There are a handful of online piano courses available and to be really honest, I haven’t looked at any of them thoroughly yet to determine whether they are value for money. I suspect that, just like everything else in life, there would be a range from really good quality courses to the ‘don’t waste your money’ type of course.
Some of the tactics used in their online ads seem to be a bit loose with the truth, which I have problem with and by giving you the opinion of a classically trained piano teacher, who has taught for a few decades, you will be better informed of the somewhat exaggerated claims that some make to sell their online programs.
The first thing I would like to address is that there online piano courses are more cost effective than private piano lessons. I have to disagree and not just because I am one of many piano teachers , I really believe that it is not more cost effective and here’s why. A private piano teacher will give you the one on one attention and feedback that can really accelerate your progress (if learning fast is important to you). A piano teacher will not only tell you what mistakes you are making, but will often be able to explain to you why you are making some mistakes. Piano teachers will also give you advice as to how you go about fixing your mistake. Sometimes your issue will be something like you are not reading your notes accurately enough, sometimes it could be that you need to change what fingers you use to play certain notes… There could be so many ways of making mistakes and a piano teacher will help you fix those mistakes. A decent piano teacher can help you every step of the way, no matter what your mistakes or challenges are.
These online courses cannot give you the individual attention that a piano teacher can give you. In some ways its a bit like learning to cook. You could watch videos of how to cook various recipes and follow them intently or you could have someone in the kitchen with you demonstrating how you would do something and then showing you, helping you and tweaking your techniques. I must admit I’m only a very basic cook, but I do know how to whip eggs or cream because I remember my mother showing me and critiquing me many times until I could do it perfectly without much effort.
With these online piano courses, I will concede that they would indeed be cheaper than a few years worth of private piano lessons. There is no doubt about this. Like almost everything else, you get what you pay for.
Another objection I have with the advertising of online piano courses is that piano lessons with a traditional teacher is boring while their course is fun. I get that if you had lessons as a child, the teacher wasn’t necessarily interested in making your learning fun. Times have changed and piano teachers work hard at making the learning process as enjoyable as possible. Even with kids, piano teachers work hard at giving the student choice and variety straight after they have grasped the very basic fundamentals.
Especially when working with adult students, piano teachers will put in a lot of effort to give you the music you want to learn while teaching you the things that you need. The goal is that you learn all you need so that eventually you will be able to play all the music you wish to play. Piano teachers teach in a way so that they become obsolete and you get to the point that you don’t need to have their input. I do not know whether these courses can make you independent of their course material and music that they publish.
The final area that I wish to address is the common claim that you can learn to play songs in days, not weeks or months. There are a few arguments to counter this claim. Firstly, it doesn’t matter how fabulous the course is, the rate of progress is dependent on how much practice you do. Like any skill, you are not going to make any progress if you do not practice and refine those skills.
I would also question why their online piano course makes learning so much faster than a traditional piano teacher. I believe that of the ones I have seen briefly, use a chordal method (so you learn to play a melody with the right hand and then play chords in the left hand). This method has been around forever and it is a completely valid way of playing the piano. I would question whether their course can teach this method faster than a private piano teacher teaching the same method.
The last argument I would like to use concerning the claim that their method is faster than a traditional teacher is this: How much are you learning to play the piano versus how many songs are you learning to play? I think this is a very important question because you want to be able to know what the notation is so you can work it out for yourself. I can ‘teach’ anyone how to play a simple version of chopsticks in a matter of minutes but this does not mean that they know how to play the piano – they can just play one piece of music and that’s it.
As I said at the beginning, these comments pertain only to some of the advertising I have seen for some of these online piano courses that are available. I have not researched in any way the quality of the actual courses and therefore I cannot give an opinion. If you are looking at purchasing one of these courses, please be aware of their advertising tactics, so you can hopefully make the right decision for you.