flowkey – Learn Piano 4+

Great alternative for self learner pianist wannabe

My son private piano lesson close down their physical location activities due to pandemic. In the meantime, we are trying to find alternative so he can continue learning and improve his piano skill. There are few products available for self learning but we pick flowkey. The software feature collection of songs from different genres and levels, various self learning tools such as wait mode, speed adjustment, rollback/repetition, and live recording action of the actual person playing on the piano. He was able to master 2 songs so far at the pro level within less than 2 months and his level at private lesson was just the beginner. All it takes is steady and persistent learning. His side reading skills definitely improved vastly. This software isn't perfect. Wait mode sometime skipped and there was no way to print out the sheet perhaps due to copyright issue. Price wise seems to be expensive @$120 yearly but if you think of how much you're paying for private tutor, this is actually cheap. I dare you to try.

Developer Response ,

Thanks a lot for your thorough feedback. It's great to hear that our app helps your son to keep practicing in these difficult times. And sounds like he is really making great progress. That's awesome!
And yes, advanced pieces can sometimes be a challenge for the note detection via microphone. So in case you have a digital piano, I'd highly recommend to use a MIDI connection. With MIDI, the note detection is 100% precise - even in pro pieces. However, we're also working on improving the note detection via microphone. If you'd like help with setting up MIDI, please email our support team support@flowkey.com They'll be happy to help!
Again, thanks a lot for taking the time to share your and your son's experience. Stay safe!

Tentative 4 Stars

I give this app a tentative 4 stars. I tried Flowkey and another piano app together for the 7 day trial and found that, overall, Flowkey worked better for me. I played an instrument in grade school and had unsuccessful private piano lessons as a kid and was definitely in need of a refresher on reading music. I think this app does a nice job introducing the elements of reading music (though I do sort of wish there was a written element where a note would appear and you had to name it by letter, like a written pop quiz) It also allows you to practice a piece as needed before moving on. Another small gripe is how many times you have to push play or OK to start the activity. I wish this could be a voice command so that you can get your hands situated and then say “OK” to start the exercise. My tentative 4 stars is based on the fact that shortly after starting to play more than one note at a time, the app has a hard time determining if you are playing the correct note. This make practicing extremely frustrating having to play the same note many, many times until it hears it correctly to move on, ruining any flow you had going and making it hard to actually learn a piece of music. I have a cable coming so that I can plug my iPad into my keyboard and hope this improves the experience. If this works, it will solidify my 4 stars.

Developer Response ,

Thanks a lot for your detailed feedback. Nice to hear that our app helps you to refresh your piano skills.
And you definitely have a point regarding the clicks in the courses. The good news is that we are already working on improving this. Our goal is to remove all unnecessary clicks in the courses so you can keep your hands on the keys.
Sorry to hear that the note detection seems to have problems when multiple notes are played. This issue will definitely disappear with the cable connection. It's a game changer for sure. So I hope you enjoy practicing even more then.

Probably a good tool for beginners

I’ve been playing piano for almost 20 years- I started when I was five. After I moved to my own apartment, I decided to buy a Yamaha digital piano with weighted keys to best mimic the true touch of a real piano. I noticed this App from Yamaha’s website and decided to give it a try. After tried playing several pieces, I think this app is really ideal for beginners who do not know anything about pedal, dynamics, and the flow of music. The only thing this app cares about is wether you played a note right or wrong. While playing the note correctly is an essential part for beginners, for more advanced players, there are certainty room for improvements. This App did help me correct some notes that I unintentionally played wrong, but I had to stop and correct the wrong note before I can move on. Imaging you’re playing some beautiful pieces in front of your friends, this app keep yelling at you for one note and will not show the rest of the sheets before you correct it. More ideally (at least for me) is that after I finish playing the whole piece, this app can tell me the locations of notes or chords I played wrong in this piece. But I think it is still a quite powerful tool for beginners who just want to press the key and play some music.