I am a piano teacher and this content is great help to me to recommend software to students. I would use flowkey for myself, but simply piano for my kids. :)
As someone who has never played piano before and hasn't read music in 10+ years, SImplyPiano pacing is basically perfect for me. It feels just barely too slow and considering most people have a tendency to overestimate their proficiency, that probably means it is just right (at least for me).
Thanks for the video. I have used both Simply piano and Flowkey and I prefer Flowkey. With Simply piano you can play to learn simple somgs quickly but you don't actually learn the actual playing without relying on the App. With Flowkey it's like it teaches you how to play the piano with the theory and afterwards you can play on your own. I also noticed most of the pieces on Simply piano are simplified versions. I suggest you try both and then make your own choice depending with your goals.
I\'m not sure but ,if anyone else trying to find out play best piano online course try Jadonite Piano Player Buddy (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? Ive heard some interesting things about it and my work buddy got cool results with it.
In the reviews of flowkey I see that you can only choose between 3 tempo mode (60,80,10%). Regardless if you are beginner or little advanced I like to change the speed to my speed where I am comfortable with it.
I tried both and really love flowkey much better. When I get stuck, learning a new song it’s very helpful to be able to look up and see how the video of hands playing on the keyboard, show me the best fingering positions.
Hi,I'm from Greece and I really want to learn piano but the tutors here are expensive and a '' cheap'' way is something online app. So I would like to ask you if you started with simply piano and if really you can learn from it Thank you!!
@@aggelosbocis5380 you can try the first free lesson and see if that type of learning works for you or try the free trial. Simply piano teaches you the notes.. it makes you practice those and also it has songs.
Christine. I have just started playing the piano and this review has helped me greatly. Thank you for your time and input. I think I will start with simply piano ✅👍 great review
Hello Christine, You have given an great review on the 2 apps. At 64 years old, I just started (1st time in my life) learning piano as one of my retirement activities. I was recommended to use Simply piano as an app to start learning. You have evaluated perfectly well both apps & given your objective opinion. All this being said, with what you concluded, I am happy to know that I made the right choice by using Simply piano. It might be slower, but I go based on my (slow) pace to learn...LOL. Thank you for your review...you are amazing!! :-)
Simply Piano feels like a game, not like a learning app. It is so much fun and also entertaining (even if you fail :D). In my case, Simply Piano was also able to detect my acoustic piano better than flowkey. Taking a breath was detected as a note on flowkey.
Thanks for the video. It helped me decide on my purchase. I have been playing Piano by my ears. I recently purchased Simply Piano for myself and my 7 year old son to learn to play sheet music. I really love the app. It's very well designed. Perfectly challenging which keep both of us engaged. I tried other apps before purchasing Simply Piano and I'm confident, I made the right decision.
I'm saving to buy my first keyboard as I'm quite limited with Synthesia, although it helped me to decide if I wanted to learn piano. Thanks for the video.
I think this review is comprehensive and objective. I am using Simply Piano for nearly 4 months and happy about it, but would probably switch to Flowkey after my one-year subscription expired as I want to learn more on theories. One little point to add: Simply Piano do have a huge song library (for IPad only) and they keep improving the app features.
On my personal opinion, DEFINITELLY FLOWKEY. I tested sinply piano and it was not what I expected - just some notes, it felt like a kindergarten. I wasn't learning any serious pieces with it, just sightreading! But on FLOWKEY, you have courses too, but you have MORE THAN 2000 SONGS to learn sorted in different difficulties. I am playing like for 5 months AND I CAN PLAY TURKISH MARCH AND FULL MAPLE LEAF RAG AND MORE, BY JUST AN APP! Flowkey is just awesome and it helped me understand that I have a big talent for piano.
I've been playing on and off for about 15 years. But, self-taught and probably haven't progressed past elementary level stuff. I know all of my major and minor chords, 7th, augmented, diminished, most of their inversions, etc.; however, I've picked up a lot of bad habits along the way (mainly with proper fingering technique). I love flowkey because it helps me unpack all of the information--both good and bad--that I have in my brain and presents the lessons in digestible chunks.
Please review Playground vs Flowkey. I feel those are top 2 apps year after year. Also get a kid to review with you. That'd be nice. Many learners are children for those app
I've been using simplypiano to help me sight read. I like the app and the progress. Apparently there are more features than I am using. I use it only from my cell phone. Thanks for the very fair comparison.
I am an adult using SP and I really like it for now. I know that to most people it's very toyish but I suffer from mild cognitive impairment and I am feeling that SP lets me progress at my own pace. I can take as long as I want and it's a very simple interface compared to Pianote which I've also tried. I haven't tried Flowkey yet but mabye next year after my subscription ends...
I always wished somebody would make a piano teaching app that works just like the 90's computer game Mario Teaches Typing. Remember that? I did that game regularly in fourth grade and to this day, I can type ridiculously fast, without even looking at my hands and I still do all the finger movements the same way the game taught me, even the awkward ones, like hitting the backspace key with my pinky finger when I mess up. It teaches you to type in a very slow, gradual way, where you just do one letter at a time, until you can do it fast, and then two letters, and so on. And it shows you an animation of a hand typing the letter in the correct way, over and over, as you follow along. It drives me crazy that no one seems to want to make a piano learning app that works exactly the same way, for some reason. I've also played the piano from a pretty young age, but I didn't start actually taking lessons until high school. I'd say I could probably read music at an early first grade level and that's being generous. It's like, I know how to do it, but I'm not good at it. I could never figure out how to get over that hump from just knowing how to read the notes, to being able to do it quickly and fluently. Part of the problem is that I'm one of those people that once I hear a song one or two times, I can pretty much play it by ear, so I kind of stop looking at the music. A way around that would be if someone would make an app where it doesn't actually teach you how to play songs, (at least not at first,) but instead just makes you play one note over and over, with an accompanying animation of a hand playing it the correct way. Once you can do that at a certain speed and accuracy, it'll add a second note, then eventually chords, etc. And it should teach you how to read notes and how to read time signature and rhythm separately at first, and then combine them together, only when your note reading ability reaches a certain level of fluency. The idea should be to get you past that hump where you're like "EGBDF, Every Good Boy Does Fine, ok that's an F, ok where is the F, blah blah, blah," to the point where you just see the note and your hand just automatically knows where to go without thinking. Every teaching technique I've encountered so far requires to much thinking. Another thing that annoys me about piano teaching programs is how they all have that stupid scroll line that moves through the notes as they play. It's always so laggy and slow and doesn't move in time with the beat. How are you supposed to learn to read a rhythm that way? I don't know why they can't just make the notes either change color in beat, or put a dot over them as they play, like they used to in old sing along videos. I even met a computer scientist at an Ivy league university who had developed a piano teaching program and he wouldn't even listen to me about this. I don't know why they can't make a program that's 10 times better than anything that exist now. They certainly have the technology.
