I actually watched the Stephen Ridley free masterclass with free piano giveaway. At the end of 3+ hours, my name was called as the piano winner. Three people were called before me. They were given 40 seconds to respond. They said they must have left the webinar. My name was called, I typed my name in quickly, but didn’t seem like I was given 40 seconds, because they started counting down from 10. On 8, Stephen saw my name, said it, I was responding with my name and that I was from South Carolina. I had also pushed the chat button, but no one responded. Suddenly I became disconnected. I reconnected, but they were ending and I heard no instructions for me to contact. The chat button was still on. I could hear Stephen Ridley and his friend trying to end the webinar. I yelled out hello and my name. I did notice an email given, and have sent numerous emails and even gave my number. I had three emails that I used. Scam? Probably so.
Yes. I joined one piano giveaway today. They kept going for more than 3 hours, extending with 10 minutes again and again at the end. They had closed the comment section, I'm guessing only open for fake comments because I tried on Explorer, Chrome, PC and phone. Always closed for comments. Then at the end they pretended things weren't properly working so they had to just draw a person from whoever commented in the last minute or so.
Today’s was also 4 hours, on the fourth attempt they did get a girl from Oregon on the phone - but if she’ll get the piano is another thing. After the event ended, I refreshed the page and it counted down to next week lol
@@CyberMancerGamer I was also sadly there the whole time, although i fell asleep somewhere in the middle of the whole thing not that i missed a thing really. I hope the girl does get the piano. The strange thing if you noticed the other guy told live that the different emails that was drawn just looked like they were the same that went over and over again... well that comment made me wonder what really went on with that give away....
@@ME-uf2gw Hahah, i also fell asleep! The whole thing was weird, and how aggressively they moderated the chat was a whole thing. The number of people in the raffle also didn’t match the number in the chat by 300+ Yeah, I hope she gets it!
I’m a complete newbie and when I saw his ad for his FREE master class I knew something had to be up. Too good to be true. I’m so glad I searched for a review
there are plenty of free classes on youtube that aren''t much short of master classes. they get ad revenue as more people watch, so their secret is getting people to watch. you know how you do that? provide good and useful info.
Idk if his masterclass actually works but im pretty annoyed at the fact that that I spent 1 hour at his webinar just to get told to buy a piano class that costs 1500, originally 6000, and all the paid stephen ridley ads that come to my screen when I open a piano video
Repent and trust in Jesus. Hes the only way. We deserve Hell because weve sinned. Lied, lusted stolen, etc. But God sent his son to die on the cross and rise out of the grave. We can receive forgiveness from Jesus. Repent and put your trust in him. John 3:16 Romans 3:23❤😊❤❤
I just saw the ad and was intrigued because I saw Steven busking in Camden Town in 2012 and I became impressed by how much passion he put into playing (it was freezing and he was wearing a tank top and a beanie, his fingers wrapped in tape because how hard he was hitting the keys)... It makes me a bit sad if his course is no good, because he looked genuine back then (enough to cause an impression that lasted years).
I'm learning piano on my own now and there are plenty of good teachers on RUclips that give you realistic tips in a ten-minute video at no cost. I have come a long way with them.
I was 30 min from logging into his masterclass when I decided to do my own research. I'm classically trained in piano and spent most of my life around gospel musicians. Watched his promo video and wow, Stephen Ridley is just super animated and can bang on the piano pretty well. Thank you for saving me from a big mistake. I can re-learn my own childhood lessons....
exactly. I am also a 'super master piano genius' - and it's taken ME my whole life to develop my career. Ridley's 'master class' is a $1800 USD scam. Left hand 'shell octaves' do NOT a piano genius make.
I saw his advert cos it kept popping up all the time so I checked online for reviews found one blog & it said it's $1500 so that's a hard pass. How can any such course be worth that? I'm gonna learn through Zach Evans & maybe flowkey.
I was about to sign up and came across this. My concern is that there are no comments from people who have actually used this method and failed. Lots of people saying 'You saved me from a mistake' but how do you know it would have been a mistake? Please - would someone who has had a bad experience comment and say what was wrong?
you crazy? you an idiot? do you know anything about music. it is common sense, and basic logic. red flags. banging piano doesn't make music and practice DOES make perfect; no practice no mastery. that's how you know
I haven't dove too deep into this yet, but peep the top comment that talked about the iffy giveaway experience. It's not a full fledged "this program doesn't work" experience, but it seems like a tell tell sign. Next up, I can give you props that you don't wanna call someone out as a fraud without enough hard evidence. I was (and still am) the same way. But sometimes exercising practical judgement for a situation like this doesn't mean knowing as much information on a subject as possible. Sometimes it means knowing what to do despite the fact that you don't have all the info. To drive this point home regarding the Ridley situation, you don't have a lot of legit testimonials of people who actually tried his course and failed, but you _do_ have enough red or orange flags to determine that it's not worth the gamble to find out. The giveaway comment I pointed to earlier is one red flag. And the fact that you need to drop two stacks minimum to get anything from him is another red flag. Then there's this video. 😂😂😂😂 You don't have all the info, but you got enough to say "nah fam." Plus, as another point of interest, Guitar Center is more affordable at the rate of $125 for four 30 minute lessons, and $250 for four hour long lessons. And a piano book from Hal Leonard costs less than that. And a good RUclips channel (provided you can find a good one that works for you) is free. The major thing to worry about is which keyboard to get for how much. This all means that you can cover more ground on your own, with _far_ less of a financial commitment than what Ridley offers (I just checked his website😂). EDIT: My apologies in advance. I just peeped that you posted this 11 months ago. I hope I'm not too late. 😆
Lololol this was genius and hilarious 🤣🙌🏻 I saw his ridiculous ads on my Facebook... Wasn't interested in the course but out of curiosity had to look up if he had performances on RUclips. Then I found this... And this was better than all of his videos put together LOLZ
Genuinely, thank you. I’m trying to remember my lessons from my youth/ learn with my child, and almost signed up for the “masterclass”. Should’ve known it was too good to be true!
Yeah, I was wondering about him with his piano masterclass ads that jeot popping up. Decided to find his IG to listen to him play piano. Very quickly determined I don't want to learn to play like him at all.
@@nmand It's not BS, though the price is unreasonable. I've taught 8-10 year old children through his level 4ot 5 in literally a half hour. Now, they have to practice to get good at it, but they have the tools.
