I started piano from scratch using one of these programs for around 6 months and then switched to a teacher. When my teacher saw me playing she immediately identified several flaws I wasn't even aware : -My hand position and overall posture was bad (even though I looked several youtube and in app video). -My rhythm was terrible, I wasn't able to play at a steady tempo with just a sheet music. Indeed as you saw in the video the music scrolls at a predefined tempo so you don't have to worry about counting, you just press the keys when the cursor is on the note. -The app didnt introduce phrases, intonation, crescendo, ornaments, legato, staccato etc. So even if was playing absurdely loud without legato the app told me I was right as long as I pressed the key when the cursor was on the note. Fun fact, my teacher yelled 'LEGATOOO!!' at me several times because my playing was so disjointed. I still make the mistake unconsciously from time to time. I see it as an opportunity to hear her beautiful voice. TL;DR : If you have the money and you are beginning GET A TEACHER because these apps won't teach you what's really important in piano !
Azgal0r, yes absolutely agree. That was my experience as well (with Playground Sessions). If you have a flaw by playing disjointedly there is nothing that picks that up. All the software grades you on is the note onset, not how you carry it over with legato to the next note. Until I got a teacher I did not even know I was doing it.
That's why I m saying I go to the music academy for notes, scales, etc... And off course the rhythm, you have long notes, quart notes, but it's beautiful if you wanna learn more... Private piano les, half houre is 30 euro... But my school is 330/year and shoose your instrument, first 3 years as adult notes and circle of fifth, Italian words, crescendo, melodic, harmony, but the app is for me helping cause I have epilepsy
There are guys on RUclips that can give you much of the information that teachers will give you, but analysis of your playing will always require human intervention.
I tried flowkey and quickly recognize it has no hope in hell in replacing my teacher. But it does give me access to a great repertoire with decent tutorials towards which my teacher's further guidance will help me immensely. I have been playing RCM for a year now and I like classical but it felt so great just to play some Bob Marley! There is more of an emotional connection there for me. I also thought about Simply Piano and Piano Marvel but the repertoire on Flowkey seems pretty decent. Piano Marvel seemed to be more oriented toward augmenting my teacher and Simply Piano seemed a little pricier but I am not clear on the value lift compared to flowkey.
This was wonderful - thank you for doing this! I am in a situation right now where I can afford an app but cannot afford lessons with a piano teacher. I would be very interested in reviews of Yousician and Simply Piano and others. Thanks again for your great videos!
Not played for 11 years and before then I wasn't really good but I did start off with proper lessons. Just bought a low-end Yamaha digital piano, which came with 3 months free subscription to Flowkey included. I am running it on a Google Pixelbook in Chrome. Poor experience at first because Flowkey was not hearing my playing sufficiently well via the computer microphone. Plugged the Yamaha USB-Host into the Chromebook and selected MIDI input - problem solved. Also plugged the Chromebook headphone output into the Yamaha Aux input so the Yamaha speakers play the Flowkey lessons tuition audio. Now it works very well, it has become an interactive tutor integrated into my digital piano and I'm working my way through the Flowkey courses to help me remember everything I've forgotten and speed up my sight reading. I think it is probably a much better experience on a large tablet / convertible laptop than on a phone. Don't know whether I will subscribe after the free period, the tutorial courses don't appear to go very far, no substitute for a good teacher but I'm certainly going to make the most of these free three months.
I think its good if you can sight read pretty fast already. I can read all notes but it takes me about 5 secs for every note, but I also just started a week ago.
One nice thing about these sorts of apps is that you can play with a backing track. Piano music is often very lonely, and you sometimes wish you had John Bonham drumming for you while you play piano. With a backing track, you almost can.
No App in this world can replace a good dedicated teacher. (I'm a student by the way). And a teacher is even more crucial if you are a beginner, especially for things like starting off with a good posture at the piano bench, as you want to avoid creating bad habits and many more (people who have been a student know what I'm talking about). This App can be good as she said for sightreading and having fun when you already know how to play a few tunes (first grade(ish))
I think a piano teacher is good for a short while to make sure you have good posture and technique but after that I think it's fine to use RUclips to learn. One thing I really encourage is to learn sight reading, rather than solely using apps like Synthesia etc...that I see a lot of beginners do.
I agree completely. Nothing can replace a real teacher. Even if you can only go once a month, it is money well spent. My teacher stops mistakes almost instantly. She also pushes me into more complex pieces, instead of letting me stay in my comfort level.
Dear Sir, you can have anything if you really want it, and that includes music lessons. Where I live in California, ( I don't know where you reside) there are many teacher organizations that offer discount rates for quality instruction with excellent instructors and also offer students the chance to participate in scholarship programs and give recitals to noted musicians. As for famous artists that never had a music lesson in their life, Elton John has a diploma from a conservatory in England. He studied piano, violin, and composition. Neil Diamond has a diploma from Julliard in New York. He studied piano and his instructor was Adele Marcus.
Hi, would be great to know if you have any recommended apps or books that not only provide a good range of sheet music for beginners but also assist with knowing which fingers to use in terms of hand positioning when moving up and down the piano. Thanks!
When recording yourself take off autofocus so the camera doesn’t keep refocusing every time you move. I’m gonna try flow key for a month tonight. Thanks :)
I have had FlowKey on my iPad and iPhone for a few months. I got a low price when i signed up :-) Thanks for reviewing. For me so far I’ve used it for sight reading. Haven’t used it much as I would like though.
I started using simply piano I switched to using faber piano adventures method books I've improved so much it doesn't teach rhythm correctly the apps can't teach you correct chords on both hands dynamics scales arpregios it's very important if you want to sound good
That was a very interesting post, here are a few more tips on how to play the piano… Try practicing about an hour every day, or even 30 minutes if you short of time. Do more practice whenever you have more time. For example, on weekends you can do more than an hour, like two or 3, or even more. This is very helpful because it pulls you out of the routine of piano playing, and lets you practice more and perfect the pieces you play.
