Play Piano in a Flash with Scott Houston

It's Never Too Late!
This is SO much fun!

Sixty-five years ago, I announced to my parents that I wanted to learn how to play "cocktail piano." What I got was 10 years of piano lessons, along with the mega-bazillion hours (in dreaded, daily, 90-minute doses) of scales, arpeggios, and pieces of classical music I had absolutely no desire to play. So, at age 14, I quit playing the piano, defeated and humiliated that I - a kid who naturally played piano "by ear" - had never become a proficient musical notation reader, let alone a good pianist.

Enter Scott Houston and "Play Piano in a Flash." Hey, this guy seems to know my story! Even better, he tells me that, in order to play the style of piano I've always wished I could play, I don't have to be either a master music reader or a dedicated piano practicer-of-music-I-don't-want-to-play! And after watching the first DVD in this series, I'm sitting at my keyboard, playing the great songs and tunes I love. No kidding.

Is anybody...

SOME FALSE ADVERTISING THOUGH....
Don't get me wrong, I love Scott's ideas on how to play the piano and not take classical lessons. Just know one thing though, on the box there is some FALSE ADVERTISING!!! The bulk of the DVDs other than the two first ones which teach you the entire strategy in an older and more modern version, are all of guest pianists teaching you tricks, etc. Those are great! But they're not for me... yet. They are for someone who can play a bit already. So, while I'm sure they'll help me later - they do not now.

On the box, there is a little square box painted yellow which in red letters says: Learn to Play now! and it lists songs; some of which I didn't care to play, others which I'd love to learn to play and NONE OF WHICH WERE TAUGHT TO PLAY IN THE DVD SET!!!!

Songs listed: don't know why, imagine, fly me to the moon, amazing grace, sweet home alabama, yesterday, as time goes by, moon river, bye bye blackbird, the christmas song, your song, you are my sunshine, it...

Somewhat disappointed
These DVD's have two speeds. One is super slow mo with endless banter - the other speed is super fast blur. The upshot of this is that you can't really pick up and apply the more advanced techniques that he is teaching - this is especially true with the guest pianists. The "one on one" discs help in this regard but I thinks it's essential to explain and show the techniques so all can follow when the are introduced. I would also appreciate the content being broken up into learning modules so you can "go at this" in a coherent fashion. It's ashame that the content is is so difficult to extract - because the content is good.

Click to Editorial Reviews