HomeSchoolPiano: Complete Set {A Review}

HomeSchoolPiano sent us a lifetime subscription to HomeSchoolPiano - Complete Set of Books (for all ages) to review. There are two options for purchasing this set: the Success Package (One payment of $299) or the Payment Plan (Payments of $99.97 per month for three months). Both options provide unlimited, life-time access to HomeSchoolPiano along with all bonuses (downloads, jam tracks, sheet music) for up to 5 students. 

About the Program
All lessons are provided online from video on the website. Each lesson is taught by Willie. There are online quizzes and audio available for the student to work on as well. 

Each book is available as a download. We would recommend printing them off ahead of each lesson, so that you have them ready for during the video lesson. Printing is easy. Once you choose the book you want to work in there is a green download button to click on for printing.

The videos are available to view on any mobile phone, tablet or computer. This is very helpful because we could play them on our mini iPad while sitting it on our piano.

To get started, we added the kids with my account login (manage students~add students) and made them a student name and password. To check on their progress, I can look under their name and records. 

Format of the Lessons
The lesson incorporate a 6 part focus. Each lesson works with technique to develop speed and dexterity. Rhythm is encouraged through vocalization (Willie encourages a soft vocalization for those that may be self-conscious about it). Ear Training exercises are utilized so that students can learn to hear rhythm, melody and harmony. Sight reading is encouraged using a step-by-step approach and bars are broken down to be studied making for small chunks to be learned at a time. The technique, rhythm, ear training, and sight reading all lead up to the song for the lesson. At the end of the lesson, students are shown how to improvise.

Each component is about 10 minutes, making for a lesson of about 1 hour. We chose to do one of the 6 components a day with extra practice after the video was over.

Our Experience
Students can work on any lesson in any order. We chose to start by watching the core videos. The girls have had almost 2 years of piano practice, but I felt that they should watch the CorePiano videos so that they didn't miss anything that they would need to get started.

We found it worked well for them to sit at the piano watching the videos together and then they would tell me what they learned that was new and do any practicing that accompanied the lessons.

Once we got through many of the CorePiano lessons, we went onto Book 1. At that point, I had them work in their own account, at their own speed, on their own lessons.

Final Thoughts
This program has worked great for our style of learning. It is easy for us to schedule the short lessons into our day. The kids like the practice and Willie's style of teaching. I liked how the kids were able to play along with him during the lessons.

Future
This is our new piano program. After the kids complete Book 1, we will be having a recital. They will invite a few friends over and dress up. We'll plan dinner as well. Then we'll repeat it with Book 2 and Book 3.

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