Life is a race. That said, it’s only natural for beginners to wonder “what’s the fastest way to learn piano?”
In today’s world, people are constantly looking for ways to to get things done as quickly as they can. Whether it’s travel objectives, or personal, economical, or health goals, the desire to accomplish most things as fast as humanly possible is a code that a lot of us live by.
And learning to play the piano is no exception. When people are looking to learn how to play the piano, they often prioritize the ability to accomplish it in the fastest way. Fortunately, while learning to play an instrument can’t happen overnight, it can be done pretty quickly! As with anything, how quickly you learn all comes down to having the right resources.
With that said, here are 11 ways that Playground Sessions helps you learn to play the piano fast!
1. The speed slider
Yeah, yeah… I know. It probably sounds counter-intuitive to start a “learn to play fast” post with a feature that begs you to “learn to play slow.” But try to remember – before one can run, one must first learn how to walk, right? Playground’s Speed Slider allows for you to adjust the speed of any music you’re working on. You can adjust from its current “Normal Tempo” speed, all the way down to a speed of 1 bpm (beats per minute). By having control of the speed of the music, you allow yourself to “learn to walk” at your own pace. And once you’ve mastered the walking, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can then begin running!
2. The piano demo: A faster way to learn piano
The Piano Demo feature helps you hear how a song is supposed to sound. Activating this feature will cause the computer to play whatever music you’re working on, at whatever speed you desire. While the music is being demonstrated, you have the option of playing along with it, or just listening to it. This feature can be enabled to demonstrate one hand at a time, or both hands together. You can even elect to have the computer play one hand while you play the other. This tool really comes in handy when working through tough rhythms.
3. Fingerings vs. note names vs. nothing
When working on arrangements, you can elect for Playground to display a note’s fingering, letter name, or just the note. Think of the fingerings and the note letter names as “training wheels.” They’re designed to help you work through the material, gearing you up to eventually take the training wheels off and play the music without the fingering or note name hints (if you choose to do so). These features allow you to more easily work on your hand position technique, and help make the connection between the notes you see in notation and their letter names, ultimately improving your sight reading ability.
4. Isolated measures
Playing a song that can be upwards of 200 measures can be daunting when you’re trying to knock it out all in one shot! Even practicing large chunks of music can get overwhelming at times. For this reason, Playground allows for you to highlight and focus on playing as little as one measure at a time. Simply use your mouse to click and drag over the measure(s) you want to focus on, then the non-selected measures will all fade out, allowing you to easily tackle the music you want to work on. This feature really comes in handy when coupled with the Speed Slider. By working on small pieces of the music and then putting those pieces all together you’ll be able to learn the music faster.
5. The loop function
Want to play measures 4 through 8 several times but don’t want to constantly have to click on the play button to do so? No problem! Just click on the Loop button to activate it, then click and drag over the measures you want to have looped, then click the play button and all your problems will be solved! Using this feature will seamlessly allow you to play a section of music over and over and over again until you feel like you’ve mastered it (or you’re sick of it)! The more you play a section of music, the better you’ll get at playing it. Practice makes perfect!
6. Learn piano with real-time feedback
This is arguably the most useful feature in Playground Sessions that helps you learn music faster. While playing a song, the notes on your screen will change color in REAL-TIME based on how well you played the notes. If you played a note correctly, it will instantly turn green. If you played a note incorrectly, it will instantly turn red. This feature allows you to always know where you stand with the music. By knowing your problem areas in a song, you can then focus on cleaning them up, ultimately allowing you to learn the music much faster.
7. Clickable notes
All notes in Playground Sessions are clickable. Don’t know what a specific 8th note is on your screen? Click on it! Wondering how to play that chord you see in measure 9? Click on it! Each time you click on a note in the interactive sheet music the note(s) will then highlight on the On-Screen Keyboard at the bottom of your screen. While the notes on the On-Screen Keyboard are highlighted, you can then find and match them on your keyboard to play them. Using this feature will help take out the guess work when playing material you’re not accustomed to.
8. Video tutorials
Playground Sessions has over 30 hours of professionally recorded, HD videos in which its instructor, David Sides, holds your hand and walks you through different piano concepts and gives you pointers to get through different songs. These videos are recorded from the side angle when David is talking, and from above the piano to see David’s hands when he’s playing. These videos explain and demonstrate key concepts to help you get through your lessons. You can play, pause, stop, and rewind the videos at any time. This allows you to truly learn at your own pace!
