Check out Piano for All at www.pianoforall.com

Many learn to play systems for piano are very much book or manual based learning and many of these resources are difficult to stay interested in as they focus too much on the technical stuff and exercises rather than moving the student to learn popular music.  To increase the appeal of learning to play the piano, Piano For All has been created as a course that combines workbook lessons with computer based visual and audio elements.  Using the different elements makes the course easier to understand and follow as the video lessons guide the student through the examples and through the lessons.  Piano For All has been designed by piano teacher and artist Robin Hall and is targeted specifically at beginner piano players of all ages.

The bulk of the information for each of the lessons is contained in the 10 eBooks that make up the Piano For All course.  Each of these books has video and audio demonstrations and exercises which are linked through the eBooks.  The lessons start with a good foundation of parts of the piano and understanding how chords work and when used in order the eBooks gradually introduce new skills which are then practised mastered.  One of the better features of the lesson exercises is that once you have passed the initial couple of lessons then popular music is introduced to make the exercises more interesting.

One of the best qualities of this program is that you don’t need a degree in IT to be able to use the eBooks, the lessons or the video and audio examples.  To make the lessons run smoothly each of the video and audio links are right there on the page and only require a click to view the relevant file.  Other positive features of this course is the amount of information that you receive when purchasing Piano For All.  The lessons are very comprehensive and the size of the course is half a gig so it is important that you have room on your computer for the whole course.  Piano For All includes a piano resource book (eBook 10) which contains loads of information, tips and exercises which supplement the lessons.

Piano For All is a great overall course for people looking for a computer based course to learn the piano.  This program has many positive features such as the interesting lessons, the easy to use format and the extras that you get when purchasing this piano course.

Check the Piano For All Website at www.pianoforall.com

If you are looking for a complete learn to play guitar package that focuses on both electric and acoustic guitar then Amazing Guitar Secrets may be the course for you.  This learn to play pack includes work books, video examples and audio tracks which are all designed to move you along as you learn and develop skills.

Amazing Guitar Secrets has been designed and taught by musician and teacher Dan Denley.  Denley has a very accomplished music background that includes a music degree, classical training in piano and vocal performance as well as over seven years experience playing guitar with performing bands.  For those guitarists that find this guitar package great to learn from, Denley also has several advanced guitar courses including Lead Guitar Secrets and Acoustic Guitar Secrets.

As with many of these learn to play guitar packages this course contains 2 DVDs of lessons and techniques, a CD which contains jam tracks and a very comprehensive work book which guides you through the lessons.

The DVD part of the pack contains just over 4 hours of material with a mix of video and on screen graphics and diagrams.  The quality of the video segments is nothing special but it makes up for this with quality material and relatively good audio.  A note to beginners who are using this guitar program is that Denley in some examples uses technical language which may not be understood by people who have just started to play guitar and have no other music background.

The CD contained in Amazing Guitar Secrets includes 40 guitar tracks which you can play along with.  These tracks are a good addition to the course however they have been recorded with just the guitar playing and would have been better with the option of playing the tracks with a backing band.  The CD also has all the work books as PDF files which can be printed and also contains printable versions of the tutorials that cover topics such as reading chord charts and learning scales.

The Work book that is included in the pack is made up of 10 smaller black and white workbooks that follow the lessons and format of the included DVDs.  Other information included in the work book is a handy progress tracker which you can use to map your progress through the lessons.  There is also an included Amazing Guitar Secrets guide book and you will also receive several other smaller theory books which cover some of the technical information such as scales, patterns, reading music, guitar tab and guitar theory.

This guitar package is suitable for people who are wanting to learn music theory as well as learning to play the guitar and at the price of under $100 it is defiantly worth a look.

Check out the Beginner Guitar System at www.beginnerguitarsystem.com

For beginner guitarists looking for a system that covers all the basics as well as providing material that will keep you interested and challenged then this guitar system may suit your needs.  The Beginner Guitar System has been created by guitarist and teacher Nate Savage who has had plenty of experience with over 16+ years playing and teaching guitar.  The lessons are all featured on a collection of DVDs and exercises and lessons are also featured in the included workbook.  This beginner guitar system has been developed for use by beginners but also has excellent sections on chords, rhythm and guitar theory that are also suited to intermediate guitarists.

The Beginner Guitar System is a complete guitar playing course and includes in the pack a work book which supplements the lessons, a poster which features guitar chords, 4 DVDs of video lessons, 2 DVDs which feature 10 songs to learn, CDs which contain backing tracks for the play along songs and a CD which works as a metronome.

