Customer Reviews

Teach Me Piano

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Having just purchased a used piano for my daughter, I decided to attempt to learn it also. At the age of 35, I didn't want to take beginning piano lessons so I purchased the above software, Teach Me Piano. When you consider the average cost of weekly piano lessons, this software really does pay for itself after a few lessons. I found it easy to use, however I would strongly recommend you only buy it if you have your computer relatively close to the piano in question. Laptop which you could sit on the piano would be preferable. The interactive portion of the lesson really requires a good quality microphone. You must be self-motivated to get anything out of this.

I evaluated this software before giving it to a close friend of mine and I must admit Voyetra did a very good job at it.

Learning is done at a very gradual pace. You basically can start from scratch, learning how to read and play with one hand, the go on to two. This is done in three effective steps.

First, you learn the rhythm of the song or tune you want to play for the left hand. You just basically press any key with the left hand on the keyboard and master the rhythm. You do not need to play the tune. You just follow the metronome. You then switch to the right hand and redo the process again. Finally, you do it with two hands. At this stage, you do not learn the pitch, just the rhythm.

Second, you learn to play the tune (or pitch) of the left hand, but without bothering with the rhythm. This is done at your own pace. You just learn the notes. You then repeat this for the right hand, then both hands.

Third and last, once you have gone through the two previous steps, you now play the tune, again for the left hand only, this time following the rhythm. Then you continue on with the right. Then finally you are ready with two hands.

Basically, this gives a lesson of three steps (rhythm, pitch, rhythm + pitch), each done in three parts (left hand, right hand, both hands).

You can skip or repeat any of these steps as much as you want. You can also ask the software to do a demonstration for you of a particular step. The evaluation only takes into account your performance in the final step with both hands, and even here you can repeat the evaluation as much as you like (until you get a score of 100% every time; this is when you should stop bragging and go on!).

The software can be adjusted in its tolerance with three levels of accuracy (beginners, intermediate, advance).

All this is possible ONLY if you have a keyboard connected to your computer (no, there is none included with the software). Should you want to do it with an ordinary piano, be aware that this software does NOT use a microphone. Therefore, it is impossible for this software to evaluate your performance in this case. But it can still assist you (in a limited way).

Interlaced with the lessons are video clips of your instructor, Hugh Berberich. He is actually quite efficient and very friendly, and narrates the lesson quite well.

There is even a profile manager that allows different people to learn at their own pace. (WARNING! There is actually a small error in this feature, but please go to the technical support database at Voyetra's website, under "Power tips: multiple students", for more details.)

This software comes highly recommended to anyone who wants to start learning to those at an intermediate level of learning.

Beware... I bought a new PC with XP and then "Teach Me Piano." Only to find out that "Teach Me Piano" will not install on XP, even though voyetra shows XP support......

If you buy this program, it may not run on the systems that it is purported too. They promote a new version of their product on their web site and then sell old versions through dealers that are incompatible. Then when you contact support about the problem they tell you that you should have bought it direct from them if you wanted a copy of the software that would run on the computers they claim it does.

We have tired other programs and they have only ended up in frustration. Teach Me Piano has video clips on hand placement and starts each song out slowly. We can even print up the music to play on our media player to practice on when not on the computer. My son enjoys the applause when he get the piece right. I did find out that if I sat with him through the lessons and operated the mouse to start the practices, while he concentrated on the keyboard, he did much better with each lesson. That way he wasn't switching back and forth between mouse and keyboard.

We did have some problems when we first installed the program, but we received good support and fixed them.

Considering that piano lessons were quote to me at 14 a 1/2 hour for a beginner, this is a real value. Excellent graphics and instruction. This is the best computer program on the market for learing piano, as you will see confirmed all over the web. Very good for the older beginner. By the way, if you are inept at software installation, get help,....

Beware!! You cant use this program if you have or upgrade to Windows XP! Voyettra website states that ther is no patch or download available. But, they do recommend spending the extra 29.00 to upgrade to the "Deluxe" version so that you can use it in XP. This is from their website... "If you're using Windows XP we would recommend upgrading to "Teach Me Piano Deluxe" on our website:" Very poor customer support. I guess Ill be buying software from another company from now on.

I am in my mid thirties and I had never played a musical instrument in my entire life. Two weeks after installing the software I am well on my way to playing my first complete song by devoting about 45 minutes every day to the lessons. Great software, and it does work fine on Windows XP and the MIDI interface of a Sound Blaster card.

During the first chapter we quite enjoyed the software and learned the initial steps. Once we wanted to continue the next day we kept getting error message about the "SPW Font" not being available. Subsequently we spent several days to work this out but had absolutely no support from the manufacturer. It appears that some people were successful installing the program. Any hint would be appreciated.

Obviously, installation woes. I expect it to be very buggy, it looks like it's made with some kind of demo-making SW rather than coded from scratch. Could not get it to work under Windows XP on an AMD setup (Athlon XP/Asus MB/Audigy), works fine so far under Windows XP on a P4 setup (Dell 8300 w/SB5.1). Looks like, as of 2004, most of the Piano Teaching SW programs out there that use a MIDI KB are obsolete, there's this one, Piano Suite, and eMedia Piano & Keyboard left? Those are both twice as expensive. Can somebody compare them? I see that the Piano Suite people are suppressing some bad reviews with their lawyers and it might be as old as this one (XP isn't mentioned in the OS list), and I see that the emedia one is the same company as a very well reviewed guitar program and is brand spanking new and modern (mentions OSX 10.2 in the mac version and XP for PC), but I haven't seen many reviews.
The consensus so far is, it works best on older OSs (98se ets.) might not work at all under XP or 2000 depending on your setup, and when it works, is pretty good. You know what? I'm gonna get the emedia one too and compare sometime.