9. Small sections
In the continued spirit of learning music in small puzzle pieces and then putting it all together in the end, Playground takes this same approach when learning sections of songs. When learning a piano arrangement from our Song Store, each song is going to be broken down by hand (right hand, left hand, both hands together) and by song section (verse, chorus, bridge, etc.). This systematic approach eliminates the overwhelming nature of taking on a full song, enabling you to learn small sections quickly. Learning a song in small sections will help you learn the full song a lot faster.
10. On-screen keyboard
The On-Screen Keyboard located at the bottom of your screen will help relate everything back to the keyboard you’re using. The On-Screen Keyboard is a direct representation of the keyboard you’re using at home. From the lowest key to the highest, every pitch will be accounted for. This allows you to make the connection between what you’re playing on, and what’s on your screen.
11. The motivation factor
When learning something new, especially piano, it’s extremely important to put in the practice if you want to see improvement. Playground Sessions understands this and has added different elements to keep users motivated to put in the time to get better! Some of these elements include earning points, badges, and stars which all translate to leveling, bragging rights, and even free songs! Keeping the learning experience fun motivates you more to practice, and the more you practice, the faster you’ll improve.
The fastest way to learn piano is with technology
Technology has not only changed the way people interact, but also the way people learn. The technology in Playground Sessions is designed to help users learn to play the piano in a fast and fun way. Learn more about Playground Sessions’ approach to learning to play the piano through technology.
I can’t think of a better way than this to learn piano.. It is also a lot of fun.
Thank you! We’re happy you’re having a great experience.
Great article – i’m really enjoying my Rookie practise and love the variety. I didn’t know about some of these features – so i’m looking forward to trying them when i’ ready
Wonderful! Glad to hear it Sibobia! Let us know how it goes once you explore all the features!
Just started a few weeks ago, and Playground Sessions is amazing. Effective and fun!
Thanks, Brandon!
We’re glad you’re enjoying the program.
Do you have any suggestions as to when you might switch from seeing note fingering to note names then nothing at all?
Would you switch when you reach some level of skill, such as half-way throgh Rookie, or perhaps jump back and forth on a lesson by lesson basis?
Is there a general approach that seems helpful?
Thanks.
Hi Richard,
A great time to switch from fingering numbers to note names would be after watching the first Intro To Notation video. Once you’ve learned how the lines and spaces work, you’ll have all you need to be able to read and recognize notes based on their letter names. At that point, it really just comes down to practice and repetition.
After watching that lesson, you should even consider going back to earlier lessons and trying to play them using their letter names.
Just started playing at beginning of the month and already able to play with 2 hands. Try the new iPad app first and you will subscribe to Playground Sessions.
Hope that the iPad version will soon give the video facilities that the desktop version has. However, connecting my digital piano to my iPad gives me the facility to have my piano in another room away from my home computer.
A great way to learn to play and I would recommend to anyone.
Thanks, John! It’s so exciting to learn about your progress. 🙂
We’ll be adding videos into the iPad app very soon. Because Apple doesn’t accept the format we originally had them in, we have to go through all of them, reformat them, then upload them into the app. As you can imagine it’s something that has taken some time, but we’re getting there.
I just started playing after Xmas and I am soooooo enjoying the lessons. The pace, the feedback and the explanations are just super. I connected my MS Surface to my Roland FP30 and I am learning fast!
One question: I am actually using note names – but the finger positions on each note changes with the songs, is there an easy way to remember fingers and note positions other than just practice and practice?
Hi Amina,
We’re happy to hear that you’re enjoying our program! 🙂
Playing our lessons using the letter names rather than the fingering numbers is a great way to pick up sight-reading quickly. The purpose of the fingering numbers is really just to help you get into hand positions that allow you to easily play the notes within a passage of music. Because the general direction of the notes moves from time to time, your hand position must move with them. This is why the fingering numbers change as you go from song to song.
Being able to associate fingering numbers with different notes is somewhat of an art. It’s something that becomes easier the more you play. In general, all you need to do is look at the direction of a passage of notes that you want to play, then guess which hand position will give you the best chance of playing all of those notes with minimal hand movement. The more you play, the easier this becomes.
Let us know if you have any other questions.
Thank you David! I’m still a beginner so practice is the key thing here 🙂 I play at least 15′ everyday and I’m enjoying !
You got it! And consistency is key. That’s great that you’re able to fit in at least 15 minutes daily. That effort will soon start compounding and you’ll begin picking up things much faster.
Hi, new member here and new to playing piano (electronic keyboard) and loving the app. Does the iPad app have all the features of the website? Thing is it is much easier for mr to use the app than connecting the keyboard to my PC but I don’t want to miss out on anything. So can I only use the iPad app or do I also have to use the PC program? Thanks
The iPad version isn’t a full version yet – but we’re very close!
thanks for sharing this very simple tips to learn piano faster. Because as a teacher i also need some additional information and ideas to teach.
