Piano Marvel for Windows

User Reviews

• Great concept, but yet to reach its full potential

  ilford896/24/2014

  Pros

  Good for practicing, especially for learning scales, chords and playing in time.

  Cons

  It's not really a teaching tool.

  Summary

  Above Level 2/3 there is really is no instruction whatsoever. At the higher levels there are some videos, but these seem mostly of other students playing some of the pieces (and not playing them very well sometimes). The lessons aren't really lessons - there are no notes, no guidance, or information on what is being taught in the lesson. Instead, a piece is presented and you have to play it until you reach "gold" standard (above 95%). Sure, the program will tell you where you are playing the right notes, but is absolutely no help in how to fix things. So really passing a piece becomes an exercise in trial and error, and repeating a piece over and over (I often find the more I repeat a piece, the worse it gets!). It doesn't help that if you don't like the fingerings on a piece, that you can't change them (any piano teacher worth their salt knows the importance of assigning your own fingerings, but the ability to do this through the software has yet to be added. Without any guidance or notes to help with a piece, it can actually be a very lengthy process to master something. Given that the designers of Piano Marvel are supposed to be music teachers, I find strange that there is such a lack of instruction (there are PDFs, but they mostly just repeat the online lessons and add a bit of music history, but again nothing much about piano technique). And when I do master a piece, I often wonder - what did I learn, what technique did I master? I am none the wiser. The software is not without bugs - nothing really major, but they can be irritating. For example, when interrupting a piece, sometimes the software will play back the notes played, and sometimes not. I have pointed the issues out to the company, but they seem in no hurry to fix them. In fact as far as I can tell there hasn't been a software update for some 18 months. They do regularly provide a few new music pieces most months. But still given that this is a subscription service, it's very disappointing that they don't provide more regular updates (and for that reason I will probably cancel my subscription). There is a beta version of a new release which they have been working on for months and months, but it doesn't seem to address the issues around improving the pedagogic content. I think Piano Marvel could be a useful complement to somebody learning the piano with a teacher. I wouldn't recommend in on its own as it is missing key information about techniques and how to practice. In fact learning to play with just Piano Marvel could mean somebody would pick up bad habits without realizing it. But it can be a useful practice aid for a learner who has gone pass the basics. Piano Marvel is a great concept, but not fully realized yet. It doesn't help that the vendor isn't updating the software anymore and that's a concern.

  ---

• Adaptive Piano Education Software

  elijoal3/29/2013

  Pros

  Installs quickly If you have a good midi cable and a decent computer, it works really well. My kids are learning the piano at a much faster rate than when they were being taught once a week by an instructor.

  Cons

  The accompaniments to most of the songs are pretty lame. One more example of people being supplanted by machines. The robots are winning.

  Summary

  At first, we tried using this program with a seven-year-old laptop that can't even play Youtube videos smoothly. We also bought a cheap midi cable. Needless to say, PianoMarvel didn't work well, and it was very frustrating. However, with an adequate laptop (still a budget laptop, but one that is much newer) and a decent cable (we bought the one recommended by PianoMarvel), the program runs really well. For about a month, my wife had to be present with our 7-year-old daughter, helping her along with the program. After that, though, our daughter just started walking up to the piano and playing PianoMarvel about half an hour a day. She has improved very quickly.

  ---

• Easy to use piano software

  jshifflet894/12/2011

  Pros

  Works great! Would recommend to anyone.

  Cons

  Can't wait for more guitar exercises to come out.

  Summary

  ---