I'm sure these apps are useful for certain things, but I think there's a lot of elements of becoming a musician that you need to look elsewhere for that they don'r cover. Nice review
Excellent review. I have been 3 days on Simply Piano. Quite motivating for a 60YO with 10 years piano training 44 years previously. I agree - best (for my profile) is SP and then move to FK. I am squeezing as much as I can out of 7 days free trial. Then will decide if to keep with SP or move immediately to FK. I do like the motivation within SP. 10 years training at age 6-16... means that posture, tempo, finger action, key sensitivity is somewhat still innate to 60YO hands and fingers. my new NPK20 is quite a charm. Amazing that the sounds of the App play into the NPK and/or my headphones.
After five weeks on Flowkey, I can sight read Canon in D, Fur Elise, I Giorni, Morning Mood, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, Yesterday and 42 measures of Claire de Lune. That is far more than I expected. Project Flowkey from my chromebook to the big HD screen and the sheet music, keyboard, note identification, and fingering is all shown together 50" wide! Once you learn to sight read then jump to the songs you can play. Then go back to the piano courses to take your lessons. Easy peasy.
Hi Christine, Thank you so much for the Flowkey v Simply Piano review. I take delivery of my new Yamaha P45 thi sweek and I get 3 months of Flowkey included which is cool. So I will start with that and see how it goes. I enjoyed your review very much and appreciate how unbiased you are. Thank you again Matt x
I misspoke in the video about flowkey not having a practice mode to play with each hand separately and change the speed. However this feature is only found in the Songs section of the app (which I don't typically use). The feature is not found in the lessons.
bill Bloggs that's great to hear that you've come so far! For me it's not about "needing" apps. It is more of an experiment to see if it's possible to learn with apps. Plus I enjoy doing it! Hope you're still practicing. 18 is certainly not too late for anything!
Thank you Christine, going to follow your advice for our 10 year old daughter. We'll start with the 7 day trial of Simply, see how that goes before purchasing either app.
I've used flowkey for a few months. I connected my digital piano to flowkey. Midi connection is easy. There is very little delay but note that the "sound" you hear via midi connection is kind of a browser based vst plugin that interprets your key strokes. The "theory" lectures were underwhelming for me. they are not really integrated into a flow but rather separate add on lectures. I would have really appreciated "beginner to expert : step by step" road map. it does one thing very good though : song learning. You don't have to go through the theory and technique at all. Just pick a beginner version of a song and you can immediately start memorizing the key positions and start developing muscle memory. For me it is both a blessing and a curse. imagine you are given Chinese poem transposed in latin alphabet (if that makes any sense). Meaning, you can read it and it will sound Chinese, and eventually you may even sound like a native Chinese speaker but in reality you haven't really learned a word of Chinese. Similar to that, you could eventually play some very challenging songs in Flowkey very good. However, as soon as you start a "new" song you are beginner all over again. if I recall right, pretty much all the songs have 3 versions (beginner, intermediate, expert) and some of them have pro versions. So if you wanna play say "river flows in you" like a pro, you can do it with flowkey if you have the time to try over and over again till you memorize the "key positions" even then you won't really learn how to read the sheet music for it. I think flowkey has the tools to be a great app. they just need an "organized curriculum" where the end goal is grasping enough knowledge to start playing any sheet music.. It could start you with memorizing some basic versio of songs but could slowly force you to learn the theory where you, eventually, wouldn't even need to see the keyboard .
I love Simply Piano, however I have been having some technical difficulties for quite a while now and it isn’t letting me get any further. The notes don’t appear on the screen, this happens half way through the song. I am talking to the technical team via email to try and resolve this. If I can’t I might have to try a different app. I don’t think Flowkey is as fun. Simply piano gives the learner encouragement along the way. It tells you you’re ‘awesome’ when you pass parts of it and one can collect trophies for each section completed. It’s nice and brightly coloured, you can choose to pick a song and learn it, as well as follow a course starting from really basic to learning fluently with both hands.
My plan right now is to use Simply Piano for the fun association aspect of it. Then later switch to Flowkey. I should also add that I read up on music theory in-between playing sessions, because SimplyPiano does not really teach music theory as far as I know. I also read the sheet music in the app, and outside the app, alongside the in-app songs.
Thanks so much for this! I play several instruments but piano is brand new for me. I’m actually learning piano to become better at guitar (theory) so I think I’ll go with Flowkey. Thanks!
I've been using simply piano for almost 3 months now and I found that simply piano is more like a game. It's more suitable for younger learners. I knew more or less how to read music but I'm still a beginner as I can't play that well yet. I found the beginning lessons to be alittle boring, so I skipped them. They move very slowly, especially in the beginning. The curriculum is more basic. Its very colourful so it attracts kids, but adults could use it too if they starting off. They also say free trial, but they charged me straight away. They do have alot of songs though. They have more songs than flowkey. But the songs are simplified alot more in simply piano. So for someone who really knows nothing about piano, simply piano is your best bet. However, I think Flowkey is better for an adult or someone who wants more theory based learning.
dont forget to be realistic - you will need to put in some work whatever system you follow for learning piano I have spent months researching into teaching yourself piano and discovered a fantastic resource at TurboPianoSecret.com (check it out on google)
Really interesting to see these side by side. I’ve wondered recently if they would be good for reading practice. I need very simple stuff! And lots of it
there IS a way to adjust volume of Flowkey playback (i.e. if you want to hear it louder than your playing or less loud) - use volume control of your iDevice. Again, it is different from the overall volume that you hear from your e-piano.
