Learning the piano online has two main advantages over traditional piano lessons: You can work through piano lessons at any time and for less money. But how do online lessons actually work and what do you have to do without? We tested the offer of the eLearning portal music2me.
The online music school based in Aschaffenburg offers lessons for guitar and piano. The latter section is led by piano graduate, teacher and jazz pianist Yacine Khorchi. Lessons are taught in the form of videos. Everything is well thought-out, comprehensible, and accompanied by detailed sound examples, sheet music as well as illustrative material.
What I like at first glance is the transparent structure of the website and the sensible offers. If you participate in the lessons, you are not limited to the acoustic piano. At music2me, you can also learn how to play with a digital piano or a master keyboard.
Not only are you flexible regarding the lessons, but also in terms of pricing. In general, piano lessons are more effective if you learn and practice continuously. If you can’t or don’t want to do that, you can join on a monthly basis for 15 euro. After the month, you can end your subscription and join again at a later point in time.
As further pricing options music2me offers 12 months for 120 euro as well as six months for 72 euro. In any case, you always have unrestricted access to all music2me lessons during the booked period.
If you want to test music2me yourself, simply create an account on the music2me website. The account is free, but you already have access to some features of the online piano school.
→ Create a free account at music2me.*
Otherwise, music2me also offers content in the form of an instructional video. This differs from the interactive learning and practice features that you get within the course content (more about this in the following sections). Nevertheless, these Youtube videos clearly convey how lessons from music2me work – and you also learn something along the way. For example this video here: Learn piano in 8 minutes!
You can quickly take your first steps via eLearning, as music2me impressively demonstrates with the fantastically made video “Learn the piano in 8 minutes”. However, it is absolutely clear that learning how to play properly takes a little longer. The many lessons in the beginner level of music2me are definitely a good help, because here you can learn and study everything from scratch.
The beginner level lessons are organized in a progressive way and can always be used as a reference book. Information on the level of difficulty and the duration of a lesson helps with orientation. In addition, a distinction is made between song, practice unit and music lesson. You don’t have to go through the lessons one after the other. Feel free to follow your interests and browse through the lessons, mark favorites and save certain sections as an exercise etc.
A good feature is the lesson overview. Here you can see all the parts a lesson includes, and with provided links jump directly to the respective part. This is especially useful if you want to repeat a lesson later.
Those starting at the very beginning will find informative content about the piano and digital piano, the notes on the keyboard, and important instructions including the correct sitting position when playing the piano, how to use a metronome, etc. The first lessons then begin with fingering and notation. You do not need to know how to read sheet music to start with music2me. The videos primarily teach how to play on the keyboard in a graphic way.
The corresponding musical notation always runs along, so you learn how to play by notes along the way. But: Take it step by step. You can take the lessons as often as you like at a slower or faster tempo – simply vary the playback speed of the videos. Moreover, the lessons consist of two parts: After the explanation of the topic follows a summary of the facts you just learned.
The second lesson focuses on playing by notes. It explains everything you need to know: Notation, note values, time signatures, articulations, key signatures, etc. To prevent getting stuck in theory, we swiftly move on to practice. With the knowledge of whole, half and quarter notes as well as rests and dynamics, the first music lesson teaches a simplified version of Ode to Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven.
In general, I like the connection of theoretical basics with a music lesson. For example, you can find the piece Jingle Bells for staccato or the piece Aura Lee to put legato and staccato into practice.
The advanced course continues with easy piano pieces, including The House of The Rising Sun, The Swan from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns, The Entertainer, Für Elise, Arabesque (Burgmüller). Accordingly, the theory part also extends to accidentals, eighth note triplets, steps & functions.
But there are also quite demanding piano pieces such as the Prelude Opus 28 No. 4 by Frédéric Chopin. The indications of the level of difficulty vary in the advanced course between very easy, easy, medium, challenging. The latter level can then become really demanding.
At a higher level of difficulty, you can use the music2me range to work on pieces that simply are piano classics. Popular film music from The World of Amelie (Yann Tiersen), Una Mattina from Intouchables (Ludovico Einaudi), but also older classics like The Pink Panther by Henry Mancini or the Feather Theme by Alan Silvestri from the movie Forrest Gump.
In addition to video lesson, music2me offers a backing track player for exercises and songs. It contains a playback to play along – a really nice practice aid. The playbacks motivate, so you’ll want to play the practiced pieces fluently. However, here you cannot vary the tempo like in the videos.
A plus point of the music2me offer: It includes accompanying sheet music material – not for all, but many lessons – available directly for download. Although lessons show sheet music in a clearly legible manner, you don’t always have a screen or tablet at the piano. Sheet music in printed form is simply practical.
You should not confuse eLearning with real one-on-one lessons. During these the teacher will, for example, notice an incorrect hand position directly. Of course, this is very important, especially in the beginning. However, music2me offers the possibility to communicate with teachers via online chat, telephone support or email. “When it comes to things like hand and playing posture, our students also like to send in short videos that they make with their cell phones,” piano teacher Yacine Khorchi knows from practical experience.
“Sure, it’s still not quite like Face2Face piano lessons, but at least you can give concrete tips this way, too,” adds Yacine. “Dealing with the medium of video is something many have already gotten used to. We’ve even held a competition with our students, where people sent in videos of the pieces they like to play the most. Very different people participated – be it beginners on a small home piano or advanced players on the grand piano.”
Another point about video: music2me uses this medium for more than just keyboard playing action, notation and piano roll. Yacine Khorchi introduces and comments on the lessons in person. This allows you to concentrate optimally on the conveyed facts as well as the notes – and especially your own playing. This clearly sets the music2me lessons apart from other online offerings.
Online lessons can’t replace face2face lessons in principle, but music2me’s lessons appeal with a combined spoken and visual approach. But there are many other details about music2me’s learning offers that I like. The layout is very clear: learning content is conveyed in an easily understandable way, yet with the necessary level of detail. Beginners get step by step explanations. The more difficult content as well comes well structured. The ratio between repertoire, music theory and playing technique is balanced.
A great feature is the integrated video player with variable playback speed, and the option to download accompanying sheet music is equally praiseworthy. The practice mode with repeat loop and save function is helpful when rehearsing new material. Getting advice and assistance via chat, phone and email takes time getting used to compared to conventional piano lessons. However, music2me also provides this service in a competent and friendly manner.
Jörg Sunderkötter
Lesson content is conveyed in a way that is easy to understand, yet with the necessary level of detail. Beginners get step by step explanations. Even the more difficult content is well structured. A great feature is the integrated video player with variable playback speed, and the option to download accompanying sheet music is equally praiseworthy. The practice mode with repeat loop and save function is helpful when rehearsing new material.
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