@@RichardChappell1 You can't claim you have taught them anything until they actually learn. You've done a crash course, which, in the world of incremental progressive study like music, is pretty much useless.
Must be the Messiah of music.all I did was see his ad and 1 hour later I'm playing paid concerts.ha. I signed up to take the free masterclass and scrolled through one of his videos and never even saw a keyboard.looked at comments and quit wasting my time.they have called me twice already telling me i'm missing out and to tune back in.thanks anyway I have to go count clouds.
I'm your 228th subscriber. I got here through Reddit. I had never heard of Stephen Ridley until I Googled "Yamaha Genos 2.0" and one of his ads came up on a video. Your video is hilarious! In the past, I took piano lessons from Sibyl Rotheim, organ lessons from Eddie Layton, and synthesizer lessons from Peter "Ski" Schwartz. Sibyl and Eddie have passed away. Sibyl, Eddie, and Peter were all professional performing musicians and phenomenal teachers! Greetings from New York City!!!
is that the guy who I always see on RUclips when he plays that Beatles song when it says mother Mary comes to me? I always see him a lot as well when he says look you can learn 100 songs on piano in one hour, all you have to do is use these cords.
The blinky lights is soooo true, most piano tutorials on RUclips suck, but a couple channels make good tutorials like Amosdoll music, Brennan child’s and HD piano, these channels all go through the song explaining the melody and chords, but you will need some prior teaching to understand, but the blinky lights is impossible to learn from
I've been learning piano for 4 years through a method intially made for children (inspired from traditional, Suzuki and kodali methods). I learnt my first sonata in February this year. but where I am now took me lots of work and efforts. I got help from teachers, more experienced pianists (friends) and got to know higher end professional concert pianists, from whom I learnt a lot. I also follow masterclasses, listen to opera and concerts in my free time, on a quarterly or monthly basis (depending on my workload). Me too, I post lost of piano videos, interact with many people on music-related topics on my social media. Me too, I noticed Stephan Ridley's ads appearing more and more in my feeds. My fellow musician acquaintances noticed the same. That's too much of a scam! Whoever is interested in learning piano, don't fall for this trap. Piano is a journey that everyone has to take on their own. It takes time, dedication and hard work. No shortcut to these! It is good to find a method that works for you, but pay attention to the music curriculum. Too much gimmick, go away. If it implies that you will learn in less that x time, don't go there. If it implies that some (or only one) aspects of musicianship are more valuable than others, don't go there. If it doesn't tell you how to practice, that's a nope. If it puts too much emphasis on what to play (i.e which keys to hit), at the detriment of how and why, leave it. There are many others, but those ones are visible after a few clicks.
You have learned a method that builds classical pianists. If that's what you want to do, that's great. Most people don't. Ridley is teaching a method of chord based improvisation. It does not rely on sheet music, but a basic understanding of chords and styles. It is similar to playing rhythm guitar - appregios and strum patterns based on teh chord progression - vs trying to learn classical guitar. They are radically different styles. Compared to classical methods, it is incredibly rapid. You can truly start playing simple (simple style, not one finger notes like the first several lessons in classical methods) songs in a half hour. I have literally taught children from 8-10 enough to play a couple of basic songs in a falf hour. But to become competent and fast enough, it takes a few months of serious practce. But it's so much more enjoyable that typical piano lessons that people will. Ridley's problem is that it's way, way to costly.
I played Piano in School on an Electric Organ with a friend. The Hungarian Dances I took the upper Octavs he the Lower Octavs. The Organ had four. Since his legs were to short to use the Foot Pedle I helped him with that. We always played in the Pauses training together.
I'm a musician, and it is very annoying seeing him like 10 times a day in ads saying how 10 minutes of practice is way more with his method, and then the fake reviews where people say, they play all major and minor scales in one month. It sounds so ridiculous, I mean really. Do another video, it's great!!
I actually did buy the course 3 or 4 weeks ago, and I can play all minor and major scales already. He teaches it as a pattern instead of learning singular notes and memorization. It was really quite easy. I still cut play chopaticks, but I do know those scales now! I'm just starting 2 hands at the same time for this week on those scales.
As someone who searched far and wide all over the internet to only see few people talking about how BS this guy is, this video made me laugh and also made me very thankful people do adress these issues. So, my main point is thank you for creating this video. 100/10 👍
I literally did this right now as I type this lol. I’ve seen this guy for years and an ad popped up now that sent me on this journey. It’s great to find people who feel the same way about this guy. Usually when someone irks me I search them up and there’s usually something that ‘exposes’ their behaviour. It seems like this guy isn’t really on the radar, but he is still as shady and over the top as ever. This vid was very validating.
I’ve been debating on wether or not to buy his course but the only thing that stoped me was how ridiculous his sales pitch sounded. Sounded way too good to be true. Glad I’m not the only one that thought this way. Thanks for the vid bro 😂
I was curious so I went and watched some of his actual playing vids... half the time he's hitting wrong notes or off tempo and he destroys his piano...
I signed up and it starts in 6 minutes. Since I signed up I've gotten three emails and texts every single day. If he really was a virtuoso boy he sounds very desperate. The one I found is if you're selling your class for $2,600 but with a coupon code it can be $1,300??? We forgot when somebody says worth $700 they're the ones who've decided the number it's not some agency who has come in and evaluated their program. I'll go but now I'm going to watch for the tics. Thanks for this video. I just now got a text saying if I don't show up 15 minutes early I may not get in. Boy they really need to get a hold of the stupid ones don't they. We'll see how long I last. Intros to master classes are just a worse Hard Sell I basically just wanted to check it out. Last time I did something like this the person wasn't even there the whole thing was pre-recorded.
Been getting this add popping up alot now. I'm glad to find a video calling him out. The sales pitch has almost all the red flags shown in Mike winnet's exposé 'contrepreneur'!
I just found out about Stephen just a few days ago (its febraury 26th 2023) cause I seen one of his ads on a video I was watching and his music skills caught my ear so I stayed and listened to the sales pitch then the next day I see his ad again the musicality again caught my ear and I was really interested in this course but it sounded to good to be true. Another day past and see his ad again this time I go and investigate I look him up on youtube and google and that when I ran across your video and I must say how am I just now finding out about YOU? How do you not have a million views yet this is hysterical! And the guy seems insanely talented and very likeable but your video got me thinking twice about signing up for his course lol!
