In my quest to find quality resources on the internet, I stumbled on a YouTube video called “Learn the Number System to Play Scales and Chords Easily”. First of all, I found this particular video to be well presented with the picture of a keyboard lighting up the notes that he is playing, so you can see clearly the notes that he is pressing.
The quality of this information is spot on and if you have ever learned to remember what scales are and chords are, regardless of whether you are playing pop/rock/modern music or are into classical is really excellent and because it is explained in a different way, it might be the ideal way for some to learn about these concepts. I did note that when he was talking about the minor scale, he was referring to the natural minor scale and it is important to note that there is such a thing as a harmonic minor scale and a melodic minor scale, which are both only slightly different from the natural minor scale.
The man who presents on the Piano Genius YouTube videos is Tim Goss, who is a very experienced performer and he clearly knows what he is talking about. There are actually quite a few videos that he does and while, from what I have seen, is full of good quality and well presented information.
My conclusion about Piano Genius is that if you are looking to play a chordal method and you really don’t want to learn to read music, then this collection of YouTube videos will be tremendously helpful. He breaks everything down and demonstrates everything well. Sometimes I think the pace of the information is a bit too quick for some, however, you can always go back and re-watch the whole thing or sections as many times as you like.
The only real downside to these videos is that there a few occassions where he makes the odd derogatory remark about classical music or playing the piano whilst reading music. I probably picked up on them more than the average person, because I am biased towards classical music. I know that there is a lot of division between classical, jazz and modern music, where each genre or style thinks that their way is the superior way to play the piano. The truth of the matter is that all forms of playing the piano are absolutely valid and you need to decide for yourself which path or paths you take.
If you choose to learn modern piano, then you can’t go wrong by accessing the Piano Genius YouTube videos.