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via Udemy |
Go to Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/beginner-piano/
Certainly! Here's a detailed review and recommendation for the "Beginner Piano" course on Coursera: --- **Beginner Piano Course on Coursera: A Practical and Effective Introduction to Piano Playing** If you’ve ever dreamed of playing the piano but felt overwhelmed by traditional methods that start with music theory and notation, the "Beginner Piano" course on Coursera might be the perfect fit for you. Designed by an experienced instructor with over a decade of teaching, this course emphasizes playing real music from the very first lesson, making the learning process engaging and rewarding. **Overview and Student Feedback** The course is enthusiastically recommended by students like Greg R, who shares, "I’m amazed at what I’ve been able to learn and play." Helenmary Cody also praises the course, noting that it helps students play actual pieces that sound recognizable, providing a great sense of accomplishment and motivation to keep learning. **What You'll Learn** Unlike many beginner courses that focus heavily on music theory and reading notation at the outset, this course adopts a "Sound before Sign" approach—players start by playing real pieces of music, which helps internalize rhythm, hand coordination, and musicality naturally. The course includes learning to play familiar tunes such as the riff from John Lennon’s "Imagine," "When the Saints," "Happy Birthday," "Amazing Grace," the opening of Pachelbel’s "Canon," and the bass line of Michael Jackson’s "Billie Jean." Simultaneously, you'll develop fundamental skills including: - Piano orientation (which way is up, good hand position) - Practice techniques - Counting and timing (playing in time, using a metronome) - Note names and finger numbering - Playing "legato" and phrasing - Understanding octaves - Coordinating both hands - Learning to play chords properly **Why Choose This Course?** 1. **Playing First, Reading Later:** Unlike traditional courses that require mastering musical notation before playing, this course focuses on immediate practical playing. This method accelerates your ability to sound good early on, boosting motivation and confidence. 2. **Expert Video Instruction:** With over 4,000 private practice videos created for students, the instructor’s extensive experience ensures well-paced, clear, and engaging lessons tailored to beginners. 3. **Building Good Habits:** While encouraging quick progress, the instructor emphasizes developing proper technique and habits from the start—saving you time and frustration in the future. **No Syllabus, No Pressure** The course is structured around practical playing and fundamental skills, without a rigid syllabus, allowing learners to progress at their own pace and focus on what matters most: playing beautiful music from the start. --- **Final Recommendation** If you're a beginner eager to start playing the piano in a fun, effective way without the burden of early music reading, the "Beginner Piano" course on Coursera is an excellent choice. Its hands-on, musical approach not only keeps students motivated but also lays a solid foundation for future learning—be it reading music or advancing to more complex pieces. Whether you’re an adult beginner or someone returning to the instrument, this course will help you develop a love for playing and a good technical base. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting an enjoyable, practical, and scientifically supported way to learn piano. --- Let me know if you'd like a shorter summary or additional details!
"Ok - so who would like to start playing the piano without the hours of frustration learning music theory? I'm one. That's exactly what Benedict does in this course. … I'm amazed at what I've been able to learn and play." - Greg R"This course walks you through playing simple songs, but they actually sound like the real thing which gave me a sense of accomplishment and encouraged me to keep playing. I highly recommend this course!" - Helenmary CodyThis course will teach you good piano technique by getting you to play real pieces of music. In it, I'll show you how to play the following pieces:the riff to John Lennon's "Imagine" - When the Saints - Happy Birthday hands together - Amazing Grace hands together - the opening of Pachelbel's "Canon" - the bass line and chords of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean"And at the same time I'll teach you the following fundamentals:which way is up on a piano - good practice technique - the finger numbers - playing in time - the note names - good hand position - how to play "legato" (and what that means) - phrasing - what an "octave" is - coordinating your 2 hands - how to play with a metronome - the right way to play chordsSo why this beginner piano course instead of any other one?1) It doesn't teach you how to play the piano by teaching you how to read music firstAlmost all beginner piano courses teach you how to read music first and then get you to play from a score, but that's backwards - after all, you didn't learn to read before you could speak! Reading music is difficult, and if you try to learn how to play piano while learning how to read music at the same time you'll end up doing both badly. Instead, there's a body of research that shows that getting people to play first and then showing them how to read music is better (the approach is called "Sound before Sign"). This is the approach I use in this course. (I have a separate course which teaches you how to read music, called "Read Music FAST!", which you should do after this one.)2) I have a ridiculous amount of experience teaching music using videosI've been teaching piano one-on-one for over 10 years, to children and adult beginners as well as industry professionals, and I record practice videos for all of my students. At the time of writing I have over 4,000 private videos on YouTube, and so know exactly how to pace videos so that they're not so fast you can't follow them, but not so slow you get bored and stop either.3) You'll develop good habits which will save you a ton of time in the futureA lot of beginner piano tutorials are designed to get you to play a piece as fast as possible, which is a good aim in itself (mine do the same), but they'll usually teach you bad habits at the same time, which you'll then have to spend a lot of time unlearning in the future. By contrast, I'll get you to play pieces as fast as possible but also make sure that you're developing good habits in the process so that there's no limit to how good you can get.