Well he is correct about one main thing: traditional piano instruction does not talk about chords. Of course the chords are there as individual notes, but are not explicitly identified with letter names above the measure, and therefore for example the beginner pianist doesn't recognize that Fur Elise uses Am and E7 and the teachers don't point it out either. But I am pretty sure most modern piano courses talk about chords.
It depends on what you mean bu modern. Most piamo training is the traditional one note at a time learn to play simple melody, add a finger from the otehr hand, etc. There are a few, such as Pinote that introduce chordal improvisatin, but very few. The first person I saw pushing this was "Scot the Piano Guy" who sold videos and books years ago, I myself learned it accidentally - I picked up a book in the 80s and worked through it, and it changed my life. The only real problem I see with Ridley is that it is in such small increments and is about 10-20 times more expensive than it should be.
'Shell octaves' aren't any level. What a strange comment. Any person with no piano piano training whatsoever can play a 'shell octave' if they can open their hand that widely. It seems pretty clear from the advert that 'level 10' is very much his own invention and involves playing the piano at an extremely rudimentary level with chords in one hand, octaves in the other and the occasional Blues lick thrown in for good measure.
Thank you for posting this. I got hooked at the beginning and signed up for the first free workshop. Then I got two emails right away. Then I got a call that the workshop would start in a few. I blocked the number. Then I got ANOTHER CALL FROM ANOTHER NUMBER saying that the workshop would have started or something... I instantly hung up and blocked this number too. I have seen aggressive marketing before but this was extremely over board and turned me so off. Then I watched a few of his piano videos and his playing is really horrible - in my opinion. Anyhow, I very rarely post things but I had to get this off my chest.
Oh now I get it. *Most* ads on RUclips are in fact scams. I'm mean some are really obvious and this one was a little more slick and polished. But kind of embarrassed that I felt for it enough to click the link.
Very funny sure but let me tell you something. After playing guitar 45 years, I could entertain here and there and if I didn't stay too long could leave with people thinking I was pretty good. The reality was I'd learn a handful of songs very well, then I'd learn some others and on and on. Anyway as I learned new stuff I'd lose command of the old stuff. I had a left brain approach and it just never came together for me. Common music instruction is like trying to teach a child to talk while teaching it how to spell, use proper grammar and punctuation at the same time, it's not necessary and would very much confuse the process of learning how to talk. I just saw an ad for Ridley's course last night. Haven't seen the content and won't cause I don't need it. In reading between the lines of his sales pitch I believe I've come up with the same approach over the last 18 months or so and my ability has soared. I had the idea of coming out with a course eventually myself so seeing this is a bit disappointing to say the least. Anyway, it's called improvisation, I always thought it would eventually come to me but in a nutshell, you learn how to improv by focusing on improv. You'll suck at it at first but slowly it comes, then faster and faster till music feels as natural as... running your comedic mouth lol.
It is really good his course. All students are very happy with it. And anyway if you are not happy with it there is a money back guarantee for lifetime.
He even advertises it as free just to get you into an hour long seminar to tell you it costs 3000$ at the end of it as well as saying he has a gift for everyone when really at the end it’s just bonus stuff that you have to pay for anyways plus a discount or something dumb like that
I had the exact same experience, being told its free to then sit there for an hour and be told its over a grand in a cash, feels like he just waisted a perfectly good hour of my life, although it has inspired me to wanna learn piano properly now to prove to my self that I don't need that lol
I can confirm he’s a scammer, I just left the webinar and he said that he never did this webinar before, and the offer is a Christmas gift which is 1500 bucks or 5 payments of 400. Now I’m reading the comments from a year ago and he’s been saying the same thing 😭
lol I totally and utterly love your (perfectly legitimate and justified) mockery of Stephen Ridley and his scam "Ridley Method". Your rendition of it is quite endearing and adorable. =3 ***Kiss on cheeks*** 🧡🧡💛💛
By the way, I found at least one thing that Stephen Ridley got a-i *_wrong_* in his advertisement. Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" piece does not follow the Ridley imbursed 4-chords of I - V - vi - IV. The 4-chord harmonic progression of just the refrain alone is actually vi - ii7/6 (1st inversion of 9th-extension chord) OR IV7add6 - V5/4(suspension) - V(susp. resolved). Reiterate: No: I-V-vi-IV. Yes: vi-ii7/6-V5/4 Don't get me wrong. The I-V-vi-IV does in fact work for the refrain section. Ridley demonstrated it nicely. It's simply not the harmonic progression that was actually used. "I could teach you 100 songs on the Piano in less than 1 hour". Lavigne's "Complicated" isn't one of the them; neither the refrain, nor the verses. 😉
This is hilarious! A great video. This guy's ads have been popping on virtually every video I watched recently, extremely annoying. He cannot even play himself.
Whatever you DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS !! DON'T GIVE THEM YOUR EMAIL OR MOBILE NUMBER. YOU WILL BE SORRY I AM 🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴 HE BOMBARDS YOU WITH MESSAGES AND EVEN CALLS YOU FROM THE US I'M BLOCKING EVERYTHING BUT HE STILL SEEMS TO GET THROUGH 🤬
Dang. I gotta say thank you for breaking the genjutsu. I wasn't gonna commit to him (I'm working on guitar, bass, and drums; and 2 stacks minimum is out my budget anyway), but thanks for the education. Lol. I do have to say it's bittersweet tho. I wanted Stephen Ridley to be a cool cat, not a rat. From what I gather, he was a deaf musician, so I wanted to respect him and see him winning. It's also the only reason I didn't hate him, because his ads are a violation to all that is good. Smdh. "Just 4 chords, these." TO _WHO_ N----?!????? 🤬 Either eay, I wanted to support him, since being a deaf musician is a praiseworthy accomplishment. But he just had to be on that bullcrap. Sad day. 😔
It's called microlearning. I teach guitar using accelerated learning techniques. Students usually fail because they forget what they learned a week ago. And without seeing fast progress, students are more likely to quit. I try to give a student at least two very short (less than 10 minutes) lessons every week. They don't have time to forget what they learned a couple of days ago. And, it forces them to get better faster. So I'd have to say that a 3 minute lesson every day is waaaaaaay more efficient than a 15 or 30 minute lesson every week. And with over 200 lessons, what this course claims you could achieve in 2 years seems doable.
