Simply Piano By JoyTunes Review 2023: Best Online Piano Lessons?

For those who are interested in a detailed beginner course that thoroughly guides you through every single lesson, this course is for you. Simply Piano requires its students to perfect the course before allowing them to move on. This might be annoying to some, but if you are the type who constantly strives for perfection, you will surely enjoy this course. Even though this course does not include advanced lessons, it is a great app for beginners.

Course Outline
This online piano course provides exceptional beginner lessons. The course teaches students how to read notes upon subscription, which is crucial for advancing further into the lessons.

Value for Money
It offers a fairly priced monthly subscription for the number of lessons, exercises, songs, and additional content they have. The subscription comes in packages good for 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months, which are billed annually.

Platform
This course is available as an app on Android and iOS. You do not need an internet connection to access it.

Student Feedback
Many students who turn to this course for piano lessons are very pleased with the pace and attentiveness of the program.
Pros
Cons
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If you want a meticulous online piano course to teach you beginner lessons and walk you through the exercises effectively, you have found the right one. This course pushes its students to strive for perfection from beginning to end.
So, is Simply Piano worth it? Could it be the best online piano course in 2020? Find out in review of online piano lessons.
What Is Simply Piano & How Does It Work?
Simply Piano by JoyTunes is a smartphone app that provides you with beginner courses and exercises that will help you learn how to play the piano. Upon setup, the app determines your experience and allows you to select your piano goals.
It is important to take note that Simply Piano encourages you to get your piano or keyboard for the lessons. They do have an on-screen keyboard you can use, but it is only a substitute and is not recommended for permanent use.
Using an electric keyboard or a MIDI keyboard with this app is so much better, though. Some users used acoustic pianos before, but they seem to have experienced trouble with how the app picks up the sound. Connecting via USB with an electric or MIDI keyboard will help you avoid these problems and eliminate the processing lag from utilizing your device’s microphone.
Included in this app is an extensive library containing songs from all genres. There are classical pieces included, but most of the songs in their library are modern and popular.
The app’s song library has over 100 songs to choose from. Unfortunately, you cannot sort the songs by genre, only by difficulty or skill level.
Who Is Simply Piano Suitable For?
Simply Piano markets their course for beginners, specifically families who are involved in learning beginner piano lessons.
With a similar game-like training style to Playground Sessions, Flowkey and Piano Marvel, this app is perfect for kids and teenagers as well as adults and much older people. Simply Piano by JoyTunes is fun for the whole family.
What Makes Simply Piano Unique?
Flowkey and Simply Piano, generally have the same technique when it comes to teaching songs (referece: flowkey and simply piano by joytunes comparison).
Several things that make the Simply Piano app unique:
First, this app gives you the option to choose what kind of pianist you aspire to become. You can select from two courses, Soloist or Chords.
The Soloist course is for students who want to learn how to play classical music, excel in reading notes, and improve their sight-reading. The Chords course, on the other hand, is for students who want to learn about triads and chords, so they can play songs on the piano. Choosing one does not mean you cannot go back and learn from the other. These two courses are interchangeable at any time.
I would suggest that you take the two courses as they both offer great lessons, theory, and techniques you can learn.
Another unique thing about this course is that the songs on their library can be played full or divided into shorter sections.
This feature allows students to focus on one section at a time. It is especially helpful if you find a particular section of the song more challenging than the others. Once you finish the song, you get a star for each part you perfect.
Once you start a song, you will be shown a scrolling music sheet. Your objective is to press the correct note on your keyboard as shown on the screen.
If you get a note correct, it will change colors from black to blue. If you get it wrong, the note will turn red. If you take too long, the app will provide you a hint on which key to press on your keyboard, and the note will turn yellow. If you make more than three mistakes, this program automatically sets you back in the beginning, slows down the tempo, and provides you with a metronome.
Find yourself too busy to take a course on some days? No worries, Simply Piano has got you covered with their 5-minute exercises.
While these exercises do not teach you new lessons, they let you brush up on the ones you have already taken. One more thing to note is that the exercises do not have a library. You cannot select the exercises you like because the app does it for you based on the lessons you have learned.
Finally, this course allows you to print out sheet music, which can be helpful if you would like to practice away from your device.
Who Created Simply Piano?
Simply Piano is a software produced by JoyTunes, a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. This company has been producing advanced music learning software specializing in piano. With the help of an interactive listening software called MusicSense, JoyTunes has launched other piano learning apps, including:
Simply Piano has become their most popular program ever since its release in 2015 (3).
What Does the Program Consist Of?
As of today, this online piano course has 27 lessons divided into two courses.
As soon as you finish your initial setup, and connect your keyboard to your device, you will be given two lessons before choosing a course. These lessons are called Piano Basics and Essentials I. These lessons will teach you piano basics such as finger numbers, some easy chords, basic rhythm, and notes.
Aside from these initial lessons, you will be given another set of combined lessons later on. These lessons pertain to the right way of reading lead sheets.
