Birds Piano Academy
Birds Piano Academy

This is my review on the Birds Piano Academy online piano courses, created by Arthur Bird. At the time of writing this review, I’ve completed 1 of Arthur’s courses, and I’m halfway through 2 more; and they’ve all been awesome!

What Is Bird’s Piano Academy?

Arthur Bird

So what is Bird’s Piano Academy?  It’s an online piano training website developed by Arthur Bird, who is not only classically trained, but is also an accomplished session and performing piano player with over 25 years of experience, and he has been teaching for over 15 years.   Even though he was classically trained, he tries to emphasize making piano learning engaging and fun, and . . . having taken a couple of his courses, he definitely lives up to that.  He’s a great instructor, and a super easy person to deal with.


Course Offerings

You can buy lifetime access to one or more of the 6 courses (at least 6 at the time of this review) that Arthur offers, or you can go the subscription route and pay monthly (about $9USD per month) for access to ALL the courses while you’re subscribed.  Personally, I would recommend just buying the courses outright so you have lifetime access; they are ridiculously inexpensive and a huge value.

Ultimate Piano Chords Course

Ultimate Piano Chords Course

This is Arthur’s main “learn to play piano” course. I can tell you right now it’s a massive amount of content, and only costs about $40 USD for lifetime access

Beginner Blues Piano & Improv

Blues Piano & Improvisation For Beginners

This is the first one of Arthur’s courses that I took & reviewed & can highly recommend; this course can be taken by beginners, but I think you’ll get more value out of it if you are already able to play songs even just . . . with simple chords – this one is only $47 USD for lifetime access

Blues Piano & Improv In The Slow Blues Style

Blues Piano & Improv In The Slow Blues Style

I started this course a while back, and I’m still gradually working through it – it builds on the other blues course; this one sells for about $45 USD for lifetime access.

Jazz Piano – The Ultimate Beginners Course

Jazz Piano – The Ultimate Beginners Course

I haven’t looked at this course yet, but I know others who have taken it, and say it is awesome if you want to learn jazz; I’d love to find time to try this one out myself – it sells for $45 USD.

Arthur also has a couple more smaller courses: Ear Training, and Learn To Read Music Fast

Ear Training - Develop Your Musical Ear
$15 USD
Learn To Read Music Fast
$25 USD

So if you’ve shopped around at all for online piano training, these courses are a REALLY good deal, and as I get into the details on the Ultimate Piano Chords course, you’ll see what I mean. 


Ultimate Piano Chords Course

Learning Piano With Chords Instead Of Sheet Music

So the Ultimate Piano Chords course; what’s so great about this course?   Well first off, as the name suggests, this course takes by far the fastest and easiest approach to teaching you how to play the piano, and THAT is with a chords-based approach; I can personally attest to the fact that learning piano this way is EXPONENTIALLY faster and easier than learning how to play piano with a “traditional” approach that focuses HEAVILY on learning how to sight read sheet music.  I’ve been playing piano for about 5 years now, I cannot sight read sheet music at all, and I have been playing in gigging bands for the last couple of years and I love it.  Not once has not being able to read sheet music even entered my mind as an issue.  And, I know of multiple super talented professional gigging musicians who also don’t read sheet music.  

So think about a guitar player you may have seen busking or at a café, or even around the campfire who takes requests, quickly looks at something in a book or nowadays an iPad or iPhone – then suddenly they’re happily strumming away and singing a new song; that person is doing that by playing the song using the chords for the song, which will look something like this:

Chord chart

Nice and simple, and easy to read – you can think of that as the basic structure of the song.  Now compare that to the SHEET music for the SAME song, which is basically showing you every SINGLE NOTE as originally played by the artist, which is a FAR more difficult way to learn how to play a song:

Sheet music

Learning to play a pop or rock song with sheet music would take me weeks or months; learning the same song with chords can be done in hours or even less as you gain experience.   I’ve only been playing for 4-5 years, and I can use a chord chart to play a new song along with my band pretty much immediately without ever having seen the chord chart or even having heard the song before!

Course Overview

So, what are you getting in return for your $40 USD when you sign up for this course? 

Lifetime access to OVER 100 VIDEO LESSONS and some additional downloadable material!