Really? Stephen Ridley has found a passion and kudos to him for sharing it. I know he's using a lot of advertising to share it and he's definitely flamboyant .. but's that's because he's passionate about it. I've signed up and learnt a lot from his straight forward approach. I did like your video and appreciate humour .. but reading through some of these comments felt I should show a little bit of the other side of the story. Hope you don't mind :o)
I sat in that live for 3 and a half hours, and he didn't even give the free book he promised... I pointed out at the 2 hour mark how this is probably a scam in the chat room, and got banned from it... This is 100% a scam. In the livestream he was like "Guys, I have plenty of money. This isn't about the money. I just want to teach people how to express themselves through the piano." If that's the case, then why are you charging $3000 for the piano course? Why not make it free on YT or something? That's another thing. he kept discrediting YT tutorials on how to play piano, and yet he's making an online masterclass that teaches students with videos (which is basically a YT tutorial series). What a scam.
Yes, yes it does actually. He talks about how most popular songs are composed with the same four chords and if you learn those chords, you can play over a hundred songs 😅
I am so annoyed with this scammer. I joined a one hour presentation that lasted almost 4 hours based on being there at the end for a piano drawing. He learned his trade from the marketers of time shares. He's a user. AVOID AVOID AVOID
I did join the free recorded live webinar (pun intended).....so much of overacting....over smiling.....such a fake smile as if he is the only one in the world who found this unique technique.....glad I found your video....
I have been playing piano for 26 years. I do not appreciate Stephen Ridley’s insult and slander to piano teachers. Nor am I impressed by the way his piano playing. The only way his teaching would impress me would be if he or one of the 80,000 people he had taught played either one of these collections J. S. Bach The Art of the Fugue Francois Couperin 27 Ordres Beethoven 32 Sonatas Liszt’s Etudes.
super awesome...I can't tolerate Stephens crap and gimmicks too:) thanks for the vid mate..hope Stephen gets the message too:) to make million artists we don't need to pay millions lmao:)
All the whining and complaining. His webinar just got me interested in piano again or take lessons, doesn't meant i'm going to spend 2k. We all have different ways to learn.
Couldn't even sign up for the so-called master class. Fields kept jumping all over and - there were only 4 of them. Struggling to believe how someone who doesn't appear to be able to set up a simple on-line form can really teach piano on-line. I don't like the idea of a con. I prefer to come by my learning the honest way. I have read music since childhood and it is a beautiful symbolic system though I know there are and have been gifted singers and musicians who don't read music and like story we have had these wonderful things since the beginning of. I wonder if they have incredible hearing and a depth of emotion that they can translate into other modes, such as singing or playing a musical instrument effortlessly. I think I read somewhere that Elvis Presley didn't read music and IMV he was amazing.
![Learn 4 Chords - Quickly Play Hundreds of Songs! [EASY VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1D3aWUx771A/mqdefault.jpg)
![Learn 4 Chords - Quickly Play Hundreds of Songs! [EASY VERSION]](/img/tr.png)
I actually watched the Stephen Ridley free masterclass with free piano giveaway. At the end of 3+ hours, my name was called as the piano winner. Three people were called before me. They were given 40 seconds to respond. They said they must have left the webinar. My name was called, I typed my name in quickly, but didn’t seem like I was given 40 seconds, because they started counting down from 10. On 8, Stephen saw my name, said it, I was responding with my name and that I was from South Carolina. I had also pushed the chat button, but no one responded. Suddenly I became disconnected. I reconnected, but they were ending and I heard no instructions for me to contact. The chat button was still on. I could hear Stephen Ridley and his friend trying to end the webinar. I yelled out hello and my name. I did notice an email given, and have sent numerous emails and even gave my number. I had three emails that I used. Scam? Probably so.
Yes. I joined one piano giveaway today. They kept going for more than 3 hours, extending with 10 minutes again and again at the end. They had closed the comment section, I'm guessing only open for fake comments because I tried on Explorer, Chrome, PC and phone. Always closed for comments. Then at the end they pretended things weren't properly working so they had to just draw a person from whoever commented in the last minute or so.
Today's went 4 hours. And of course, at the end, there were several people who didn't respond when their name was called so they didn't get the piano.
Today’s was also 4 hours, on the fourth attempt they did get a girl from Oregon on the phone - but if she’ll get the piano is another thing.
After the event ended, I refreshed the page and it counted down to next week lol
@@CyberMancerGamer I was also sadly there the whole time, although i fell asleep somewhere in the middle of the whole thing not that i missed a thing really. I hope the girl does get the piano. The strange thing if you noticed the other guy told live that the different emails that was drawn just looked like they were the same that went over and over again... well that comment made me wonder what really went on with that give away....
@@ME-uf2gw Hahah, i also fell asleep! The whole thing was weird, and how aggressively they moderated the chat was a whole thing. The number of people in the raffle also didn’t match the number in the chat by 300+
Yeah, I hope she gets it!
“I’m going to teach you how to be an artist… a con-artist.”😂 I can’t
I’m a complete newbie and when I saw his ad for his FREE master class I knew something had to be up. Too good to be true. I’m so glad I searched for a review
there are plenty of free classes on youtube that aren''t much short of master classes. they get ad revenue as more people watch, so their secret is getting people to watch. you know how you do that? provide good and useful info.
Anytime you see a free webinar class it’s almost always just the modern repackaged version of infomercials.
I suggest you look for some "Scot the Piano Guy" videos to get the basics of what Ridley teaches.
What made this even funnier was the Stephen Ridley ad that played right after it was over.
omg lolol
Idk if his masterclass actually works but im pretty annoyed at the fact that that I spent 1 hour at his webinar just to get told to buy a piano class that costs 1500, originally 6000, and all the paid stephen ridley ads that come to my screen when I open a piano video
but he taught you all the four chords in the commercial can't you play all the songs now?
Repent and trust in Jesus. Hes the only way. We deserve Hell because weve sinned. Lied, lusted stolen, etc. But God sent his son to die on the cross and rise out of the grave. We can receive forgiveness from Jesus. Repent and put your trust in him.
John 3:16
Romans 3:23❤😊❤❤
@@lowlightpiano7110oh god. You guys are everywhere like a cheap suit with a bible sewn into the pocket. Go.away.