I have been using flowkey for 2 years and I haven't even checked the course part. I learned necessary basics from other yt videos which was equivalently useful. Its much better for u to go right off practising songs since fingering is already provided there
Thank you for comparing these two! That is about what I have found from my research. I'm one week in to my Simply Piano subscription and I do think it is valuable enough for me to continue for the year. I also think FlowKey has some benefits to it too since I feel very limited with my education on scales with SP. So I'm leaning towards getting both since they both have different values to them.
Hi Christina, depending on what piano you have, you can buy a printer cable and a Apple Camera adaptor so the music plays through your piano speakers. It's really cool! I have a Yamaha YDP-144.
I’m an absolute beginner and I wanna go solo for a while before actually going to a teacher. Thank you for this comparison, I’ll be going with flowkey since they emphasize music theory more. Thanks again!
I appreciate that say that I’ve started using flowkey. I’ve been playing piano for all I don’t want to play Hawthorn. I just play boogie Woogie and stuff all around I really like this
Good thorough review. I have also started Flowkey. One thing I noticed after I already started, was that after you complete the basic course, you don't necessarily have to go through their courses in order. The how to read music actually comes (chronologically order that is) much later, but I wish I'd started with that one first.
Thank you for helping me to make my mind up... I was struggling to decide which one to go for as a mature beginner. You confirmed my thoughts... I’m going to start with SimplyPiano and then transition to flowkey once I have become more established.
That’s a horrible way to go for one reason... The forced pacing can be very harmful to your hands and playing, Flow key does not do this to you. Also, when you’re through the scales, chords, and Hanson exercises, Simply Piano will be that much easier to learn from.
I prefer flowkey compared to simply piano. The only thing I would like to see more with these apps is that they got to do more new piano pieces every month especially for the price one pays. And I wish they do more advance stuff for advance players. I know they already do new pieces occasionally but I think they do more pieces regular. Simply piano is good for new starters but it's obviously very simplistic.
Also. In Flowkey I Didn’t like the size of the pentagram. And when u are totally new, there are notes that You don’t know and still they ask you to play on.
But after one month.... I think that I will go with Flowkey.... It's hardest than simply piano, less "video player" than Flowkey... But I can play and read sheets music outside Flowkey after its tutorials...
Appreciate Video! Forgive me for chiming in, I am interested in your thoughts. Have you researched - Rozardner Possess Violin Reality (erm, check it on google should be there)? It is a good exclusive guide for understanding how to master the piano without the headache. Ive heard some awesome things about it and my close friend Aubrey at last got excellent success with it.
Simply piano seems fun, but it doesn't have an exit (quit) button, so I can only exit from it by restarting my phone! :D Otherwise, what an excellent review!
I haven't used Flowkey yet. My big concern with Simply Piano is the lack of clarity regarding their pricing structure and slow response to my questions. I downloaded the trial android app through Google and I wasn't the only one who had the same issue with Simply Piano. I'm leaning toward Flowkey. Glad I found your post. Thanks for your help!
Thank you for your comprehensive review. I just like to know if which app has more classical songs to practice? I’d like to learn more classical songs. Thank you
00:04 Floki is considered the top app for music theory. 01:41 Floki is best for chords and scales 03:28 Floki is a challenging app with limited practice options. 04:56 The practice mode in the app has limited options and lacks detailed feedback. 06:35 Simply Piano is highly engaging and uses a variety of learning techniques. 08:14 Simply Piano has helpful features like practice mode and feedback system. 09:56 Floki and Simply Piano are two popular learning apps for sheet music. 11:39 Simply Piano is more enjoyable and beginner-friendly, while Floki focuses more on theory. Crafted by Merlin AI.
Nice video! But I still don’t know where to start :( I’m a beginner but I’m bit afraid that I will loose my time with simply piano. But I think I’ll give it a try
Very informative video Christine, I tried both these apps and wasn't really helping me. I'm playing a Yamaha EZ220 with the lighted key system, I am also running an android app on my phone called Perfect Piano which has a large selections of songs, with my android phone hooked to my piano what ever song I choose the notes show up on my keyboard lighted up, its not a perfect system, but it works for me, so far I learned about 8 songs. I play guitar so chord theory is pretty easy for me and can some what write and read music. Just what to say also, you are very attractive.......
Thank you for the excellent review! To me, it's important to see the correct fingering, otherwise bad habits develop. I like that flowkey shows the fingering.
I agree simple also teaching me to read sheet also big one for me, I started memorizing finger count which helps me a lot Thank you Christine lot of help
Your reviews are terrific. It would be great to know which products offer free trials; cancellation policies. Also - a comparison spreadsheet at the end that visually lays out cost and features for all the products you've tried. It is just a little challenging keeping it all straight throughout a verbal review. Thanks!
Thanks for that review. I finished Simply Piano courses and I was wondering which way to go..Flowkey seems a good choice as it covers scales, more advenced songs etc.
i started simply piano about a month ago and i practice about an hour a day, so far i still enjoy learning from simply piano and it feels a lot like playing a game. I'm also considering signing up for flowkey partly because I think Simply Piano has laid an alright foundation for me to move on to something else. i will continue to use simply piano but will also venture into other apps as well
Hi I want to start playing piano and i wanted to buy one called rockjam ( I think ) it is a piano keyboard and I wanted to use simply piano with it but I’m not sure how I will connect it with simply piano it does not have a USB port so how would I connect it?
