online

by Ed Yourdon

Online Piano Courses – a Viable Alternative to Traditional Piano Lessons

When most people think of learning to play the piano, the image that often comes to mind is of them sitting with an instructor who explains the rudiments of music, and guides them through various beginner lessons to develop their playing skill. That can be an exciting visual to imagine.

What follows next is the realization that these lessons will require committing to a series of weekly sessions, which means rearranging schedules to make room for piano instructions one or more days a week.  Also, the time it takes to travel to and from these lessons suddenly becomes a factor.

Then there is the cost to consider. Private piano lessons these days can be quite expensive.  And with widespread economic uncertainty looming over just about every sector of society at the moment, many people may be forced to put their dream of playing the piano on hold, indefinitely.

But it doesn’t have to be that way!

If the above scenario reflects your particular situation, here is a solution that may be perfect for you – an online piano course. Thanks to advancements in Internet technology and the escalating number of households with hi-speed Internet access, online piano courses are enjoying growing popularity because of the tremendous benefits they deliver.

For example:

Most courses are comprehensive with lessons ranging from basic to very advanced.

Some courses allow you to access a free lesson before you commit to the entire program.

An entire package can be yours for less than the cost of a few private lesssons.

Lessons are presented in a variety of media formats (pdf, audio, video) to keep things interesting.

There are “play along” tracks to develop your group playing skills.

You can learn at your own pace.

Exercises are structured to develop your dexterity as you advance.

You can find courses on jazz, rock, pop, hip hop, blues, new age, gospel, country, classical and other types of music.

One of the most amazing things is how clearly video lessons are presented and how easy it is for students to absorb the material. Not only are you able to see the piano keyboard and hear every note played, but you can observe which fingers play which notes.

Along with this, the names of the notes being played are indicated. You can even see and understand how the keyboard notes correlate to notes on a staff of music.

Meanwhile, as you are viewing all this, there is the instructor’s voice explaining exactly what’s going on. It’s as comforting and reassuring as if he or she were in the same room with you. These are some of the things that make the online method of learning so attractive.

This do-it-yourself approach to learning the piano is not at all intimidating. It is a natural extention to the many other aspects in our lives where DIY is commonplace. We’ve grown accustomed to pumping our own gas, and checking ourselves out at the supermarket and big warehouse stores.  So applying the same principle to piano lessons is an easy concept to embrace.

Added to this list of benefits, is the convenience and flexibility of being able to study in the comfort of your own home whenever it suits you. No traffic or weather conditions to deal with. And there’s no need to worry about getting stuck on a particular concept, because in many cases customer support is available 24 hours a day. 

If you already have some experience playing the piano and you wanted to explore specific techniques such as chords and progressions, or modal playing, you can find lessons designed exclusively for those as well. So if gospel music is your thing and you would like to accompany singers at the next musical event at your place of worship, you can find lessons that’ll teach you comping, riffs and chord changes in the gospel music tradition.

There you have it, a look at the online piano course as a convenient, practical and inexpensive alternative to live piano instruction.  And if for some reason you purchased a course that failed to meet your expectations, you can always resort to the 60-day money back guarantee that most courses happily provide.

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