Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/30/get-over-140-hours-of-online-p.html
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Real talk: Is this course any good? If not, what would you recommend?
ETA: My goals are general music appreciation and proficiency playing.
If it comes with an actual piano, I’m all in! Seriously, I had 5 years of violin (I sucked) and a number more years of piano and still, when I took up bass found I had little to no grounding in music theory. Had to learn it from the ground up. And I thought bass would be easier than classical guitar (two less strings!) HAH!
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Dear Cory Doctorow, Mark Frauenfelder, David Pescovitz, Xeni Jardin, Rob Beschizza,
Using your empathy, please put yourself in the shoes of an acoustic-instrument music teacher.
Lessons like these without feedback from a coach or teacher, deliver “meh” results to 90% of students, and the 10% who transcend this low mean, likely have an affinity for music & their instrument, an indication they would REALLY BENEFIT from a living, responding teacher (even on Zoom or Jamkazam remote lessons)!
Especially now, in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, knowledge workers and artists face steep challenges–please don’t accept products like “Get 140 hours of online piano lessons…[etc]” that obviously cut us off at the knees. Because when that happens, we will have little need of those shoes I mentioned at the top.
Thank you!
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Hi qxzz,
You should find an online teacher of piano. Lessons will be more than $3.50 each, but you will get much more value from a living person giving you feedback via Zoom or Jazkazam or Facetime, etc.
Make sure that within the first 3 weeks, you feel there is real coaching going on. Progress depends partly on the method, and partly on the aptitudes of the student. But there is no substitute for a human who “gets you” as a learning musician.
There are so many fine teachers who are in need of income, and who are currently ONLY teaching remotely, I am confident you will find a good match. Search websites of community music schools and read other students’ comments of any particular candidate to be your teacher. Good luck!
Fred B.
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I hear you, but I have a limited budget, and a sporadic schedule that makes a regular weekly appointment difficult. Basically, I’m looking for a self-paced, flexible and cheap option, and I’m aware of the compromises inherent to those constraints.
I think that these online courses and courses on DVD could be useful as an aid with a real teacher.
It’s like to learn a language, you could learn French on-air but having to go to a course with a teacher, homework, be called to the blackboard and so on makes you more focused and the most important think the teacher spots errors and flaws you can’t see or heard. On playing piano hand and arm movements are important, so a teacher that spots problems early is essential to avoid bad habits.
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It is quite unprecedented.
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