I found flowkey very annoying, as you mentioned; too many clicking, on windows it's impossible to hear anything at max volume, stopping and going back is not possible when you want to repeat...
On Android you can't do slow or learn mode in the song mode. So a difficult part that's skimmed over in the tutorial part is difficult to practice without having to replay the whole song. Otherwise I love it.
Thank you for your comparison. It is very helpful for me whether to move on for a new service when I was frustrated with piano marvel for some reasons.
I too was finding, in Flowkey, the clicking on Play, Start and Next repeatedly particularly annoying. Then I noticed the on screen keyboard has a blue and orange coloured black keys at the bass end. These match the Play/Start blue button, and the Next button. So no need to keep clicking anymore!!! I am using the Web version of the Flowkey app, the tablet app might not work the same way. I have been trying all the different apps and services to find something that I would actually pay money to use. Including Skoove, I must have gotten confused when swapping between one webpage and another that I mistook Skoove to be Flowkey, and therefore it is Skoove that uses the 2 black keys and NOT Flowkey. In Flowkey though I did notice that you can use the spacebar to quickly avoid all the mouse clicking. I also have a VST that will convert MIDI notes to keyboard keypresses (i.e. spacebar). So it should be possible to do the same thing in Flowkey after all.
Hi Christine, What app would you recommend if a beginner just wants to learn how to play and read hymns at church? I don't care for other genres etc. Just want a fast track to playing and reading notes.
Good review Christine. I used Simply Piano for almost 1 year and I have completed all the courses. But I found I couldn’t play any sheet music outside of the app. I agree with your comment that the sheet music in SP, even in the Play Beta is written in line with their exercises. It always uses the same chords, etc. Whenever they release new songs, I can play them without practicing because I became so familiar with their style. The downside is that real sheet music has a lot more variation than the limited style in their app. Another crutch I developed was on the scrolling music. I became dependent on that to keep me in time. SP doesn’t teach you how to count the rhythms. I was just playing the highlighted note as it scrolled across the screen. Now I am using Piano Marvel and I have made so much progress in the last few months using it. I have learnt how to count and read real sheet music. I wish I had known about Piano Marvel before I started SP.
Thank you for your reviews. I was considering Youscian but have not yet found a review where I see it action. Twice I have downloaded the flowkey app, what total rubbish. Almost impossible to understand how to use. For me all I want is an app like piano trainer (but this is not extensive enough) that just gives me sheet music on screen and turns red when I mess up. No be,le or whistles, no complicated bs.
I tried flowkey a while ago and it was nice but I hated that they don't have sheet music. The scrolling is a bit annoying when you are a bit deeper in the song. For this is sheet music better?
I like that flow key has a persons hand at the top so I always know I have the right finger positioning.
I am a piano teacher and this content is great help to me to recommend software to students. I would use flowkey for myself, but simply piano for my kids. :)
Thanks...I go to use simply piano for my kids. Saludos desde Ecuador!👍
Svante wahlqvist are you Swedish
As someone who has never played piano before and hasn't read music in 10+ years, SImplyPiano pacing is basically perfect for me. It feels just barely too slow and considering most people have a tendency to overestimate their proficiency, that probably means it is just right (at least for me).
Thanks for the video. I have used both Simply piano and Flowkey and I prefer Flowkey. With Simply piano you can play to learn simple somgs quickly but you don't actually learn the actual playing without relying on the App. With Flowkey it's like it teaches you how to play the piano with the theory and afterwards you can play on your own. I also noticed most of the pieces on Simply piano are simplified versions. I suggest you try both and then make your own choice depending with your goals.
I\'m not sure but ,if anyone else trying to find out play best piano online course try Jadonite Piano Player Buddy (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? Ive heard some interesting things about it and my work buddy got cool results with it.
In the reviews of flowkey I see that you can only choose between 3 tempo mode (60,80,10%). Regardless if you are beginner or little advanced I like to change the speed to my speed where I am comfortable with it.
I tried both and really love flowkey much better. When I get stuck, learning a new song it’s very helpful to be able to look up and see how the video of hands playing on the keyboard, show
me the best fingering positions.
After I finish simply piano I would go to flowkey. Thank you for suggestion. Very helpful
Hi,I'm from Greece and I really want to learn piano but the tutors here are expensive and a '' cheap'' way is something online app. So I would like to ask you if you started with simply piano and if really you can learn from it
Thank you!!
@@aggelosbocis5380 you can try the first free lesson and see if that type of learning works for you or try the free trial. Simply piano teaches you the notes.. it makes you practice those and also it has songs.
Same thoughts
Christine. I have just started playing the piano and this review has helped me greatly. Thank you for your time and input. I think I will start with simply piano ✅👍 great review
Thanks Jason, glad to hear it :)
been 6months, how's it been?
What a friendly, joyful way to talk about the piano and the learning apps, subscribed!
You dont understand how much this helped me especially during this time thank you so much
Hello Christine, You have given an great review on the 2 apps. At 64 years old, I just started (1st time in my life) learning piano as one of my retirement activities. I was recommended to use Simply piano as an app to start learning. You have evaluated perfectly well both apps & given your objective opinion. All this being said, with what you concluded, I am happy to know that I made the right choice by using Simply piano. It might be slower, but I go based on my (slow) pace to learn...LOL. Thank you for your review...you are amazing!! :-)
Hi Nohad! I am 60 and played as a kid - balkng all the way! Now starting too, this young woman is so helpful! I'm thinking of Simply Piano or Skoove.
Simply Piano feels like a game, not like a learning app. It is so much fun and also entertaining (even if you fail :D). In my case, Simply Piano was also able to detect my acoustic piano better than flowkey. Taking a breath was detected as a note on flowkey.
blendercloth
sometimes it does that on simply piano too, when i talked, it detected that i hit high c
@@tinee05 I agree. In the end, I ended up getting a real teacher.