Soloist
This course will teach you how to read music and scales through a song. The soloist course focuses on teaching you how to play solo pieces on the piano.
Included in this course are the following lessons:
- Essentials II and III – These lessons expand your knowledge to two octaves. It teaches the C and F positions as well as accidentals. Upon completing these lessons, you will be able to play the one-octave C within a song.
- Classical I and II – Classical I is actually labeled as optional. It does not teach you technique but it does touch on music history and provides you simplified versions of songs from the Classical and Romantic era. Classical II, on the other hand, is actually found after Intermediate III. It simply teaches students an excerpt from Beethoven’s Für Elise.
- Intermediate I, II, III, and IV – The lessons here take a rhythmic turn as students tackle ties and syncopation. These lessons will expand your knowledge in hand positions as well as teach you G Major and the D scale. The course also gives students lessons on how to play higher notes and how to shift positions.
- Taste of Bach I and II – Similar to Classical I, these lessons are also tagged as optional. Here, students get an introduction to Bach as well as the Baroque era.
- Pre-Advanced I – This lesson teaches students about key signatures, and 16th notes.
Chords
This course teaches you how to play the chords to accompany the songs you like through lessons using popular pop, jazz, and rock songs. A cool thing about this course is that by the end of it, you will be given several songs with backing music and vocals that you can accompany using your new piano skills.
Let us take a look at the contents of this course:
- Pop Chords I, II, and III – These lessons teach you basic chords such as C major, D major, G major, and E minor. It introduces students to the concept of a bassline before moving onto more chords like F major, D minor, E major, A major and B minor.
- Chord Styling I, II, and III – These lessons are fairly simple and, if you are into rock or jazz, can be quite fun. It simply teaches students how to use the same chords in different genres such as rock and jazz.
- Jazz Chords I and II – These lessons teach students about chord progression in addition to jazz patterns. Major and minor 2-5-1 chords progressions, minor sevenths, and diminished chords are included in these lessons as well.
Slash Chords – This is the final lesson in the Chords course. It covers inversions as well as pedal bass and moving bass.
How Can I Know If Simply Piano Is Not A Scam?
JoyTunes is a company that is known for its production of music learning apps. Simply Piano, while being their most popular program, is not their first.
Ever since its initial release in 2015, the Simply Piano app has gotten several awards from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. They were awarded the Editor’s Choice Award, Parent’s Choice Award as well as the award for Best App.
Simply Piano is a very popular online piano course and is claimed to be used by over 10,000 piano teachers worldwide.
Simply Piano Real Reviews and Testimonials
There are tons of reviews for the Simply Piano app out there. I took the liberty to look up some for you so you can see what others say about it for yourself. Here are some reviews I took from the Apple App Store (4):
According to an Apple user.
According to an Apple user.
According to an Apple user.
According to an Apple user.
As you can see, there are complaints about the app’s microphone feedback. Users are having trouble getting the app to recognize that the note they are playing is correct.
I also browsed through the review section of the Google Play Store (5) for this app and here are the reviews I found:
According to an Android user.
According to an Android user.
According to an Android user.
It seems like this volume and notification problem is an issue only for Android users. I have not seen any reviews of the sort from Apple users.
Lastly, I also checked Reddit threads for any reviews regarding this app. Here is what I managed to find:
According to a Reddit user from this thread (6).
According to a Reddit user from this thread (7).
Simply Piano is definitely not a perfect app. However, many users from all walks of life still enjoy the courses and songs this online piano lesson provides.
Video Reviews & Results
My Final Verdict
For me, the Simply Piano app gets a 4/5.
Not only is the app visually appealing from the moment you open it, but the lessons within are also very good for beginners. Even though it does not teach past that level, the content is still very detail-oriented, even providing music history lessons for those who are interested.
I think the idea to divide the lessons into two courses, each focusing on a specific skill, is brilliant. It turns the lessons into small, bite-sized segments that make it impossible for students to get overwhelmed.
The song library is massive, with songs from every genre so students can add plenty of songs to their repertoire. The feature to play per segment is also perfect if a student needs to focus on one part of the song.
One thing that plenty of students dislike is the fact that the course can be too slow. It encourages students to strive for perfection and does not let up unless it is achieved. It also does not allow students to skip lessons they are not interested in unless the course deems it optional. For many, this can be very frustrating.
The price for this course is fair starting from $59.99 for 3 months, $89.99 for 6 months, and $119.99 billed annually. If these prices seem steep to you, then you will be glad to know that Simply Piano is constantly improving their previous courses. They are also adding more supplementary lessons and songs for their students to enjoy.
Frequently Asked Questions
References
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/piano-maestro-by-joytunes/id604699751
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/piano-dust-buster-by-joytunes/id502356539
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JoyTunes
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/simply-piano-by-joytunes/id1019442026#see-all/reviews
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joytunes.simplypiano&hl=en&showAllReviews=true
- https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/8b5ztz/is_simplypiano_the_best_thing_behind_lessons/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/a2ymsp/does_this_simply_piano_app_really_work/
