Search - Play Piano in One Hour - A Quick an Easy Approach to Playing the Piano on DVD

Could have packed more information into the hour

ReadNReVu | 11/25/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of those videos that counts on you already knowing the three songs it teaches--in this case, Love Me Tender, Edelweiss, and Memories--all the notes are written as whole notes for the melody, no time signatures or anything like that. This is definitely a DVD aimed at someone without any musical training at all. The accompanying "note finder" guide (with stickers) shows you where the notes are on the staff as well as the piano, so that you can play the melody with the right hand as you're playing the 3-note block chords on the left. You learn 6 chords total, and only play the white keys--the black keys are used as landmarks only.

What disappointed me most about this video was that it could have easily included a list of popular (and much more contemporary) songs that could be played using those 6 chords or combinations thereof. Who wants to learn how to play only three songs? Also, this is definitely a video that should have been completely redone to take advantage of DVD technology--i.e. since you no longer have to worry about trashing a VCR tape with constant pausing/rewinding, there was no need for so many repetitions of the same song at different speeds, ONCE at a slow speed and ONCE at normal speed would have sufficed.

Bottom line: Not as good as it could be--I'm glad I borrowed it from my library. Worth a rental, but not a purchase.

For a musician or a non-musician, there are much better piano programs out there (for learning to play popular music, which is what most people want to play anyway), such as David Higginson's Professional Chord System (more expensive, to be sure, but much, much, more comprehensive in scope--and I see it also is available for purchase every so often through Amazon)."

Dated and simplistic, but maybe OK for what it is.

P. M. Bego | Northwest USA | 02/25/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Obviously, I guess if you expect to be able to play the piano after listing to a 1-hour tape[*], then maybe your expectations have to be limited.

In this video, the author explains basics (very basics) about the notes and keys, and then makes you watch her play the keys, AND SING, over and over again. Her singing isn't that bad, I guess her voice is not terrible, but I found it distracting and not something I wanted to hear over and over again. I feel I have to mention that my cat also appeared annoyed by the singing. In the end you've gone through 3 songs, but still won't have much of a knowledge of music or how to play properly (but again, expectations after a 1-hour video would have to be limited.)

I don't really feel this is a good fit for someone who wants to actually learn enough about the piano to grow in knowledge and scope beyond playing simplistic songs like it teaches. In other words, I don't think it's a good "first step" for someone who wants to really learn -- it's more of an "only step" for someone who ended up with a piano and wants to be able to play some simplistic songs.

[*] I mentioned tape here intentionally. Yes, this is for sale as a DVD, but the video quality and editing make it clear it was made for a VHS generation. In it, she even uses the phrases "pause the tape here" and "rewind." For all I know, this may have been taped in the 70's and now just ended up on DVD -- that's kind-of what it feels like.

In fact, the whole thing about singing (again, the singing is a big part of this video) and playing popular songs reminds me of something from the '60s or '70s. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just, again, I don't think this is a good introduction to music fundamentals or keyboard techniques. But if you want to be able to play and sing 3 old songs, and stop there, then maybe this will do the trick."