The work book supplied with the Beginner Guitar System is an illustrated manual that is designed as a reference for the student while using the DVD video lessons.  The great thing about this work book is that it contains extra material as well as what is covered in the video lessons.  The work book should be used while viewing the video lesson as the relevant page numbers are displayed on the screen so you can follow the lesson through the work book.

The lessons are divided up onto 4 DVDs and take you through each of the lessons and included exercises step by step.  An excellent aspect of this course is that it starts with all of the basics such as how to hold the guitar, equipment that you will need as well as important things such as how the tune the guitar and change strings.  The video presentation of each lesson is excellent especially when showing fingering close ups and the lessons feature guitar tab and music which is useful for people who are complete beginners at both the guitar and reading music.

The extra play along songs that are contained in the Beginner Guitar System are a great idea as you have something to aim for while completing the course.  The 10 tracks are featured like the course video lessons and once you have mastered them you can play with or without the guitar or metronome or just with the backing band.

This course is a refreshing change from all the poor quality guitar courses on the internet.  The Beginner Guitar System is a great package for anyone looking to the internet for lessons on how to play the guitar.

For more information visit the Beginner Guitar System Website www.beginnerguitarsystem.com

Visit the Fret2Fret website at www.fret2fret.com

Anyone who has done some searching on the internet for online resources for learning to play the guitar has probably come across Fret2Fret through their advertising.  Much of the advertising for this program is very hyped with guarantees such as  mastering the techniques and improve your guitar playing in less than half an hour.  Some people may be put off by this type of advertising as you have to look past the hype, the many testimonials and sales pitches before getting to the content of Fret2Fret and what it has to offer the beginner guitar player.

Fret2Fret was created by guitarist Mike Slaiter and offers the beginner guitarist an alternative to the structured guitar lessons that are offered by many other learn to play guitar programs.    The Fret2Fret program is not an actual guitar course that moves you step by step through learning and playing, rather Fret2Fret is a collection of memory techniques that once learnt help you remember the location of notes and patterns on the guitar or bass Fretboard.  Learning these techniques can be useful for beginners but should not be the only technique or material used when learning to play the guitar or bass.

Apart from the collection of memory techniques for guitar and bass guitar, Fret2Fret also includes several other extras, many of which are available for free over the internet.  The first of these extras is the Fretboard Warrior which is a game for use by the guitar player to memorise notes on the fret board.  The next extra is a very basic tuning software called TuMeDrum which also includes a metronome and drum loop.  This extra is not really worth using as the metronome has only a few settings, the drum rhythms are boring and the whole interface with this software is uninspiring.

One of the more interesting extras is the Guitar Tablature that Fret2Fret gives you access to.  After a little investigation of this extra and the content it looks like some of this material may be provided in violation of copyright regulations.  The last of the extra features that Fret2Fret gives you access to is Guitar Tablature files for Guitar Pro 3.  It should be noted that this extra only works if you already own the Guitar Pro software, for those who don’t have this software this extra is a complete waste of time.

Fret2Fret offers the beginner guitarist a different learning tool as an alternative to the standard learn and play courses used by many other companies.  While these memory techniques can be useful you are better off spending your hard earned cash on other much better guitar courses.

For more information visit the Fret2Fret website www.fret2fret.com

Check out the Instrument Master website at www.instrumentmaster.com

Anyone who has spend time trawling through the internet and the many music related websites will probably have come across Instrument Master.  One of the negative aspects of Instrument Master is the hyped and over the top way that the course is featured on the webpage.  Many people are put off by websites with pop ups, endless reviews by random people and outrageous claims about how good the product is and ‘special prices’ for recommending your friends also buy the product.  What seems to attract people to this piano course is the promise of an all inclusive piano course, the price which is cheaper than many of the other courses available online and also the advertised bonus of access to other courses for instruments including guitar, bass and violin at no extra cost.

Unfortunately after parting with the purchase price to have access to all that Instrument Master (Piano) has to offer it was clear that many of the features that were advertised on the website were substandard or in some cases were exaggerated or nonexistent.  The advertisement for Instrument Master claims that you will have access to 1000s of lessons for all instruments via the Instrument Master library as well as access to 10 Styles and genres of instruction for each of the instruments covered by this site.  What you really get is somewhat different to the promises made before you part with your money.

After gaining access to the teaching materials for Instrument Master it was clear that what was promised and what was delivered were two totally different things.  The advertisement for Instrument Master promised thousands of lessons but the site only features 13 QuickTime movie files which were poor quality, didn’t really teach anything of importance and were only short with the longest clip only 3 minutes.  The clips that did show something where blurry,  had muffled audio and there was no structure to any of the lessons.