Hello! new subscriber here, just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your dedication, and for a truly awesome youtube channel and blog to help out beginner and intermediate piano students, particularly the ones (like me) who are adult starting on our own! Stumbled across your vid by accident, and I have been watching non-stop since then. i love your clarity, energy, and just general sense of fun (also the periodic wonky humor lol) Just now found your Final Fantasy Prelude theme tutorial from last year, incredibly looking forward to trying it out! I'm enjoying not just the basic explanation style videos, tips and tricks, and tutorials, but i also really enjoyed the videos on the history/background of various composers and their musical style. All incredibly interesting stuff. Please keep up the amazing work!!!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts in this video, one of the few that doesn’t appear to be affiliated or syndicated in some way! I’ve literally just bought a digital piano and my learning options are bewildering. I feel like the apps are good for learning songs, but I’m just as interested in the journey of learning piano and I have my doubts they’ll tell me why things are so.
Flowkey is a very good way of learning piano. It has courses not just songs, which their are a ton. I've been playing for six years with both teacher's and on my own. This app works great with my Roland Juno Ds 88. Direct line for midi connection to PC. works great. $20.00 a month for premium account access.
Very Cool, I guess it's like a combination of using the finale and synthesia. I'm a HUGE ARRANGEMENT ADJUSTER so I love using finale to adjust the sheet music. THEN I throw it in my synthesia app for my students if they need. VERY COOL
Can I just say... when I (and most players, as far as I am aware) play piano without an app, my keyboard is below and my sheet music sits above the keyboard. In the Flowkey app, the music is below and the keyboard is above. I wonder why they do it that way? When creating the app did they test it so the notes were on top and the keyboard below but it didn't work? Just wondering. Guess this might be a question for Flowkey. Anyone care to weigh in?
i'm on flowkey since 10/27/19 - also taken about 15 days of vacation without practice so i'd say i have been learning on flowkey for about 2.5 on a 61 key 1990s keyboard (sounds terrible) - i am reluctant to get a full size digital piano. i learned from their free songs like intermediate "imagine", intermediate ed sheeran's "perfect", then their paid tier with -- intermediate "game of thrones" and intermediate "pirates of the caribbean", and now i went to the "difficult" Comptine d'un autre été from the Amélie soundtrack - i can play it but flawed and practicing that pretty much everyday and slowly polishing - and now for about a week and a half i've been learning Yarumi "river flows in you" up to, i think, the 20th measure. im inconsistent with my playing in a sense that sometimes i suck and sometimes im fair -- i'm lazy with the flowkey actual lessons but i do like to practice. it works the best with a midi interface - i'm unable to read sheet music - you can't learn rhythm using the "wait mode" the only way i am able to learn the rhythm is to listen to the song itself with the measures i am learning - otherwise my rhythm would be off. the other good thing about flowkey is finger positioning - for my purposes i think flowkey works well - i gave myself a year of flowkey and i think i've had a positive overall experience with it. i am learning to challenge my aging brain a bit since i am turning 50 this year and also i don't believe i'll ever get a teacher - so for me flowkey is a good option. i will prob get some self-teaching books to add to my education at some point - we will see.
How do you guys even play without looking at your hands and can quickly read sheet music. I need help. I always end up crying because I spent so much time but nothing happens. It hurts me and I take it to heart. I need help.
I tried this app and uninstalled after the first couple of days because of the sync issues. I tried it now again after I got an adapter for my iPhone. Now it works really good with my CLP-645 and it is a really fun way to learn the piano. However, if you guys are like me it might be tempting to look at where he is pressing the keys rather than looking at the sheet music. I askes them for an option to show only the sheet music and they claimed that function is in progress. When it lands, I will buy the full version without subscription 😃🙉
Can I just say... when I (and most players, as far as I am aware) play piano without an app, my keyboard is below and my sheet music sits above the keyboard. In the Flowkey app, the music is below and the keyboard is above. I wonder why they do it that way? When creating the app did they test it so the notes were on top and the keyboard below but it didn't work? Just wondering. Guess this might be a question for Flowkey. Anyone care to weigh in?
Piano marvel is a good program for site reading. It just has older songs in their database. If you have an XML music sheet you can upload it to play though. I wish bbn I could have it on android.
Allysia, you already have good technique so you won’t even notice the problem, but for many beginners the fatal flaw with these type of programs is that they only grade you on the note onset, not how you hold it using legato onto the next one. For a beginner there is nothing to pick up if you are choppy and disjointed. I had 6 months on Playground Sessions and it has taken me a further year with a teacher to break that habit.
Just a short hint: please, disable AUTO FOCUS when you are not needing it, because it generates both noise and blurry pictures from time to time. Otherwise, thanks a lot for your work!
Have you tried music score yet? 6.99$ is very good. You are awesome 👍. Ever since, I started watching your video. I have been practicing on daily basis and consistent routine
Is 49-key keyboard enough for most/all of the lessons and songs on apps like Flowkey/SimplyPiano/Yousician? I travel a lot and could not carry a 61-key keyboard (like Roland Go Piano). If 49 keys is enough for learning 95% of the lessons and songs on apps like these (not considering the condition after studying the materials in these apps), I will buy a 49-key version.
