I found these exercises on Youtube, which I thought were great. They are from Pianote, who have quite a few useful videos.
I’ll be doing an in-depth review of their course in the near future, so watch this space.
For now take a look below.
to inspire and inform.....
I found these exercises on Youtube, which I thought were great. They are from Pianote, who have quite a few useful videos.
I’ll be doing an in-depth review of their course in the near future, so watch this space.
For now take a look below.
This is an unbiased review. I will receive no compensation from Improv piano tips and these views are my own and based on my experience.
Price: $69
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(All prices at the time of writing)
30 day money back Guarantee – refund.
Requirements:
Either piano, keyboard or midi keyboard.
&
Either PC, MAC or Tablet to watch the videos and view the PDFs..
What you get in the package?
Pros:
Cons:
Suitable For: Beginners, intermediates and advanced.
Course content : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Tutor knowledge/skill : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Customer support :⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Value for Money : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Acumen rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
If you’re wondering what is the best online piano lessons for the money, then this could be it. I’ve talked about Nikolas Nunez before and I’ve reviewed his free piano lessons for beginners.
I enrolled on this course about a year ago and I can safely say this course is a little different and well worth the money.
There are 10 challenging exercises.
Video one is composed of three exercises starting at a basic level. There’s an assumption that you are not a beginner and if you are, the teacher suggests you follow his free beginner lessons, before starting this course.
The first exercise is a simple 4 chord progression played with chords played with right-hand and simple rhythm in the left-hand and this should be practiced until this is under your fingers.
Then exercise two brings in a different left-hand rhythm with the right-hand playing the same chords.
Finally, exercise three adds a rhythm to the right-hand with the left-hand playing the same part as exercise two.
It’s a good video to begin the course as it’s a good challenge without being too difficult. The parts are built logically and each part should be mastered before moving onto the next. If you have difficulty playing each hand independently, you will soon find the benefits of this course and a hint about what’s to come.
Nikolas’s tuition style is excellent. He is relaxed, speaks slowly and offers good advice and encouragement. There is sheet music included with each video.
Exercise one is based on a I IV vi V chord progression. Don’t worry if that doesn’t mean much to you, but your ears will certainly recognise it if you haven’t come across it before.
It’s in the key of C and the left-hand plays a similar rhythm to video 1. The right hand now is playing up the first 5 notes of the C major scale over each chord, but in a specific rhythm which is slightly different to left-hand. This is building the right-hand to play something different, while the left-hand is playing a straight rhythm. This sounds daunting, but is quite simple, when you give it some practice.
Exercise 2 is a useful method of playing scales. The right hand-hand is playing a one octave scale up and down, while the left-hand plays only two notes, but these notes are played once, then twice, then three times and then four times each, before coming back down again. It’s difficult to explain in writing, but this is a great way of practicing your scales and counting your left-hand, which will build your independence. A clever exercise and a good warmup routine.
Finally, exercise 3 is a simple comping rhythm as played in many songs, but most recognised in John Lennon’s Imagine. The left-hand is playing a similar rhythm to video one. This is a nice 8 bar piece, which has a tricky move with the left-hand to keep you interested.
These video are based on the chorus from Bruno Mars – Just the way you are. This is a “real world application “from Nikolas on how to apply the techniques.
The first video teaches you the basic part. The left is playing three chords, again based in the rhythm you have been learning in the first two videos. The right hand-hand is then playing the main melody.
The part should be mastered before moving onto the next video, which now adds some embellishments in the right and left-hand. The right hand-hand is playing extra notes from the key to make the piece come to life. The left-hand rhythm that you have been learning is also expanded with new notes and some tweaks.
Finally, the third exercise from video 2 is added to add extra rhythm with the right-hand. He also talks about syncopation and avoiding playing in straight rhythms.
All in all, a simple piece, which is progressively built up into something more complex. Nikolas makes this look easy and plays very well, but I don’t find this easy to play. It’s still something I need to work on.