Have a doctor check your lungs
Bc ur piano isn’t tuned
@@jasonk876 lol hahahahaha
Thanks for the video. It helped me decide on my purchase. I have been playing Piano by my ears. I recently purchased Simply Piano for myself and my 7 year old son to learn to play sheet music. I really love the app. It's very well designed. Perfectly challenging which keep both of us engaged. I tried other apps before purchasing Simply Piano and I'm confident, I made the right decision.
I'm saving to buy my first keyboard as I'm quite limited with Synthesia, although it helped me to decide if I wanted to learn piano. Thanks for the video.
I can recommend alesis recital, it's all 88 keys and nice sound but it comes with 3 months of skoove which is a super fancy learning app
You don't really need a keyboard. Just use your touchscreen
Porque você estava se sentindo limitado com synthesia?
I use the kawai es110 and it’s amazing. Bluetooth, weighted keys. Really beautiful keyboard and I’m not the only one who thinks this
@@luciarezende2416 porque lo usaba en la computadora solamente.
I think this review is comprehensive and objective. I am using Simply Piano for nearly 4 months and happy about it, but would probably switch to Flowkey after my one-year subscription expired as I want to learn more on theories. One little point to add: Simply Piano do have a huge song library (for IPad only) and they keep improving the app features.
On my personal opinion, DEFINITELLY FLOWKEY. I tested sinply piano and it was not what I expected - just some notes, it felt like a kindergarten. I wasn't learning any serious pieces with it, just sightreading! But on FLOWKEY, you have courses too, but you have MORE THAN 2000 SONGS to learn sorted in different difficulties. I am playing like for 5 months AND I CAN PLAY TURKISH MARCH AND FULL MAPLE LEAF RAG AND MORE, BY JUST AN APP! Flowkey is just awesome and it helped me understand that I have a big talent for piano.
how long have you been playing piano for before that or did u start at the same time as u did with flowkey
@@gjplayzz3450 I tried Simply Piano for like 2 weeks, then I switched to flowkey. Now I will never switch to other piano app.
I've been playing on and off for about 15 years. But, self-taught and probably haven't progressed past elementary level stuff. I know all of my major and minor chords, 7th, augmented, diminished, most of their inversions, etc.; however, I've picked up a lot of bad habits along the way (mainly with proper fingering technique). I love flowkey because it helps me unpack all of the information--both good and bad--that I have in my brain and presents the lessons in digestible chunks.
These apps work. I have simply piano and I’m learning a lot.
"There is a lot of clicking in flowkey" - yes I can put my sign on that.
Please review Playground vs Flowkey. I feel those are top 2 apps year after year. Also get a kid to review with you. That'd be nice. Many learners are children for those app
I am learning on Flowkey started on the 14 of April now I recorded 2 songs I hope some day you will here my music
Have u tried simply piano
I've tried both. Flowkey is superior for me. I LOOOVE the songs and the teaching method in Flowkey!
Sorry...I forgot to mention that after I finish the 1 year subscription with Simply piano, I may want to move on to Flowkey!! Thanks again!
Thanks for not taking five minutes to get to the point! So refreshing.
I've been using simplypiano to help me sight read. I like the app and the progress. Apparently there are more features than I am using. I use it only from my cell phone. Thanks for the very fair comparison.
I am an adult using SP and I really like it for now. I know that to most people it's very toyish but I suffer from mild cognitive impairment and I am feeling that SP lets me progress at my own pace. I can take as long as I want and it's a very simple interface compared to Pianote which I've also tried. I haven't tried Flowkey yet but mabye next year after my subscription ends...
I always wished somebody would make a piano teaching app that works just like the 90's computer game Mario Teaches Typing. Remember that? I did that game regularly in fourth grade and to this day, I can type ridiculously fast, without even looking at my hands and I still do all the finger movements the same way the game taught me, even the awkward ones, like hitting the backspace key with my pinky finger when I mess up. It teaches you to type in a very slow, gradual way, where you just do one letter at a time, until you can do it fast, and then two letters, and so on. And it shows you an animation of a hand typing the letter in the correct way, over and over, as you follow along. It drives me crazy that no one seems to want to make a piano learning app that works exactly the same way, for some reason. I've also played the piano from a pretty young age, but I didn't start actually taking lessons until high school. I'd say I could probably read music at an early first grade level and that's being generous. It's like, I know how to do it, but I'm not good at it. I could never figure out how to get over that hump from just knowing how to read the notes, to being able to do it quickly and fluently. Part of the problem is that I'm one of those people that once I hear a song one or two times, I can pretty much play it by ear, so I kind of stop looking at the music. A way around that would be if someone would make an app where it doesn't actually teach you how to play songs, (at least not at first,) but instead just makes you play one note over and over, with an accompanying animation of a hand playing it the correct way. Once you can do that at a certain speed and accuracy, it'll add a second note, then eventually chords, etc. And it should teach you how to read notes and how to read time signature and rhythm separately at first, and then combine them together, only when your note reading ability reaches a certain level of fluency. The idea should be to get you past that hump where you're like "EGBDF, Every Good Boy Does Fine, ok that's an F, ok where is the F, blah blah, blah," to the point where you just see the note and your hand just automatically knows where to go without thinking. Every teaching technique I've encountered so far requires to much thinking. Another thing that annoys me about piano teaching programs is how they all have that stupid scroll line that moves through the notes as they play. It's always so laggy and slow and doesn't move in time with the beat. How are you supposed to learn to read a rhythm that way? I don't know why they can't just make the notes either change color in beat, or put a dot over them as they play, like they used to in old sing along videos. I even met a computer scientist at an Ivy league university who had developed a piano teaching program and he wouldn't even listen to me about this. I don't know why they can't make a program that's 10 times better than anything that exist now. They certainly have the technology.
I have the miracle piano program
@@RaulDiaz3d Is it like what I described?