The amount of material in this course is quite frankly staggering for only $40USD.   The course is really well organized, and broken up into non intimidating sections that build on each other without overwhelming you as you work through them at your own pace.  And the nice thing about these video lessons is that they aren’t super long and don’t overload you with too much at once.  Most of them are 3 to 5 minutes long, and are meant to teach you something . . . pretty specific (I think the longest lesson I saw was still under 10 minutes). 

Ultimate Piano Chords Course – Content

Arthur will introduce the topic, and then explain and demonstrate it with an overhead view that includes a digital light up keyboard indicating what keys & notes he’s playing, and sometimes there is also a PDF included on the page that may just summarize that lesson or also provide some additional resources for you such as downloadable chord charts for songs. 

Ultimate Piano Chords Course – Lesson Snippet

And as I mentioned, Arthur does do a great job at making learning piano fun and engaging; while the first 8 or 9 lessons are for beginners, by about the 10th lesson, you get into the “It’s Time To Play” section, where he has you learning how to play your first song and even sing along if you want to. 

Start Playing Songs Early On!

And, unlike traditional piano training, this is an actual modern pop song that you’ll be learning how to play as opposed to trying to sight read the notes for Mary Had A Little Lamb (which you would be really LUCKY to be able to play after the equivalent time of traditional piano lessons).   Throughout the course, as Arthur goes over various topics, he continues to use song examples in his demos that not only reinforce what he’s trying to teach you, but also make the lessons . . . way more fun and engaging, so that’s awesome.

And, this is a big reason why learning to play piano with chords works SO well;  this method gets you playing very quickly (which keeps you interested and engaged), but then builds on itself as you learn more techniques, which allows you to gradually improve how WELL you can play a song.  So just to give you a quick example; you start by learning how chords are built (there are simple formulas and patterns for this that you’ll learn; trust me, it’s not hard), then you start like . . .  in that lesson, playing along very simply. So, the cool part of that is; you’re already playing along with an actual song, which is fun.   

And then as you progress, you continue to BUILD on those skills.  You’ll learn how to:

  • add rhythm to your play in your right hand
  • you’ll learn how to add in your left hand
  • you’ll learn how to play the same chords only in different places to get a different sound, or to make it easier to play a song by keeping all the chords closer to each other
  • as the course progresses, you’ll continue learning more complicated chords, more complicated rhythm patterns, and more advanced techniques
  • and eventually, you’ll learn scales, how to “spice up your play” and how to improvise and solo.

But this whole process works so well, and is so much fun, because you’re playing actual songs that you WANT to play, right from the start.  You can look up the chords online for whatever song you want to learn, start by playing a very simple version of it, and as you learn more techniques you can continually build on that and improve your version of that song.

Curriculum

The course starts with the basics, gets you playing that first song, introduces you to rhythms, introduces some more complex chords, then some more complex rhythms, etc.  Then you move up to an “intermediate” level, where once again, you continue learning even MORE complex chords and more advanced rhythms.

Then you get to the advanced section, where you can really start taking your play to the next level with techniques like broken chord patterns, the circle of 5ths, passing chords, and then there’s one of my favorite topics – improvisation where you start getting into spicing up your play, learning scales, soloing, harmonies, playing melodies etc.  And I can say from the Blues improv course I took, that Arthur is REALLY good at teaching improvisation in a way that not only makes sense, but includes really useful exercises that help you along.  Before taking Arthur’s Blues course, I was really struggling playing solos with the blues scale, but the practice exercises he had in that course were a game changer for me in improving my solos.

And just to give you an indication of how MUCH material this is?  As I mentioned, I’ve been playing for 4 or 5 years now, I do practice a lot, and I’ve been playing (reasonably ok . . . at least I think) in bands for a couple of years.  So with that experience under my belt, I was able to go through the first ½ to 2/3 of this course pretty quickly, but there is a TON of material left that I really want to take my time with, because I can already tell from skimming through it that it’s going to improve my playing a bunch, so really looking forward to that!

Ultimate Piano Chords Course – THE VERDICT

So the verdict on Bird’s Piano Academy’s Ultimate Chords Course? 

