course syllabus if you haven't seen it already.

http://www.pianolessonsbyvideo.com/syllabus.htm

God Bless,
David

The first four lessons cover a lot of the basics (which they have to do in a comprehensive course), so depending on your prior experience there may or may not be a lot of new stuff in them. Some of the things covered include

1) an orientation of the keyboard and how to find middle C
2) How to play songs in a five finger position
3) How music is put together (Melody/Harmony/Rhythm)
4) An introduction to note values and timing (quarter, half, dotted half, whole notes, dotted quarter notes and eighth notes with their equivalent rests)
5) The C F G G7 and D7 "pointer chords" - pointer chords are simply the 2nd inversion of the chord where the pointer (index) finger is playing the root note of the chord. Other inversions of chords are introduced later in the course, and of course other chords as well
6) Playing the melody line in the treble clef and then adding chord symbols (an introduction to playing from lead sheets)
7)The C-scale and moving beyond the five finger position (thumb under/over technique)
8) An introduction to arranging techniques based on lead sheet
9) pick up notes and stealing time from the last measure
10) playing in different registers (octaves)
11) playing in different time signatures 3-4 and 4-4 time covered
12) Effective practice strategies
13) The family of chords associated with a scale and how to predict the most likely chords used in a song
14) The bass clef and the grand staff
15) Using different chord inversions for smoother transitions
16) An introduction to swing bass
17) 30-35 songs covered

There's probably a lot more that I didn't write down in my journal, but that should give you an idea.

Thanks for that, F.!

While I'm generally familiar with most of these topics, I'm sure that when push comes to shove I have way too many holes in my knowledge than I care to admit

I guess it'd be a fair assessment that these alone would take me a better part of a year to go through, so I'm leaning towards the month-by-month scenario right now as it's financially more bearable that way...

Muddyfox,
Duane recommends that you practice using a principle of spaced repetition. So if you have an hour per day it would be better to break it into 30 min in the morning and 30 at night. Or 20 min three times per day. If one can commit to that, I think the first four lessons would take a complete beginner anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks to get through the first 4 lessons. I would guess about 6 weeks as an average. an experienced player who can already read/play but is using the course to learn arranging techniques could probably get through the first four lessons in a week or two. The next 4 lessons deal much more with the grand staff, introduces new, more challenging techniques, and gives more complex songs for you to learn. The thing is, Duane recommends that when you learn a new technique that you go back and practice it on some of the older songs. Most ppl probably ignore that advice, but I think it is an essential part of the course, because instead of just mimicking Duane's arrangements you really learn to make your own. So if you follow that advice you can spend an arbitrarily long time working on older lessons. So if you really want to go the 1 DVD of four lessons every few months there will be plenty for you to do even if you get through a batch of the official assignments pretty quickly.

Warm regards,
Fizikisto

Good stuff...!

I think that's exactly what I'll do. Even though I have many other things on my beginner piano plate, I think I'll give these first four lessons a go and see if it catches on. We all respond to different ways of teaching/learning and I think it'd be worthwhile to see if DS course resonates with me in a positive way.

Ok, I've started. I'm on the infamous Lesson 8. I'm doing 15 minute practice sessions. 15 minutes seems like about the right amount of time to get through the lesson as written. Then in other sessions I can work on other styles & tunes. I was getting befuddled & not sure of what I was even supposed to do, so I made a little blank chart that I can fill in with columns for the name of the tune, & then the styles Duane has covered so far. That way at a glance I can see what I've done & what to do next. Styles so far: Block Chords, Swing Bass, Broken Chords, Low Note plus Broken Chord, Alberti Bass, 2-1 Breakup, Low Note plus 2-1 Breakup. I'll probably be on Lesson 8 for a few days.

I'm not too far along in the course, but I don't remember what was infamous about lesson 8?



That's a good idea. I've been using an app called "Activity Tracker" that enables me to see exactly how I'm spending my time while at the piano. It automatically compiles the data into graphs and other useful analytics.

Keep up the good work. I believe it will pay off if we're patient.

God Bless,
David

Swing Bass & all the new chording styles. Lesson 8 according to Fizikisto: "It took me a month to get through that lesson. Did I mention that it's hard? ... Whatever you call it, it's hard." I heartily concur, at least when it's all new. I presume someday it will seem easy, but not yet.

I see.

You're right, with practice and time, it will get easier. Duane likes to say that learning piano is not linear, but a series of plateaus and inclines. It might seem like we're not getting any better until one day when we reach the next incline and realize we are a little bit better.

God Bless,
David

Thanks for all the info in this thread. I ordered the first 4 lessons yesterday. I just started playing last September and this course sounds like it might fit my needs very well.

Welcome Aboard!

Thanks, I retired in September and started playin then. I have played upright and electric bass for years. I have tried a couple different methods of learning and the only thing that has really clicked is the sound of emotions course which I really like but not sure will teach me the types of songs I really want to play which is gospel hyms and older pop or rock stuff. I spent a long time watching Duane on YouTube and he looks like what I need to play the stuff I want to someday be able to play. I will give my thoughts once the dvds get here.

I got the first 4 lessons this afternoon in the mail. In this day of instant gratification I was not sure about ordering through the mail but it was a smooth process. I ordered Saturday morning and they arrived Thursday afternoon.

I watched the intro video and the first lesson. I thought the quality of the video was good enough, even though it was taken from vcr it was certainly clear enough to see and understand what was going on. I also thought the lesson was really good. I am starting from scratch and it explained things in a way I could understand.

I played my first song with both hands using the melody and the pointer chords Duane explains. It was slow but I was able to do it and it actually sounded like music, slow simple music but music none the less.

This course is expensive but time will tell if it makes me into a piano player.

It will. It's making me into a piano player. Of course it's not the only series of lessons that we can learn form, but it I think it really has it all. You'll learn how to read music, different arrangement techniques and styles, and theory. I started lesson 21 and Duane is summarizing everything he covered up until this point. There is plenty of opportunity to practice every technique he teaches because there are so many songs in the course (eight books), therefore you constantly have the opportunity to apply what you learn. Duane's arrangements are can be challenging and fun.

Congrats on the journey and blessings as you learn.

God Bless,
David

How young do you think you could start a person on this program, of course with teacher guidance? I was considering this course for an eight year old.