Sameeee
Finger Yoga has really improved my guitar playing, er, I mean Piano playing. 😂
I just saw the ad and was intrigued because I saw Steven busking in Camden Town in 2012 and I became impressed by how much passion he put into playing (it was freezing and he was wearing a tank top and a beanie, his fingers wrapped in tape because how hard he was hitting the keys)... It makes me a bit sad if his course is no good, because he looked genuine back then (enough to cause an impression that lasted years).
I'm learning piano on my own now and there are plenty of good teachers on RUclips that give you realistic tips in a ten-minute video at no cost. I have come a long way with them.
Hoping you are enjoying this challenging journey😅. Also learning through RUclips videos. Had a tutor initially for the foundation stuff
Can u send some links of some of the ones u think are best?
@@iyctthgootk That would be awesome right!???
Thats why u r taking forever to learn 😂😂😂
@@minisurfbanana
People can't exactly help not being able to afford lessons with a teacher.
Just saw this guy's ad on MasterClass, it's literally him singing off the songs in Axis of Awesome's Four Chords. In order.
Give it a few days, weeks or months and you will see people selling the used method academy info cheap.
YOU are my favorite comedian on RUclips!!! Thank you so much for sharing and all the effort you put into making these. Please create more content!!!
This video deserves a million views. Genius man. Great f’in job.
I was 30 min from logging into his masterclass when I decided to do my own research. I'm classically trained in piano and spent most of my life around gospel musicians. Watched his promo video and wow, Stephen Ridley is just super animated and can bang on the piano pretty well. Thank you for saving me from a big mistake. I can re-learn my own childhood lessons....
You're welcome! Glad you dodged the Ridley bullet lol
ROFL, same here. I decided to do further research and the above sales pitch brought up all kinds of RED Flags of I "JUST SAID NO"
exactly. I am also a 'super master piano genius' - and it's taken ME my whole life to develop my career. Ridley's 'master class' is a $1800 USD scam. Left hand 'shell octaves' do NOT a piano genius make.
I saw his advert cos it kept popping up all the time so I checked online for reviews found one blog & it said it's $1500 so that's a hard pass. How can any such course be worth that? I'm gonna learn through Zach Evans & maybe flowkey.
@@MimicoBungalow Except I've never heard of you, but I have SR.
I just watched the webinar today and thank you for saving me from buying it. He made it seem like in a weekend you will be playing heaps.
I was about to sign up and came across this. My concern is that there are no comments from people who have actually used this method and failed. Lots of people saying 'You saved me from a mistake' but how do you know it would have been a mistake? Please - would someone who has had a bad experience comment and say what was wrong?
you crazy? you an idiot? do you know anything about music. it is common sense, and basic logic. red flags. banging piano doesn't make music and practice DOES make perfect; no practice no mastery. that's how you know
I haven't dove too deep into this yet, but peep the top comment that talked about the iffy giveaway experience. It's not a full fledged "this program doesn't work" experience, but it seems like a tell tell sign.
Next up, I can give you props that you don't wanna call someone out as a fraud without enough hard evidence. I was (and still am) the same way. But sometimes exercising practical judgement for a situation like this doesn't mean knowing as much information on a subject as possible. Sometimes it means knowing what to do despite the fact that you don't have all the info.
To drive this point home regarding the Ridley situation, you don't have a lot of legit testimonials of people who actually tried his course and failed, but you _do_ have enough red or orange flags to determine that it's not worth the gamble to find out. The giveaway comment I pointed to earlier is one red flag. And the fact that you need to drop two stacks minimum to get anything from him is another red flag. Then there's this video. 😂😂😂😂
You don't have all the info, but you got enough to say "nah fam."
Plus, as another point of interest, Guitar Center is more affordable at the rate of $125 for four 30 minute lessons, and $250 for four hour long lessons. And a piano book from Hal Leonard costs less than that. And a good RUclips channel (provided you can find a good one that works for you) is free. The major thing to worry about is which keyboard to get for how much. This all means that you can cover more ground on your own, with _far_ less of a financial commitment than what Ridley offers (I just checked his website😂).
EDIT: My apologies in advance. I just peeped that you posted this 11 months ago. I hope I'm not too late. 😆
Lololol this was genius and hilarious 🤣🙌🏻
I saw his ridiculous ads on my Facebook... Wasn't interested in the course but out of curiosity had to look up if he had performances on RUclips. Then I found this... And this was better than all of his videos put together LOLZ
Genuinely, thank you. I’m trying to remember my lessons from my youth/ learn with my child, and almost signed up for the “masterclass”. Should’ve known it was too good to be true!
Yeah, I was wondering about him with his piano masterclass ads that jeot popping up. Decided to find his IG to listen to him play piano. Very quickly determined I don't want to learn to play like him at all.
@@SF-ki1sr I had no idea this is BS and he's a scam as everytime I see his ad in between my youtube music playlist the music sounds so beautiful
@@nmand It's not BS, though the price is unreasonable. I've taught 8-10 year old children through his level 4ot 5 in literally a half hour. Now, they have to practice to get good at it, but they have the tools.
@@RichardChappell1 You can't claim you have taught them anything until they actually learn. You've done a crash course, which, in the world of incremental progressive study like music, is pretty much useless.
Must be the Messiah of music.all I did was see his ad and 1 hour later I'm playing paid concerts.ha. I signed up to take the free masterclass and scrolled through one of his videos and never even saw a keyboard.looked at comments and quit wasting my time.they have called me twice already telling me i'm missing out and to tune back in.thanks anyway I have to go count clouds.
I'm your 228th subscriber. I got here through Reddit. I had never heard of Stephen Ridley until I Googled "Yamaha Genos 2.0" and one of his ads came up on a video. Your video is hilarious! In the past, I took piano lessons from Sibyl Rotheim, organ lessons from Eddie Layton, and synthesizer lessons from Peter "Ski" Schwartz. Sibyl and Eddie have passed away. Sibyl, Eddie, and Peter were all professional performing musicians and phenomenal teachers! Greetings from New York City!!!
Commenting to boost the algorithm. This guy keeps popping up in my YT pre-roll ads and I'm sick of his fraudulent act. Thanks for the video.
Very entertaining and so close to the real thing
is that the guy who I always see on RUclips when he plays that Beatles song when it says mother Mary comes to me? I always see him a lot as well when he says look you can learn 100 songs on piano in one hour, all you have to do is use these cords.
