Hello,

Has anyone ever tried the piano for all method? Does it teach you how to play piano by ear? Is it only learning how to play in the key of "C"?

Thank you,
ChazG

www.pianoforall.com

I have only tried the course for a couple of days, but I will absolutely recommend it, especially for beginners, but also for more advanced beginners. It does not especially teach you to play by ear, but it can be useful for that. I have not checked, but i am pretty sure you learn to play in all keys.
Piano For All can teach you to play in any and all the styles you want, just pick and choose. Everything is explained very clearly and in great detail. That should be very useful also for people who are at a very advanced level in one style of music, and want to learn something new.
My own weakest point is reading music (just love improvisation), and that has improved considerably in just two days.

Hello cubop,

You just got the course? Thanks for the information. I plan on ordering this program; and it is a good price for much information.

ChazG

Yes, I got the course, and for the price its a steal. Good luck.

I'm pretty sure the course has music in all keys and isn't aimed just a the key of C. Worth trying out as playing by ear is a good method to learn too.

You mean there are other keys than C...?

Just kidding...

My favorite "by-ear" key is F. It matches my singing voice pretty well. I'm learning to play in all the keys, but there are certain keys that I'm more familiar with. All the different keys have similarities as far as music theory is concerned.

Happy playing!

Rick

I am going to go ahead and order pianoforall. I emailed Robin Hall, creator of the piano method, and he responded that I should be able to achieve what I want to do - play piano by ear in time. He mentioned by the last book you get into more keys with scale and arpeggio practice.

Rickster,

yes, I like the key of "F" too for singing. I know there are certain common keys that people play for singing; but I am not sure which keys. I am very sure that the key of "C" is one.

Thanks,
ChazG

Is this advertising ?

Hello Ina,

No, we are just expressing our views. I just ordered the pianoforall program yesterday. I looked over it today; and it contains alot of information on different ways to play patterns in every style.

Thank you,
ChazG

Any up dates on people who used and stayed with this program?

Hi Mark,

I just came across this by accident. I'm a beginner and this sounds too good to be true. I am 60 yrs of age and trying to teach myself.
Would you be kind enough to keep me posted on this course ? I would love to hear about peoples experience with this product.
I am currently waiting for the new version of the piano and keyboard method by eMedia.

Any advice is appreciated.

Vincent

I currently do not use this program. It seems to a good one and very inexpensive. I brought this up to see if anyone did this program and actually stayed with it, as well as the overall results.

We always hear about these "great" programs, but very seldom see people who complete them...

"Piano For All" is a real bargain.

I purchased it many years ago and picked up many tips and tricks from it.

Sadly after we moved a while back, I can no longer find the CD to reinstall. (Robin ... you listening)

Just go to the website and watch the video, to get a taste of what's covered in the course.

Just contact Robin (dannac.) I've contacted him a few times and he has always replied quickly. Once because I found out I had forgotten to download one of the books. He gave me a link so I could download any book, video and mp3 file of the course.

http://pianoforall.com/contact-us/

The program is quite good. It gives an insight into how the various rhythms and chord progressions are used in popular music.

It sounds awesome. When I sit down and try to learn a piece it
takes me days and weeks of playing the same piece day after day.

Please tell me how it works. Do you have to sit at a piano to do it or do you do everything on the computer and it stays in you brain when you sit at the piano. Please explain.

When you say it can teach you to play in any and all styles. What are you referring to as styles. Can you name some styles because I don't know what you mean because I am a beginner.

How does the program teach you to read music. I only know to put a piece of music on the piano and play and read the music many hundreds of times. HOw does it work so quickly.

The only way I know to do improvisation is to learn all the keys, all the chords which is taking me many years as a beginner. Do you even need a piano and use just a laptop. Help me as a beginner. Thanks.

Michael_99, I'm no different than you in that it has taken me weeks, sometimes months, to learn the very few pieces I've learned and I even forget them more quickly. I'm a beginner as well.

This particular program offers no magic tricks. All Piano For All (PFA) does, is explain how to play rhythms and progressions, common to many songs. Beware that there is absolutely no sheet music given, since that would make the package more expensive, as royalties would have to be paid to the concerning artists. Still, for every rhythm covered there is a long list of songs to which that rhythm does apply, along with chord changes.

The rhythms or progressions aren't always used in the real songs in the exact way they're covered in the program, but it can give you ideas on how to improvise. In my opinion by going through the program, you can improve your musical ear, even though PFA is not publizised as an ear training course. You might even get the same information for free elsewhere, but that always takes time and time is usually money.

The best practice is always playing the piano (not the laptop) but you can use your laptop to play instruction videos or use some training software. PFA does not replace hard work, but can help you organize your practice time more efficiently.

