Here are some recommendations of great piano learning software that may help you in various areas of your piano study.
Recommended Piano Learning Courses:
Two of the most recommended piano learning course packages today are Rocket Piano and Learn and Master Piano. They both teach you a variety of styles, from Classical to Rock.
I find them both very appealing and a great help when you want to teach yourself piano, or as a complement to other piano lessons. Rocket piano has the added bonus that it is immediately available for download. Follow the links for more information:
When you learn to play the piano, and especially if you teach yourself, you need to work on several areas, like music theory, note reading, ear training, etc. But many things, like technique and interpretation, you can not learn from piano learning software alone.
Apart from the piano learning software itself, let’s take a look at other areas of your piano study, where piano software could be useful-or not:
Note reading and music theory. Of course! You need to learn basic music theory to help you decode music. There are several really good music theory software programs available today. Music Ace Deluxe is a real winner.
Sight reading. Yep, only learning all about notes and the theory of music does not make you great at reading music as you play- sorry! But- this is an area where you can be helped by an interactive tool such as a great software program. And there is a lot of room for more development of super software in this area! (A call for action to any potential software creator!) I have used Piano and Keyboard Method in my studio for mainly sight-reading practice, and it is a good complement.
Ear training software. Actually not absolutely necessary to learn to play the piano… (!) but to be a musician in general you have to practice your “ear”! There is great software available for ear training.Check out: EarMaster 5
Technique. You can not learn proper piano technique from a piano software program. You need the human touch. You need to study pianists and their technique, and preferably have a knowledgeable mentor/teacher at least once in a while to check you out. You need to see, do, feel, observe and evaluate to practice technique. There are piano lesson packages available with DVD’s and CD’s etc that could prove useful, though as extra reinforcement.
Repertoire. How to play different styles on the piano; yes there are the integrated approaches with lesson books, CD's and DVD's to get you started at least as a beginner. And there is sheet music software available to search among thousands of pieces by all the famous composers, great so that you can have it all without having a huge library. For example: Beethoven: Complete Works for Solo Piano (Version 2.0)
More would be welcome in this area! Imagine a multimedia software that gives you the interactive view of a piano composition, the genre; to explore the piece, to learn about the construction, the composer, the time period and the influences from other art forms, etc, etc.....mmm, what possibilities!
Improvisation and playing by ear. As above- it seems no software is available, but there are piano lesson packages with other media available with playing by ear techniques.
Music creation software for composing and printing. This is a perfect domain for software! There is a lot of great software in this category as well. Not everyone who learns how to play the piano will need a music composition program of course, but if you do, it is worth investing in quality and time to learn how the program works. Finale PrintMusic 2011 also has recording, creating and printing of your own compositions.
Music history and other styles of music. There are a few music history multimedia software programs available. There used to be more- but I guess they can’t keep up with the constantly changing world of computer systems… If you have an older system like XP, you still have many more choices with older programs if you can find them. It is very sad to see so little available today. Try History of Music and Great Composers and History of Music
Recording. A simple recording program to be able to record a piece from your digital piano or electronic keyboard to your computer, via MIDI, and then create your own CD’s is great for learning the piano. You can also transform your MIDI recording to sheet music of your own compositions. See "Finale PrintMusic" above.
So, a set of piano learning software with piano lesson software, music theory, music history, music notation etc. will not actually teach you to play piano, but can make it more enjoyable.
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in my studio for mainly sight-reading practice, and it is a good complement.
also has recording, creating and printing of your own compositions.
and 