Instrument Master also provides the user with 13 MP3 files that contain just the audio of the above mentioned QuickTime movie files.  These audio files are completely useless as you already have the audio with the video clips and they aren’t that good anyhow.  The package also features scale illustrations, some PDF files that have some basic music theory and notation and some Jam Tracks which as with most of this package are rubbish and a waste of time downloading.

For people looking for a great online course for learning to play piano – keep looking.  Instrument Master is a poor quality waste of money – do not buy this course.

For more information check the website www.instrumentmaster.com

Check out the Learn and Master Bass Guitar website www.learnandmaster.com

Learn and Master Bass Guitar is a brand new bass guitar course from the Legacy Learning company.  This course is part of the spotlight series of courses offered by this company and is a less expensive bass guitar course which still manages to give the student good quality video lessons and an excellent introduction to the 4 string bass guitar.  The video lessons feature Tony Marvelli who has a solid background in playing and teaching the bass guitar and his easy style comes across well as he teaches in the video lessons.

As with many of the online courses, Learn and Master Bass Guitar features 3 DVDs of video lessons, 1 audio CD and a work book which is used to supplement the lessons.  The video lessons are split into 6 sessions which cover topics such as an introduction to the bass guitar, music theory, tab and reading music, scales, chord progressions and how to get the most out of your practice time.  This course is great for beginners as it spends a fair amount of time focusing on the basics of playing the bass guitar such as picking, fretting techniques as well as slides and patterns.  Some of the topics that are featured during the video lessons are only covered very briefly so it is essential to have the work book to follow which fills in the required detail for many of these skills.

Learn and Master Bass Guitar also features a Jam Along CD which has 8 tracks which you can play along to.  The tracks are of a high quality and feature full band backing as well as excellent jazz and blues sections which are great to play along to.  The Jam Along CD is good but unlike other learn to play bass courses the tracks are only featured at the one tempo and the tracks are an extra and learning them is not covered in any of the video lessons.

The lesson book is available only as a PDF and can be downloaded from the resource website.  The book is an excellent complement to the video lessons and has been produced with easy to understand diagrams, chord charts and exercises.

Learn and Master Bass Guitar is quite a good course for people who are looking for a cheaper option for an online course.  The video lessons and work book have many positive features and this course is great for beginners who are looking for a course that covers the basics of playing bass in some detail.

Check out the Learn and Master Bass Guitar website www.learnandmaster.com

Check out the Piano by Pattern website at www.pianobypattern.com

Piano by Pattern is not your typical 1 through 10 piano course with much of the course and the information included focusing around a secret technique that makes playing easier and also aids the player to easily make your own impromptu tunes.  People who are looking for a course to teach them how to play the piano should give this one a miss as the central theme of this piano course, the secret technique, does not teach you anything that will help you develop or make you into a better pianist.  This course was created by Scott Jordan and is available to view both online or once you have purchased, for download to your computer.

The Piano by Pattern includes 14 video lessons which make up the bulk of the material for the course.  One of the disappointing features of these lessons is that you are only show what keys are being played through a diagram and hand positions and techniques are not covered in these video lessons.  A positive feature of the videos is that Jordan is quite good to listen to and many of the techniques and teachings are explained quite well.

Also included in Piano by Pattern is a PDF Chord workbook which is a fairly standard chord chart showing much of the same information found in most beginner piano books.  There is also a notes workbook which contains basic music notation found in any beginner piano book.  The last extra included in the pack is a short document called Read Music Now which covers the basics of reading music and understanding notation and symbols used in music.

People looking for a beginner course to learn how to play the piano should avoid this piano course like the plague.  The secret technique that is taught by Jordan through this course does work to some extent but has very real limitations and after listening to many of the original tunes he has made up they all sound pretty much the same.  Some website reviews of Piano by Pattern have suggested that this package is a rip off or at best a scam as there are many excellent online piano courses available with better content and extras for much less money.  It is recommended that you don’t waste your time or your hard earned money on Piano by Pattern.

For more information check out the Piano by Pattern website www.pianobypattern.com

Check out the Piano Coach Pro website at www.pianocoachpro.com

If you have spent time surfing the internet for an online piano course then you may have come across Piano Coach Pro in your travels.  For those people who have bought or checked out Instrument Master you will see that Piano Coach Pro is very similar in relation to the content and also the hype and misinformation.  The course has been put together by Jamie Lewis who does most of the playing in the badly filmed video lessons.  As with Instrument Master, Piano Coach Pro offers much in their advertising but delivers little of what is advertised.

