I have been asked many times whether it is ok to have piano lessons online or if you should spend more money and get a proper piano tutor to visit your home or even pay to attend a music school. I think you should always look at the advantages and disadvantages and decide what is best for you. The aim of this article is to take you through the various teaching methods and guide you to making a decision that is right for you.
Online piano lessons
There are many websites offering online piano lessons. The trouble is that you don’t really know if the advice you are being given is good or the not. Some websites claim to offer free piano lessons, but when you try to find these free piano lessons, you realize that they are only offering very basic information and you will need to pay to get to the real stuff.
There are some fantastic e-books online that teach you how to play the piano step by step. I won’t mention the names of these e-books as I might be accused of advertising for them or for myself 
. You can sign up for my newsletter if you want more advice on this – see the ‘About the Author Box below’.
TIP/ Usually the best resources are on the sponsored link section on Google or Yahoo search, this is normally located right at the top of their search engine and also to the right hand side.
The best value for money online course I have seen so far is the Rocket Piano by Ruth Searle. Read more about it here
Summary
Online piano lessons are ok if you just want to learn the basics without the commitment of a regular piano teacher. Once you have mastered the online piano lessons then you will definitely need to get yourself a qualified piano teacher or sign up for piano lessons in your local music school if you want to progress any further.
Lessons with a piano teacher
Providing you can find a qualified piano teacher that has a lot of experience and you can justify the expense of this when you are starting out (they don’t come cheap!), then this is a good way to start learning.
There are some disadvantages of having one-on-one lessons with a private piano tutor. Children tend to find individual piano lessons too serious and boring and there are no other children in the lesson to compare progress with.
You can either travel to the teacher’s home or the teacher will travel to you. Having piano lessons in your home is probably the worst thing you can do. Check out the advantages and disadvantages below.
Piano lessons in your home
Advantages
Time saving
Disadvantages
Lots of distractions
Weak concentration
Lessons in piano teacher’s home
Advantages
You get to have your lesson on a good quality piano
There are no distractions at your piano teacher’s home
Disadvantages
You have to travel to the piano teacher’s home (traveling time, transport and parking costs)
Summary
Private piano lessons are good, but expensive. Make sure that you can afford to pay for these lessons because you will need to make a regular commitment once a week.
Piano lessons in a music school
Having piano lessons in a music school has many advantages over online piano lessons and private teaching.
Most music schools have qualified piano teachers. Some music schools also offer group teaching which is much cheaper than private lessons. Learning to play piano in groups is also more fun because the other students in the class are usually at a similar level of learning.
From my experience, I find that children and adults learning piano in a group often progress faster in the early stages than if they had a private piano teacher. I believe that this progress is due to either the competitiveness of trying to keep up with others by practicing more during the week or the less serious atmosphere that makes learning more fun than individual piano lessons.
Music schools have a proven teaching system in place. This teaching system is controlled by the principal teacher and head of music. Music schools are normally geared towards students taking examinations, and because of this, piano lessons are structured and well organized.
Summary
Having your piano lessons in a music school is the best way to start out and will more likely encourage you to continue learning for a long time. Music school fees are normally less than half the cost of a private piano lesson.his glowing report of the Rocket Piano downloadable ebook describes in great detail all the major benefits of owning this course and why this is the only piano method you should follow.
Rocket Piano is a very professionally done piano lesson package. It includes a number of ebooks, audio tracks, and video tracks to support the instructional material. In addition, there’s a ton of extras, all extremely well-done, and described below. The product is simple to download, and is perfectly paced for the introductory piano student. It runs on Windows and Macs, so it doesn’t matter what kind of computer you have. In a word, if you want to learn to play, you’d be nuts to pass on this. I highly recommend it. Read on for the details.
Chapter One – Piano Facts and History
Don’t skip this chapter. It’s full of really interesting facts about the piano and includes a bit of history, a lot of physical facts about the instrument that the beginning piano lesson student should know, and some great diagrams that show the mechanics of how a piano produces sound. There’s also a nice section about the pedals, which you don’t find in most courses, that actually explains what the pedals are for and how they work. All-in-all, a great introduction.