At the end of the first application videos, the exercises are showing their worth. You have some excellent practice toold and an example piece in how to apply them.
This video starts with nice 4 bar piece. The left-hand is playing a similar rhythm as seen before, while the right-hand is playing a more complicated part. Again each video is building upon the last adding the difficulty only slightly, but aiming to improve your skills. I like this piece and it highlights’s Nikolas’s talent. He emphasizes the need to play along with a metronome or backing track.
Exercise 2 is a little tricky and I found the most difficult. It plays a repeating part with the right-hand and the left-hand comes in with a simple part, but at different speed. This is teaching you to play each hand independently and you will find a sense of achievement when you nail it. It’s important master each hand on it’s own before bringing it together.
Exercise 3 is another good piece which is playing a syncopated right hand part playing on the up beat, with a straight part for the left hand. This is again moving the student away from playing straight rhythms.
He gives you an improvised example of playing on the upbeat which is incredible, again highlighting his talents.
Finally exercise 4 is the most tricky one so far, so tricky that it’s not written in the music PDFs. This is a challening part with each hand playing indepently of each other. Each hand on it’s own is fine, but bringing them together is difficult. it took me a few weeks to master, but as before this is rewarding and worth the effort.
Video 3 really moves you on with some nice, but challenging pieces concluding all 10 exercises. They teach you complete rhythm independence.
This video looks at Vince Guaraldi’s version of “O Christmas Tree”, where you will learn part of the song and apply some rhythms to “bring the song to life@. in the first 8 minute video, Nikolas teaches you the right hand part and basic left hand rhtym part.
The final video is about 19 minuteslong an brings together every thing you’ve learned. The previous videos and exercises have been challenging and have “conditioned your brain” to seperate your hands.
So the right hand is playing the melody part, which doesn’t vary too much. The concentration is with the left hand. Nikolas plays a basic rhythm to begin and then adds to it, making it more compliacted, but also much more pleasing and interesting to the listener. He is emphasising playing on the “off beat”
He explains this concept quite well using some illustrated music tablature. His passion for getting this important information accross is admirable and is the essence of this whole course. Why play in boring straight rhythms, when these concepts will bring any piece alive.
Althought this is a 20 minute video, there is a lot of work to be done here. I am only scratching the surface, but Nikolas’s Facebook community will provide a good base to watch him and other students who are mastering this style.
Here’s an old video of Nikolas playing some of his concepts.
This course is a bit different and not a traditional curriculum like “Learn and Master” or “Playground sessions”. Saying that the free beginner course will give you most of what you need to progress onto Rhythm techniques for you.
I think this is aimed more at beginners and intermediate players who are looking to improve their hand indpenedence and left hand rhythms. The lessons build up adding your skills in a measured manner. They are challenging in their own right and some are good to come back toas warm up exercises. Nikolas’s style and aptitude is inspiring and ecourages you to progress.
I think the cost is worthwhile as these day’s that would buy you 3 one-to-one lessons – certainly where I live. I’m looking to try ssome of his other lessons, as it’s clear Nikolas is a huge talent and has a desire to share his knowledge and teach.
Just a short post this month. I came across this great Youtube video on Boogie Woogie Piano lessons. It’s just one 6 minute video, but there is a lot of content, which will keep you busy for some time.
There’s a good left hand basic rhythm, which I find quite challenging to play on it’s own. Then, various right hand chords in different rhythms are brought in.
Once that’s mastered, right hand riffs are added. These must be transposed for all three chords in the 12 bar blues.
Finally an introduction and ending are shown, so you have a complete piece, although the combination of parts you choose to play is down to you.
The content in this 6 minute video is invaluable, and will certainly keep me busy for some time.
Best wishes for the new year.
There is a huge amount of tuition material these days whether paid or free. You only need to do a search on google or YouTube to come accross many examples. But, as I’ve said before, a structured course or system when learning the piano is beneficial in many ways, especially for beginners. So what are the best free piano lessons online?