I’m using the iPad app and cannot figure out the “slider” to slow the lesson down is it not working? Do you have a physical map of where things are? Thanks
Our current version of the iPad app allows for two tempos: slow and fast. To the right of the BPM count, there are two buttons that look like clocks. The left one is the slow tempo, the right one is the fast tempo.
Here’s a quick rundown of the buttons in the playback menu on the iPad from left to right:
The first three are: rewind (goes back to the previous segment in the lesson), play (plays the segment) and forward (moves to the next segment). The next button that looks like an arrow is a loop function that lets you loop any section. The one after, is the metronome. The next button that looks like a choir, lets you turn the accompaniment on and off. The following buttons are slow tempo and fast tempo discussed above. The right hand and left hand icons allow to turn on the piano demo for one of the hands or both. The next three icons are sheet music controls: the note with a small 1 shows the fingering markings, the note with A shows the names of the notes, and the note with no markings turns off fingerings and note names. The lightning button turns the instant feedback on and off.
Actually is there people that started from zero and became piano players using only the app? Is it really possible?
Absolutely! If you visit our Facebook group you’ll see plenty of examples. Our Bootcamp takes you from playing your first note on the piano to learning Advanced arrangements of well known songs. Many of our users had no prior experience before signing up, and now they can even pick up songs by ear! Granted, learning any new skill takes time and dedication, but with our innovative technology and our musical expertise, we are giving you the tools to get there as effortlessly as possible!
We recently bought a keyboard for my daughter’s piano lessons. I decided since we had it, I might try to learn at the same time using Playground Sessions. I just started with the program yesterday and find it very addicting. I’ve finished the first 15 boot-camp lessons – and I stubbornly refuse to leave an exercise until I get a 100% score. At the beginning, I didn’t notice the fingering numbers listed by each note and I was just trying to read the notes. I found I was pretty good at this when my hands started on middle C. However, around the time new hand positions were introduced, I realized the fingering hints were there. As I continued progressing, I found myself relying on the numbers instead of the actual notes. Now it seems that I’m only looking at the numbers. So, my question is whether I’m hurting my long term learning by continuing with the numbers. Would I be better in the long run to turn the hints off?
It is perfectly fine to rely on the fingering numbers while you’re still learning hand positions. As you get more comfortable, you might want to start a new lesson with the fingering numbers on and then turn them off as you practice, checking yourself from time to time. However, you should do that only when you feel ready. You might find yourself going through the whole Rookie Tour with the fingerings on, and that’s perfectly fine! The most important thing is to get your hands used to playing the fingerings that are the most effective and are the easiest to play. You can always go back to any previous lessons and play them with the fingering numbers off!
please do something about the curser and its not exact speeds. even at the slowest tempos I find myself focusing on the bar and getting the note to land within the perimeters so it doesn’t turn pink….I loose sight of the music if all I do is slow things down just to focus on the curser. I do not have problems with my other program that uses a curser too.
Hi Sandy! Thanks for letting us know. We certainly don’t want you to feel uncomfortable. Would you mind sending us a quick email to support@playgroundsessions.com? So that we can better understand the issue and be able to assist! Thanks!
Learning piano alone is indeed very hard. You need someone or some organization where you ask for help to guide you to learn it effectively and easily. Fortunately Playground Sessions is offering this service and indeed it is a very good help. This technology makes you learn and fast. Technology nowadays really helps to learn something fast. Like when when a student study fractions, he just needs fractions calculator with whole numbers as guide to learn fast. The same way with other skills if you want to learn you just need technology to learn it fast. Playground sessions definitely helps to learn piano in an easy and fun way.
Thanks Gabriella! We are all about providing interactive tools that accelerate learning and make it fun!
I have been using playground for three days. I can’t get enough time to practice. My house work is going to the dogs😊 I used another online piano teaching app in November 2018 and was disappointed they only could show a few lines of the music at a time due to licensing and it is more expensive monthly than playground. I’m thrilled that I can buy sheet music. When do you recommend adding sheet music to your practice?
Maril, so happy to hear you’re enjoying your learning experience with us! We are certainly all about teaching you the necessary skills to play full song arrangements, and we add new arrangements to our library every week! You are certainly welcome to print the sheet music to the songs you download, however, the majority of our users primarily utilize the interactive sheet music directly in the app. That way you have access to all the tools and features David describes above!