The blinky lights is soooo true, most piano tutorials on RUclips suck, but a couple channels make good tutorials like Amosdoll music, Brennan child’s and HD piano, these channels all go through the song explaining the melody and chords, but you will need some prior teaching to understand, but the blinky lights is impossible to learn from
I've been learning piano for 4 years through a method intially made for children (inspired from traditional, Suzuki and kodali methods). I learnt my first sonata in February this year. but where I am now took me lots of work and efforts. I got help from teachers, more experienced pianists (friends) and got to know higher end professional concert pianists, from whom I learnt a lot. I also follow masterclasses, listen to opera and concerts in my free time, on a quarterly or monthly basis (depending on my workload).
Me too, I post lost of piano videos, interact with many people on music-related topics on my social media. Me too, I noticed Stephan Ridley's ads appearing more and more in my feeds. My fellow musician acquaintances noticed the same. That's too much of a scam!
Whoever is interested in learning piano, don't fall for this trap.
Piano is a journey that everyone has to take on their own. It takes time, dedication and hard work. No shortcut to these!
It is good to find a method that works for you, but pay attention to the music curriculum.
Too much gimmick, go away.
If it implies that you will learn in less that x time, don't go there.
If it implies that some (or only one) aspects of musicianship are more valuable than others, don't go there.
If it doesn't tell you how to practice, that's a nope.
If it puts too much emphasis on what to play (i.e which keys to hit), at the detriment of how and why, leave it.
There are many others, but those ones are visible after a few clicks.
You have learned a method that builds classical pianists. If that's what you want to do, that's great. Most people don't. Ridley is teaching a method of chord based improvisation. It does not rely on sheet music, but a basic understanding of chords and styles. It is similar to playing rhythm guitar - appregios and strum patterns based on teh chord progression - vs trying to learn classical guitar. They are radically different styles. Compared to classical methods, it is incredibly rapid. You can truly start playing simple (simple style, not one finger notes like the first several lessons in classical methods) songs in a half hour. I have literally taught children from 8-10 enough to play a couple of basic songs in a falf hour. But to become competent and fast enough, it takes a few months of serious practce. But it's so much more enjoyable that typical piano lessons that people will.
Ridley's problem is that it's way, way to costly.
I just had the webinar and I find this hilarious. 🤣
Iam broke so I couldn't buy the course though..😂😂
I played Piano in School on an Electric Organ with a friend. The Hungarian Dances I took the upper Octavs he the Lower Octavs. The Organ had four. Since his legs were to short to use the Foot Pedle I helped him with that. We always played in the Pauses training together.
I'm a musician, and it is very annoying seeing him like 10 times a day in ads saying how 10 minutes of practice is way more with his method, and then the fake reviews where people say, they play all major and minor scales in one month. It sounds so ridiculous, I mean really. Do another video, it's great!!
it was that level of annoyance that pushed me to make this video
Legitimately, he’s such a bullshitter. And the thousands of people in his feed lapping it up. Sad to see. Thanks for making this satire!
Haha. I just saw the free webinar and almost signed for it. Thanks for posting this.
I actually did buy the course 3 or 4 weeks ago, and I can play all minor and major scales already. He teaches it as a pattern instead of learning singular notes and memorization. It was really quite easy. I still cut play chopaticks, but I do know those scales now! I'm just starting 2 hands at the same time for this week on those scales.
I'm also a musician and to tell somebody all they need to do is practice 10 minutes a day is complete nonsense.
As someone who searched far and wide all over the internet to only see few people talking about how BS this guy is, this video made me laugh and also made me very thankful people do adress these issues. So, my main point is thank you for creating this video. 100/10 👍
I literally did this right now as I type this lol. I’ve seen this guy for years and an ad popped up now that sent me on this journey. It’s great to find people who feel the same way about this guy. Usually when someone irks me I search them up and there’s usually something that ‘exposes’ their behaviour. It seems like this guy isn’t really on the radar, but he is still as shady and over the top as ever. This vid was very validating.
@@raymondsmit344 He only just came onto my radar because youtube updated it's anti adblocker.
I’ve been debating on wether or not to buy his course but the only thing that stoped me was how ridiculous his sales pitch sounded. Sounded way too good to be true. Glad I’m not the only one that thought this way. Thanks for the vid bro 😂
Your spidey senses were spot on
Also the fact that his piano playing in the advert sounds horrendously devoid of any musicality and is not even representing anything close to mastery
I was curious so I went and watched some of his actual playing vids... half the time he's hitting wrong notes or off tempo and he destroys his piano...
@@AndyLowe-net The piano playing in the ad is horrible. Just banging. Poor piano. It's a bit like if Florence Foster-Jenkins decided to teach voice.
@@jewelmarkess are you crazy? in the ad, that was some of the best playing I have heard.
I signed up and it starts in 6 minutes. Since I signed up I've gotten three emails and texts every single day. If he really was a virtuoso boy he sounds very desperate. The one I found is if you're selling your class for $2,600 but with a coupon code it can be $1,300???
We forgot when somebody says worth $700 they're the ones who've decided the number it's not some agency who has come in and evaluated their program. I'll go but now I'm going to watch for the tics. Thanks for this video.
I just now got a text saying if I don't show up 15 minutes early I may not get in. Boy they really need to get a hold of the stupid ones don't they. We'll see how long I last. Intros to master classes are just a worse Hard Sell I basically just wanted to check it out. Last time I did something like this the person wasn't even there the whole thing was pre-recorded.
Been getting this add popping up alot now. I'm glad to find a video calling him out. The sales pitch has almost all the red flags shown in Mike winnet's exposé 'contrepreneur'!
contrepreneur is spot on lol
This is hilarious. It was not hard to figure out that course was a scam when I attended his intro free training.
Dude literally ripped off 4 chords from axis of awesome and was like “let me teach u piano” what a f-in joke
I just found out about Stephen just a few days ago (its febraury 26th 2023) cause I seen one of his ads on a video I was watching and his music skills caught my ear so I stayed and listened to the sales pitch then the next day I see his ad again the musicality again caught my ear and I was really interested in this course but it sounded to good to be true. Another day past and see his ad again this time I go and investigate I look him up on youtube and google and that when I ran across your video and I must say how am I just now finding out about YOU? How do you not have a million views yet this is hysterical! And the guy seems insanely talented and very likeable but your video got me thinking twice about signing up for his course lol!
