This is my introductory review on the Hammond SK Pro stage keyboard. This keyboard has an INSANE amount of features, functionality and deep dive customization available, and after owning it for a few months and using it as my main keyboard with my blues band, I’ve still only just barely scratched the surface of what the SK Pro can do, so this review WILL just be an intro to the features and what the SK Pro has to offer, and I’ll try to focus on the main features that I think people considering it will be interested in. Unlike many of my reviews though, I won’t be deep diving into HOW to do alot of things – this user interface IS amazing, but there is a LOT going on there, and if I try to include all the how-to details on using it, this review will be hours long, so I will save things like that for separate more focused videos.
And, I should emphasize – I’m still quite new at Hammond organ myself, so I think that this review is going to be MOST useful to other people like me – people with some piano or keyboard experience that love Hammond organ, and are considering buying one, but are a bit new to the world of Hammond. So? Let’s take an introductory look at the Hammond SK Pro!
Hammond Product Lines
Given that I’m focusing this review on people like me that are relatively new to Hammond products, I wanted to start by going over the main differences between the Hammond product lines in case you’re not familiar with them; if you are already familiar with the Hammond lines, just skip ahead to the section on Key Action.
SK Product Line
The SK line is the “stage keyboard” line; this line includes a Hammond organ sound engine and detailed organ functionality, but also includes other sounds like pianos, electric pianos, brass etc. So the SK Pro, which is available in 61 and 73 key versions (I have the 73 key), came out in 2021, finally replacing the prior version (also available in 61 and 73 key versions), which was the Hammond SK1, which came out in 2010. The SK1 probably lasted as long as it did because it was (and still is) a great product; even after all this time, you still see SK1s being used on stages all over the place, and you can still find brand new ones floating around in some stores. Note that the SK Pro doesn’t have the most recent sound engine from Hammond which is the Modeled Tonewheel II engine; the SK Pro has the Modeled Tonewheel I engine.
XK Product Line
Then we have the XK line; that line is focused on organ sounds only; so no pianos, electric pianos or other voices are included. There are two “lines within the line” with the XK series; there is one line that mimics the physical controls of original full size Hammond organs, and then there are XK’s with modern digital controls. On both of these lines, you usually find other organ voices like Vox & Farfisa included, but no pianos or electric pianos. The XK-4 is the most recent product in this line, coming out in 2023, replacing the XK-1C, which, like the SK1, was getting a bit long in the tooth, having been released in 2012.
The XK-5 is the current model from the other XK line that has no menu screen or any digital interface – it is meant to look and work exactly the same as a real Hammond organ. It has physical controls all laid out the same as on a traditional Hammond organ, including the black keys on the left side that are actually used to load presets on a real Hammond, and extra sets of drawbars for a lower manual and bass pedals, etc. The XK-5 replaced the XK-3 a few years ago. Note that the XK-5, like the SK Pro, has the Modeled Tonewheel I sound engine, so not quite as current as the XK-4 or M-Solo’s Modeled Tonewheel II sound engine.
New Product Line? Or Part XK & Part SK?: Hammond M-Solo
This is a new & very unique Hammond product which is the super portable 49 key Hammond M-Solo. Like the XK-4, this is an organ focused product with the latest Modeled Tonewheel II engine, that also has other organs like Vox and Farfisa. But like the SK Pro, it also has a synth engine (although it doesn’t have any piano or electric piano sounds) . . . The M-Solo is insanely light and portable, and is meant to be added to your existing piano or keyboard rig to get you high end Hammond sounds with minimal added effort; I did that exact thing, and bought an M-Solo to use with my Numa Compact 2X with my band, and it worked out quite well; until I decided I was playing enough organ with my band that I wanted the full size waterfall keybed.
