Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum What do you think of Musiah?

I did it a little and I liked how they showed me how to position my hands and stuff. I would obviously not learn that myself. Then I quit for a two years, I want to restart learning piano though.

I can't afford a traditional teacher - in my country it's around 25-30$ for a lesson (Poor Eastern Europe), I can't spend that much money for 1-2 hours at best.

I'd like to know whether you consider Musiah worth the money.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Kaiketsu,

I guess Musiah can be fine for people with keyboards without weighted keys, but if you have an acoustic piano, or a digital piano with weighted keys, I would strongly advice against it. I watchted two student videos and both students have horrendous technique - probably because Musiah didn't teach them how to strike a key. The site also says: "You’ll learn 16 times faster than with traditional lessons." For me, one of the hard things about being a beginner is to take the time that is needed to learn the technique instead of moving on to the next piece, and the next one. So I don't believe this rushing will do any good.

My five cents!

Oh my gosh! I just watched the chap with the piano on his work table and his arms resting on the table! I guess no one ever took him to task for having his elbows on the table. LOL...

I do have a digital piano with weighted keys (Casio PX-160)

if Musiah doesn't quite cut the mustard, which way would you recommend (for about 30-40$ monthly) as a substitute? sadly teachers want that much for 1 lesson here so it's quite out of the question...

Piano Career Academy has a very good teacher, but they cost 47 usd per month. But if I were you, I would mail them and ask for a discount, and then take three months, so you get a good start.

Your piano is quite nice mustard. Now for learning mustard-cutting online, I would recommend this particular resource as particular strong from a technique perspective. If you pay for a year in advance, I think the price can go down to your target. Also, you can ask them for a special discount which they may be open to.

Haha... you beat me!

Sound great, I'll check it out. Perhaps paying for 1-2 lessions with a teacher just for him to teach me proper positioning and hand movement would be smart? That much I guess I can afford, I'd rather learn the other stuff myself, if possible

BTW, since you mentioned you are in Eastern Europe, the PCA site recommended above is brought to us from Moldova and teaches the best of the Russian method!

That sounds like a very smart idea, even if you can't afford to maintain the piano lessons, long-term. It might even be good to have an occasional refresher lesson every few months so that your progress and technique can be judged and you can get more feedback on that.

Two minds, one thought.



It wouldn't be enough for me, to give me a good ground. But my hands are not naturally supple and if I don't watch it carefully, they move like crows. But maybe that is different for you.

If I were you, I would find a teacher willing to "coach" you.

To me, that means you will have the teacher get you started with a method book and 2 or 3 lessons (a week apart) to get you started and then 1 lesson every month to check with you to see how you are doing (in that method book) and keep you moving in the right direction.

If you stop taking lessons, the usual result in what I call "floundering".

That means you begin jumping around from new idea to new idea as dream them up. Usually getting you nowhere.

These online courses can get even more expensive than coaching because you do not stick with one.

You begin subscribing to the next "great" "new" site only to find that it does not work quite as well as you had hoped.

A "coach" will take a personal interest in your progress and make suggestions as they analyze your development.

Good Luck

...until you get to PCA. Which is why the OP can save on the expenses by just starting with PCA in the first place!

On a more serious note, PCA is different than the others in my experience because there is a real teacher giving real lessons. The big flaw in the model is just that there is no feedback like a real teacher can give. In theory, Christie Peery's course addresses this through video feedback, however as you can see from the Christie Peery thread, this may be only theoretical if in practice her video feedback is limited to "keep up the good work" and similar platitudes. The other online courses I've tried do not have the real or theoretical features of either PCA or the Christie Peery course, and if neither of these two alternatives existed, I would be in full agreement with you about online - now I'm only in partial agreement (although I do have a teacher myself!).

NOTE: There is a feedback mechanism in PCA, but I believe it is limited - something like one 60 second video every month which the instructor will review and give feedback on. 1min a month doesn't constitute real feedback in my book.

I think you might be better off using a method book, and then posting videos here of yourself and get feedback from real people. Maybe it's good for a complete beginner, but at some point I think it would limit you, rather than help you to progress. Reminds me of piano marvel. Does it expect strict tempo? What about dynamics, phrasing, pedaling, etc?

Every month a member can send a short recording of a piece or a fragment to the teacher. The feedback is usually between 8-11 minutes (sometimes shorter though) and of a high quality. It is nothing like: "Good job, continue", but it addresses very specific issues that the teacher notices. The site also has a forum and members can send their recordings, and give each other feedback.

I recommend Musiah, if you are short of money.

It is very good for what it does - teaches reading music, playing in time and rhythm and coordinating hands. It teaches you fingering,

It also teaches you how to practice because it divides the music up into short sections and has you work on each one.

Best of all is to supplement such a course with a live teacher, perhaps once every three weeks.

If you want to save money, Musiah will teach you that the bottom note on the bass clef is a G a lot cheaper than an live teacher, leaving the live teacher to help you on what they do best - teaching you to sit up straight, relax your back and shoulders and use your fingers properly.

OK. Then I understood incorrectly. This is better feedback for the PCA course than I thought. I'd say this is almost as good as the Christie Peery class in theory from a feedback perspective, and probably better than Christie Peery in practice if Christie isn't actually giving specific feedback.

I stand corrected. I am sorry to say, but the Q&A on Piano Career Academywith the feedback to individual students is discontinued. The site will move from also giving individual guidance to students to creating a video course that students can watch and follow.

thank you for the opinion. I might give Musiah another go then

damn, I'm torn between trying PCA and going for Musiah...

Meanwhile I'm trying to learn to read notes quickly using Android apps, hah. I hope my typing speed of 80 WPM will make fingerwork easier

As Steven Carr said, Musiah (and similar - I'm using Piano Marvel) are good at some things. What they are not good at is teaching any piano technique. You will just not learn any piano technique from them, aside from technical exercises like scales, arpeggios, etc. If you are ok with learning piano technique from youtube videos, then these systems can work for you.