Menu and Options

The main menu is completely self-explanatory and includes a button for "Start Here" which leads to "tour", a "Lessons" button, which leads to twenty lessons, an "Options" button (explained below) and buttons for advanced tests called Bronze, Silver, and Gold Challenges. The Options button lets you control what happens when a correct answer is entered (there are a few different choices), and contains an option for teachers that allows addition or deletion of a student's name. It is also possible for a "teacher" to construct "custom" lessons that operate like other lessons. The option is in choosing notes that are presented in test. So, if you want your child or student to concentrate on recognizing certain notes, you can easily create exercises that contain only those notes. There is also a sound option that lets you turn on or off sound effects that accompany parts of program.

Extra Challenging Exercises

The Bronze, Silver, and Gold Challenge exercises are more note recognition tests but with notes passing across screen at a faster pace, obviously requiring a quicker response from user. If a student can master these, there isn't much doubt that they know their notes.

So that's about it! This program doesn't balance your checkbook, manage your portfolio, or vacuum your carpet, but it never claimed to! If you want to learn to read music, or have a child that's about to start lessons or just shows interest, this product is a great buy. Imagine your piano teacher's surprise when your 5 year old shows up knowing how to read music on both treble and bass clefs! She'll fall off her piano bench! By way, my son, who has been taking lessons for two years, came home from school yesterday and ASKED if he could use Piano is Fun program! Think about that!

Peter Cullen is the Webmaster at http://www.PianoLessonReviews.com and an avid amateur pianist. The site reviews piano lesson offerings on the Web and offers many other piano-related resources.

And it gets better...the second extra is another game called Keycelerator which helps you learn chord nomenclature and keyboard patterns. The game consists of a display of a chord pattern on left of display, and four choices on right - a multiple choice test...the choices are shown as keyboard segments with different notes depressed. So if you can read notes of chord, you then pick notes that represent chord from set of four choices; much more fun than studying a chord manual. The game keeps score and has a number of options you can control. (I'm not bragging, but I got a perfect score on my first test :)

The next extra is called Chordinator , which is designed to improve your chord recognition abilities. Structured much like Keycelerator , but answer choices are in form of chord names, not notes on keyboard. Okay, I missed one on this game, but it was only because my finger slipped off mouse and hit wrong choice :) ...99/100 isn't bad though, right?

The next extra is really addictive It's called Perfect Your Pitch - it's an ear-training tool to help you home your pitch recognition skills. It plays a series of four notes and you have to pick right choice from a set of four answers. It really is a lot fun. My score wasn't perfect on this one, and I had to force myself to stop ....like eating ice cream As you ear gets sharper it gets much easier to play songs by ear , and you'll start to recognize note combinations in common melodies and songs on radio...just like learning a new language. This one is highly recommended. But don't ignore other parts of course while you try to perfect you pitch recognition abilities.

There's yet another bonus included called Advanced Learning Techniques for Piano , but I think little book is misnamed I think you should read this first when you get package, and I also think this little gem is worth cost of package all by itself. What it tells you is how to practice - a topic that is completely ignored by most teaching packages - even by a lot of teachers I think it's one of most important aspects of learning to play any instrument. Read it as soon as you get Rocket Piano. If you're just starting out, insights you'll pick up here will save you a lot of frustration.

The Metronome program (another bonus) is really well-done. Just turn up volume and save yourself cost of a physical metronome. The graphics are marvelous.

If you like jazz, after you've gone through basic Rocket Piano book, take a look at add-on called Introduction to Jazz Piano . It has eight informative chapters that cover everything from jazz rhythms to chord progressions to syncopation. If you're not familiar with those terms, don't worry Start with basic Rocket Piano book and then dive into more advanced Jazz book.

So, my advice to you is to start your own personal countdown, and then blast your musical knowledge and your playing skills to new heights with this piano lesson package. Think about it...you get all stuff described above for less than cost of one or two private lessons.

Peter Cullen is the Webmaster at http://www.PianoLessonReviews.com and an avid amateur pianist. The site reviews piano lesson offerings on the Web and offers many other piano-related resources.