My Buying Decision
So why didn’t I just stick with the M-Solo for my organ needs? Because while the sound engine is amazing, and the key action is GOOD; 90% of what I play with my band now IS Hammond organ, so I really wanted more keys, and the proper semi-weighted waterfall action. So then it was down to the SK Pro, XK-4 or XK-5? I ruled out the XK-5 immediately; all these products are already pretty expensive, and the XK-5 costs more than the others, is bigger and bulkier, and … I’d prefer a digital interface. I agonized between the XK-4 and the SK Pro for quite a while (and I’m still not positive I made the right decision lol). It was either the XK-4, and carry 2 keyboards to band practices and gigs (so carry the XK-4 and my Numa Compact) or buy the SK Pro, and hopefully be able to get away with carrying just one keyboard around since it has lots of voices. So, I chose the SK Pro, and I spent the extra for 73 keys instead of 61, since I was expecting to need the room for splitting the keyboard into multiple voices. And, so far so good . . . I guess we’ll see if I stick with the SK Pro or if one day I switch to an XK-4 coupled with another keyboard for piano . . .
Key Action
OK I know you probably want to get right to the sound demos, but I wanted to talk about the key action first, so that you could listen for something that has to do with the key action when you get to the sound demos. So; a proper Hammond organ keybed and key action is actually a bit unique, and is VERY different from a piano. Organ keybeds should be semi-weighted, not fully weighted, and not graded (so all keys should have the same weight). The shape of the keys is also really important; organ keybeds should be “waterfall” shaped; so they should have a smooth front edge on the white keys so they’re not supposed to have a lip over the front edge of the key like a piano does, AND the front edges should be nice and smooth, even a little bit rounded as opposed to having sharp corners.
And why is this? Because doing organ slides or “palm smears” (which are the organ equivalent of a piano “glissando”) are an essential part of organ playing, and I can even tell you from my limited experience that doing these on fully weighted piano shaped keys is not easy, doesn’t work very well, and to be honest can actually hurt.
So, how are the keys and the key action on the SK Pro? In one word . . . SPECTACULAR!!! The keys have the absolute perfect shape and feel. They have the proper waterfall shape with super smooth edges on the front corners, and they have a fantastic semi-weighted feel to them. They are absolutely ideal for organ playing; doing palm smears, percussive strikes or any other organ techniques on these keys is fantastic. And they’re actually not bad at all for playing piano songs expressively as well, since they still offer some decent resistance. I bought the M-Solo first, and I might have just stuck with it and not bought an SK Pro if it had had proper waterfall keys; as I mentioned in my review on the M-Solo, the key action was the best synth key action for organ playing I’ve ever tried, but it’s still just not the same. This picture shows the front of the M-Solo keys compared to an SK1 which has proper waterfall keys.
So I mentioned that there was something about the action that I wanted to talk about before getting to the sounds. The SK Pro’s keybed is a virtual multi-contact keybed. So . . . what does that mean? Well on a real Hammond organ which is a tonewheel organ, when you pull out drawbars, tonewheels start to spin at slightly different speeds, so the sound you hear for each drawbar will start at a slightly different time. This behaviour and effect is replicated on the top of the line Hammond XK-5 with ACTUAL multi contacts in the keybed; on the other newer models like the SK Pro, XK-4 and even the M-Solo this effect is there, but it’s virtual. So, if I push in all the drawbars but one here, and press a key slowly . . . it sounds . . . normal, you don’t hear anything unusual (since there’s only 1 “tonewheel” that has to start up). But what if I pull out a few more drawbars and do the same thing? Now, you can hear the different tonewheels starting up at different speeds. Pretty cool effect, even if it is just virtual. Here is a quick clip from my M-Solo review where I demo’d this effect compared to an older SK1 I borrowed from a store; the SK1 does NOT have the multi contact feature.
So overall, the action on the Hammond SK Pro? I don’t think there is a better key action available for playing organ pieces; Hammond is the top of the line (in my opinion :).
User Interface
So if you take a look at the front panel of the SK Pro, you can see . . . IT’S A BIT OVERWHELMING AT FIRST! So I thought I’d just do a quick overview on the UI first, so that when I’m talking about sounds and other features later, those demos might be a bit easier to follow.