@@Melissa0774 problem is it’s like 30 years old no way to find it
I'm sure these apps are useful for certain things, but I think there's a lot of elements of becoming a musician that you need to look elsewhere for that they don'r cover. Nice review
Excellent review. I have been 3 days on Simply Piano. Quite motivating for a 60YO with 10 years piano training 44 years previously. I agree - best (for my profile) is SP and then move to FK. I am squeezing as much as I can out of 7 days free trial. Then will decide if to keep with SP or move immediately to FK. I do like the motivation within SP. 10 years training at age 6-16... means that posture, tempo, finger action, key sensitivity is somewhat still innate to 60YO hands and fingers. my new NPK20 is quite a charm. Amazing that the sounds of the App play into the NPK and/or my headphones.
After five weeks on Flowkey, I can sight read Canon in D, Fur Elise, I Giorni, Morning Mood, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, Yesterday and 42 measures of Claire de Lune. That is far more than I expected. Project Flowkey from my chromebook to the big HD screen and the sheet music, keyboard, note identification, and fingering is all shown together 50" wide! Once you learn to sight read then jump to the songs you can play. Then go back to the piano courses to take your lessons. Easy peasy.
Hi Christine, Thank you so much for the Flowkey v Simply Piano review. I take delivery of my new Yamaha P45 thi sweek and I get 3 months of Flowkey included which is cool. So I will start with that and see how it goes. I enjoyed your review very much and appreciate how unbiased you are. Thank you again Matt x
I haven't seen any new videos on your channel, good video. Please post more, thanks
I misspoke in the video about flowkey not having a practice mode to play with each hand separately and change the speed. However this feature is only found in the Songs section of the app (which I don't typically use). The feature is not found in the lessons.
bill Bloggs that's great to hear that you've come so far! For me it's not about "needing" apps. It is more of an experiment to see if it's possible to learn with apps. Plus I enjoy doing it! Hope you're still practicing. 18 is certainly not too late for anything!
@bill Bloggs Hey!! I am 31 and I still don't think it's late! Trust me, you still have time!
Ill be using flowkey as I had used it for a while and I like that there are many favorite songs that I can use to learn
Thank you Christine, going to follow your advice for our 10 year old daughter. We'll start with the 7 day trial of Simply, see how that goes before purchasing either app.
I've used flowkey for a few months.
I connected my digital piano to flowkey. Midi connection is easy. There is very little delay but note that the "sound" you hear via midi connection is kind of a browser based vst plugin that interprets your key strokes.
The "theory" lectures were underwhelming for me. they are not really integrated into a flow but rather separate add on lectures. I would have really appreciated "beginner to expert : step by step" road map.
it does one thing very good though : song learning. You don't have to go through the theory and technique at all. Just pick a beginner version of a song and you can immediately start memorizing the key positions and start developing muscle memory. For me it is both a blessing and a curse. imagine you are given Chinese poem transposed in latin alphabet (if that makes any sense). Meaning, you can read it and it will sound Chinese, and eventually you may even sound like a native Chinese speaker but in reality you haven't really learned a word of Chinese.
Similar to that, you could eventually play some very challenging songs in Flowkey very good. However, as soon as you start a "new" song you are beginner all over again.
if I recall right, pretty much all the songs have 3 versions (beginner, intermediate, expert) and some of them have pro versions. So if you wanna play say "river flows in you" like a pro, you can do it with flowkey if you have the time to try over and over again till you memorize the "key positions" even then you won't really learn how to read the sheet music for it.
I think flowkey has the tools to be a great app. they just need an "organized curriculum" where the end goal is grasping enough knowledge to start playing any sheet music..
It could start you with memorizing some basic versio of songs but could slowly force you to learn the theory where you, eventually, wouldn't even need to see the keyboard .
I love Simply Piano, however I have been having some technical difficulties for quite a while now and it isn’t letting me get any further. The notes don’t appear on the screen, this happens half way through the song. I am talking to the technical team via email to try and resolve this. If I can’t I might have to try a different app. I don’t think Flowkey is as fun. Simply piano gives the learner encouragement along the way. It tells you you’re ‘awesome’ when you pass parts of it and one can collect trophies for each section completed. It’s nice and brightly coloured, you can choose to pick a song and learn it, as well as follow a course starting from really basic to learning fluently with both hands.
Simply piano for me doesn’t listen to my piano
My plan right now is to use Simply Piano for the fun association aspect of it. Then later switch to Flowkey.
I should also add that I read up on music theory in-between playing sessions, because SimplyPiano does not really teach music theory as far as I know. I also read the sheet music in the app, and outside the app, alongside the in-app songs.
Thanks so much for this! I play several instruments but piano is brand new for me. I’m actually learning piano to become better at guitar (theory) so I think I’ll go with Flowkey. Thanks!
Studio G lol
I've been using simply piano for almost 3 months now and I found that simply piano is more like a game. It's more suitable for younger learners. I knew more or less how to read music but I'm still a beginner as I can't play that well yet. I found the beginning lessons to be alittle boring, so I skipped them. They move very slowly, especially in the beginning. The curriculum is more basic. Its very colourful so it attracts kids, but adults could use it too if they starting off. They also say free trial, but they charged me straight away. They do have alot of songs though. They have more songs than flowkey. But the songs are simplified alot more in simply piano. So for someone who really knows nothing about piano, simply piano is your best bet. However, I think Flowkey is better for an adult or someone who wants more theory based learning.
dont forget to be realistic - you will need to put in some work whatever system you follow for learning piano I have spent months researching into teaching yourself piano and discovered a fantastic resource at TurboPianoSecret.com (check it out on google)
Really interesting to see these side by side. I’ve wondered recently if they would be good for reading practice. I need very simple stuff! And lots of it
Kathryn Clark Try “Music Tutor”, that’s just to train sight reading.
@@FlorianRachor1 gonna try it
Thanks
there IS a way to adjust volume of Flowkey playback (i.e. if you want to hear it louder than your playing or less loud) - use volume control of your iDevice. Again, it is different from the overall volume that you hear from your e-piano.
