Piano Scales, Chords & Arpeggios Lessons with Elements of Basic Music Theory: Fun, Step-By-Step Guide for Beginner to Advanced Levels(Book & Streaming Video)

As a musician, and an aspiring piano player, this book is really encouraging. It is simply laid out, and easy to understand, which helps get me in the mood to practice my piano playing!! Its has everything you could want in the 140 lessons it teaches, accompanied by 30 video lessons. When I first opened up the book to chapter 1 I was able to get right to work. This piano book has scales, teaches you hand placement and chords. So the beginner really has an excellent time learning how to start out, Each page gets more complex, adding in more layers! The skilled pianist can reminisce over those first chapters and work their way to their own level, maybe learning something new along the way. Wether you start on chapter 1, 32, or 85!! This book is for everyone!!!! One of the things I love about this book though, is that it is accompanied by 30 videos. Each a good length and providing enough info so that we understand what is going on in the book. It's fun to have a visual learning component in addition to the book!! I recommend this book to anyone trying to learn piano!! Or anyone who just wants to have a skills book on the shelf!! It works with Kindles as well, or the Kindle apps on any smart phone!!

I think this is an excellent book for self-study. It has diagrams of all of the keys, exercises, and it shows the keys. I personally learn better if I can see things as well as by reading, so it's really cool that there are video lessons included to kind of clarify anything I might find confusing. The book also has sections that explain how to read music, which I'd learned before but haven't practiced in years. I have a little bit of background in piano, but it's been so long since I've touched a keyboard or piano that I couldn't even remember the name of the Treble Clef symbol. I think the illustrations are really easy to follow. Just glancing over the pages, I've had a ton of, “Oh yeah!” moments about things I had forgotten from my lessons years ago. In the beginning, it's absolutely basic so a total beginner can get the foundation needed to continue. The lessons get progressively harder. I've cheated by looking at the later lessons, and I know they're much more involved than I'd gotten in my lessons. All in all, great book, easy to follow, and it covers all the concepts I've forgotten as well as concepts I'd never touched. Most of all, I like that it's supplemented by video lessons. There's something for visual learners, for people who learn by reading, for people who need to see pictures, and being a mixture of all the learning styles, I'm really satisfied by it so far!

As a former preteen piano student (who spent long afternoons getting slapped on the back of the hand, playfully of course, by her no-nonsense Russian piano instructor) I was surprised to find that I was starting to become incredibly upset with my former self's lack of persistence. I shouldn't have given up! The book is fantastic. The index terrified me at first, but I realized that it was because it is concise, mature, and easy on the eyes. Rather than learning by a book that oozes kindergarten ABC lessons, the layout of the book and the production of the instructional videos gives more of a serious feeling of educational value and time well spent. I had an overwhelmingly delightful fit of nostalgia throughout the eBook's lessons. Despite my earlier comment, my Russian teacher was a wonderful woman with a terrifying sense of humor, yet there were some things that were missing in our lessons. For instance, within the first minute of the first instructional video, I learned something incredibly important about the very first step of piano playing; form. The position of the camera and the instructions in the videos are flawless. Sitting side by side with an instructor can be difficult, awkward, embarrassing, and you can't really rewind her over and over again. I really enjoy the thought that if I make any mistakes, only I will know! What really caught my eye was the very beginning and the very end of the book. In particular, I wanted so bad to skip past and find out about lesson 36. Aside from lesson 36, there are many more lessons that sneakily teach music theory, your Major and Minor chords, and if you've ever wonder what those black keys are for, well that's in there too! O.K, before I get too carried away, my all time favorite part, the most captivating, I-must-succeed-in-mastering-this-instrument-type of part was the mention of improvised piano playing. Can you imagine being able to read a language of symbols and have that knowledge surge straight from your brain down to your own two hands that then begin constructing beautiful melodies? It's a surreal idea that I suppose a non-musical person, as myself, finds astounding from every angle. And lastly, I'd like to mention that this eBook is going to be the most practical and thoughtful father's day gift I have ever had the opportunity to bestow upon my Papa. He's been playing piano for nearly 40 years.

I was asked to review this book as a person who is not a teacher, but as someone with lifelong experience reading music and playing piano for my own enjoyment. I think this would be a good reference book for someone like me, or for a person who is taking piano lessons, and wants to understand the theory behind what they are learning. I'm not sure how well a child might take to it, but I think it would be quite useful for an adult attempting to learn on their own. As a young child I was shown the basics of harmony and chords and that helped me to learn to play by ear in a way that my regular lesson books did not. The book starts with the basics, assuming no previous knowledge, and the accompanying videos demonstrate what is learned in the lessons. While there is lots of theory, this is really not a book for learning *how* to play piano. It's hard to remember what it was like being a complete beginner, but I would guess that a person with no previous musical experience might feel a little lost and would wish to have a bit more explanation regarding the use of this information before they could really begin playing. However, there are plenty of sources available for that. As a reference book, this would be great! I found that I was unable to increase the font size (probably because images had to be used instead of standard text to represent the music). However, since I have a large size tablet, I was able to switch my view to 'one column' and place my tablet in portrait mode and read it easily at the piano. This would not work as well on a kindle or a very small tablet.