So there are 4 sound engines on the SK Pro (which I’ll talk about more in a bit) that are nicely and clearly labelled & divided and into their own sections of physical controls on the user interface, which is awesome. So over on the left, we have the organ section with ALMOST all the controls for the organ: a knob for controlling the organ’s relative volume to other sounds, the drawbars, vibrato & chorus, controls for the upper and lower manual as well as the Leslie rotary speaker. Now the percussion controls are actually over here on the right – but I have heard multiple experienced Hammond organ players praise that, because that’s where they’re located on a real Hammond, so they’re used to looking for them there. Then to the right of the organ area, we have the Piano and Ensemble sections; these also include their own relative volume controls (I love this by the way – it’s so easy to quickly adjust relative volumes of layers on the fly), and they also have sub category buttons to help you find the voice you’re after as quick as possible. Then if we move all the way to the right, we see controls for the 4th sound engine, the mono synthesizer, which once again also includes a relative volume. Then all the way back on the far left, we have some overall controls like the master volume, controls for quickly and easily transposing or shifting octaves, and we also have a pitch bend and modulation wheel.
So back in the middle section, we have this beautiful full colour screen, which is SUPER easy to read. To the right of it we have controls for navigating through the various menus; right below we have a grid of buttons that are used for working with your registrations and favorites (which are called “Combination Patches” – more on that in a bit), and they’re also used like good old flip phone buttons for typing out text to assign names to your custom patches in the menu. Then below those, you’ll see 4 white buttons, one for each sound engine: Organ, Piano, Ensemble & Synth. So if the organ is lit up and I play, you guessed it – you hear organ. If I hit the piano button you hear a piano, and so on. Layering is super easy, just hit 2,3 or even all 4 buttons at once! And if one of them is too loud, remember each sound engine has its own relative volume control. So let’s say I want to split instead of layer: to do that I have to specify which voice will be in the lower range – I do that by holding the LOWER button and choosing one of the sound engines, and then I press SPLIT over on the left. Now you might be wondering; what if I want to combine (either as a layer or a split) two instruments that are both in the same section (for example, an acoustic piano layered with an electric piano)? Super easy for the piano and ensemble sections – these 2 sections are sample based, so you can choose a sound from the piano section and assign it to the ensemble button or vice versa. Now the organ and synth voices are actually generated on the fly by how your controls are set, so you can ONLY have an organ in the organ section, and you can only have a synth in the synth section.
You can do an INCREDIBLE amount of deep dive customization into a TON of areas on the SK Pro (none of which I’m going to be including in this video), but one quick thing to note that helps you quickly and easily zero in on whatever it is you want to edit; virtually EVERY button on the front panel can be long pressed to take you directly to the appropriate screen within the menu system; as an example, if I want to edit my overdrive settings I just press and hold the overdrive button, and . . . my configuration options pop up on the screen; that’s SUPER helpful!
Selecting Sounds On The SK Pro (Combination Patches vs. Patches)
So as I mentioned in the introduction, I don’t want to make this review super long by deep diving into to how to actually do a bunch of things on the SK Pro; so the next video I’m planning on will be a detailed demo of HOW to select sounds on the SK Pro (I’ll add a link to that video here once it’s ready if you want to check it out). So this is just going to be a quick summary of how this is all organized on the SK Pro.
As is the case with many stage keyboards, you don’t just scroll through a list of voices to make a selection, you instead work with combinations of voices, so . . registrations, or “scenes” or “live sets”, or in the case of the SK Pro? “Combination Patches”. A Combination Patch is a group of 4 voices (or “Patches”) that have been saved together as one combination. There are 200 combination patch slots on the SK Pro, 100 are built in and cannot be modified, and then there are 100 user combination patches. So when you’re using the SK Pro, you are always working with a “Combination Patch” of 4 patches.
Then as far as the voices, or “patches” within combination patches are concerned, there are also uneditable built in patches and user patch slots where you can save your customized patches. There are 100 built in organ patches, 100 built in synth patches, and 312 built in patches shared between the piano and ensemble sections (you can kind of think of the piano and ensemble as a single sample based sound engine). And then there are 100 user patch slots available to save your customized organ patches, another 100 for your custom synth patches, and 400 user patch slots available that are shared between the piano & ensemble sections.