According to the website and advertisements for Piano Coach Pro you will receive the following once you have enrolled and paid your money.  The course is said to provide you with over 200 lessons, 18 video lessons, 20 audio lessons, play along tracks, 1000s of scales, arpeggios, chords and exercises as well as over 50 MP3 audio lessons on Piano Style.  This sounds relatively good for a learn to play piano course considering that the price is lower than other courses claiming to have content such as this.  Unfortunately the content of Piano Coach Pro is really only 10 video lessons, 4 scale charts, one 12 page music theory booklet and a membership to guitar hot shot and Violin Master Pro which is considerably less content than advertised.

Once you have paid your money and have access to the members area of the website you have a choice of downloading the lessons or you can stream them onto your computer.  The video lessons are very poor in quality and in many parts the audio is muffled which makes it difficult to follow or hear what is being taught.  Another negative with the video lessons is that they have no structure or logical sequence and jump around from one skill to another which makes it very hard to follow and learn.  The other material included in Piano Coach Pro is not really worth mentioning to much as information such as the scale charts and music theory featured in the book can be obtain free on other websites and in a much better format.

For people looking to buy an online guide to playing the piano make sure that you stay right away from Piano Coach Pro.  This over hyped rubbish with its poor quality video lessons and lack of content is sure to disappoint and there are so many other courses available so don’t waste your time or money on Piano Coach Pro.

Check the Play Piano Tonight Website www.playpianotonight.com

Play Piano Tonight is one of many computer based courses that combines the use of an eBook with other multimedia presentations in a lesson format.  The course has been designed and presented by musician and music teacher Ron Worthy who also has several different piano related websites for students of the piano to visit.  The eBook that you download after purchase is central to the lessons for this course and as with many of these courses the examples, video and audio clips are imbedded in the eBook and are relatively easy to use.

Play Piano Tonight is targeted at a novice or beginner level skills on the piano and this is where the course falls a bit short.  The title suggests that these lessons are for beginner pianists however if you are a beginner at the piano you may find that the course is not quite what you expected and that the lessons are quite hard and are targeted at people with a few more piano skills.

The Play Piano Tonight course is available online and once you have purchased the course and logged into the website you are presented with a membership area that contains all the sheet music and exercises embedded on this page of the website.  This format of presenting the course is very user unfriendly as there are much better ways of presenting information on webpage’s especially when the user has paid for access to the content.  After going through the lessons and using the video and audio functions another disappointment was the quality of the video and audio supplied with the course especially from Worthy who mumbles a lot through important parts of the video lessons.

Apart from the course content the only other extras that are included in the Play Piano Tonight course is a membership to the SheetMusicDigital.com website and access to the VanBasco Karaoke Player which is a free downloadable application.  The access to the sheet music website is quite a good extra as memberships are usually $20 so you save a bit of money and get access to a great music website.

Play Piano Tonight is not the best piano course on the market and one of the big problems with this course is that it is marketed at beginner piano players and clearly to get the best out of this course you need to have some background in music and have some experience playing the piano.  For beginners it is recommended that you give this course a miss and check out other piano courses that are specifically targeted at beginner piano players.

For more information check the website www.playpianotonight.com

Check out Rocket Piano at www.rocketpiano.com

The Rocket Piano course has been around for several years and has become a favourite with beginners who have decided to learn the piano from home.  The piano lessons and information are specifically targeted at beginners which means that the lessons don’t have an overwhelming amount of technical terms and the student does not have to have any prior knowledge of music or the piano.  Rocket Piano has been designed and is taught by Ruth Searle who has a background in piano which includes classical training, a bachelor of arts in music and various other prestigious awards for composition and performance.  Searle features as the instructor in the video lessons and guides students through the various exercises and practice.

The Rocket Piano course is a very comprehensive one which uses a mix of video, audio and work book based material to teach beginners the basics of playing the piano.  Rocket Piano is available as a download including video and audio files and the workbooks as a PDF or the course can be purchased in a physical form as DVDs, CDs and 3 bound work books.  Downloading the course is the better of the two as it is slightly cheaper and you receive the course straight away rather than having to wait for it to come in the post.

The Rocket Piano course has a large amount of material which has been put together in such a way that it moves you through the course as you master the exercises and improve on your skill base.  The course contains 3 lesson books which, at over 200 pages total, are an important reference as you move through the lessons, 2 extra Jazz and Gospel books, 191 audio files, 57 video lessons, 17 jam tracks, an online question and answer video lesson and life membership to Rocket Piano which allows for future material to be accessed for free.  Searle has also included some bonus material in the Rocket Piano course such as a perfect pitch learning game and great reference called the chordinator which teaches people who are new to the piano how to easily read piano chords.

Piano Rocket is one of the better piano learning courses available online which focuses on people who are beginners at both music and playing the piano.  The content of this course may look at first to be overwhelming but this course has a good structure which moves you through the lessons and the theory as your skills and playing improve.