A few examples of rhythms. The 1st major, 6th minor, 4th major and 5th major of any scale. Called Doo-wop progression. In the key of C major, C-Aminor-F-G. Try it out, should sound familiar.

Split chord. Play the top two notes together and in the next beat the bottom note. Most famous example is John's Lennon's Imagine, C - Cmaj7 - F - C progression. Actually Let It Be also uses split chords, at least some versions.

Bossa Nova Bounce. Hard to explain - Google! Song examples, The Girl From Ipanema, Daniel (Elton John), Baker Street and Fly Me To The Moon.

You got me interested... Learning patterns and chord progressions and rhythms is certainly a good way to learn most genres of piano music. I see there is even a book on classical music, well that seems a bit too much but surely there are useful skills to be learned here too?

It's a shame it asks for taxes because I am in the EU. I've never paid VAT on digital downloads.

I sent Robin a message telling him of these discussions and possibly he'll comment. The classical book contains notes for many of the popular classical pieces like Für Elise An der schönen blauen Donau, Jesu bleibt meine Freude and so on. Not the full versions though, usually simplified.

You can always buy the course digitally, sinophilia. I'm in Iceland (not in EU, but in EEA - European Economic Area) and it was no problem.

Ina,

For most of us we sit down at a piano, place a book on the stand and play. It is that simple. It is that easy. It just takes sitting at a piano to do it. Some people think there is another way to do it. Bach, Lange Lange, Chopin all had to do it that way. Billions of piano players do it that way, but there is no harm that others might think there is another way that is faster, easier to play the piano - not at a piano - but on a laptop. If it works we will read about it in the news that someone who never sat at a piano learned to play the piano. That would be news!

Just curious as to whether anyone else has noticed that in the videos of PianoForAll, Robin's piano seems to be about 1/2 step out of tune (flat)?

I'm taking the course on my digital piano with the videos presented on my laptop, and the discrepancy in tone is quite noticable.

Well you know your completely loosing the plot when you do things like I just did.

I've looked at various courses over the years, saw this thread last night, gave it another look and thought I'd give it a go.

Placed the receipt in my backup folder and saw a similar receipt, I looked at it and sure enough I'd bought it in 2011.

Think I'm going completely mad

You are not alone!

I'm sure it has a psychological effect to buy new piano material. It gives you a sense of a new start. Doesn't matter if you bought it before, if your mind thinks it's new, it has the same effect.

However, what I need to do, is use the material I've gotten before, not just let it lay there on my hard disk or shelfs.

Two things nobody mentioned a penny of how much it cost? Is the site in Paris, Turkey, San Francisco or London England? Do the vidoes have someobdy playing a piano? How can a beginner not have some music? My local music store has a huge floor of music books on jazz beginning piano, improv, scales. How is this web site so special? So you don't need a teacher, you don't need a music book, you don't need a piano, but you can learn to play the piano? I don't understand but I have brain damage and it is showing.

$39, says so on the website. The videos are short demonstrations with Robin showing in action what he's teaching. No, it's not enough to read about some playing technique or song, you have to sit down and play it. Nobody has said otherwise.

I still would like to hear from some people who have completes this program and the results. We always read about these type programs but we never seem to find anyone who graduated.

FYI - The course is presented in about 8 or 9 separate "books" which are PDF files with embedded videos and sound files which are examples of what's to be played in the lessons. There are separate books for various styles of playing (ie - blues, ballads, jazz, classical, etc). These books can be loaded onto either a computer or an iPad (or both).

Can you learn to play without a piano? - Of course not. ...And the website never claims that you can.

It's in the USA, when I just bought it, it converted to £26.38 + £5.28 VAT making it £31.66

I emailed them telling them of my mistake and got the refund conformation email within the hour so top marks.

I wanted it as a complement to my other learning. I am working through Alfred's books and also enjoying the playpianotoday course. The Alfred is more traditional and I'm learning to read music and sight read from it, the playpianotoday let's me easily play tunes that are more my style.

The playpianotoday has more on rhythms etc when improvising. There's also no music to read in it which means that I can pay attention to the rhythm and swing etc of what I'm playing, experiment with inversions and playing on different octaves.

Whereas the Alfred's books I'm concentrating on the music, taking note of when to use the pedal, when to get louder or softer etc.

Both completely different approaches and I'm enjoying them both a lot. One I'm learning to read music etc, the other I'm learning to improvise.

Reading up on pianoforall, sure I'll know lots of it, but for not much more than a lot of hardcover books cost, hopefully it will give me tips the others don't.

That is because no-one ever does. We all jump around from method to method, in hopes of getting that "best" way to learn.

The problem is ... there is no "best" way .... only different.

I have PianoForAll and it is fine. If you do everything he suggests, you will end up being a very good player.

BTW ... most courses are like that. If you do what they tell you to do you get pretty good at playing the piano.