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

I recently bought two courses from Duane:

1.) How To Think In the Key!

And

2.) How to dress up naked music!

I also was inspired by DavidB's accomplishments and though I'm a 52-week-course dropout, it did cause me to lower my overall expectations and just get these two CD's which should be plenty anyway!

I also follow your progress David. I am glad to see you getting close to the end. Very inspirational

When you've had some time with them, we'd love to get your review. Tell us everything!

I will do that...they are due to be delivered today.

Ok...I'm going to give you the "day one" review for the two courses.

1.) How to think in any key.
I'm starting with Eb because i'm also doing the Higginson course and the tune I'm working on is in Eb so I thought it would help. (and I was right)

Basically the course amounts to Duane talking about each key and it's unique properties/layout. He mentioned a couple of things that I wouldn't have noticed. He recommends that you pick a key and play ONLY in that key for a month to force yourself to start thinking in that key. For myself, I know the key of C backwards and forwards because I've learned a lot of theory using C as an example so C is second nature to me, but Eb not so much. I've been playing in Eb for one full day now and I can say that I think he's right. It's a matter of making myself as familiar with Eb as I am with C. He has a preprinted blank list that you fill out during the month of things unique to Eb (or whatever key you are working on) and I think what he's doing is just forcing me to really get INTO the key...to get intimately familiar with each note, it's relationship to the chords, the relationship of each chord to each other...how they sound and feel under the fingers. He says that each key has a unique sound and feel and because of the physical layout of the keys...they will cause your fingers to do certain things more than others and I see that he's correct already.

It comes with audio CD's and a DVD showing him playing in each key and a book of tunes to practice with (no chords noted so that they are universal to any key) The cool thing about the book is that on the inside and back covers he notes ways to embellish and play each "style" like "arpeggiated or broken chords" and "waltz pattern" and "alberti style" etc. That was really cool. He also has many little notes on how to harmonize the melody going from very simple (just one note the 6th or 3rd underneath) to a full blown block chord thing in both hands. Very very cool. I tried just the 3rds and 6ths and it really worked like a charm. I'm just playing I-IV-V and VI-ii-V-I and stuff in the key and embellishing with color tones and melody/harmony notes...all just to get familiar with each note in key.

I'm pleased with it, I really needed this.


2.) How to dress up naked music.

Oh boy...this is extremely cool. He takes a bunch of standard tunes (Londonerry Air being the first one) and starts with you playing it as written and then embellishing from easy to incredibly complex. I just read through it and it looks great. I can't wait to pick some technique to apply to some tunes.

For myself, I think the combination of getting familiar with each key and also how to embellish simple chord and melodies is a powerful combination that really suits what I'm aiming for. I don't want to play printed music by rote/patterns, I want to be so fluent in chords and so familiar with melody notes that I can pull out some simple tunes on the fly.

In any case..I'm very pleased with the material. They both come with a binder full of materials, CD's DVD's and printed stuff. (and a book just like in the other course with different tunes and no chords noted and suggestions on how to embellish)

While the 52 week course was too overwhelming for me (as a beginner) this stuff is bite-sized enough that I think it will really do me good.

In the future, I'd like to revisit the 52 week course after I've had some experience and perspective, maybe in a year or two.

Yet the DS52WCC is indeed a course for beginners. When I look at a task that seems difficult or which I think will take a lot of time, I like to think of this quote:

Great quote by Teddy!

I think this is the right approach to me. Supposing a pace of 1 lesson per month and seeing the difficulty to stick at it - David B is a real model - and fearing to be a quitter, I prefer doing a moderate investment - let's say the first three months, twelve lessons if I have understood - and I have work for a year, or more.
In this way I will miss the bonuses:
- Secret of Power Practice
- Chart
- Chords
- Take a message to Ga.
- How to get a quick start
- Good stuff you need to know
- The most used chords

Are any of these bonuses really needed?

I still hesitate...

Thank you for the good thread.

I don't think those bonuses are important. I don't even remember going through all of them. I think the "Secret of Power Practice" is just advise about spaced repetition when practicing. The "Chart" is just a chord chart that I've never used. I really don't remember what the other bonuses are. One of them I think is just a story that you read. Frankly, I think the bonuses are gimmicky. I would not make any decisions based on the inclusion or exclusion of them.

I bought the entire 52 week crash course (and a few of Duane's other courses) when I started because I'm an all or nothing type person (according to my wife ). I put it on a credit card (received cash back bonus money) and paid it off over a 6 month period (interest free).

I like to use credit cards to my advantage. I never pay interest and always look for deals where I get cash back. I purchased my Yamaha N1X with a credit card and so far I've gotten around $1000 in cash back bonuses that I've used to pay down the N1X bill.

The 52 Week Course is a major investment of time and money, but it's a great foundation for a beginner. It's definitely taught me how to play the piano. I'm looking forward to being done with it and moving on to the next piano learning adventure, Duane's Praise and Gospel series. I also have the late (RIP) David Sprunger course Play Piano Today Pattern Piano. I'm looking forward to that course as well. I've got a lot to keep me busy.

