I have  recently checked out and reviewed many home study piano courses. Here is a list of the absolute best of the best.

Visit Rocket Piano	Rocket Piano - Best Course For Beginners Average User Rating: * (Click Here for our special IN DEPTH VIDEO REVIEW) This package contains 7 books with associated video and audio files. Apart from the basic teaching manuals there is Jazz for beginners and Gospel for beginners as well as a couple of general technique books. You get access to a bundle of software (PC and MAC) including a metronome and several music learning games. This is the leader as far as popularity goes and is an extremely good course containing over a years worth of lessons. Good for absolute beginners and intermediate level players. Click Here For Rocket Piano Site
	Piano For All - Best Course For Beginners and Intermediate Average User Rating: *(Click here for our special IN DEPTH VIDEO REVIEW) This extremely full package has 10 books with embedded video and audio. It teaches you how to play by ear and how to read music. Right from the start you will be playing authentic sounding pieces. Innovative teaching method keeps your interest and has you playing good sounding music in a very short time. The overall presentation of this product is not quite so slick as others but the content is without a doubt superior. Check Out Piano For All
Instrument Master	Instrument Master Average User Rating: This well presented course comes with tons of audio and video files. It also has a very good selection of software available. It is suitable for learning piano and keyboards in any style from classical through to Jazz and pop. You also get over 100 Jam tracks that you can play along to.  The makers of this product however also specialize in music production and so there are a few bonuses including the Music Producer Multimedia Program and an online beat maker. Get More Information on Instrument Master
Piano Coach Pro	Piano Coach Pro Average User Rating: Another fine product, this one comes with a vast library of video and audio lessons. It is split up into styles with separate lessons for blues, Jazz, classical, bluegrass, rock etc. This also comes with quite a few jam tracks to you to play along to. It is suitable for absolute beginners and has a quick start section which will have you playing music from the first day. Click Here For More About Piano Coach Pro
Play Piano Tonight	Play Piano Tonight Average User Rating: If you want to learn several modern styles then this is the course for you. It is centered around electronic keyboard playing though can be used with a normal piano if needed. You will learn rhythms and chords and are set practice sessions with rhythm with both left and right hands to help discipline your playing. The course comes with a short introductory video and a few jam tracks to play along with. The bulk of the course however is the book itself. Check Out The Sample Lesson On Their Web Site

For more information see the Teach Yourself Piano Page. All of the products listed here are geared to teaching you how to play the piano or the keyboards and will take you from beginners level up to intermediate or advanced level. Each product come with a money back guarantee should you not be completely satisfied.

Reviewer: Andy Penbram
Rating:
Website Reviewed: Rocket Piano

Here is a detailed review of Rocket Piano by Ruth Searle which is now one of the most purchased piano and keyboards home study course available on the Internet.

You might also want to check out the Rocket Piano Video Review where I show you exactly what you will find when you purchase this package.

The Rocket Piano package can be bought in a digital format  which can be downloaded immediately to your computer or it can be purchased as a physical product which is shipped to your home.

What’s in the box?

CHECK OUT ROCKET PIANO HERE

The physical package consists of consists of seven books, a DVD and audio and software CDs. The digital pack has the 7 books in printable pdf format and over 60 high quality video lessons.

How the course works

To start the course you use book 1 the beginners book. This will teach you how to sit at the keyboards, how to hold your hands correctly, and general posture. It will show you where to find all the notes on the keyboard, and how to recognize those notes in written music. you will learn to play some simple melodies played with each hand and then some simple pieces with both hands. You will also learn some basic chords.

The books are nicely laid out and easy to follow. At certain points within the books, there are audio examples of how you should play that particular exercise and at other times there are video examples where Ruth explains a little more in depth and shows you exactly what she is talking about by means of example.

Negative Points

The main drawback with this package is that the audio and video files are not clickable within the books. This means that when you are studying and you get to an audio or video example then you have to stop and take note of the example number, then you need to search on your computer manually for that file. Until you have worked out your own system this can be a bit of a hassle but after a while you get the hang of it.

Positive Points

A very good feature of the books is the inclusion of jam tracks. These are in effect a type of music minus one. You get a written piece to play and a choice of two audio files. The first audio file contains the piano playing the piece in question with an accompaniment of guitar, bass and drums. This shows you how the piece should be played with a band. The second audio file is exactly the same as the first except that there is no piano included. This enables you to effectively play along with the band. This is a great way to practice as playing with other musicians forces you to play in time.

More about what you get

There are three main books, the beginners, intermediate and advanced. Once you gone through these then you can proceed onto the introduction to Jazz piano, or the introduction to Gospel piano. Both these are excellent books in their own right. There is also fingering technique and exercise book which can be used at any time and an interesting little bonus book called Advanced learning techniques for piano. This is a combination of techniques and psychology designed to help you get the most out of your learning experience. For more information see the Teach Yourself Piano Page.

The Software

In the sales letter there is a lot of attention paid to the software that is included with this product.

This is pretty basic but still can be useful. I myself wasn’t too impressed in general with the software but there are those who have found it to be fantastic.

There is JaydaMusica which is a little musical recognition game. You get notes flying across the screen and have to identify them. At first its easy but in later levels it speeds up and becomes really difficult. If you aren’t too comfortable with reading music the this game can really help you to familiarize yourself with reading.

Perfect your Pitch is an interval recognition game/ exercise. the computer plays a note and then you have to say which note it was. It then plays another and again you have to say which it was. This is excellent ear training material and in my opinion is the best piece of software in the whole package.

Chordinator shows you chords on the musical staff and gets you to identify them. Good training for those learning to read music.

Keycelerator is another note recognition game.

The Metronome very simple and straight forward but can be used whilst practicing the exercises. This is really important to do and so this piece of software is also a very important addition to the package.

Take a look at the Video Review I did for this product – Its called, Ruth Searl Rocket Piano Review

Conclusions

Save one or two little niggles (like the fact that the audio files aren’t embedded into the pdf files) I give this product a 5 star rating. It is definitely one of the best products available at the moment and is a really complete package. They have a really helpfull support section inside thei members area and for piece of mind the product comes with a full 60 day money back guarantee.

Click Here To Go To The Rocket Piano Web Site