I am not a beginning pianist. I like reading traditional sheet music and playing classical music. However, I subscribed to IPG because I wanted to learn to do more than just play what was put in front of me on a score. I wanted to learn to work out songs by ear, to improvise, and to make my own arrangements of songs. Tim teaches all those things and more.

Even though I came to this course already knowing a lot of music theory, I’ve still learned a HUGE amount from these lessons about how music is put together.
Tim’s lessons on how to break down complicated chords created real lightbulb moments for me .

The diversity and depth of the material presented in this course is stunning. For example, I didn’t expect to learn how to use the keyboard as drum machine to lay down drum tracks, or to use digital audio workstation software to create multi-track recordings of songs. I have always wanted to learn that stuff, and now I’m learning it.

And of course if you work through this course you’ll learn to play music. You’ll learn to improvise solos that fit into the style of the song you’re playing. You’ll learn to work out melodies of songs and play instrumental arrangements, you’ll learn how to accompany a singer or other musicians, you’ll learn how to play as part of a band, and of course you’ll learn to make your own arrangements of songs (which is what I really wanted to learn in the first place).

After going through the country and western module, I downloaded the chord chart and made an arrangement of Johnny Cash’s Walk the Line that I really liked. That was not one of the example songs that Tim teaches, it was just a song I wanted to learn how to play so I applied the techniques from the module and it worked out great.

I almost didn’t sign up for this course, I thought the name (Instant Piano Genius) was a bit cheesy, and I felt that the promotional materials had a “too good to be true” kind of vibe to them. For some reason I took a chance, and I’m very glad that I did. It’s not always easy, learning the piano by any method takes a lot of hard work. But the good news is that this approach is also a lot of fun. If you’re interested in learning how to play popular music I think this course is one of the best values that you’ll find anywhere.