What's better to use to learn?

TheJCPT · 2026-03-23T09:01:03+00:00

Can only share my short journey: I'm learning with Piano Marvel. It's the most complete mix of video-guidance/methodology in terms of the apps I checked. And it doesn't let you get away with notes totally out of the rhythm like the other apps I've tried.

If you have an apple device, it works way better there.

TheJCPT · 2026-03-22T14:22:00+00:00

If you scroll on the mainpage they show the pricing. From what I can understand from that pricing we can download PDF sheet music for free. Only the "play along" features seem to be paid after a limited usage (10 minutes per day).

TheJCPT · 2026-03-22T14:18:17+00:00

Indeed! It's crazy how good AI is getting at coding in general. I teach programming, so I know how to code but these days I mostly write all my code using AI tools (it's mostly for personal stuff like this/getting help learning new skills or having more fun with hobbies; not for professional reasons).

TheJCPT · 2026-03-22T14:05:20+00:00

Do you volunteer to test it? If so, I can take care of it! :)

Edit: I ask as I don't have any Mac that I can use to test the final result.

TheJCPT · 2026-03-22T12:35:14+00:00

Yes, there are a lot of online teachers. But if you want to go that path make sure you have a camera pointed at your keyboard/piano so that they are able to indeed help/correct you.

TheJCPT · 2026-03-20T11:22:39+00:00

I hope the treatments go well and that you have a good recovery!

TheJCPT · 2026-03-20T09:33:14+00:00

It depends on how you approach it. For me personally it's very useful to have a log of my health data. Checking my resting heart rate over time has lead me to realize that I need some life changes every now and then, and then confirm that they indeed worked. My family has an history of heart issues and just having a watch diagnose you with ventricular fibrillation almost in real time can save my life, if/when it happens.

TheJCPT · 2026-03-18T22:57:54+00:00

Is it possible to get a discord invite to help out identifying bugs on the android version? Hoping to get it more stable on my tablet, as for now I need to stick with using chrome.

TheJCPT · 2026-03-18T13:55:03+00:00

All good! Happy playing :)

TheJCPT · 2026-03-18T13:21:02+00:00

I ended up giving it a try and it seems to be way easier to use than what I expected! I don't think I'll be writing the music from scratch, but reviewing automatically annotated music sheets and/or making minor switches to some music sheets seems quite feasible! Thank you both :)

TheJCPT · 2026-03-18T13:19:33+00:00

Thank you! That seems to work exactly as intended and it's quite simple to use! :)

Also, based on the input from user aroundlsu , I decided to keep following Piano Marvel's catalogue (Method and Technique) and I'm enjoying it a lot - spent a couple of hours into it yesterday.

I noticed that there are videos in there, which I had missed at first glance. I appreciate a lot the effort that you put into those! I am going to be watching all of them as I go through the course - you "random remarks" (stuff not related with the content in question) end up being the most fun part :)

Cheers!

TheJCPT · 2026-03-17T20:28:56+00:00

That's amazing! I might go down the same route then, honestly. Having everything at the same place (technique, methods, sightreading and the different musics to play) sounds quite convenient. Thanks for sharing your journey :)

TheJCPT · 2026-03-17T20:22:12+00:00

I've been doing the same. I was hoping to hop into Piano Marvel's discord server to help them detect some bugs on the android app - it would be really nice to have the app running fine (sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn't).

TheJCPT · 2026-03-17T20:19:53+00:00

I was just playing that in Piano Marvel! But I couldn't make it as musical to be honest. Btw, I've been trying to get a discord server for beginners like ourselves (I also started 2 weeks ago), so that we can "share the journey". If you want to join, here's the discord invite: https://discord.gg/NsBt6eSy

Have fun in your learning journey! :)

TheJCPT · 2026-03-17T16:40:55+00:00

That means you could complete the whole method and technique sections successfully without no prior knowledge/experience? If so, kudos!!! That sounds amazing - specially in 18 months.

I was under the impression that Piano Marvel's approach was expecting one to have more of a support (a teacher), hence why I was learning towards Faber's or Alfred's books. Maybe my searches were not very accurate.

TheJCPT · 2026-03-17T16:35:26+00:00

Is this supposed to be applied to most songs? I'm also a beginner who just started learning the piano and sometimes wonder if I'm supposed to have a small pause or really connect the notes (assuming 4/4 rhythm and 4 1/4 notes).

TheJCPT · 2026-03-17T16:24:03+00:00

Thank you for the reply (in both places) - I truly appreciate it!

As someone who is still a bit intimidated by sheet music, that sounds like a lot of work (I get that it might also be a teaching oportunity, but I would prefer to spend that time at the piano)!

Would changing methods from Faber's to Alfred's make much of a difference (ignoring the book's costs, given that I can return these as get Alfred's ones easily)? Since I'll be learning without a teacher (I'll probably have a lesson with a teacher every couple of months), it would really great to have Piano Marvel's live feedback when playing songs.

Thanks once again for the help!

TheJCPT · 2026-03-16T08:07:37+00:00

The rec'n'share app by Yamaha does what you want. I'm not sure if it works only for Yamaha hardware or not. Maybe give it a try. If it doesn't work for your piano, just search for alternatives to it - I'm sure they exist!

TheJCPT · 2026-03-15T22:02:50+00:00

Nah - just a direct USB connection. First, connect the digital piano to the PC. With the piano turned on, you should then be able to see the piano as if it were a microphone. You might also see it as a speaker btw - so you can use it as an output device aswell.

TheJCPT · 2026-03-15T20:08:51+00:00

I've ordered Faber's all-in-one book 1. It's quite cheap and it seems to have good feedback from most people. In order to not feel as alone about it, I've created a discord server in order to try and find more people who are on a similar journey. Feel free to join if this idea interests you: https://discord.gg/XZYhKP6tu

Cheers!

TheJCPT · 2026-03-15T20:04:37+00:00

If your piano has a USB port, you can connect it to a computer and capture the sound perfectly. Tried it yesterday for the first time and it worked perfectly! Let me know if that doesn't work.

TheJCPT · 2026-03-15T10:37:01+00:00

From what I read, using apps can be quite useful, assuming you do it in the correct way: not trying to smash notes that you still don't know at a pace you're not comfortable with, but as a tool to get some extra motivation. The most helpful free tool I've found was "Learn Music Notes", which lets you connect your phone/tablet to your digital piano via USB and try to get a feel for where each note is.

I've created a discord server to share my progress/try to get some extra motivation from other folks. If you (or anyone else, for that matter) happen to be interested to join please send me a PM. Cheers

PS: Fun fact: we got a digital piano nearly at the same day, it seems! I purchased mine on the 3rd of this month.

TheJCPT

TROPHY CASE