Chapter Two – The Basics
Chapter Two provides all the basic information you’ll need to get started in the right direction. It has the most complete description of how to sit at the piano that I’ve come across so far. You get the idea very easily from the included diagram that shows the proper position for your head, back, arms, and legs. Pay attention students, there is nothing worse than seeing a beginning player struggling because of a slouch or being too high or too low in relation to the keyboard. Chapter Two continues with an explanation of proper hand position, and dispels the popular myth that you need very long fingers to play well. The author correctly points out that finger strength and agility are far more important characteristics than finger length. The standard and necessary assignment of numbers to each finger is included too, accompanied by a very good diagram. No confusion possible here. The layout of the keyboard is explained next, again with very clear graphics, and then the connection between the finger numbering system and the keyboard is introduced with some very simple exercises – so after only sixteen pages of background, the new student is actually using the keyboard. Note reading is introduced next with a very clear and simple approach that starts with the definition of a note, and then introduces the concept of rhythm. The notation for whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes is illustrated, and the standard duration of each is explained. What follows is a series of easy exercises to reinforce the basic concepts of note type and duration. Audio clips are available for each exercise to assure the student is proceeding correctly.
Chapter Three – The Musical Alphabet
Chapter Three starts with a graphic of the keyboard with all the notes labeled and then shows you the middle C hand position, followed by a short exercise that gets both hands going to familiarize the student with middle C and the surrounding notes. Chapter Three also introduces time signatures, the other component of rhythm. Good examples follow the explanation, and there are a few practice exercises, again with sample audio tracks. The rest of the chapters in the book are just as good and cover such topics as:
the musical staff
intervals
sharps and flats
playing scales
rhythm
arpeggios, and more
Okay…if I review any more Chapters, you won’t need the package, But I do want to tell you about the extras that come with Rocket Piano. First of all, there’s a Music Theory Game called Jayde Musica that is really wonderful. When you start up the game, notes move past you on the screen from right to left and your job is to identify them before they scroll off the left-hand side of the display. You can click on the name of the note with your mouse, hit the letter on your keyboard that corresponds to the note(s) displayed, or type the number that you’ll see associated with each note. The game has an Options menu that lets you control the level of difficulty (basically the speed at which the notes move), and there’s even a high score screen that records your name once you start to excel. Kids love this stuff. This kind of game makes learning to read notes so painless, that there just isn’t any excuse anymore.
And it gets better…the second extra is another game called Keycelerator which helps you learn chord nomenclature and keyboard patterns. The game consists of a display of a chord pattern on the left of the display, and four choices on the right – a multiple choice test…the choices are shown as keyboard segments with different notes depressed. So if you can read the notes of the chord, you then pick the notes that represent the chord from the set of four choices; much more fun than studying a chord manual. The game keeps score and has a number of options you can control. (I’m not bragging, but I got a perfect score on my first test 
The next extra is called Chordinator, which is designed to improve your chord recognition abilities. Structured much like Keycelerator, but the answer choices are in the form of chord names, not notes on the keyboard. Okay, I missed one on this game, but it was only because my finger slipped off the mouse and hit the wrong choice …99/100 isn’t bad though, right?
The next extra is really addictive. It is called Perfect Your Pitch – it’s an ear-training tool to help you home your pitch recognition skills. It plays a series of four notes and you have to pick the right choice from a set of four answers. It really is a lot fun. My score wasn’t perfect on this one, and I had to force myself to stop ….like eating ice cream As you ear gets sharper it gets much easier to play songs by ear, and you’ll start to recognize note combinations in common melodies and songs on the radio…just like learning a new language. This one is highly recommended. But don’t ignore the other parts of the course while you try to perfect you pitch recognition abilities.
There’s yet another bonus included called Advanced Learning Techniques for the Piano , but I think the little book is misnamed I think you should read this first when you get the package, and I also think this little gem is worth the cost of the package all by itself. What it tells you is how to practice – a topic that is completely ignored by most teaching packages – even by a lot of teachers I think it’s one of the most important aspects of learning to play any instrument. Read it as soon as you get Rocket Piano. If you’re just starting out, the insights you’ll pick up here will save you a lot of frustration.
The Metronome program (another bonus) is really well-done. Just turn up the volume and save yourself the cost of a physical metronome. The graphics are marvelous.
If you like jazz, after you’ve gone through the basic Rocket Piano book, take a look at the add-on called Introduction to Jazz Piano. It has eight informative chapters that cover everything from jazz rhythms to chord progressions to syncopation. If you’re not familiar with those terms, don’t worry. Start with the basic Rocket Piano book and then dive into the more advanced Jazz book.
So, my advice to you is to start your own personal countdown, and then blast your musical knowledge and your playing skills to new heights with this piano lesson package. Think about it…you get all the stuff described above for less than the cost of one or two private lessons.
How to play piano: The basics, Piano Lesson #1
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