Review of Pianoforall: Is this new way to learn piano and keyboard worth the money?
Robin Hall is an artist, but cartoons are probably what he is best known for. Early in his business, he mostly worked on his own and sold his art and music.
If you want to learn how to play the piano online, Pianoforall is a great choice.
Over 450,000 people are part of Pianoforall. It is a well-known online school for playing piano. The teacher’s method, “play first, ask later,” is built on chords, which makes you sound like a pro right away. The program’s creator, Robin Hall, says that it will teach you to “play piano by ear, improvise and create compositions, and then finally read piano sheet music.” Each lesson is meant to move you quickly and logically from one skill to the next.
Testimonials say that if you practise for 20 to 30 minutes every day, you can sound good in a few days. How do you use Pianoforall? Can it do what it says it can do? Read on to find out if Pianoforall is a good choice for you.
What You’ll Need to Start Pianoforall Lessons
Pianoforall is flexible when it comes to what you need to use it. But neither a piano nor a computer can be changed.
If you want to practise, it’s better to buy a 61-key keyboard than not have one.
But if you really want to learn how to play the piano, you should upgrade from an 88-key computer keyboard as soon as you can.
Most 61-key keyboards feel lighter than the keys on an electric piano.
A digital piano is made with the help of its 88 hammer action keys. This helps build up the right amount of finger power.
You can download e-books to your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, or Android device.
To read the ebooks and listen to the audio clips, you will need a Windows PC.
For an Android phone, you’ll need the same app. Google Play lets you get it for free.
You can also use the Mac or iPad’s usual books app.
The Pianoforall website has detailed directions, links to downloads, and a troubleshooting section in case the setup doesn’t go as planned.
Who is Robin Hall? He is the person who made Pianoforall.
Robin Hall is an artist, but cartoons are probably what he is best known for. Early in his business, he mostly worked on his own and sold his art and music. He can also play the piano. Robin Hall added to that job by working as a private teacher. He taught people how to play the piano and how to turn their natural artistic skills into skills that could be used as a professional cartoonist in the real world.
It’s an old debate about whether it’s better to learn music by playing it by ear or by reading sheet music, but Hall is sure that playing by ear is the better way. As he got better at his job, he started selling books like “The Cartoonist’s Workbook.” It does a good job of explaining ideas to its readers by mixing art, instructional text, funny stories, and humour. When he got to this point, he realised that he could use these ideas to teach people how to play the piano. He started using these tactics, which brought him a lot of success, and then put them into the Pianoforall programme.
What do you get when you sign up for Pianoforall?
When you buy a one-time course, you’ll get the following:
These e-books cover many different kinds of piano music, such as chords, songs, and lessons. There are a total of ten books, plus one extra book. Aside from that, they give you enough theory to help you understand each lesson. In the lines that follow, I’ll talk more about each book.
Over 200 Video Lessons: The e-book comes with videos of Robin Hall explaining and showing how to use keyboard features. This helps students remember what they have learned.
The lesson is played on a lower keyboard, while the virtual keyboard above shows which notes he’s playing. This makes it easy to see what notes you should be playing, how your hands should look, and what it should sound like.
There are more than 500 audio exercises and songs. They are placed next to each exercise so that you can get immediate feedback on your speech. Listening to each exercise before trying it will help people who learn best by hearing.
Educational Programme for Pianoforall
Each e-book works on a different topic and shows you how to use what you’ve learned. So, with the exception of Book Nine, which can be used at any time, it’s best to read them in the order they were written.
First Book: Party Time
This book tells you about the programme and how to use the computer.
It starts by teaching the main idea, which is that it’s important to start with chords and rhythms before learning how to improvise, write melodies, and read music by sight.
It starts by teaching you the notes on the keyboard, then moves on to teaching you how to play simple chords.
Book One explains how music is written down. This includes the basic beat and breaks.
