5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great collection for the classical piano lover, December 30, 2006
This review is from: The Piano - Complete Classical Music Library (Audio CD)
I have a fairly refined ear for good piano technique and wanted a collection of classical pieces that came in an economical box set. Was a bit unsure when I saw that they did not list the interpreters but bought it anyway as it was such a good deal. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised. Excellent playing and a wonderful selection, and what a good deal!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure Perfection!, October 11, 2008
This review is from: The Piano - Complete Classical Music Library (Audio CD)
Rich, full sounding, skillfully played recordings. Included with the 16 CD's is a perfect zipper close fabric case, and a synopsis that both unfolds and fits in the case. Even at list price this CD set is a great bargain.
My only criticism is that the highly skilled pianists were not given due credit by publishing their names. Great performers deserve great recognition. They had to work long and hard to achieve such abilities.
I purchased my "The Piano" set from eBay at half the price. I plan to search eBay for "The Master" set and "The Symphonies" set also.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
My Review at Half Way Through the Course, February 6, 2012
As a whole, I think this is a pretty good product. The lessons are pretty straight forward and easy to follow (until about lesson 12 - then there is a huge leap in skill level). I took piano lessons all growing up, so I bought the course to try to get back into playing the piano. I'm definitely learning a lot along the way, but I don't find this method specifically helpful for a number of reasons:
1) Instead of focusing on what you should be learning, the instructor often shows off his professional skills instead of really teaching you the basic skills of the piano.
2) Beyond the basic clefs and the notes associated with the two clefs, he really doesn't talk about reading notes that go off the clef, but we end up playing a lot of those notes.
3) Once you get to the advanced units, you really need an 88-key piano. I was playing on a Casio 61-key, so I've had to adjust a few things here and there.
4) There are times when the instructor is almost painfully slow, and then there are times when he goes very fast. It's almost as if he's unsure how to actually pace the course effectively. I really started noticing this in Lesson #12. He starts using more advanced chord positions and often doesn't spend the amount of time necessary really showing you how to finger the chords. I've found it more useful to read the instruction booklet and figure out the chords prior to watching the DVDs.
AND NOW, MY BIGGEST GRIP!
5) When I purchased this set, I made the assumption that this set came with all of the videos necessary to complete this course. Sadly, I was wrong. There is another set of 10 DVDs referred to as the "Workshop DVDs," that do not come with the course. Ultimately, you'll spend another $70 for the workshop DVDs (including postage and handling) if you want to get the workshops. While you can read what the instructor goes over in the workshop within the book, you're missing out on almost half of the learning experience if you don't have the workshop DVDs. After Spending $150 on the basic course, I did not purchase the workshop DVDs. I just think the advertisements for this course should be MUCH clearer to indicate that more purchases are necessary to receive the full course.
This is my impression of the course after completing 18 of the 28 lessons. Thankfully, I also purchased Music Theory for Dummies, which has been a god-send and strong supplement for this course. Often the instructor teaches things within the class but really doesn't full explain them. Having a supplemental music theory book to fall-back on for more information has been a very wise move.
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