Hello Allysia, Thaks for this video and for your channel. Quality and technology aside, all these piano "teaching" websites have a shop business model intended to sell subscription and hook people on arrangements and sheet music, which is all fine but rarely have a real teaching approach or intent. Different people with different needs will find a use for these tools, and that is all good. I have researched a few of them in the past and for my need, skill and taste I ranked higher sites such PianoMarvel and Playground Sessions. But as personal experience, I would like to comment and recommend Musiah. Musiah is a computer-assisted piano and music theory teacher. I am over 50 and did not have any musical knowledge. Using Musiah I learned how to read sheet music and play to a reasonable level. I am at the second last piece of a program that has 13 levels and about 130 pieces, which took me about 18 months to complete, which varying degrees of commitment along the way. I decided to learn Nuvole Bianche, by Ludovico Einaudi on my on, which was only possible with the knowledge I got from Musiah. I then went after a piano teacher to help me with expression and got a feedback that I would be at level 2/3ish of the Australian Music Examination Board. BTW: "no" software will ever teach you expression (an attempt is available with Percebe, by prof. Pitagoras Gonçalves). Musiah can be used by children with a game background story to stimulate practice and engagement, but adults can skip that altogether. I see Musiah as a helping tool to get you going with the basics and practising by yourself and then you look for a teacher to enhance your learning, or have them both going alongside each other. Posture, key attack and expression can only be passed on by another individual. But those concerns can be way too much until you can control your fingers, know and hit the right notes and have some dexterity. With Musiah and a digital piano, one can practice for as long as possible, as opposed to a once a week regimen. The teacher I found does not engage with students that are starting from zero, so Musiah was my first teacher and stepping stone. Support is second to none, as I had emails answered by the creator and piano teacher for over 20 years on the same day as I posted a question. As the last bit, Musiah checks for note, action and duration, almost to an annoying level of precision, so you can be stuck in a piece for weeks until you get it right, but then this is the goal isn't it? Most computer-assisted tools check only note and action, but not duration, so if you have a quarter note and hold for a half note duration or vice-versa you are clear. Edit: I forgot to mention that you must audition for each piece at medium or full tempo. Auditioning at medium tempo penalises your score (you don't get full stars). To pass the audition you need at least 80%, and to get full stars you need 95%. You also need to reach a minimum of 95% of starts to be allowed to have a Performance, which is a set of three randomly selected pieces from the level. If your performance is at 70% then you pass to the next level. It is no easy feat. Note: I am "not" affiliated with Musiah in any way beyond being a paying customer and volunteer beta tester for the iPad version, yet to be released. Other tools I can mention: - Synthesia (Game) is a good tool if you have MIDI, pdf, and other sources and want to play. The default mode uses cascading notes to be followed. It does have a sheet music mode, which is not on by default. It is "not" a teaching tool. - Musescore: I used it to transcribe, copy sheet music, which was an exercise to memorise the notes. It is "not" a teaching tool. - PianoMarvel and Playground Sessions are more robust on the teaching side and have a structured program to follow. I used each for a while and would use more for the access to the library after I become more proficient, but they do not compare to Musiah. I hope this helps other and maybe you could make a review. Thanks and best regards, Angelo
I also think Musiah is very good if what you want to do is learn piano from zero to a decent level. It is a very strict, disciplined approach, which is what is needed if you are learning by yourself as otherwise you will try to go in all directions at once, and get nowhere.
Hello Steven, You are quite right on that. I think that "The Spy Who Practiced" is kind of a rite of passage. I am fine with the muscle memory with white and black keys, but the rhythm is my weakest point. I am still practising it at the slow tempo (70 bpm). Back at the time, I had issues with "Oh When The Saints" due to the anacrusis. Just by hearing, the final piece at level 13, it doesn't sound as tough.
So many aspects of piano can not be learned with an app or online and I am a technology person by nature. As mentioned this might be good for sight reading but seems like a lot monthly for what it is. If you are looking for music to improve sight reading and do not want the music as part of your personal library then I would say go with IMSLP instead which if you decide to support the site is yearly what Flowkey charges per month.
I have the feeling that something that is lacking (but I didn't try it, so I could be wrong) is the possibility to practice small chunks at a time. Beginners often have the bad habit of running through a piece from start to finish, when in fact, you should be practicing only the parts that give you trouble. The way the app is designed doesn't seem to allow that. I really only see the use as sightreading material, because practicing on this doesn't seem very practical.
Führer It's not blinking if you look at it. Our eyes have a thing called _Persistency of Vision_ that makes all rapidly blinking stuff look like a constant light, among many other things. The camera does not have anything similar, and the slow blinking speed is due to a slight frequency change between the light and the camera.
Great video, i know you said once, you had lots of ideas for videos (and maybe you have already thought about this) but it would be awesome if you could talk about the hardest piece you have played so far. Where were the difficulties? How did you overcome them? I‘m just super curious^^
Update on using playground sessions: I have now been learning to play piano on playground sessions for about 3 weeks and I am still at it. The program keeps track of how long you are actually plucking the keys (haha), not the full amount of time you spend learning. In the 3 weeks I have clocked about 30 hours of plucking time. I try to spend about two hours a day on it if I can. To give you an idea of where I am at. My lesson today was learning about sharps, flats and reading notes above and below the treble and bass staff. I have so far learned to play note values from whole down to 1/8 notes. I am able to play single notes at a time in both hands at the same time. Sometimes, I get frustrated with the feeling they need to present more lessons quicker than they do. However, when you first start out David Sides (he is the instructor) warns you that this will happen and to not question it and have faith in the method. Quincy Jones co-created playground sessions, so who am I to question him. Basically, you play, play, play a lot then get another lesson. Thank gawd the songs aren't twinkle, twinkle little star. They are songs that I like. Here are some of the songs I am playing to so far: Take the A Team, She Loves You, Fight Song, My Way, Ode To Joy, Imagine, Halo, Fur Elise, Clocks, Stairway To Heaven, Game Of Thrones Theme, Someone Like You, My Heart Will Go On You learn from clips of these songs (a verse, chorus, etc) not the whole song. If you want to learn a whole song, then you can purchase that song, at that level. READ THAT AGAIN! Say you really like Imagine from the Beatles and you want to learn the whole song and not just the chorus. You buy the song at the Rookie level. Now say you have made it to Intermediate level and want to play a more fuller version of Imagine, you have to buy the Intermediate level. Same goes for advanced. So you literally buy the same song 3 different times at $3.99 a pop. CAN YOU SAY RACKET. This is my only complaint about playground sessions so far. I haven't done this yet, and I won't. I think it makes more sense to just buy the intermediate level of the songs because I really don't think I will want to own the Rookie version and if I want the advanced version of the song, I will probably be able to find it in a song book that has a lot of songs and costs me about $12 to $20, not $3.99 a piece. If you do the lifetime membership , they throw in credit for 10 songs. That is probably all I will need to get me through intermediate level. After completing the Advanced lessons, I think you will at that point want to switch over to a piano teacher. You will be able to play ok (up to 16th notes in both hands, no problem), but you won't be a pianist. I hope this helps.