Well . . . that’s why I decided to go ahead and post my review on this course now, because:

It’s well organized, the topics are presented well, and reinforced with fun song examples and exercises.   This course will do a great job of getting you started playing your favorite songs on piano quickly, and there is enough material there to keep you learning and improving for . . . quite a while, and if you take your time and work your way through the whole course?   It will take you to a pretty decent level of piano playing.  And that’s why I highly recommend just buying the course outright; that way you have lifetime access to all of this material, so if life gets in the way for a month or two, you can always come back to it, without worrying about subscription costs.    


Blues Piano & Improvisation For Beginners

There Is A Common Problem With MOST Online “Blues/Rock Soloing/Improv” Courses:

So if you follow my channel, you probably know that I learned how to play piano as an adult from some awesome online courses, and I got started on them about 3 years ago. I’m super happy with the courses I’ve taken so far, and as my playing has progressed, I’ve developed a strong interest in playing blues and rock piano, so I’m ALWAYS looking for more specialized courses or lessons in that. I’ve done some free trials in courses that specialize in blues, I’ve gone through some YouTube courses in blues, I’ve tried some blues “mini courses” that are included with other course packages I’ve purchased, and I’ve tried out countless other blues lessons I’ve found online.

Some other online blues improv courses I’ve taken were pretty good, some were ok, some were way too advanced for a beginner, and others . . . NOT so great at all; but they all had ONE PROBLEM in common:

  1. They would teach you some form of a common blues progression (always in the key of C), tell you what the chords were etc (This is fine!)
  2. They would teach you a left hand technique like a walking bass line, or a boogie woogie style left hand (This is fine!)
  3. They would show you the blues scale, and get you to play it up and down (This is fine!)
  4. Then some of them would show you a “riff” or two (This is fine!)
  5. Then HERE is where they ALL GO WRONG: After showing you all of this stuff, they then say “there you go! Go play the blues and come up with some solos using the blues scale”

So I would try my best to do that, and while I would occasionally play something that sounded ok, it never really felt natural, comfortable or familiar – so I basically found myself spinning my wheels, and not really improving, just struggling with the same thing – trying to get good at blues or rock improv – I would always just keep picking off random “clunky” notes from the blues scale.

Then I found the beginner blues course from Birds Piano Academy – and after only a few lessons I started to get the feeling that this course was going to be a game changer for me; and now that I’ve just finished it, I can confirm it HAS been a gamechanger – my improv ability has taken a MASSIVE step forward because of this course!

Why THIS Beginner Blues Course IS BETTER:

I’ll be going over a lot of this in more detail in the review, but suffice it to say that there are a number of teaching approaches that Arthur has developed from teaching private lessons to students for years that he has built into this course that made all the difference in the world to me.

  1. The WAY he teaches the blues scale, AND the way he gets you to practice the blues scale
    • the entire course is in the key of G not C; while getting started in the key of C can be easier on beginners, SO MANY intro courses do this that you can easily get “stuck” always playing in C, so playing in a key with 1 black note gets you used to playing those non white keys
    • he gets you to move up and down the scale in TWO octaves not 1
    • you practice this in both a straight and syncopated or offbeat feel
  2. He has fantastic practice exercises that help you integrate that movement WITH 2 common left hand techniques so that you actually get used to integrating your left and right hands
    • a simplified boogie woogie left hand rhythm
    • a walking bass line
  3. Arthur then gets you doing these exercises alternating between the straight and offbeat feel to switch up how your improv sounds
  4. Then, once you’re comfortable moving around the scale in a larger range, with 2 different “feels”, and with 2 different left hand techniques – THEN you start learning a couple of SIMPLE riffs that you can insert into different spots of the scale as you are moving up and down

Now that’s not even close to being ALL that is taught in this course, but those are the core elements that I found to be super valuable to me, and really helped my playing. So now let’s take a closer look at the course itself.

Who Is This Course For?

This course is meant for anyone who wants to either get started on (or improve on) their ability to:

  • play blues
  • solo and improvise

While this IS described as a beginners course, and the first section (see below) is a really good 7 lesson . . . basic introduction to the piano (names of the keys, intervals, octaves and major / minor chords etc), I personally think that THIS course probably shouldn’t be the FIRST course you EVER take on piano.