Well he is correct about one main thing: traditional piano instruction does not talk about chords. Of course the chords are there as individual notes, but are not explicitly identified with letter names above the measure, and therefore for example the beginner pianist doesn't recognize that Fur Elise uses Am and E7 and the teachers don't point it out either.
But I am pretty sure most modern piano courses talk about chords.
It depends on what you mean bu modern. Most piamo training is the traditional one note at a time learn to play simple melody, add a finger from the otehr hand, etc. There are a few, such as Pinote that introduce chordal improvisatin, but very few. The first person I saw pushing this was "Scot the Piano Guy" who sold videos and books years ago, I myself learned it accidentally - I picked up a book in the 80s and worked through it, and it changed my life.
The only real problem I see with Ridley is that it is in such small increments and is about 10-20 times more expensive than it should be.
What is the best material to learn about this?
@@M3SOTI What is your level of experience?
@@codetech5598 zero
@@codetech5598 i have zero experience. Is there any hope for me?
Why hasn't this vid recieve millions of views yet??!! 🤣
I almost bought in! 😅Thanks!🙏🏽
Hahaha totally hilarious my kids loved this!!!
The online course is always here for them. :)
He was only doing shell octaves with his left hand, which is level 5 not level 10 during his piano infomercial.
'Shell octaves' aren't any level. What a strange comment. Any person with no piano piano training whatsoever can play a 'shell octave' if they can open their hand that widely. It seems pretty clear from the advert that 'level 10' is very much his own invention and involves playing the piano at an extremely rudimentary level with chords in one hand, octaves in the other and the occasional Blues lick thrown in for good measure.
late to the party , but i cant get enough of this.
Thank you for posting this. I got hooked at the beginning and signed up for the first free workshop. Then I got two emails right away. Then I got a call that the workshop would start in a few. I blocked the number. Then I got ANOTHER CALL FROM ANOTHER NUMBER saying that the workshop would have started or something... I instantly hung up and blocked this number too. I have seen aggressive marketing before but this was extremely over board and turned me so off. Then I watched a few of his piano videos and his playing is really horrible - in my opinion. Anyhow, I very rarely post things but I had to get this off my chest.
Thank you so much. I needed this
Oh now I get it. *Most* ads on RUclips are in fact scams. I'm mean some are really obvious and this one was a little more slick and polished. But kind of embarrassed that I felt for it enough to click the link.
THIS IS SO SATISFYING!!!!! THANK YOU 🤣😂
Pure comedy gold!
Very funny sure but let me tell you something. After playing guitar 45 years, I could entertain here and there and if I didn't stay too long could leave with people thinking I was pretty good. The reality was I'd learn a handful of songs very well, then I'd learn some others and on and on. Anyway as I learned new stuff I'd lose command of the old stuff. I had a left brain approach and it just never came together for me. Common music instruction is like trying to teach a child to talk while teaching it how to spell, use proper grammar and punctuation at the same time, it's not necessary and would very much confuse the process of learning how to talk. I just saw an ad for Ridley's course last night. Haven't seen the content and won't cause I don't need it. In reading between the lines of his sales pitch I believe I've come up with the same approach over the last 18 months or so and my ability has soared. I had the idea of coming out with a course eventually myself so seeing this is a bit disappointing to say the least. Anyway, it's called improvisation, I always thought it would eventually come to me but in a nutshell, you learn how to improv by focusing on improv. You'll suck at it at first but slowly it comes, then faster and faster till music feels as natural as... running your comedic mouth lol.
Don’t forget to invent a method and name it after yourself. That to me is the most important part.
Just came here to say his new ad is just ripping off an existing song called “four chords by axis of awesome”
Great, I love to see it again with you in mind … that will be fun ! 😂😂
150x times faster means that you get 12.5years of learning in the space of one month.
Which is total bullshit, of course
yeah but he teaches you to add in filler notes, which makes you better and gives style points 😎
“ I owe money, lot’s of money. . . This deal is only good for 1 hour. . . “ 😅
It is really good his course. All students are very happy with it. And anyway if you are not happy with it there is a money back guarantee for lifetime.
He even advertises it as free just to get you into an hour long seminar to tell you it costs 3000$ at the end of it as well as saying he has a gift for everyone when really at the end it’s just bonus stuff that you have to pay for anyways plus a discount or something dumb like that
Classic Ridley
I had the exact same experience, being told its free to then sit there for an hour and be told its over a grand in a cash, feels like he just waisted a perfectly good hour of my life, although it has inspired me to wanna learn piano properly now to prove to my self that I don't need that lol
“Practice makes perfect Stephen”😂😂😂
Like if you are here after finishing his free master class
Fuck I just gave Steven Ridley 10k for learning how to play the trumpet
So hilarious!!! Cracked me up!
I can confirm he’s a scammer, I just left the webinar and he said that he never did this webinar before, and the offer is a Christmas gift which is 1500 bucks or 5 payments of 400. Now I’m reading the comments from a year ago and he’s been saying the same thing 😭
Same! June 9, 2024, same offer. The webinar was 4 minutes short of 4 hours. Ridiculous.
I am watching his webinar right now and it still is the same!!!! Glad I didn't fall for this scam.
lol I totally and utterly love your (perfectly legitimate and justified) mockery of Stephen Ridley and his scam "Ridley Method". Your rendition of it is quite endearing and adorable. =3
***Kiss on cheeks***
🧡🧡💛💛
By the way, I found at least one thing that Stephen Ridley got a-i *_wrong_* in his advertisement.
Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" piece does not follow the Ridley imbursed 4-chords of
I - V - vi - IV.
The 4-chord harmonic progression of just the refrain alone is actually
vi - ii7/6 (1st inversion of 9th-extension chord) OR IV7add6 - V5/4(suspension) - V(susp. resolved).
Reiterate:
No: I-V-vi-IV.
Yes: vi-ii7/6-V5/4
Don't get me wrong. The I-V-vi-IV does in fact work for the refrain section. Ridley demonstrated it nicely. It's simply not the harmonic progression that was actually used.
"I could teach you 100 songs on the Piano in less than 1 hour". Lavigne's "Complicated" isn't one of the them; neither the refrain, nor the verses.
😉
Harmonic progression of the verses ("Chill out! What ya yellin' for?"):
I - vi - IV7add2 - V5/4 - V7add6.
“Get yer shoulder in there” 😂
Brilliant!!!