There are a bunch of "Top 10 Piano Learning Programs", where the top 5 are usually the same. I'd really appreciate a review on like two or three recommended paid programs and some free ones. Could even be just some websites.
Just watched right to the end! 😍😍😍😍 I had the exact thoughts about flowkey. I found the microphone near impossible to use and was disappointed to not have the sheet music to download. I'll have to try a midi cable and rethink whether to subscribe. Great video! Thanks!
Usually when she says in the description box, what she actually means is in the blog post and there is an affiliate link there: tinyurl.com/pianoTV-flowkey
Flowkey worked great on Android Tablets until the last big update a few months ago. Ever since the app crashes everytime the MIDI input is loading. Unusable, super frustrating and you won't get your money back neither... EDIT: I am in contact with flowkey. We are working together trying to fix the app bug.
Hi Florian, We're really sorry to hear that the last update caused app crashes on your tablet. If you can't use the app you will definitely get your money back. Of course, we'd love to solve this issue so we'd be happy to hear from you via email (support "at" flowkey "dot" com) or in-app chat.
No all piano apps sound janky as their stupid built in midi samples are horrible... I just turn the sound off on the iPad and play it on my piano as it just sounds better. Anyway, Flowkey is awesome and the theory is far better than Simply Piano or Yousician for sure. If you want the sheet music view, you will want simply piano, even if it isn’t as good an app, it got that one piece right.
Now pertaining about the app. It won't really do anyone any good unless they take lesson for at least 3 months. You have to have instruction in piano and musicianship before the app will do you any good. It is only supplemental information. Supplemental information reviews and reinforces what you have learned in your lessons. You have to keep on taking lessons in order to make anything you learn from an app to become concrete.
that is true, but if you listened to the Chopin masterpieces for example Rubinstein, all you need is the keys since dynamics and rhythm are already in your head!!
I started piano from scratch using one of these programs for around 6 months and then switched to a teacher. When my teacher saw me playing she immediately identified several flaws I wasn't even aware :
-My hand position and overall posture was bad (even though I looked several youtube and in app video).
-My rhythm was terrible, I wasn't able to play at a steady tempo with just a sheet music. Indeed as you saw in the video the music scrolls at a predefined tempo so you don't have to worry about counting, you just press the keys when the cursor is on the note.
-The app didnt introduce phrases, intonation, crescendo, ornaments, legato, staccato etc. So even if was playing absurdely loud without legato the app told me I was right as long as I pressed the key when the cursor was on the note.
Fun fact, my teacher yelled 'LEGATOOO!!' at me several times because my playing was so disjointed. I still make the mistake unconsciously from time to time. I see it as an opportunity to hear her beautiful voice.
TL;DR : If you have the money and you are beginning GET A TEACHER because these apps won't teach you what's really important in piano !
Azgal0r, yes absolutely agree. That was my experience as well (with Playground Sessions). If you have a flaw by playing disjointedly there is nothing that picks that up. All the software grades you on is the note onset, not how you carry it over with legato to the next note. Until I got a teacher I did not even know I was doing it.
IM POOR
That's why I m saying I go to the music academy for notes, scales, etc... And off course the rhythm, you have long notes, quart notes, but it's beautiful if you wanna learn more... Private piano les, half houre is 30 euro... But my school is 330/year and shoose your instrument, first 3 years as adult notes and circle of fifth, Italian words, crescendo, melodic, harmony, but the app is for me helping cause I have epilepsy
Just assuming as I've played classical guitar for 20+ years I wouldn't run into the problems you describe. That sed are u a musician before piano?
There are guys on RUclips that can give you much of the information that teachers will give you, but analysis of your playing will always require human intervention.
I use it all the time now. I've learnt Bach's Prelude no.I and learning more.
I tried flowkey and quickly recognize it has no hope in hell in replacing my teacher. But it does give me access to a great repertoire with decent tutorials towards which my teacher's further guidance will help me immensely. I have been playing RCM for a year now and I like classical but it felt so great just to play some Bob Marley! There is more of an emotional connection there for me. I also thought about Simply Piano and Piano Marvel but the repertoire on Flowkey seems pretty decent. Piano Marvel seemed to be more oriented toward augmenting my teacher and Simply Piano seemed a little pricier but I am not clear on the value lift compared to flowkey.
This was wonderful - thank you for doing this! I am in a situation right now where I can afford an app but cannot afford lessons with a piano teacher. I would be very interested in reviews of Yousician and Simply Piano and others. Thanks again for your great videos!
Not played for 11 years and before then I wasn't really good but I did start off with proper lessons. Just bought a low-end Yamaha digital piano, which came with 3 months free subscription to Flowkey included. I am running it on a Google Pixelbook in Chrome. Poor experience at first because Flowkey was not hearing my playing sufficiently well via the computer microphone. Plugged the Yamaha USB-Host into the Chromebook and selected MIDI input - problem solved. Also plugged the Chromebook headphone output into the Yamaha Aux input so the Yamaha speakers play the Flowkey lessons tuition audio.
