A review of the best piano software package around
Many websites offer piano software free for download that promise instant results and a new way to optimize your learning, but do they work? This article is going to review the best piano software package out there and find out once and for all whether it is better than the traditional way of learning the piano.
The package I am going to discuss is Piano Wizard, this program has been consistently voted the highest performer out of all the other brands in independent reviews. The basic principle of this piano software is to make learning the piano a game, at the most basic level players are confronted with really colourful environments and fantastic looking characters. Depending on the level you are currently playing, a series of objects (e.g. bugs, robots) will float across you screen from left to right, there is a keyboard laid out vertically across the left hand side of the screen, it is your job to press the corresponding key on your keyboard exactly as the ‘bug’ flies over it. Fans of Guitar Hero will be familiar with this concept.
Once you have mastered this level the piano software allows you to steadily increase the difficulty of the ‘game’. At the top level, all the great colour coded systems for identifying the keys are gone; players have to work out the key they need to press by themselves. All the fancy little cartoons are replaced by musical symbols moving across the staff bars and the game suddenly turns into a more professional looking sheet music reader. Now the whole point of Piano Wizard is to make learning fun, which encourages kids and adults alike to play it. The transition from game to actually note reading appears to be seamless, but is it really worth the money?
There are various different versions of piano wizard, the most basic pack will only set you back around £20 ($35) but it will not offer you the ability to download new songs into the games music bank. More expensive versions even come with keyboards, these aren’t the best quality instruments imaginable, but for £90 ($200) you can’t really complain. I personally don’t like this piece of software, the concept is good and in many ways they developers have pulled it off really well, but I don’t feel that playing this game is the best way to learn how to play piano correctly. The fact of the matter is, this piano software is a game, just because you can play Fur Elise perfectly on this game doesn’t mean you will be able to do so on a real piano. Piano Wizard is rather lenient when it comes to accurate timing, I’ve tried playing the exact same way on both my real piano and on this game and I have to tell you that what I played barely resembled Beethoven’s classic.
Another thing I didn’t really like about this piano software is that despite the fact that you can download you favourite songs into this game, you will find that they are much harder to play. In fact, there is a huge gulf in difficulty levels between the two which makes the transition to playing a real piano that little bit harder.
All in all though, I would say that Piano Wizard is a pretty solid piece of software. If you’ve used it for more than a few hours you will realize why it has been voted the best software for piano. Purchase this piano software if you want to encourage your children to play the piano, it will really set them on the right track. The colourful backgrounds and cute creatures may put some adults off using this particular package but it really would be a shame because it is without a doubt the best educational tool on the market. Having said that, some players may merely see this product as a fun way to begin their musical training and nothing more. Being someone who has been playing many musical instruments for a number of years I know that there is simply no substitute to learning to play songs by ear.
Filed Under Keyboards/Pianos | 2 Comments
Tagged With Best piano software, educational piano software, free piano software, Guitar hero, piano hero, piano program, piano software, piano software download, Piano Wizard, software for piano
Comments
2 Responses to “A review of the best piano software package around”
Leave a Reply
Just wished to point out I truly respect your work on this blog site and the high quality posts you make. These type of posting are generally precisely what keeps me going through the day. I discovered this post after a excellent companion of my own mentioned it to me. I do a little blogging and site-building myself and I am always grateful to see others giving top quality information towards community. I am going to definitely be following and now have bookmarked your blog to my twitter account for others to visit.
So did you at all go through the Academy lessons? Do you understand that those that follow the Piano Wizard Academy lessons learn up to 20 songs per week – and easily transition to piano?
Of course, without going through the lessons, it is just a video game, and still a nice transition into learning to play. And if you have not gone through the lessons, the downloaded MIDI files will of course be harder to play because you are simply not “ready” to play them yet.
As for “no substitute for learning by ear”….I have no idea what that means as it makes no sense at all.
Don’t rely on it to teach them an instrument??? You have absolutely no understanding of the Piano Wizard Academy. Do you realize our program is based on a REAL course taught at SIU? Do you realize that there is 100% graduation every single course? Do you realize the students are playing piano recitals within 30 days of starting to learn?
The Piano Wizard Academy “IS” the reason the program has been consistently voted the highest performer out of all the other brands in independent reviews.