Just as the name indicates, this program seeks to make the piano a much easier instrument to learn for everyone. This is a computer-based course that integrates visual, audio, and text lessons to build a much better learning experience that what is commonly found in traditional lessons through manuals and books.
One of the biggest advantages of this program is that it teaches you to play popular music quickly. Of course, the tunes are not necessarily that complex- but they’re definitely not songs like “Twinkle, Twinkle”.
When you’re a student, learning to play songs you like will make the process more fun and will give you more satisfaction.
The Creator
The creator of Piano for All, is Robin Hall- an Irish artist and piano teacher. However, when you do a search, you will find very little about his musical qualifications and background- but you will find a lot of information on his artistic career.
When you purchase this program, you will be able to see some of his original artwork throughout the course.
Features of Piano for All
This course contains 10 different eBooks, along with 200 video demos and 500 audio demos, as well as plenty of exercises and examples. When you download this course, you will discover that it’s fairly large.
So, if you have a slower internet connection, you may consider downloading one book at a time instead of all at once.
After a basic piano orientation, you’ll learn to play some of the basic chords in varying rhythms to play some popular songs. Eventually, you’ll find the chords and rhythms becoming more complex and sophisticated.
You should follow the eBooks in order, as they introduce genre-specific chords/rhythms as you progress. You will also some techniques and shortcuts.
There are some popular songs in the lessons, but due to legalities, there are typically only excerpts of the songs included. Piano for All does not introduce sight-reading until you have a good grasp of playing by ear.
If you have the option, you may want to practice this program using a keyboard instead of a piano. This is because you will find it much easier to set up a keyboard in front of your computer and play along with the lessons instead of having to print out the lessons and not being able to use the multimedia aspects of the course.
Of course, as with any other program, Piano for All does have a few shortcomings. The videos are low-resolution, a bit grainy, and the camera positioning is not the best. For those who are OCD, these shortcomings can be a bit difficult to overlook. There also does seem to be a hum that persists through the audio of all of the videos.
Plus, the instructor’s voice is not that clear or distinct- so that doesn’t help. This is because they wanted to keep the course under 500 MB, so everything was recorded at a lower resolution.
You will also find that the eBooks and other course materials are good- but they’re not perfect. You will find the occasional typo and several dead links to vides. You’ll also find a few musical terms that are technically incorrect.
However, none of these shortcomings are deal-breakers, just a few things that were noted while previewing the materials.
Customer Support
The creator of Piano for All, Robin Hall, has made himself available and provided his personal email address on his website.
Ordering Information
You can order the course through the website- purchasing all together in a package or separately. However, you should note that if you opt to purchase separately, it will cost you a lot more than it would if you decided to purchase it as a package deal.
If you wish, you also have the option to purchase a CD containing the materials, or you can simply burn a CD later on, after you have downloaded to your computer.
You should be aware that this program does include a 60 day refund, and if you’re not satisfied with your purchase, you can get a full refund. This is a great guarantee that should accompany all digital downloads.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are lots of things to like with this program. The teaching methods are quite engaging and make the process so much more fun. In addition, when compared to other courses out there, it’s very affordable.
However, due to technical issues, it can’t be given a full endorsement. However, if you’re looking for a budget-friendly DIY lesson for learning piano, this is definitely a great investment.
