Music Lessons! I am and forever will be on a quest to provide a musical education for my children at the most reasonable price I can possibly find. I know a great instructor is worth their weight in gold, but as a mostly single income family… there isn’t much gold to go around. So when the opportunity to review online piano lessons came up… I jumped at the chance.
My family was recently given a LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION for up to five students to: HomeSchoolPiano – Complete Set of Books by HomeSchoolPiano. HomeSchoolPiano is a subscription program that gives you access to online piano lessons.
This is for use with all ages and we used it primarily with Noah (age 8) and Ezra (age 6). I did give my four year old Joyanna a shot at it but she was just outside of ready. I think we need a bit more work with the alphabet and letter recognition in general before she is able to leap aboard. It won’t be long though.
There are several levels to the program as you can see described below:
CorePiano = absolute beginner
Book 1 = beginner, maybe brushing the dust off and coming back to piano
Book 2 = beginner to intermediate (starts incorporating more complicated concepts, songs and improvisation ideas)
Book 3 = intermediate (toward the end of this book we are getting into concepts like syncopation, voice leading and more advanced scales for improvisation)
In order to access your lessons you simply log in with a password and username. You’ll be able to access every lesson or you’ll be able to choose the last place you left off. Each lesson is presented by a teacher whose name is Willie. His teaching style is gentle and encouraging. He is concise and clear. The concept is presented with ease and both of my boys seemed to always understand the point.
Every video we have viewed so far looks exactly like the photo above. You can see the teacher down in the lower left corner. Above his box we can see the keyboard he is playing and above that is a virtual keyboard that he uses in explanations. The layout works fabulously. You really feel he is sitting right next you in a live, in-person private lesson.
Children move at their own pace through every level. You can advance through the lessons as quickly or slowly as seems appropriate. You can repeat any lesson at any time any number of times. You can pause lessons, try out the concept, rewind and watch again or whatever it is you need to do. How much practice time you put in between the lessons is entirely up to you. Homeschool parents and their children are in complete control of the entire flow of the system.
In order to use this program you do need a couple of things. First, you’ll need some sort of device to stream and watch the the lessons. A laptop, phone, or tablet should do the trick. You can see we used a family laptop. Of course you’ll need a keyboard or piano (61 keys at a minimum are recommended). You will also want to print the book that comes with each level. You might want to take the file to a local print shop to be bound and printed if that makes things easier. I just printed ours at home.
At the Core Piano Level you get a basic musical knowledge background that you’ll refer to in the upper levels. There aren’t any tests or assessments like you’ll find beginning in Book 1. After book 1 each unit is split up into seven lessons. Lessons are up to ten minutes in length, and generally there is practice time following the video lesson.
It is in Book One where the six step piano mastery system begins to take shape. It is through these steps that children will really build the strong foundation they need to launch their musical understanding and creativity. Every unit includes 6 parts:
- new technique,
- rhythm
- ear training
- music reading
- song playing
- creating music
Overall Thoughts?
This a great program. I have been using this with my two boys 4+ times a week for several weeks. Their musical knowledge is gaining with each day. The videos are easy for them to understand, clean with no gimmicks, and to the point. The overall price (lifetime membership people) will save a boatload of cash over private lessons in the long run.
HomeSchoolPiano has two payment packages and the pricing is as follows:
1. Success Package (One payment of $299)
Unlimited life-time access to HomeSchoolPiano along with all bonuses (downloads, jam tracks, sheet music) for up to 5 students.
2. Payment Plan (Payments of $99.97 per month for three months):
Unlimited life-time access to HomeSchoolPiano along with all bonuses (downloads, jam tracks, sheet music) for up to 5 students.