God Bless,
David

The bonuses are very unnecessary.

* The topics of The Secret of Power Practice is in the videos and is literally a sheet of paper with:
* use spaced repetition (break up your practice throughout the day)
* focus on one area of playing at a time
* Keep a journal of progress.
* Chart is an unnecessary label of the keys. You can do the same thing with some masking tape if you really want to.
* Chords chart is a cheat sheet with pictures of a hand playing the 12 major chords and a table of the root position chord variations and extensions for all 12 root notes
* The message to Garcia is a short story that boils down to "don't shirk work". Cowboy up and put in the effort.
* How to get a quick start is short video and not anything really revelationary. Take your time, practice right hand, then practice left hand, then practice hands together.
* The most used chords chart is just for the key of C, and has the notes for the I, ii7, iii7, IV, V7, and vi7.

The most used chords is discused in the first few lessons and you'd be better served by learning a dash of theory and building them yourself.

So that's all to just say that you shouldn't feel like you're going to miss much by not getting the bonuses.


I'll also add that I found www.pianowithjonny.com just after I ordered the Crash Course, and PWJ also teaches in a similar fashion, albeit with a jazz bias. I think I'll be checking it out in parallel and it might be a good option for those that can't justify the cost of the Crash Course.

[Edit] D'oh, David B beat me to the punch. So yeah, just ditto what he said. The bonuses are just artifacts from a different age.

You are not only a model learner but a serious expert on credit card usage.
I am going to buy the first twelve lessons and wait for heaven to illuminate me.
Now earnestly. I'm not sure if I am the right man for this course. I think a year is quite an important endeavor.


I have seen some of the PWJ youtube videos and they look great, but I think I need step by step progression. I'll be happy to hear the results of your checking out on PWJ.

Thank you,

You do understand that this teaches you a different sort of piano playing than you have been learning in previous courses, right? You aren't going to learn how to play Schumann's Happy Farmer or Bach, any faster with this course, right? I've gone through your previous posts, most recently about Jenny Macmillan's classical piano lessons, and this course seems a major course change for you. Can you share with us why you decided to take a different route entirely toward chord and cocktail piano, accompaniment, and improv? Have you been getting frustrated with classical piano? Can you share some of your thinking and decision making?

I am not dropping classical nor MacMillan’s. I am following MacMillan as she teaches a lot of things I was unable to discover by myself. I really didn’t know how to listen to those little études.
I am admired by David’s progression and I want to give it a try.
I enjoy blues and bar piano and I know the crash course is not exactly about that but having seen other people’s results - and the difficulty and persistence needed for the endeavor - I am going to try it.

I am a beginner and I may have been making stabs in the dark for a long time but
1. I think MacMillan’s videos are helping
2. Shinn’s might help too, even though I still hesitate because it seems a very demanding task.

I like playing the piano. I even enjoy doing scales, arpeggios and broken chords. So, if the course makes me improve in whatever way, be welcomed.

I know kind of joke that goes:
- I love loosing playing poker
- And winning?
- Winning? That has to be amazing!

So, if I love doing scales, Czerny - not much - and so, being able to do some comping and easy improv has to be great.

Thanks for responding. That all makes sense! You are trying to broaden your piano vistas, so it's a broadening, not a course correction!

I have been over the piano crash course webpage and I have found two possibilities:
Buying either the entire course or the first 4 weeks. Is there a possibility of buying the first two or three months?
I have found no contact information.

Thank you for your help.

No.

Either the entire course ($997) …. or buying them in lots of 4 at a time for $100 for each block of 4. That comes out to $1300.

If you buy all 13 groups of 4 weeks. I am betting you won't get all of them. I have never encountered anyone who has finished this course.

I'm finishing up lesson 41.

There is one song in lesson 40 that I can play, but not very good. I don't particularly like the song, but I can't feel done with the lesson until the song is a little bit more polished and then I'll never play it again.

Lesson 41 has has like five songs in it (some of them are just exercises), but none of them are arranged and the lesson focuses more on music reading. Duane specially says not to arrange the songs but to learn them as written.

I'm hoping to start lesson 42 in a couple weeks. I'd like to get 4 or 5 more lessons done by the end of the year. Realistically, I probably won't be done with the course until the spring/summer of 2020. By then it will have taken me 3.5 years to finish. I don't know if I'll still be posting on this forum at that time, but you can be sure that if I'm still alive, the course will get finished.

God Bless,
David

I do not doubt you.

Unfortunately, that does not change the fact that …..

I have never encountered anyone who has finished this course.

The only PW forum member who I've seen say that he/she finished the entire 52 week course (as well as a number of other of Duane Shinn's courses) is EP.

Supposing I buy now the first lot, where is the form to buy the second lot?

Thank you