Now it works very well, it has become an interactive tutor integrated into my digital piano and I'm working my way through the Flowkey courses to help me remember everything I've forgotten and speed up my sight reading. I think it is probably a much better experience on a large tablet / convertible laptop than on a phone. Don't know whether I will subscribe after the free period, the tutorial courses don't appear to go very far, no substitute for a good teacher but I'm certainly going to make the most of these free three months.
Thanks for the video. It’d be great if you could do a review for Playground Sessions.
I think its good if you can sight read pretty fast already. I can read all notes but it takes me about 5 secs for every note, but I also just started a week ago.
One nice thing about these sorts of apps is that you can play with a backing track. Piano music is often very lonely, and you sometimes wish you had John Bonham drumming for you while you play piano. With a backing track, you almost can.
No App in this world can replace a good dedicated teacher. (I'm a student by the way).
And a teacher is even more crucial if you are a beginner, especially for things like starting off with a good posture at the piano bench, as you want to avoid creating bad habits and many more (people who have been a student know what I'm talking about). This App can be good as she said for sightreading and having fun when you already know how to play a few tunes (first grade(ish))
most things can be learned with RUclips alone and some notation apps that are free.
I think a piano teacher is good for a short while to make sure you have good posture and technique but after that I think it's fine to use RUclips to learn. One thing I really encourage is to learn sight reading, rather than solely using apps like Synthesia etc...that I see a lot of beginners do.
I agree completely. Nothing can replace a real teacher. Even if you can only go once a month, it is money well spent. My teacher stops mistakes almost instantly. She also pushes me into more complex pieces, instead of letting me stay in my comfort level.
Amen to that brother, that's music to my ear.
Dear Sir, you can have anything if you really want it, and that includes music lessons. Where I live in California, ( I don't know where you reside) there are many teacher organizations that offer discount rates for quality instruction with excellent instructors and also offer students the chance to participate in scholarship programs and give recitals to noted musicians. As for famous artists that never had a music lesson in their life, Elton John has a diploma from a conservatory in England. He studied piano, violin, and composition. Neil Diamond has a diploma from Julliard in New York. He studied piano and his instructor was Adele Marcus.
Hi, would be great to know if you have any recommended apps or books that not only provide a good range of sheet music for beginners but also assist with knowing which fingers to use in terms of hand positioning when moving up and down the piano. Thanks!
When recording yourself take off autofocus so the camera doesn’t keep refocusing every time you move. I’m gonna try flow key for a month tonight. Thanks :)
The is also a restricted, free version.
I have had FlowKey on my iPad and iPhone for a few months. I got a low price when i signed up :-) Thanks for reviewing. For me so far I’ve used it for sight reading. Haven’t used it much as I would like though.
I started using simply piano I switched to using faber piano adventures method books I've improved so much it doesn't teach rhythm correctly the apps can't teach you correct chords on both hands dynamics scales arpregios it's very important if you want to sound good
9:44 you actually can connect usb with android phone.. But you need an otg (on-the-go) to connect it
That was great, thanks! Subscribed!!!
It bothers me that the flats are for instance "eb" instead of "e♭" using the flat symbol lol
How do you type the flat sign lol, like I can type # cause its literally the hashtag sign, but idk how to type flat can you teach me senpai
That was a very interesting post, here are a few more tips on how to play the piano…
Try practicing about an hour every day, or even 30 minutes if you short of time.
Do more practice whenever you have more time. For example, on weekends you can do more than an hour, like two or 3, or even more. This is very helpful because it pulls you out of the routine of piano playing, and lets you practice more and perfect the pieces you play.
@@lfino100 who are you talking to again?
please test Yamaha DGX-660 Digital Piano and also Montage 8
Hello! new subscriber here, just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your dedication, and for a truly awesome youtube channel and blog to help out beginner and intermediate piano students, particularly the ones (like me) who are adult starting on our own! Stumbled across your vid by accident, and I have been watching non-stop since then. i love your clarity, energy, and just general sense of fun (also the periodic wonky humor lol) Just now found your Final Fantasy Prelude theme tutorial from last year, incredibly looking forward to trying it out! I'm enjoying not just the basic explanation style videos, tips and tricks, and tutorials, but i also really enjoyed the videos on the history/background of various composers and their musical style. All incredibly interesting stuff.
Please keep up the amazing work!!!
Interesting video. I just use good old sheet music to practice sight reading and learn pieces, have yet to try any apps.
Very cool video idea
thanks for playing my fav GOT song. I was curious about this app cuz i've wanted to start playing piano
Thanks for sharing your thoughts in this video, one of the few that doesn’t appear to be affiliated or syndicated in some way! I’ve literally just bought a digital piano and my learning options are bewildering. I feel like the apps are good for learning songs, but I’m just as interested in the journey of learning piano and I have my doubts they’ll tell me why things are so.
I liked it
You are a gem
Flowkey is a very good way of learning piano. It has courses not just songs, which their are a ton. I've been playing for six years with both teacher's and on my own. This app works great with my Roland Juno Ds 88. Direct line for midi connection to PC. works great. $20.00 a month for premium account access.
Very Cool, I guess it's like a combination of using the finale and synthesia. I'm a HUGE ARRANGEMENT ADJUSTER so I love using finale to adjust the sheet music. THEN I throw it in my synthesia app for my students if they need.
VERY COOL
Please try the PianoMarvel app for ipad.
Can I just say... when I (and most players, as far as I am aware) play piano without an app, my keyboard is below and my sheet music sits above the keyboard. In the Flowkey app, the music is below and the keyboard is above. I wonder why they do it that way? When creating the app did they test it so the notes were on top and the keyboard below but it didn't work? Just wondering. Guess this might be a question for Flowkey. Anyone care to weigh in?
