Learn & Master Piano with Will Barrow was recently released in November of 2007. The course was developed by Legacy Learning Systems. This is the same company that developed the highly successful guitar training course Learn & Master Guitar. I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new Learn & Master Piano course in the mail. Originally the course was to be released in October but the shipping date was pushed back a month so that Legacy Learning Systems could finish pressing all of the DVD's.
I finally received the course in early December and couldn't wait to check it out. Upon opening the packaging I found a small crack in the included binder. This had me a bit concerned that the DVD's and CD's included with the course might be scratched or damaged as it was apparent that the shipping company didn't handle the package with care. I'm glad to say everything was fine. No scratches or scrapes on any of the disc's.
The course includes:
14 DVDs,
5 Play Along CDs
104 Page Lesson Book
The 14 DVD'S are organized into 28 sessions:
1. First Things First
2. Major Progress
3. Scaling The Ivories
4. Left Hand and Right Foot
5. Minor Adjustments
6. Upside Down Chords
7. The Piano as Singer
8. Black is Beautiful
9. Black Magic
10. Making The Connection
11. Let it Be
12. Breaking Up's Not Hard to Do
13. Rockin' the Piano
14. A Bit of Beethoven
15. Pretty Chords
16. The Dominant Sound
17. Getting The Blues
18. Boogie-Woogie and Bending
19. Minor Details
20. The Left Hand as Bass
21. The Art of Ostinato
22. Harmonizing
23. Modern Pop Piano
24. Walkin' the Blues & Key Shakin'
25. Ragtime, Stride and Diminished
26. Jazz Piano
27. Hot and Cool Piano
28. Building Bridges
The course starts out with a brief introduction by the course instructor Will Barrow. Will explains what will be needed for the course (basically just an 88 key piano or workstation) and talks briefly about how the course will move along.
I noticed that the production quality is excellent right from the start. Having taught piano, guitar and bass I was curious to see how they would film the course in a way that the student could always see what keys or chords were being played. Legacy Learning Systems has done a great job with this. Whenever Will is playing the piano a virtual keyboard shows up on the screen above the normally shown camera angles of the keyboard. I really love this feature because not only is it very easy to see what notes are being played but students will have the added benefit of seeing the actual names of the notes and the chords on the screen.
In addition to the visual help from the virtual keyboard, the course also included little tid bits of information for the student to remember. Mr. Barrow refers to these as "nuggets" and they appear from time to time when they apply to what is currently being taught. I think it's really smart way to get really important details across without having the student overwhelmed by too much information at once.
The course isn't really designed for children but I think any young adult would be comfortable going through the lessons. I would like to state the course is really aimed at teaching adults, so if your thinking about buying it for anyone under the age of 14 you might want to look else where.
Learn & Master Piano isn't cheap. It's $249 the last time I checked for the full course. Legacy Learning Systems often has sales on their products so if you see it at $249 check back in a day or so because they are known for having weekly sales.
Thanks for reading!
Jason
Jason Ericson has been a musician for over 25 years and has played professionally and taught students of all ages over the last 10 years. Learn about Learn & Master Piano here: http://www.pianocoursereviews.com/Learn-and-Master-Piano-Reviews.htm
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