Especially on Facebook, I see so many ads for online piano courses. I get why this happens. Facebook along with other platforms, tailor their information and advertising according to the preferences of the user and this particular user is a bit of a music fanatic, so of course they would put these online piano course ads on my news feed.
What I have noticed is that there is probably more than a dozen different courses I know exists. My impression is that all of them would have some value for money for their customers, but apart from Tonebass Piano, which offer information for all skill levels, they are all aimed at the beginner level.
Before I go further I must state that I have never subscribed to any of them, so I don’t have first hand experience of any of these online piano courses. I also don’t have any financial incentives to either promote or discourage use of any of them.
Part of the reason why there are quite a number of these online piano courses, is not because they have any new information or any new groundbreaking methodology. I think that they are created as a means to make money, which is certainly reasonable but at the same time, they don’t seem to me to be particularly innovative.
With all of their ads, with the exception of Tonebass Piano, they all promise to be unique and the perfect tool to learning to play the piano in the fastest time possible. This really irks me because there is no such thing as the perfect tool or the perfect method. They are all probably quite good, as I stated earlier. As far as being unique, that is probably not accurate. There might be small elements that are truly unique, but on the whole they are all very similar to each other. They are using a modern chord approach, which is perfectly suited to playing modern music and a reasonable foundation for learning to play jazz, but not suitable at all if you want to play classical music.
It is a rather deceptive marketing ploy, but they all seem to use it, is that it takes far to long to learn to play classical music. Learning classical music can take a reasonably short time if you practice enough. Another deceptive ploy is that learning to read music is also too difficult. It is not too hard at all if you take it step by step. The final deceptive marketing ploy is the claim that you don’t need to learn any theory. Learning what a note is called is theory. Learning what a chord is, is theory. Learning what notes make up a chord is theory. Learning what the timing is, is theory. Not that I approve of these questionable marketing tactics, but at least they all seem to use them, which makes none of them stand out from the crowd and just because I don’t like the marketing methods, doesn’t mean the courses are without value.
In conclusion, if you are indeed interested in having a go at one of these online piano courses, then I would encourage you to take the plunge and have a go – you probably will learn something from it.