Why those songs not lock?
i'm on flowkey since 10/27/19 - also taken about 15 days of vacation without practice so i'd say i have been learning on flowkey for about 2.5 on a 61 key 1990s keyboard (sounds terrible) - i am reluctant to get a full size digital piano.
i learned from their free songs like intermediate "imagine", intermediate ed sheeran's "perfect", then their paid tier with -- intermediate "game of thrones" and intermediate "pirates of the caribbean", and now i went to the "difficult" Comptine d'un autre été from the Amélie soundtrack - i can play it but flawed and practicing that pretty much everyday and slowly polishing - and now for about a week and a half i've been learning Yarumi "river flows in you" up to, i think, the 20th measure. im inconsistent with my playing in a sense that sometimes i suck and sometimes im fair -- i'm lazy with the flowkey actual lessons but i do like to practice. it works the best with a midi interface - i'm unable to read sheet music - you can't learn rhythm using the "wait mode" the only way i am able to learn the rhythm is to listen to the song itself with the measures i am learning - otherwise my rhythm would be off. the other good thing about flowkey is finger positioning -
for my purposes i think flowkey works well - i gave myself a year of flowkey and i think i've had a positive overall experience with it. i am learning to challenge my aging brain a bit since i am turning 50 this year and also i don't believe i'll ever get a teacher - so for me flowkey is a good option. i will prob get some self-teaching books to add to my education at some point - we will see.
Is flowkey a good thing to use, if you cannot afford a teacher?
How do you guys even play without looking at your hands and can quickly read sheet music. I need help. I always end up crying because I spent so much time but nothing happens. It hurts me and I take it to heart. I need help.
whats the midi thing
It would be cool I you could try Piano Marvel and compare it with Flowkey and Yousician :)
Piano Marvel is the best app for sure.
I tried this app and uninstalled after the first couple of days because of the sync issues. I tried it now again after I got an adapter for my iPhone. Now it works really good with my CLP-645 and it is a really fun way to learn the piano. However, if you guys are like me it might be tempting to look at where he is pressing the keys rather than looking at the sheet music. I askes them for an option to show only the sheet music and they claimed that function is in progress. When it lands, I will buy the full version without subscription 😃🙉
Skip this app and get playground sessions, WAY BETTER!!!
30-day trial here bud:
www.playgroundsessions.com/youtube-free-trial
Can I just say... when I (and most players, as far as I am aware) play piano without an app, my keyboard is below and my sheet music sits above the keyboard. In the Flowkey app, the music is below and the keyboard is above. I wonder why they do it that way? When creating the app did they test it so the notes were on top and the keyboard below but it didn't work? Just wondering. Guess this might be a question for Flowkey. Anyone care to weigh in?
Piano marvel is a good program for site reading. It just has older songs in their database. If you have an XML music sheet you can upload it to play though. I wish bbn I could have it on android.
marvel or playground sessions?
derbeder piano marvel. I think it is better at teaching skills. The interface just looks a bit dated because they haven't updated in awhile.
I use it and I still can't read the sheets. It doesnt teach me how to tell black keys from white keys on music sheets
Absolutely love this app, but you do need midi wires for it to work properly.
Allysia, you already have good technique so you won’t even notice the problem, but for many beginners the fatal flaw with these type of programs is that they only grade you on the note onset, not how you hold it using legato onto the next one. For a beginner there is nothing to pick up if you are choppy and disjointed. I had 6 months on Playground Sessions and it has taken me a further year with a teacher to break that habit.
Maybe try a big tablet (10 inch+) with USB in and put it on the music stand instead of a laptop
what should we practice after czerny Practical Method For Beginners, Op. 599..
Lol, I asked the same question never got a reply.
Please please try Yousician next !!
It‘s garbage in my opinion
yes it is
@@cereal2373 you are totally right!
Its bad
Just a short hint: please, disable AUTO FOCUS when you are not needing it, because it generates both noise and blurry pictures from time to time. Otherwise, thanks a lot for your work!
The camera was always focused, your eyes are blurry. Hahaha
Have you tried music score yet? 6.99$ is very good. You are awesome 👍. Ever since, I started watching your video. I have been practicing on daily basis and consistent routine
What keyboard are you using?!
Is 49-key keyboard enough for most/all of the lessons and songs on apps like Flowkey/SimplyPiano/Yousician?
I travel a lot and could not carry a 61-key keyboard (like Roland Go Piano). If 49 keys is enough for learning 95% of the lessons and songs on apps like these (not considering the condition after studying the materials in these apps), I will buy a 49-key version.
Siri Cortana it’s possible to get a small 61 key piano
If you like the sound of Light of the Seven, there is a really cool version as a Synthesia and you can download the music. You can find it on RUclips
please try and review pianoteq.
Hello Allysia,
Thaks for this video and for your channel.
Quality and technology aside, all these piano "teaching" websites have a shop business model intended to sell subscription and hook people on arrangements and sheet music, which is all fine but rarely have a real teaching approach or intent. Different people with different needs will find a use for these tools, and that is all good. I have researched a few of them in the past and for my need, skill and taste I ranked higher sites such PianoMarvel and Playground Sessions.
But as personal experience, I would like to comment and recommend Musiah.
Musiah is a computer-assisted piano and music theory teacher. I am over 50 and did not have any musical knowledge. Using Musiah I learned how to read sheet music and play to a reasonable level. I am at the second last piece of a program that has 13 levels and about 130 pieces, which took me about 18 months to complete, which varying degrees of commitment along the way.
I decided to learn Nuvole Bianche, by Ludovico Einaudi on my on, which was only possible with the knowledge I got from Musiah. I then went after a piano teacher to help me with expression and got a feedback that I would be at level 2/3ish of the Australian Music Examination Board. BTW: "no" software will ever teach you expression (an attempt is available with Percebe, by prof. Pitagoras Gonçalves).
