Video Piano Lessons

A few years ago I would have probably scoffed at the idea of video piano lessons.  My background and upbringing in tradition music instruction methodology would not have allowed me to even consider it.  After spending a lot of time working up on line courses in recent years I have modified that stance considerably.

People are inundated with demands on their time today.  Many simply don’t have time to run out for lessons after a long day at work.  But they do have time at night and on weekends to study or in this case check out video piano lessons.  And that is especially true if they can do so with ease.  The internet is an obvious solution to help with this.  Actually that’s one of the reasons we started this site; to help identify courses that work for people who don’t have the background or time to do the research to find the value added courses.

The internet has changed the way we think about education.  People are getting entire degrees online.  With that in mind I set out to develop quite a sizeable chunk of online instruction.  I learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t.

Click here for the Piano For All 200 Video piano lessons

The trick to online instruction is that you MUST have streaming video when you venture into learning where people are required to perform a manual task or function.  The reason is simple.  We remember maybe a tenth of what we read.  But when you combine reading with voice and activity, even watching an activity, the retention factor goes up significantly.

In the case of video lessons a person watches the ‘expert’ perform a task and then tries to replicate it.  At first I didn’t catch the significance of this pattern.  Then one day while doing my duty as a volunteer band director for my kids’ band I was working with beginners.   I noticed a big difference in the tone quality of some of the players.   My curiosity got the better of me and I began querying them as to how they practiced. 

I found 3 distinct groups:

• Those that didn’t practice at all.
• Those that practiced on their own and by themselves.
• Those that had a parent or relative who had also played an instrument and helped them practice.

The results were quite revealing.  The ones who didn’t practice at all were absolutely atrocious and could barely get a sound out of their horn.   The ones who practiced by themselves were better but they still had that gosh awful beginner ‘wah-wah’ sound.  The ones who had help…get ready for it…..had GOOD tonal quality.

I then began to ask that latter group about their experience.  The ones with the absolute BEST sound had their parent or relative demonstrate what the horn SHOULD sound like and then had the student try to emulate that sound.

Borrowing a quote from Gomer Pyle from the old Andy Griffith Show I thought….”SHA—ZAAM that is POWERFUL!  I then put that together with my experience helping my kids learn to play their horns and piano and low and behold I had done the exact same thing with them.  But I did it as a teacher and though my ‘teaching technique’ was just good and that’s why my kids played so well.  LOL!  In actuality it was a very simple concept that we had all used.  Show and tell works well!  Video piano lessons?  Yeah, there’s potential there!

Now, let’s take that concept and apply it to video piano lessons.  Can you see the link?  It’s there and it works if you will suspend disbelief long enough to give it a valid try.  You watch the video and try to emulate what you saw and heard.   In order to get an objective opinion of your progress you can have someone else watch the video and compare your results with the video.

There’s an old saying that I use often: “If you don’t know where you’re going you will either not get there or you’ll get some place you don’t want to be.”  With good video instruction you will KNOW what it’s supposed to look and sound like and that, along with a little effort on your part, will get you where you want to be.

With Piano For All There are 200 Video piano lessons that take you through every step of the way. Each video piano lesson has in-depth verbal piano instruction as well! If you don’t understand the written instruction – listen to the sound file or play the video.

Click for the Piano For All 200 Video Piano lessons