Piano Scales, Chords & Arpeggios Lessons with Elements of Basic Music Theory: Fun, Step-By-Step Guide for Beginner to Advanced Levels(Book & Streaming Video) (Piano Book for Adult Beginners)

I got a lot out of this book. It's meant to be used with the online videos available on YouTube. Reading the info and then watching the videos is a great way to absorb the information, the videos give a nice rhythm to reading the book and makes it relatively painless to study for long stretches. I was able to get completely through this book in 3 days.The book progressively introduces topics in small bite sized chunks so you never get overwhelmed and it's easy to absorb each idea.. There is one lesson per page, and each lesson/page is extremely simplified and targeted at a specific idea. If there is an associated video, the lesson will let you know. Not every lesson has a video, so sometimes the book will go through several pages/lessons before pulling it all together in a video.I am using the Kindle Edition, and I was happy with this book. Some books with graphics just suck because Kindle handles graphics so poorly. But the Kindle Edition of this book works really well, I was happy about that. Each page/lesson is formatted to nicely fill just one page, so I never had problems with Kindle doing weird things while trying to format graphics/text.For some reason there are several versions of this book on Amazon, some simpler than others. I suggest you take a good look and make sure you get the one that contains the most information.I also recommend the following books:A Piano Chord Book You Can Actually Use! (has the same type of online video format)The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences (repeats information in this book, but comes at it from a different angle, the first few pages of introductory theory is pretty good)Practiceopedia (a great way to make sure you are practicing efficiently)Scales Bootcamp (one of the best way to really learn your scales)

I think this is an excellent book for self-study. It has diagrams of all of the keys, exercises, and it shows the keys. I personally learn better if I can see things as well as by reading, so it's really cool that there are video lessons included to kind of clarify anything I might find confusing.The book also has sections that explain how to read music, which I'd learned before but haven't practiced in years. I have a little bit of background in piano, but it's been so long since I've touched a keyboard or piano that I couldn't even remember the name of the Treble Clef symbol.I think the illustrations are really easy to follow. Just glancing over the pages, I've had a ton of, “Oh yeah!” moments about things I had forgotten from my lessons years ago. In the beginning, it's absolutely basic so a total beginner can get the foundation needed to continue. The lessons get progressively harder. I've cheated by looking at the later lessons, and I know they're much more involved than I'd gotten in my lessons.All in all, great book, easy to follow, and it covers all the concepts I've forgotten as well as concepts I'd never touched. Most of all, I like that it's supplemented by video lessons. There's something for visual learners, for people who learn by reading, for people who need to see pictures, and being a mixture of all the learning styles, I'm really satisfied by it so far!

As a former preteen piano student (who spent long afternoons getting slapped on the back of the hand, playfully of course, by her no-nonsense Russian piano instructor) I was surprised to find that I was starting to become incredibly upset with my former self's lack of persistence. I shouldn't have given up!The book is fantastic.The index terrified me at first, but I realized that it was because it is concise, mature, and easy on the eyes. Rather than learning by a book that oozes kindergarten ABC lessons, the layout of the book and the production of the instructional videos gives more of a serious feeling of educational value and time well spent.I had an overwhelmingly delightful fit of nostalgia throughout the eBook's lessons. Despite my earlier comment, my Russian teacher was a wonderful woman with a terrifying sense of humor, yet there were some things that were missing in our lessons. For instance, within the first minute of the first instructional video, I learned something incredibly important about the very first step of piano playing; form.The position of the camera and the instructions in the videos are flawless. Sitting side by side with an instructor can be difficult, awkward, embarrassing, and you can't really rewind her over and over again. I really enjoy the thought that if I make any mistakes, only I will know! What really caught my eye was the very beginning and the very end of the book. In particular, I wanted so bad to skip past and find out about lesson 36. Aside from lesson 36, there are many more lessons that sneakily teach music theory, your Major and Minor chords, and if you've ever wonder what those black keys are for, well that's in there too!O.K, before I get too carried away, my all time favorite part, the most captivating, I-must-succeed-in-mastering-this-instrument-type of part was the mention of improvised piano playing. Can you imagine being able to read a language of symbols and have that knowledge surge straight from your brain down to your own two hands that then begin constructing beautiful melodies? It's a surreal idea that I suppose a non-musical person, as myself, finds astounding from every angle.And lastly, I'd like to mention that this eBook is going to be the most practical and thoughtful father's day gift I have ever had the opportunity to bestow upon my Papa. He's been playing piano for nearly 40 years.