Musiah can be used by children with a game background story to stimulate practice and engagement, but adults can skip that altogether.
I see Musiah as a helping tool to get you going with the basics and practising by yourself and then you look for a teacher to enhance your learning, or have them both going alongside each other. Posture, key attack and expression can only be passed on by another individual. But those concerns can be way too much until you can control your fingers, know and hit the right notes and have some dexterity. With Musiah and a digital piano, one can practice for as long as possible, as opposed to a once a week regimen. The teacher I found does not engage with students that are starting from zero, so Musiah was my first teacher and stepping stone.
Support is second to none, as I had emails answered by the creator and piano teacher for over 20 years on the same day as I posted a question.
As the last bit, Musiah checks for note, action and duration, almost to an annoying level of precision, so you can be stuck in a piece for weeks until you get it right, but then this is the goal isn't it? Most computer-assisted tools check only note and action, but not duration, so if you have a quarter note and hold for a half note duration or vice-versa you are clear.
Edit: I forgot to mention that you must audition for each piece at medium or full tempo. Auditioning at medium tempo penalises your score (you don't get full stars). To pass the audition you need at least 80%, and to get full stars you need 95%. You also need to reach a minimum of 95% of starts to be allowed to have a Performance, which is a set of three randomly selected pieces from the level. If your performance is at 70% then you pass to the next level. It is no easy feat.
Note: I am "not" affiliated with Musiah in any way beyond being a paying customer and volunteer beta tester for the iPad version, yet to be released.
Other tools I can mention:
- Synthesia (Game) is a good tool if you have MIDI, pdf, and other sources and want to play. The default mode uses cascading notes to be followed. It does have a sheet music mode, which is not on by default. It is "not" a teaching tool.
- Musescore: I used it to transcribe, copy sheet music, which was an exercise to memorise the notes. It is "not" a teaching tool.
- PianoMarvel and Playground Sessions are more robust on the teaching side and have a structured program to follow. I used each for a while and would use more for the access to the library after I become more proficient, but they do not compare to Musiah.
I hope this helps other and maybe you could make a review.
Thanks and best regards,
Angelo
I also think Musiah is very good if what you want to do is learn piano from zero to a decent level. It is a very strict, disciplined approach, which is what is needed if you are learning by yourself as otherwise you will try to go in all directions at once, and get nowhere.
And that second last piece in Musiah (The Spy who Practiced) is real hard, I find!
Hello Steven,
You are quite right on that. I think that "The Spy Who Practiced" is kind of a rite of passage. I am fine with the muscle memory with white and black keys, but the rhythm is my weakest point. I am still practising it at the slow tempo (70 bpm). Back at the time, I had issues with "Oh When The Saints" due to the anacrusis. Just by hearing, the final piece at level 13, it doesn't sound as tough.
In school we have Doremi... Not abc... Why
I followed up on your recommendation, and I find Musiah excellent indeed! Thank you so much.
What about Tessitura Pro?
what is your opnion about VST like garritan piano or keyscape etc...you can make a video with that ...?
K E Y S C A P E ! ! !
So many aspects of piano can not be learned with an app or online and I am a technology person by nature. As mentioned this might be good for sight reading but seems like a lot monthly for what it is. If you are looking for music to improve sight reading and do not want the music as part of your personal library then I would say go with IMSLP instead which if you decide to support the site is yearly what Flowkey charges per month.
I have the feeling that something that is lacking (but I didn't try it, so I could be wrong) is the possibility to practice small chunks at a time. Beginners often have the bad habit of running through a piece from start to finish, when in fact, you should be practicing only the parts that give you trouble. The way the app is designed doesn't seem to allow that.
I really only see the use as sightreading material, because practicing on this doesn't seem very practical.
You're able to manually define a small section of the score that loops until redefined.
usually thats easely fixable with a mic idk why but usually that pics better.
whats wrong with normal sheet ? PDF which i can print that is how piano players do it and i think its better
What made it work better? A midi attachment? What did you do exactly to make it sync better? I was planning to get that app too.
Why is your keyboard on laptop blinking so much. How can you live with it
Führer It's not blinking if you look at it. Our eyes have a thing called _Persistency of Vision_ that makes all rapidly blinking stuff look like a constant light, among many other things.
The camera does not have anything similar, and the slow blinking speed is due to a slight frequency change between the light and the camera.
well now i feel stupid for saying that. But also smart because i learn someting new
Führer Don't feel stupid. Ignorance is a great way to learn something new.
Great video, i know you said once, you had lots of ideas for videos (and maybe you have already thought about this) but it would be awesome if you could talk about the hardest piece you have played so far. Where were the difficulties? How did you overcome them? I‘m just super curious^^
Using a microphone triggers the algoritm for sound recognition , that means cpu power processing . Solution use a USB-CABLE.
Can you do a books and pieces video for grade 5 please?
Update on using playground sessions:
I have now been learning to play piano on playground sessions for about 3 weeks and I am still at it. The program keeps track of how long you are actually plucking the keys (haha), not the full amount of time you spend learning. In the 3 weeks I have clocked about 30 hours of plucking time. I try to spend about two hours a day on it if I can. To give you an idea of where I am at. My lesson today was learning about sharps, flats and reading notes above and below the treble and bass staff. I have so far learned to play note values from whole down to 1/8 notes. I am able to play single notes at a time in both hands at the same time.
Sometimes, I get frustrated with the feeling they need to present more lessons quicker than they do. However, when you first start out David Sides (he is the instructor) warns you that this will happen and to not question it and have faith in the method. Quincy Jones co-created playground sessions, so who am I to question him. Basically, you play, play, play a lot then get another lesson. Thank gawd the songs aren't twinkle, twinkle little star. They are songs that I like.
