Online Piano Lessons

Online piano lessons are not as crazy as they sound

Online piano lessons are part of the evolving trend towards online learning. Web sites offering online piano lessons have been emerging on the Internet for some time now. The obvious question is, "Are these lessons as effective as learning from a person and is it as easy as they say?" Let's explore some of the options available and try to answer that question.

There are different types of online piano lessons, but the most popular seem to be the video series. The lessons go over topics such as reading the basic notes on sheet music as well as finding the corresponding note on your piano keyboard. Each lesson lasts about 30 minutes so you can take as many or as few lessons as you would like. It does offer flexibility in time and schedule, but it lacks the personalized teaching of a real person.

Just like any other video instruction set, video online piano lessons lack the depth and personal one-on-one interaction that can make real lessons so effective. However, they do provide the opportunity for you to learn using many modalities, e.g., seeing the keys being played, hearing the information, reading the information and eventually moving from the video to the keyboard to touch and feel the keys and hear the music for yourself. This method is particularly well-suited for children and adults who don't read well enough to follow written instructions.

An alternative Online Piano Instruction method uses both reading/seeing and hearing. Lessons are presented, screen by screen with text and diagrams. Finger exercises or songs are provided for practice. Often, if you click a "listen" icon, you can hear how the suggested exercise or song is supposed to sound.

Obviously, these lessons lack the verbal/visual of video but offers the advantage that lessons can be printed and taken to the piano for use.

A third type of online piano lessons substitutes a video camera for a music teacher. These courses require that you have a Webcam, that is a camera that broadcasts your image to an instructor and a computer that receives audio and visual from the instructor. This method is a very close approximation of a private piano tutor and will work well for those who need the support (or pressure) of another person.

Your old piano teacher probably never dreamed that someday you would be opting for piano lessons online!