I got a lot out of this book. It's meant to be used with the online videos available on YouTube. Reading the info and then watching the videos is a great way to absorb the information, the videos give a nice rhythm to reading the book and makes it relatively painless to study for long stretches. I was able to get completely through this book in 3 days. The book progressively introduces topics in small bite sized chunks so you never get overwhelmed and it's easy to absorb each idea.. There is one lesson per page, and each lesson/page is extremely simplified and targeted at a specific idea. If there is an associated video, the lesson will let you know. Not every lesson has a video, so sometimes the book will go through several pages/lessons before pulling it all together in a video. I am using the Kindle Edition, and I was happy with this book. Some books with graphics just suck because Kindle handles graphics so poorly. But the Kindle Edition of this book works really well, I was happy about that. Each page/lesson is formatted to nicely fill just one page, so I never had problems with Kindle doing weird things while trying to format graphics/text. For some reason there are several versions of this book on Amazon, some simpler than others. I suggest you take a good look and make sure you get the one that contains the most information. I also recommend the following books: A Piano Chord Book You Can Actually Use! (has the same type of online video format) The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences (repeats information in this book, but comes at it from a different angle, the first few pages of introductory theory is pretty good) Practiceopedia (a great way to make sure you are practicing efficiently) Scales Bootcamp (one of the best way to really learn your scales)

This book is awesome. I started taking piano lessons in the third grade, and kept at it for a few years. But life got in the way. I still loved playing music but I didn't have the time to take lessons any more. But when I found this book I felt like I was saved. This book is awesome for most levels of skill. Even if you can’t read music, or if you are returning to the instrument for the first time. This book goes through everything. How to read music, how to hold your hands while playing the instrument, even music theory and improvisation. Once you get deeper into the book it goes really deep into music theory, augmented and diminished chords, different modes of music. This book not only acts as a teacher, but as a college course in some cases! After reading this book you could take a college music class and excel, even if you never played in high school. There is also the fact that it’s available for kindle. Having a book on a piano stand that is designed for sheet music can some times be quite annoying, but if you have this book on a tablet it’s great! There’s no pages to turn or close in on you, it’s really the best. And then there are the YouTube videos. These just take everything to the next level. It’s like having a teacher in the room with you. Sure you can just look at random tutorials anywhere on the Internet, but having YouTube videos designed by the same people who wrote the book you are using to learn is really just amazing. This 140 page book is really the equivalent of a few years of music teaching, only you get to teach yourself, and it’s so cheap. I can’t wait to start playing again and be better than I was before.

I received this book free in exchange for a fair and honest review. We have not had a chance to use the book at all, since the review was needed asap. The book was being promoted as something that homeschoolers could use to teach elementary kids to play piano. This book is well organized with clear black and white pictures and diagrams that would be easy for an adult or middle to high school student to understand. Lessons are short and have a referenced video lesson (which can be found on youtube). I found this part clunky since I use a kindle fire and ipad kindle app for reading and the videos aren't hyper-linked for easy access. The book is quite short, but provides a good overview of needed skills. You will need to buy actual sheet music elsewhere. I can't see my elementary aged kids doing this and enjoying it. This would be parent-led teaching versus child-led teaching. We currently use piano maestro and piano duster apps on ipad for piano lessons. My children (9 and 5) really enjoy those and are able to use them to learn independently. It's colorful, visually and auditorily pleasing with popular and familiar songs that they want to learn to play with theory being sneaked in between levels. They will go and use those apps without my prompting. The only negative with those is the yearly subscription fee. I have the complete John Thompson Easiest Piano Course (with all the books and cds) and my kids never touched that. I had to force them to do it with me and they were very reluctant. My kit came with Mozart and Beethoven stuffed animals, colorful books, and a whiteboard. My kids like to learn music through hands on experience and by using their ears. Their dad is that way too. I am the one who wants them to learn theory part and they don't see a need for it. So, between the 3 things I use to teach music to my elementary kids, I would rate Piano Maestro 1st, Piano Duster 2nd, John Thompson's Easiest Piano Course 3rd, and this last. Thank you for the book and the opportunity to review it.

After deciding that re-learning to play the piano would be my newest hobby, I was in search for the perfect book. I had learned to read music and play the piano as a child, but after many years without any practice, I had forgotten. This book caught my eye because it is laid out in lesson format. The start of the book was the perfect review to refresh my memory of the Middle C. It is very simple and easy to understand. This explanation even comes with a video tutorial, which I thought was very creative and helpful, especially for a complete beginner! I’m currently quite a few lessons in and the book is teaching music theory as well as the scales. Learning as a child, I wasn’t taught theory, so this has been a new and exciting experience. The author explains the music theory in detail so it is easy to follow and understand. As an educator, I feel the explanations use elementary language which would be beneficial for younger students. I’m not sure if I will complete the book all the way as I hope to improve each skill as I learn them, but the extensivity of the book is very impressive. I highly recommend this book to anyone hoping to learn basic piano skills and upward!

I've always wanted to learn how to play the piano. This interactive e-book has finally made that possible with its detailed lesson structure. In just a few days, I feel more capable. Once I finish reading this book I am sure that my understanding of scales, chords and music theory will have improved significantly. It is clear that a lot of time and loving care has gone into the creation of these lessons. I am so glad to have come across this book. It changed my life! Thanks, Mr. Ferrante!

An excellent book for both absolute beginners and advanced players who may need a refresher. It helps with music theory, sight reading and practical methods. You won't be the new Mozart at the end of the book but you will have the necessary tools to progress.

nice book my big brother i really apriciate your hardwork and you are awesome my big bro thanks you for this book

Really great! Among a lot of material I have already studied, this is the most didatic and efficient. As an introduction both to piano and music theory, this books gives you a good insight on these topics. The videos also helps very much on the process. If you want to learn the piano by yourself, recommend it without hesitation.

My Accounting career behind me and my musical career, well interest more than career ahead of me. I have never played keyboards however yearned to play. So in my retirement years I am learning keyboards. My progress is slow and frustrating me however at 75 I am patient with me. This book disciplines me to learn finger placement , scales , chords and theory. Doing so on repeat does work to finally get me to feel the instrument and what this music gig is about. It’s possible my satisfaction with this book could be said of similar books. However I bought this one , I am happy with it.