Most traditional lessons spend some time on rhythm activities and learning to name the notes, but this part goes by very quickly. If you want to understand the later tasks, you may have to go back to the earlier ones several times.
The book goes on to show you a set of chords and then a beat that is often used in popular music. With these sounds and this rhythm, you can make a song.
You will learn ten beats and eleven basic chords in Book One.
It assumes that you will be able to read songbooks and figure out what the symbols for chords mean. It will show you what to do when you hear a seventh chord or a slash sign.
By the end of this book, you should be able to play the rhythms and chords of a lot of famous songs and have a friend or two sing the melody.
You should also be able to play “Amazing broken chord ballad,” which is a beautiful song.
Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll, Book Two
Book Two adds to what you already know by showing you how to use blues beats with the chords you already know. It emphasises the first rule: practise left-hand beats more than right-hand rhythms until you can play them in your sleep.
Even though this book is shorter than the first, it still teaches you how to play a 12-bar blues in any key and teaches you five basic blues beats.
Chord Magic is the third book.
The third book is a big one. But it will teach you all the chords for each key and how to turn them upside down.
It also has a trick to remember all the sounds, which makes it easier to use the information dump, and a lot of practise progressions to help you learn the new material.
You will also hear about the “cycle of fifths,” which is also called the “circle of fifths.” This idea gets you to practise all the keys, shows you how they relate to each other, and helps you understand how music is put together as a whole.
Book Four: Easy Advanced Chords
This book will teach you more about how to play chord symbols. It starts with a magic formula for playing around with some more advanced notes.
“Manilow Mood,” which was inspired by Barry Manilow, will teach you how to use new musical tools before you try to make your own piece in Manilow’s way.
Next, there are models for practising diminished and cluster chords.
The book ends well with a lesson on how the Beatles played and a long list of Beatles songs you can play with the chords and beats you already know.
Book Five: Ballad Style
Book Five shows how to play in a ballad style by giving you a step-by-step plan for making your own ballad songs. This makes it easier to try out different things with left-hand chord lines and the more versatile pentatonic scale.
This book shows how to think on your feet. It also gives ideas for chord progressions, left-hand rhythms, and melodies. Then you’ll make “Auld Lang Syne” to learn how to use the ballad process for songs you already know. Starting from the bottom.
This book has the sheet music for many beautiful songs that you will love to play.
Since this is the first book in the course that focuses on rhythm, these are the first pieces that can be played by themselves.
You can also find the melody lines to many famous Christmas carols, but you will need to practise by adding left hand.
All That Jazz and Blues, Book Six
Even though this part has a lot of information, you will be able to build a great foundation for jazz.
The course shows you how to use the blues scale and blues chords to make a bluesy sound. The next part is jazz. Instead of learning to read complicated jazz beats, you are told to listen to the audio clips and then copy them.
Book Six is a guide to jazz in 4 different keys. It also tells you a lot about jazz improvisation and gives you some cool ways to practise.
Find out everything you can about quartal harmony, and then learn about seventh chords.
Advanced Blues and Fake Stride is the seventh book.
Book Seven builds on Book Two by adding fun right-hand chords and more advanced chords to the blues sounds you’ve already learned. You will also learn how to use blues tools like slides, tremolo, and turnarounds.
The second part of this book teaches you how to play swing piano. The only difference between fake and real is how long your “stride” is.
“The song you’ve been waiting for” by “The Entertainer” puts what you know to use. This section ends (no pun meant) on a high note.
Taming the Classics is the eighth book.
Sheet music is used a lot in this area. We’ll start by going over musical writing and learning about key signatures, new symbols, and the language of music. You will also find tips that will help you study.
“The Pianoforall Way” is how Hall teaches you to read music on sight. This means that you should listen for chords, motifs, and sounds that you know. So it’s easy to find sharp or flat notes, the key signatures are written in red.
Then you’ll be able to play pieces by famous composers like Beethoven, Bach, and Chopin.