The first intro section is fine, but I think before taking this course you should have some BASIC piano knowledge and experience. That being said, you definitely DON’T need a LOT of experience – I think before taking this course, you should already be familiar and comfortable with the topics contained in this first section, and be able to play along (in a very simple way) with a simple chord chart.

Course Overview

User Experience

So the course is an online video based course (you can run it in any browser, I usually use my iPad) with the display being an overhead view of Arthur’s piano showing his hands as he plays along with a light up keyboard that clearly shows the notes that he is playing, as well as any helpful graphics etc.

Many lessons also include some helpful downloadable support material in PDF format.

There are 66 lessons, with a total of about 4 hours of video time.  One of the nice features of this course is that the lessons are very “bite-size”; they can be as short as a couple of minutes, and I don’t think there’s a single one over 10 minutes. 

This is great, because each lesson is on a VERY specific topic, so it doesn’t overwhelm you and it’s easy to focus on it  – Arthur will demonstrate it, explain it clearly, take you through it VERY slowly, then play it at a normal speed to show you what you’re shooting for.  AND he will give you a VERY clear practice assignment or topic, often indicating that you should try to get reasonably comfortable with each lesson before moving on to the next.  I would often come home from work, go through a 5 minute lesson and then practice that lesson at increasing tempos for a few days before moving to the next lesson.

Lesson Breakdown

The course is broken down into the following sections:

  1. Getting Started – this is the intro to piano that I talked about already
  2. Getting Into The Blues – this section gets you started on the blues scale (and it’s 2 octaves right from the start), and then gives you a super simple song to start playing
  3. 12 Bar Blues – Stage 1 – this section introduces you to the 12 bar blues progression, and gets you started with a simplified version of a boogie woogie left hand and some right hand chords (I wanted to give a shoutout here to this course, because having done TONS of online courses that try to start beginners off with THIS left hand – the simplified version shown in this course doesn’t really sound THAT much different, but it is FAR easier to play especially when trying to coordinate your left and right hands!
  4. 12 Bar Blues – Stage 2 – this section gets you learning how to play “Great Balls Of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis, including introducing you to his famous “glissandos” (super fun!)
  5. 12 Bar Blues – Stage 3 – continues teaching you more complex improvisation, as well as improving your chord playing with topics like “crushed notes”
  6. Bonus Content / Advanced – this section has lots of extra awesome content including a new left hand technique (walking bass line) and things like turnarounds & “rocking 3rds”; and a fantastic finisher to the course is exercises on playing both swing and straight rhythms OVER BOTH LEFT HAND TECHNIQUES!

Blues Piano & Improv For Beginners – THE VERDICT


Bird’s Piano Academy – Other Features

In addition to multiple courses that are available on Arthur’s website, there is also:

  • a Facebook group where you can post questions to Arthur and other members, post videos of your progress etc.
  • a blog including some free lessons on the Birds Piano Academy website
  • printed posters (available to purchase) with chord charts etc (in the “Shop” section on the website)
  • don’t forget the free “Mini Course” on chords!

Piano Chords Mini-Course – FREE!!!

Piano Chords Mini Course

If you DON’T have ANY piano experience – don’t fear! Arthur has a FREE intro to chord’s “mini-course” on his website! If this describes you, I would recommend taking his mini-course FIRST and once you are comfortable with that, move on to the beginner blues course.


Links To Get Started Now!

I’ve included my affiliate links below for the different courses in Birds Piano Academy, so if you want to check out these courses further I would really appreciate it if you used those links to get started. And, if you follow these links, enter a code PIANOTONE at checkout and you may qualify for a discount!

Get started on the Ultimate Piano Chords Course:

CLICK HERE

Beginner Blues Piano & Improv

Get started on the Blues Piano & Improvisation For Beginners Course:

CLICK HERE


Get started on the Blues Piano & Improvisation – The Next Level Course:

CLICK HERE


Get started on the Jazz Piano Ultimate Beginners Course:

CLICK HERE


Get started on the Learn To Read Music Fast Course:

CLICK HERE


Get Started on the Ear Training Course:

CLICK HERE


Piano Chords Mini-Course

Try out the FREE Piano Chords Mini-Course (for complete beginners):

CLICK HERE


Ultimate Piano Chords Course – Video Review

Ultimate Piano Chords Course – Video Review

Blues Piano & Improv For Beginners – Video Review