Thank you
This is hilarious! A great video. This guy's ads have been popping on virtually every video I watched recently, extremely annoying. He cannot even play himself.
Is there another Stephen Ridley who also give piano masterclass?
That's hilarous
When an individual is just yacking away for a while and not getting to the point then you know it’s time to move on
awesome
Looks like this needed to be said
Whatever you DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS !!
DON'T GIVE THEM YOUR EMAIL OR MOBILE NUMBER.
YOU WILL BE SORRY
I AM 🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴
HE BOMBARDS YOU WITH MESSAGES AND EVEN CALLS YOU FROM THE US
I'M BLOCKING EVERYTHING BUT HE STILL SEEMS TO GET THROUGH 🤬
Good advice
Dang. I gotta say thank you for breaking the genjutsu. I wasn't gonna commit to him (I'm working on guitar, bass, and drums; and 2 stacks minimum is out my budget anyway), but thanks for the education. Lol.
I do have to say it's bittersweet tho. I wanted Stephen Ridley to be a cool cat, not a rat. From what I gather, he was a deaf musician, so I wanted to respect him and see him winning. It's also the only reason I didn't hate him, because his ads are a violation to all that is good. Smdh.
"Just 4 chords, these." TO _WHO_ N----?!????? 🤬
Either eay, I wanted to support him, since being a deaf musician is a praiseworthy accomplishment. But he just had to be on that bullcrap. Sad day. 😔
This video is so accurate.
Just watched some of SR’s flamboyant and emotional performances on RUclips. Cringe 😬
Practice makes perfect
Amen
Thank you to do this. Rally funny!
It's called microlearning.
I teach guitar using accelerated learning techniques.
Students usually fail because they forget what they learned a week ago. And without seeing fast progress, students are more likely to quit.
I try to give a student at least two very short (less than 10 minutes) lessons every week. They don't have time to forget what they learned a couple of days ago. And, it forces them to get better faster.
So I'd have to say that a 3 minute lesson every day is waaaaaaay more efficient than a 15 or 30 minute lesson every week.
And with over 200 lessons, what this course claims you could achieve in 2 years seems doable.
Really? Stephen Ridley has found a passion and kudos to him for sharing it. I know he's using a lot of advertising to share it and he's definitely flamboyant .. but's that's because he's passionate about it. I've signed up and learnt a lot from his straight forward approach. I did like your video and appreciate humour .. but reading through some of these comments felt I should show a little bit of the other side of the story. Hope you don't mind :o)
You were scammed, Genius.
2:51 😂😂😂😂😂❤ I like you!
I dont play with a Sheet I play by Memory. I hear a song and then I try to play it what I heard.
this is great
You are magnitudes better at writing and performing comedy than the subject is at playing the instrument called piano.
Slade Forest, is that you in the video. You recorded yourself talking about Stephen Ridley's sales pitch?
I sat in that live for 3 and a half hours, and he didn't even give the free book he promised... I pointed out at the 2 hour mark how this is probably a scam in the chat room, and got banned from it... This is 100% a scam.
In the livestream he was like "Guys, I have plenty of money. This isn't about the money. I just want to teach people how to express themselves through the piano." If that's the case, then why are you charging $3000 for the piano course? Why not make it free on YT or something?
That's another thing. he kept discrediting YT tutorials on how to play piano, and yet he's making an online masterclass that teaches students with videos (which is basically a YT tutorial series). What a scam.
glad you didn't fall for it flamerzzz
I can't stop laughing
Does the "Riddley method" have anything to do with the Access of Awesome method?
Yes, yes it does actually. He talks about how most popular songs are composed with the same four chords and if you learn those chords, you can play over a hundred songs 😅
I am so annoyed with this scammer. I joined a one hour presentation that lasted almost 4 hours based on being there at the end for a piano drawing. He learned his trade from the marketers of time shares. He's a user. AVOID AVOID AVOID
I did join the free recorded live webinar (pun intended).....so much of overacting....over smiling.....such a fake smile as if he is the only one in the world who found this unique technique.....glad I found your video....
Glad you did too :)
This just saved me a whole lotta time that would have been wasted! Thank you
I have been playing piano for 26 years. I do not appreciate Stephen Ridley’s insult and slander to piano teachers. Nor am I impressed by the way his piano playing. The only way his teaching would impress me would be if he or one of the 80,000 people he had taught played either one of these collections
J. S. Bach The Art of the Fugue
Francois Couperin 27 Ordres
Beethoven 32 Sonatas
Liszt’s Etudes.
Hahaha. I just got subjected to this dude giving me a 2 minute pitched ad…
super awesome...I can't tolerate Stephens crap and gimmicks too:) thanks for the vid mate..hope Stephen gets the message too:) to make million artists we don't need to pay millions lmao:)
Ну такое, выступления у него внатуре шикарные, а главное от души. А на счёт курсов может ты и прав.
Google Translate: "Well, such, his performances are naturally chic, and most importantly, from the heart. And you might be right about the courses."
@@SladeForesthe said that his performances are good and he plays by heart, but maybe you’re right about the course.
All the whining and complaining. His webinar just got me interested in piano again or take lessons, doesn't meant i'm going to spend 2k. We all have different ways to learn.
I’m watching it to learn a few habits from a memorable voice I already have a piano I love but just not that motivated and not good at speed
💁🏽♀️Pros n cons 🌟
Everytime I see his annoying "4 chords" ad on here, I always think "Wow, he totally ripped off Axis of Awesome"
This is hilarious 😂
I signed up for a class I can’t find the link in my email
Hilarious! Thanks for the video perfectly expossing the [con] artists out there :)
Nailed it ha ha
Couldn't even sign up for the so-called master class. Fields kept jumping all over and - there were only 4 of them. Struggling to believe how someone who doesn't appear to be able to set up a simple on-line form can really teach piano on-line. I don't like the idea of a con. I prefer to come by my learning the honest way. I have read music since childhood and it is a beautiful symbolic system though I know there are and have been gifted singers and musicians who don't read music and like story we have had these wonderful things since the beginning of. I wonder if they have incredible hearing and a depth of emotion that they can translate into other modes, such as singing or playing a musical instrument effortlessly. I think I read somewhere that Elvis Presley didn't read music and IMV he was amazing.
Take my money! 🤣
Just got Ridley'd FOUR times in 1 hour.