If your goal after the pianoforall course is to play more sheet music pieces, I suggest you spend a lot of time in this part. You can get better at reading, pedalling, and making tones.
Book Nine: How to Learn Faster
The title of the book, which is all scales and arpeggios, was made up by Hall. Scales and triads are also talked about in this book. If my piano teacher had called it “speed learning,” I might have been more excited to do it.
You can practise with these things, which is a good way to get better at what you do.
This is the course’s ninth book. But it has “workout” routines for practising and memory tricks that you should always use right from the start.
This part will explain key signatures and seventh chords to you.
The Practise of Mindfulness, which is a free book,
Even though this e-book isn’t about piano, it has tips on inspiration, focus, and mindfulness, all of which can help you learn an instrument.
The Pros and Cons of Pianoforall
Now, let’s sum up the good things and bad things about the Pianoforall training course.
Pros:
Pianoforall is different from standard ebooks and printed courses because it has both audio and video lessons. This is especially helpful for beginners who aren’t used to reading music.
The audio and video clips in the texts make it easy to find the information you need.
You can start playing right away, and even after the first session, you’ll feel like you’re getting better.
Use well-known songs. This will help you learn to play by ear, and you’ll have fun playing songs you already know.
Music makes people more musical. Most beginner piano methods don’t teach you how to play by ear, improvise, or make up your own tunes.
Pianoforall will teach you these skills. This will give you a strong grounding in music and give you something to do all the time.
Traditional piano programmes don’t let you use your left hand as well as this one does.
Like many traditional piano players, I used to only pay attention to my right hand. As my pieces got harder, it was hard for me to pay attention to the left-hand parts.
Students will be less likely to have a lazy left hand if they practise with their left hand more than their right hand.
The information is easy to understand and is given in a clear way. While e-books like Faber’s Piano Adventures may seem a little less detailed, they are well organised and easy to understand visually.
Cons:
Traditional piano teachers tell their students to pay attention to their hand position, posture, wrist, finger, body, and wrist moves. Technique is not the main focus.
This is a problem with most online piano lessons, but Pianoforall doesn’t do anything about it.
You can add to the course with lessons (many of which are on YouTube) that teach balance and other skills.
Don’t try to read music. You shouldn’t try to read music.
So, it would be easy to leave the school without a good understanding of how to read music.
This programme is good for students who want to learn how to play basic sheet music and improvise, but it leaves out many terms and symbols used in piano notation that can be confusing for those who want to learn more.
If you are one of these students, Hall says that you should add to your course information that teaches you music notation terms and symbols.
Why should you take this course?
Pianoforall is made for people who have never played the piano before. The way it teaches is very different from traditional piano programmes, but even people who know the basics of classical piano may find it useful for learning to play by ear or freestyle.
The fact that blues, jazz, and rock ‘n’ roll are emphasised in Pianoforall is a red flag that this school is not for people who want to play classical music.
Book Eight teaches students how to read short classical pieces. However, this course will not just teach you how to play classical music; it will also give you the tools you need to learn more.
Even though the classes in Pianoforall may be different, the way they teach is the same as in Faber’s Adult Piano Adventures series and other adult piano lessons.
Pianoforall is a good choice for adults and teens who want to make real music quickly. Adults are eager to learn and won’t settle for simple tunes that children play.
Songs in this course are also for adults who want to learn.
These are great songs that many people know and love—certainly better than “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”—but don’t forget that older people may be more excited about them than younger people.
Conclusion
Pianoforall makes big claims, but it may be able to deliver for motivated students. If you know what the course will teach you, Pianoforall can help you reach your piano goals.
This class won’t teach you how to play advanced classical music, but it will teach you how to play in bands, take orders, sit down at the piano, and just.
Your skills will also give you a solid base to learn more about the kinds of songs you like.
To really understand music, you need to know about chords, progressions, and keys.
Hall says that his course is like learning to be able to make up any line you want. This is a very good comparison.
Piano for All shows you how to play music by other people and your own from the very beginning.