Here are some of the songs I am playing to so far:
Take the A Team, She Loves You, Fight Song, My Way, Ode To Joy, Imagine, Halo, Fur Elise, Clocks, Stairway To Heaven, Game Of Thrones Theme, Someone Like You, My Heart Will Go On
You learn from clips of these songs (a verse, chorus, etc) not the whole song. If you want to learn a whole song, then you can purchase that song, at that level. READ THAT AGAIN!
Say you really like Imagine from the Beatles and you want to learn the whole song and not just the chorus. You buy the song at the Rookie level. Now say you have made it to Intermediate level and want to play a more fuller version of Imagine, you have to buy the Intermediate level. Same goes for advanced. So you literally buy the same song 3 different times at $3.99 a pop. CAN YOU SAY RACKET. This is my only complaint about playground sessions so far. I haven't done this yet, and I won't. I think it makes more sense to just buy the intermediate level of the songs because I really don't think I will want to own the Rookie version and if I want the advanced version of the song, I will probably be able to find it in a song book that has a lot of songs and costs me about $12 to $20, not $3.99 a piece. If you do the lifetime membership , they throw in credit for 10 songs. That is probably all I will need to get me through intermediate level.
After completing the Advanced lessons, I think you will at that point want to switch over to a piano teacher. You will be able to play ok (up to 16th notes in both hands, no problem), but you won't be a pianist.
I hope this helps.
Who else got simply piano ad before the video?
I’ve used simply for a year and love it!...but I plan to check out flowkey and playground sessions as well...
There are a bunch of "Top 10 Piano Learning Programs", where the top 5 are usually the same. I'd really appreciate a review on like two or three recommended paid programs and some free ones. Could even be just some websites.
Here is your first website:
www.playgroundsessions.com/youtube-free-trial
Just watched right to the end! 😍😍😍😍
I had the exact thoughts about flowkey. I found the microphone near impossible to use and was disappointed to not have the sheet music to download. I'll have to try a midi cable and rethink whether to subscribe. Great video! Thanks!
Alyssa do you teach your pupils theory?
May I ask, what model keyboard are you using?
Mam, it’s 2:43 where I live, I must sleep but I love your vidEOS AHHH
Am or pm?
THEORETICALLY MUSICAL AM...also was that supposed to be a reference? 😂
Hi, I could not find the code in the box description!. Do you still have it? thanks!
Usually when she says in the description box, what she actually means is in the blog post and there is an affiliate link there: tinyurl.com/pianoTV-flowkey
can you do a video about ludovico einaudi please? 🙏🏻 nice video though!
Nathan Azuero yes please.
That would be nice. I have learned Nuvole Biache, which is my first and only piece in my repertoire, aside from piano exercises.
Contemporary music is crap
I agree that's quite expensive
You should do a video about Hummel, his music is amazing
wooohooo! love game of throne lol
Already try it but not happy at all. I still prefer a score on paper. Sorry.
Thanks allysia.
Please can you review piano marvel
How about sinplypiano?
Please, try synthesia next :3
if the piece is already in your head perfectly that app is amazing since you can find MIDI for any piece
I have a question, if I subscribe for 9.99 per month, will it take 9.99 every month and I can cancel whenever I want, or you already pay 120?
I cant find Wii city
Flowkey worked great on Android Tablets until the last big update a few months ago. Ever since the app crashes everytime the MIDI input is loading. Unusable, super frustrating and you won't get your money back neither...
EDIT: I am in contact with flowkey. We are working together trying to fix the app bug.
Hi Florian, We're really sorry to hear that the last update caused app crashes on your tablet. If you can't use the app you will definitely get your money back. Of course, we'd love to solve this issue so we'd be happy to hear from you via email (support "at" flowkey "dot" com) or in-app chat.
Unrelated to the video, but why would someone consider getting a grade 8 in piano or liecentiate ?
Wow I never thought I would hear you say undertale in a video
Would helped if it was reviewed from a beginners point of view too
You should try out Simply Piano too! I really like it.
Amaresh Talluri Yes! Agree!
it is one of the worst
derbeder Why?
I started using simply piano I switched to method books I've improved so much faber piano adventures method books are the best
Simply piano is good if you want to play for fun, but you don’t learn any theory and you won’t be able to play the more advanced pieces.
Very beautiful for a piano teacher. How is anyone supposed to learn while distracted by such beauty?
No. You should ALWAYS use a MIDI cable for these apps.
Thor's brother uses this App
Ha ha
I find that Flowkey works so much better with a midi cable. The audio only is very faulty. I don’t trust it.
Can you do easiest to hardest Handel pieces please
When you said test out I thought you said Tescos!! Great vid.
No all piano apps sound janky as their stupid built in midi samples are horrible... I just turn the sound off on the iPad and play it on my piano as it just sounds better.
Anyway, Flowkey is awesome and the theory is far better than Simply Piano or Yousician for sure.
If you want the sheet music view, you will want simply piano, even if it isn’t as good an app, it got that one piece right.
Just because something does not work on your android device does not mean it does not work on Android.
Now pertaining about the app. It won't really do anyone any good unless they take lesson for at least 3 months. You have to have instruction in piano and musicianship before the app will do you any good. It is only supplemental information. Supplemental information reviews and reinforces what you have learned in your lessons. You have to keep on taking lessons in order to make anything you learn from an app to become concrete.
i can play any song but i dont understand notes :) its because of my autism
Hello
Try Simply Piano
Synthesia is by far the best
It is defiantly not.
defiantly nice
Synthesia is terrible, all it does is tell you what key to press, no dynamics, no articulation, no rhythm etc.
that is true, but if you listened to the Chopin masterpieces for example Rubinstein, all you need is the keys since dynamics and rhythm are already in your head!!
if you are new to the piece it is nothing but if you already super familiar with the piece its amazing man
2:00
A USB MIDI cable eliminates the latency.
Is this app free?