This is up for debate, but I’ve found some free beginner lessons from a guy who is a great teacher and is worth a look. He has several free videos on Youtube, so there are plenty of examples highlighting his talent.
The guy in question in Nikolas Nuñez who has been playing the piano for 18 years. I couldn’t find much information about him, but it’s clear to me he’s a big talent with a huge passion for the piano and for teaching. He comes across as a confident, charismatic pianist, sometimes a little modest, but with his talent, who cares.
He has a passion for gospel music and plays in church, so this has an influence on his technique, style and attitude, which is a benfit to the student. He comes across as a nice guy.
I’ve not looked into gospel music before, so I look forward to following his Jazz, Blues and Gospel course at some stage.
There are plenty of Youtube videos of him playing covers and the occasional lesson, so be sure to check out his channel
Nikolas Nuñez YouTube preview.
The course comprises 6 high quality videos with a total time of just under an hour. You may think this isn’t much for a beginners course, but there’s a lot of material covered.
The videos cover
So, it seems brief, but there’s a lot that the student will need to work on themselves. For example, Nikolas will show you how to construct a major scale and the fingering needed to play one, but the student will need to go away and apply the knowledge as well as continue to practice to gain technical fluidity. This will take time.
Nikolas teaches in a relaxed manner, speaking slowly and explaining the concepts and techniques well. You can see his fingers on the keyboard as well as a lit virtual keyboard above. This is a good visual for picking up the points.
I would describe this course as a foundation and all the elements are essentall. If you learn the concepts and cement the theory and technique, they will serve you well.
The course appeals to me, as my initial learning of the piano was taken from my knowledge of the guitar which is very chordal based, rather than the traditional classical method of learning the piano.
There’s zero need to read music with this foundation class, which will appreal to many – especially adults. I would always encourage children to follow the traditonal classical method if they can, but I would rather a child enjoys their learning rather than being foreced to go down the classical route, only for them to get bored in the future. Very young children may find the course difficult, but teens upwards will be fine.
Nikolas embellishes the tuition with some song examples, but there isn’t much music for the student to play at this stage. This is more of technique and theory foundation which is fine. There’s plenty of time to play songs later. These skills are very important.
The fact the course is short is appealing, as you wont feel overwhelmed. Practicing scales and becomming fluid takes time. They are also a good warmup routine. The theory knowledge will help you communicate with other musicians and learn from other teachers at a quicker pace.
Elsewehere on the site, you will find
I bought the RhythmTechniques4u package some time ago and it’s a unique method, looking at developing solid, left hand rhythms with independance from the right hand. This is something I struggled with, so I found the course worthwhile. There’s some tricky techniques, but they are worth perservering.
The course was good value to me and at the time of wrting is $69. The other courses are roughly the same price. There’s a lot more to the paid course than the foundation, but the style is similar.
At the time of writing you can buy all the courses for $199, which to me seems good value.
If you enrol on a paid course, you will gain access to the facebook group. As I write there are 279 members, who share posts, videos of their playing and ask questions to Nickolas.
Nikolas encourages students to send in their videos and provides feedback as well as some enhancements they can add to their pieces. Maybe a different chord voicing or differnt rhythm. Nikolas also includes lessons, that you wont find on Youtube.
I’ve found it a friendly and encouraging community and a nice enhancment when you sign up for a paid course.
There’s no financial investment with the foundation course and as an investment of time, it is thoroughly worth it. I have yet to find a series of free lessons that will teach this knowledge in an informative, yet enjoyable manner.
Please be aware I have no affiliation to improv piano tips and will receive no compensation for my recommendation. I simply have the intention of adding value and highlighting good courses and teachers.
The free foundation/beginners course is excellent and if you are thinking of paying for one of his other courses, I can thoroughly recommend his rhythm techniques course, which will keep you busy for sometime.
The skill sets from both the courses I have experienced are highly valuable and will enhance your playing.
I’ll update any future course that I take up.
Best wishes with your success as always.
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