Customer Reviews

Piano and Keyboard Method V2.0 2007 [Old Version]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I started using this software tool June, 28th. Before that, I took some lessons but never believed myself capable of playing an instrument. I thought my ears were plastic and my fingers were wood. Today, after 250 lessons and two months and a half, I am playing. I put about an hour daily. More or less, one song every day. At the beginning of each lesson, computer feedback is 50 or 60% but it improves faster to more than 90%. Once I get more than 90%, I consider that lesson learned and start next one. The feedback provided by the computer every time I play is tremendously helpful for a better try. I have played in public "country gardens", "piano man" and "heavens door" in a satisfactory manner. Thanks to emedia! I am now planning moving to intermediate level, which also looks like an amazing product.

Potentially, a computer could really help a person learn piano. However, most of this product's features fall short of helpful. The midi preview of each exercise and tune is useful for anyone who cannot read music at all, but nothing you could not get with an audio CD. The animated keyboard is just a distraction. The course includes occasional video clips, but they add little. At least one potentially useful feature, the musical accompaniment, is actually broken, at least on Macintosh. If you turn on the accompaniment, you won't be able to hear your own playing. There is a volume adjustment control for it, but it does nothing. The company is aware of the problem, but they still advertise this feature, and keep shipping the product.
The program runs in a cramped little window. A menu command lets you make it full screen, but it just lowers the resolution of your monitor, making the contents of the window larger, but blurry.
I would recommend a book and audio CD (like the Alfred's All-In-One, level 1 piano method) over eMedia's Piano software.

I was really surprised to see so many dubious reviews here.

I've had this software for a few years now and basically, it works, it's engaging and it's very well thought out.

I found my progress improving rapidly using this software.

The songs are fine in that they a very well chosen to introduce each new concept.

The marking of the user's playing works surprisingly well.

Sure, the music is very 'straight'; it's not bluesy or particularly soulful, but there are wonderful classical tunes and it gets down to the business of getting you to play as soon as possible. There is room for you to play with expression with this software.

There are ample quizes, tunes and videos to keep you interested and I found the whole thing hard to stop - which is pretty impressive for what is, essentially, piano practice.

I don't know of any software up to the standard of eMedia's and I can heartily recommend this package.

It may seem obvious, but you obviously need a MIDI keyboard and a MIDI connector to make this software work. I had no problem on my MacBook Pro. I just plugged it in and off I went.

I hope they add more to this series because, basically, it works, it's a substantial body of work and a great way to learn without having to fork out for a piano teacher.

I have recommended this software to beginning keyboard players and have found it to be very helpful for them. I wish I had this available when I learned piano many years ago! For those already taking lessons, it makes an excellent supplementary tool. Visual and corrective feedback make learning much easier and the videos are well done.

If you have a keyboard that can hook directly into your PC through MIDI or USB, then this is a must have teaching program. I absolutely love it. I have already gotten through the first 43 lessons and it has helped me a lot so far. I could already read music a little and could tell you where the keys are on the keyboard, so it only helped solidify this for me, but it has helped improve my music reading significantly. I love how it can tell you exactly what you have played wrong when you are hooked up to the PC. It will tell you the percentage of how well you did and whether you played the wrong note or played the note too soon or too late. It has helped me a lot with my timing. I can't wait to go further. It goes through both the beginners and the intermediate lessons, so there is a lot to learn.

Great product (Which I bought directly from Amazon), but...when looking for the Midi USB interface I noticed that Amazon was selling the SAME software but WITH the USB MIDI at $20 less!!! [[ASIN: B002MUALQ4 ]] Turns out that there are Piano and Keyboard METHOD which has 300 lessons and Piano and Keyboard BASICS which only has 50 lessons. Amazon sells the BASICs (50 lessons) software BUT with the MIDI USB interface at $20 less than the Piano and Keyboard METHOD (300 lessons). My point is that Both software programs have the SAME cover so be careful when purchasing!!!

The software seems great - comprehensive, well put together, interactive feedback. On a Mac, however, you can't hear the Midi keyboard unless you turn the volume very high. When you do this, the software's movies and verbal instructions are way too loud. The company told me this is a known bug - shame on them for releasing the product when they knew about this and not doing more to repair the bug. They say the next release, in mid 2010, might fix the bug.

Let's face the facts. I usually don't make reviews but this piece of jewel deserves it.

I've tried many, maaany other stuff to learn piano, even repetitive classes with real theachers and guess what? They were all boring!!! I've tried also other software, that ended unexplained, plain, short, not like this pack! I must say that this one is perfect. Don't even listen to the 1 star guys. They obviously have not downloaded the patch for vista.
This is the most complete interactive piano software out there. It has everything!!!

THE GOOD.

1-It has ACCURATE interactive feedback. It shows every single error that you made even the smallest ones! (Example, "A played to soon, C played for too long, you plaed E insead of D", etc etc).
With a good midi cable like Yamaha UX16 works perfect.I have a laptop so midi-usb is all the way since you don't have serial ports. Also works for PC's of course.

2-Better than any other piano software. I bought others hoping that they will be alike just to be disapointed.
In this package 300 or more lessons to make it worth.

3-Videos, voice advice or history notes, teaching all the essentials like position, tempo, technique, fingering.

4-The lessons are crafted in a way so you'll never get bored. When you are tired of reading and practicing a music, the next lesson is almost always of another kind like ear training, or maybe to clap a tempo! I will never get boring!

5- is cheap. It's a bargain for what you get. You will learn from two Julliard teachers saving sooo much money and having so much fun.

6-The challenge goes gradually at a very good pace, not to soft, not too hard, in a very friendly way.

Ok so you must be thinking "does this thing even have flaws?". Well more than bad things I think that this may be sugestions to emedia.

THE BAD.

1-Full screen does not work so perfect, stick to the normal one.

2- Emedia Only has two courses. From basic to intermediate. I wish that they make a "advanced" piano software soon. With masters like chick corea,rachmaninoff, hungarian rhapsody movement 2 from liszt!. Full works from those masters of course!!!
May be a more jazzist or salsa view! So they'll be teaching all the music styles that way.

That's all folks!

I'm the kind of person that gets really uncomfortable learning a new skill from a qualified instructor without having any previous knowledge of said skill. I was really interested in learning the piano so I chose this product. I'm glad to say it is a great tool. Two of my family members who are pretty good on the piano are amazed at the progress I'm making. The software layout is great in giving you the ability to go at your own pace. It always you to continue working on problem areas while skipping those you excel at. The structure of the lessons is great and easy to understand. I recommend this product to anyone interested in learning piano or anyone who is shy about learning as I am.

The software is easy to use. It loaded up with no problems though I've only finished the first lesson. I'm very happy with the purchase.