I have been using flowkey for 2 years and I haven't even checked the course part. I learned necessary basics from other yt videos which was equivalently useful. Its much better for u to go right off practising songs since fingering is already provided there
Thank you for comparing these two! That is about what I have found from my research. I'm one week in to my Simply Piano subscription and I do think it is valuable enough for me to continue for the year. I also think FlowKey has some benefits to it too since I feel very limited with my education on scales with SP. So I'm leaning towards getting both since they both have different values to them.
Hi Christina, depending on what piano you have, you can buy a printer cable and a Apple Camera adaptor so the music plays through your piano speakers. It's really cool! I have a Yamaha YDP-144.
That’s a cheap keyboard. You better upgrade to a better Kawai or a real piano
I think flowkey is very nice if you want to get started with classical music it has a lot of pretty advanced and really nice pieces.
I’m an absolute beginner and I wanna go solo for a while before actually going to a teacher. Thank you for this comparison, I’ll be going with flowkey since they emphasize music theory more. Thanks again!
I appreciate that say that I’ve started using flowkey. I’ve been playing piano for all I don’t want to play Hawthorn. I just play boogie Woogie and stuff all around I really like this
Ok, I like the FLowkey free lessons.. Even if you learn those free lessons, you'd be able to make a jam.
Good thorough review. I have also started Flowkey. One thing I noticed after I already started, was that after you complete the basic course, you don't necessarily have to go through their courses in order. The how to read music actually comes (chronologically order that is) much later, but I wish I'd started with that one first.
Thank you for helping me to make my mind up... I was struggling to decide which one to go for as a mature beginner. You confirmed my thoughts... I’m going to start with SimplyPiano and then transition to flowkey once I have become more established.
Steve Hill What piano did you buy? I am a beginner too.
We have a Yamaha DP-162 which our daughter learned to play on... I’m very pleased with it.
That’s a horrible way to go for one reason... The forced pacing can be very harmful to your hands and playing, Flow key does not do this to you. Also, when you’re through the scales, chords, and Hanson exercises, Simply Piano will be that much easier to learn from.
I prefer flowkey compared to simply piano. The only thing I would like to see more with these apps is that they got to do more new piano pieces every month especially for the price one pays. And I wish they do more advance stuff for advance players. I know they already do new pieces occasionally but I think they do more pieces regular. Simply piano is good for new starters but it's obviously very simplistic.
Great explanation! Super clear and really helpful!
Excellent presentation. Makes it 6months for SP followed by Flowkey may be a lifetime.
Also. In Flowkey I Didn’t like the size of the pentagram. And when u are totally new, there are notes that You don’t know and still they ask you to play on.
Great video. As a fellow teacher, I am also trying to level up my APP learning knowledge as it's a big change in our industry! Brilliant!
i tested flowkey and also simply piano... I prefer simply piano. I really like the learning curve more progressive but "easy" thank flowkey
But after one month.... I think that I will go with Flowkey.... It's hardest than simply piano, less "video player" than Flowkey... But I can play and read sheets music outside Flowkey after its tutorials...
Appreciate Video! Forgive me for chiming in, I am interested in your thoughts. Have you researched - Rozardner Possess Violin Reality (erm, check it on google should be there)? It is a good exclusive guide for understanding how to master the piano without the headache. Ive heard some awesome things about it and my close friend Aubrey at last got excellent success with it.
Simply piano is for slow learners due to more practice.
Flowkey, I haven't tried it yet
Good thorough examination of flow key. Good and bad. I like it. It's honest and comprehensive. At you are not the shill for the Flow Key masters.
I just bought my piano last week and thanks to your videos I'm motivated to start learning. Thanks!
Marco Vasconcelos What piano did you buy?
Simply piano seems fun, but it doesn't have an exit (quit) button, so I can only exit from it by restarting my phone! :D Otherwise, what an excellent review!
@photag216 Yes, finally find it.
I haven't used Flowkey yet. My big concern with Simply Piano is the lack of clarity regarding their pricing structure and slow response to my questions. I downloaded the trial android app through Google and I wasn't the only one who had the same issue with Simply Piano. I'm leaning toward Flowkey. Glad I found your post. Thanks for your help!
Very useful video. Was caught up in two minds about which app to go for and after this video, I have made up my mind. Thanks a lot for the info.
Thank you for your comprehensive review. I just like to know if which app has more classical songs to practice? I’d like to learn more classical songs. Thank you
Flowkey
00:04 Floki is considered the top app for music theory.
01:41 Floki is best for chords and scales
03:28 Floki is a challenging app with limited practice options.
04:56 The practice mode in the app has limited options and lacks detailed feedback.
06:35 Simply Piano is highly engaging and uses a variety of learning techniques.
08:14 Simply Piano has helpful features like practice mode and feedback system.
09:56 Floki and Simply Piano are two popular learning apps for sheet music.
11:39 Simply Piano is more enjoyable and beginner-friendly, while Floki focuses more on theory.
Crafted by Merlin AI.
Nice video! But I still don’t know where to start :( I’m a beginner but I’m bit afraid that I will loose my time with simply piano. But I think I’ll give it a try
Thanks for the advice Christine, good to know the differences between the two
Very informative video Christine, I tried both these apps and wasn't really helping me. I'm playing a Yamaha EZ220 with the lighted key system, I am also running an android app on my phone called Perfect Piano which has a large selections of songs, with my android phone hooked to my piano what ever song I choose the notes show up on my keyboard lighted up, its not a perfect system, but it works for me, so far I learned about 8 songs. I play guitar so chord theory is pretty easy for me and can some what write and read music. Just what to say also, you are very attractive.......
Thank you for the excellent review! To me, it's important to see the correct fingering, otherwise bad habits develop. I like that flowkey shows the fingering.
Would you recommend Flow Key or Simply Piano for a 5-year old?
Simply piano is like a game but you learn in the same time but flowkey teaches better
Simply piano is better for kids, while flow key is by far way better for adults. Song arrangements are better as well
Bravo! Great review. Thanks for taking the time and providing a clear comparison of each.
got a used yamaha np-11 keyboard today. thank you for the review for both services. very helpful..
