Online Piano Lessons – The Benefits, Pitfalls & Choosing What Works Best For You
Found in: Miscellany & Merriment, Simply Music Gateway
In this day and age, you can learn anything online! Yes, even how to play the piano. Online piano lessons give you the ability to learn piano anywhere with an internet connection. While no self-teaching experience can replace the knowledge and care of a good real-life teacher, online piano lessons are a substitute that can produce a great outcome. If you don’t live near a teacher or just prefer to learn on your own, you really can learn to play beautiful songs on the piano – and have fun while doing it! Here’s a look at some of the benefits of online lessons, as well as some advice on how to avoid some of the pitfalls of self-teaching.
It’s affordable
If you are just starting out, you might not be ready to make the financial commitment of taking regular lessons with a teacher. By paying a one-time fee for an online piano program, you’re able to test the waters before fully diving in. However, the rule “you get what you pay for” still applies. As a beginner, you’ll want to look for a professional-standard program- preferably one that has it’s roots in a sound, proven educational system.
If you’re saving time, you’re saving money. With online lessons, you eliminate driving time (and gas costs!). Not only will you have the convenience of learning in the comfort of your own home, but you’ll be able to do so on your own schedule! Night owl? No problem! (Just check with the neighbors first!)
You can progress at your own pace
If you’re a busy person, you can log in and learn at any time and at any frequency. If your child is learning, online lessons reduce wear and tear on Mom’s Taxi (and Mom’s sanity). A good online music program will make it easy to repeat and review projects as needed. If you need a few weeks to fully process a task, you can do so, without feeling pressure to move forward. The warning here is that there’s also the temptation to postpone a session at the smallest excuse. Too long a delay between sessions can decrease your motivation and increase the need to relearn. We strongly recommend finding a regular time for viewing your program, as well as a regular daily time for practice, preferably the same time each day, at least five days a week.
The risk is low
You might have tried and failed to learn the piano before, are uncertain about your musical potential, or just aren’t confident in your musical abilities – if any of these sound familiar, online lessons allow you to dip your toes in the water with minimal commitment.In the case of our system, we can confidently say that learning to play is possible for virtually everyone – Simply Music is based on the premise that everyone is inherently, naturally, profoundly musical – but it’s understandable that we won’t believe that until we’ve tried it for ourselves
It works for children
Younger or less confident kids may well be more comfortable learning in the familiar online environment compared with face-to-face lessons in someone else’s house. That said, even more so than in live lessons, parental participation is vital when a child is learning online. In this setting, you are both Music Coach and Life Coach, so make sure you are deeply involved in the process, both at the computer and at the piano as your child practices.
Is this right for me?
There are a lot of questions to be asked about self-teaching piano programs. How do you know that what you’re learning is the right thing at the right time? How do you know you’re getting the right level of challenge (not so easy that it’s boring, not so hard that it’s discouraging)? How do you know when you’ve processed a task fully enough to be ready for the next step? Are you barrelling downhill like a runaway kettledrum headed for the orchestra pit? These are the questions an experienced teacher could answer immediately, but many online methods leave the progression up to you.
Simply Music Online
The Simply Music Online program is much more structured than typical online methods, offering guidance as close as possible to what a teacher would provide. From his extensive experience working with real students, Neil Moore learned just how much a student can absorb in one sitting, breaking the learning down into short, effective, easy-to-follow lessons with a clear path to completion for each song, crafting a carefully graduated sequence of songs, in which each is a natural next step, always offering something new, paced for the fastest and most enjoyable development experience.
In our view, even the more modern methods tend to be driven by a traditional, reading-based approach where, from the very beginning, playing is accessed via notes on a page. “New” methods often turn out to simply be different ways to learn music reading, rather than going straight to playing and eliminating the additional complication of reading at the early stages. For many learners, this approach can lead to a higher risk of failure, and it’s especially important that online lessons, where you need to be entirely responsible for your own learning, should be as uncomplicated as possible. Eliminating the unnecessary is especially important when you’re teaching yourself, which is why we believe our playing-based approach is ideal for learning music online.
Starting with Simply Music Online is as simple as setting up an account and paying the low, one-time fee for permanent and immediate access to both levels of the program. Following the guided step-by-step process will have you really playing within your first few lessons! If it doesn’t, we’ll give you back your money. There’s never been a better time to get started with learning piano.
Want to make a difference in YOUR musical self-expression AND that of special needs children globally? Then Simply Music Gateway needs you! Until the 20th July, when you donate $50 to our Indiegogo campaign and become a ‘Gateway Advocate’, you receive access to our Simply Music Online program free of charge (one of our campaign perks). This means you learn for half price and special needs children around the world receive their tailored piano program for FREE. Be the difference now and click here.
Of course, no online program will take you as far as you might like to go. For some players, online lessons simply provide a starting point, and they will ultimately want to explore music with a teacher. The Simply Music Online program is designed to dovetail with our teacher-based Simply Music Piano program, allowing you to move seamlessly into lessons with a trained teacher of the program. Conveniently, the Teacher-based program also now provides online student materials. It also allows you to join a supportive online student community.
You will also find that many Simply Music Piano Teachers offer lessons via Skype or similar video chat services, allowing you many of the conveniences of the online platform along with the benefits of a real teacher.
You can even train to teach our groundbreaking method through our new all-online Teacher Program. Our highly regarded, remarkably comprehensive program is more freely available, more flexible, and more affordable than ever before. If teaching music is an idea that lights you up, you will be amazed at how possible it can be with Simply Music, even if your musical background is limited.