Picking up piano after 20+ years, I have been enjoying simply piano a lot more so far. Much more fun and engaging.
I agree simple also teaching me to read sheet also big one for me, I started memorizing finger count which helps me a lot
Thank you Christine lot of help
Flowkey is like learning from a textbook, and simply piano is like an educational activity book!
Nice review, I found your video very useful. I think I will go with Flowkey because it shows you which finger plays which note.
Your reviews are terrific. It would be great to know which products offer free trials; cancellation policies. Also - a comparison spreadsheet at the end that visually lays out cost and features for all the products you've tried. It is just a little challenging keeping it all straight throughout a verbal review. Thanks!
Thanks Dona! Those are great suggestions! Will take them into account and probably start working on a free trial overview soon.
Thanks for doing this I got a trial subscription for FlowKey with my new keyboard, but I wasn't sure about it.
You're very welcome Richard, and good luck!
Thanks for that review. I finished Simply Piano courses and I was wondering which way to go..Flowkey seems a good choice as it covers scales, more advenced songs etc.
Your simply piano app looks completely different in than mine. Mine has a linear bubble interface.
i started simply piano about a month ago and i practice about an hour a day, so far i still enjoy learning from simply piano and it feels a lot like playing a game. I'm also considering signing up for flowkey partly because I think Simply Piano has laid an alright foundation for me to move on to something else. i will continue to use simply piano but will also venture into other apps as well
Hi I want to start playing piano and i wanted to buy one called rockjam ( I think ) it is a piano keyboard and I wanted to use simply piano with it but I’m not sure how I will connect it with simply piano it does not have a USB port so how would I connect it?
Did u pay for subscription? If so which did u pick?
For me simple piano is like a piano titles. Not feeling like studying a piano but playing a game with fun.
i got a simply piano ad while watching this video. 😂😂😂
I found flowkey very annoying, as you mentioned; too many clicking, on windows it's impossible to hear anything at max volume, stopping and going back is not possible when you want to repeat...
On Android you can't do slow or learn mode in the song mode. So a difficult part that's skimmed over in the tutorial part is difficult to practice without having to replay the whole song. Otherwise I love it.
That's something that really bothers me. I pause the scrolling in the hard parts. Its the way I've found to solve this problem...
@@lucasdecina4727 have you been able to use the "connect to midi" feature on android?
@@KevinCWall-ct5sm , yes. Works fine for me. Just plug and play...
Do you know if Flowkey offers the possibility to configure the notes in "Do Re Mi" format instead of ABC ? thanks
Thank you for your comparison. It is very helpful for me whether to move on for a new service when I was frustrated with piano marvel for some reasons.
I too was finding, in Flowkey, the clicking on Play, Start and Next repeatedly particularly annoying. Then I noticed the on screen keyboard has a blue and orange coloured black keys at the bass end. These match the Play/Start blue button, and the Next button. So no need to keep clicking anymore!!! I am using the Web version of the Flowkey app, the tablet app might not work the same way.
I have been trying all the different apps and services to find something that I would actually pay money to use. Including Skoove, I must have gotten confused when swapping between one webpage and another that I mistook Skoove to be Flowkey, and therefore it is Skoove that uses the 2 black keys and NOT Flowkey.
In Flowkey though I did notice that you can use the spacebar to quickly avoid all the mouse clicking. I also have a VST that will convert MIDI notes to keyboard keypresses (i.e. spacebar). So it should be possible to do the same thing in Flowkey after all.
I wish Simply Piano looked like regular sheet music. The spacing seems off and it irritates me.
Thank you Christine. Very helpful review 😊
Thank you very much for your review! Very comprehensive which helps me a lot in choosing one of these 2 apps !
Many thanks for the video. Because you mention that flowkey is better for learning music theory. Can you also learn music scales?
Hi Christine, What app would you recommend if a beginner just wants to learn how to play and read hymns at church? I don't care for other genres etc. Just want a fast track to playing and reading notes.
Good review Christine. I used Simply Piano for almost 1 year and I have completed all the courses. But I found I couldn’t play any sheet music outside of the app. I agree with your comment that the sheet music in SP, even in the Play Beta is written in line with their exercises. It always uses the same chords, etc. Whenever they release new songs, I can play them without practicing because I became so familiar with their style. The downside is that real sheet music has a lot more variation than the limited style in their app. Another crutch I developed was on the scrolling music. I became dependent on that to keep me in time. SP doesn’t teach you how to count the rhythms. I was just playing the highlighted note as it scrolled across the screen. Now I am using Piano Marvel and I have made so much progress in the last few months using it. I have learnt how to count and read real sheet music. I wish I had known about Piano Marvel before I started SP.
thara11
Thanks I’ll look at the marvel one too as I’m deciding which one to get
You exactly list my feedback about flowkey
Thank you very much your video on the two apps was very informative 👍🏻
I want to print off the songs on flowkey how do I do it
I don't have BATA in simply piano because i use a galaxy tablet
Thank you for your reviews. I was considering Youscian but have not yet found a review where I see it action. Twice I have downloaded the flowkey app, what total rubbish. Almost impossible to understand how to use. For me all I want is an app like piano trainer (but this is not extensive enough) that just gives me sheet music on screen and turns red when I mess up. No be,le or whistles, no complicated bs.
I tried flowkey a while ago and it was nice but I hated that they don't have sheet music. The scrolling is a bit annoying when you are a bit deeper in the song. For this is sheet music better?
flow key helps with the teaching side of music simply piano has also the beta included which is sheet music and lots of it
I was thinking to get simply piano for my 6 year daughter. What do u think? Is it more convinient??? Thanks ;)
Please try and review piano marvel and let us know what you think of it compared to the other apps you have tried.
Does Flowkey show the lyrics with the notes? Much easier to learn popular songs of the lyrics (words) are shown along with the notes.