So . . . probably sounds confusing at first, but – this is awesome. It allows you to customize a patch to your liking with effects etc. from any of the categories, and save it as a named patch that describes it, then include that patch within any combination patches that you like. So as an example, I created an organ patch called “4 bar default” with all my usual, most commonly used organ settings for overdrive, reverb etc; that allows me to easily include that organ patch in ANY combination patch I want without having to redo those settings each time. Same thing with the piano and the ensemble; I can save various customized patches with names that describe what they are, and then re-use them in combination patches as I need to.
Then it’s up to you how you want to organize your combination patches; for me, I have some that are so song specific I’ll just save that combination patch as the song name; for other combination patches that I might use for more than one song, I’ll just save those once with some kind of description like “piano bass split” or “honky tonk piano” etc. And with your custom user combination patches, you don’t HAVE to have user patches for each voice; you can save a custom combination patch with any combination of built in or user patches.
And, once you’ve created any user combination patches, the default combination patch when you turn the keyboard on will be your first user combination patch. So for me, I named my first user combination patch “All Purpose” and I included my custom user “4 bar default” organ, the built in “Grand Piano Y-CF” piano patch, and the built in “Warm Pad” ensemble patch.
So when I’m trying to come up with a new patch or combination patch, I often take advantage of the 512 built in voice patches, and 100 built in combination patches that Hammond thankfully included on the SK Pro. Then when I find patches that I like, I can modify them further & save them as a user patch, or just include them as is in my user combination patches.
Sounds
Ok, sounds on the SK Pro . . . to sum it up? WOW! There are FOUR sound engines, which can be used separately or together; layered or split. The highlight is of course the organ engine, Hammond’s “Modeled Tonewheel I”, so I will go over that one first. Now as I mentioned earlier, this is actually NOT the latest Hammond sound engine, which is Modeled Tonewheel II, which is what you’ll find in the Hammond XK-4 and the Hammond M-Solo. The Hammond SK-5 and the SK Pro both use the Modeled Tonewheel I. There are some features in this engine that were new when it came out a few years back that to be honest I’m not at all qualified to talk about but I will mention them. . . like a new digital Leslie rotary speaker effect, a new tube modeling system and a new emulation of traditional Hammond transformers.
So the organ engine on the SK Pro isn’t limited to just Hammond B-3; it also includes other Hammond variations like the A-100 and C-3. And in addition to those, the organ engine also models Vox, Farfisa, Acetone and pipe organs. Now I’m not very knowledgeable in any of these other organ models (I will demo them, and they do sound amazing to me) but since this is an intro review, I will definitely be focusing on the Hammond B-3. So let’s check that out.
So even though I’m still new to Hammonds, I have to say the SK Pro’s hammond engine sounds amazing; the first 2 keyboards I had with full organ functionality were the Yamaha CK Series and my Numa Compact 2X, and they’re both good, but the SK Pro is on a whole other level, even to my inexperienced ears. The unaffected tones are better, the Leslie emulation is better, the overdrive is better, etc. Now here’s a quick demo of some of the other organs on the SK Pro.
So those organs also sounded pretty amazing to me – I will definitely start trying to learn some Doors songs on the Vox one of these days, that organ sounded fantastic. OK so what about the rest of the sounds? Well there are far too many to demo here, but I will go through a few of them quickly, including some of the included synth patches.
So my thoughts on the other sounds? The pianos, electric pianos, pads, strings and bass guitar sounds to me are surprisingly good and totally usable live. They’ve improved those sounds significantly since the SK1. The main piano sound appears to be a Yamaha CF Grand sample, so no surprise that I like it; check out how eerily similar that piano sample sounds to the sample on my Yamaha PSR-EW425 keyboard . . .
The Rhodes electric piano is fantastic, as is the warm pad. The only sounds that I’m not super impressed with on the SK Pro are the brass and woodwinds; my band occasionally wants me to throw in some saxophone on a few songs, and those sounds are . . . pretty ordinary especially when compared with Yamaha, who leads the industry with those kinds of sounds. I’ve actually started toying with connecting my super cheap PSR-E383 to the SK Pro purely for the saxophone sounds which are actually awesome. But overall, I’m super happy with the extra sounds on the SK Pro.
Massive Customization
So as I mentioned in the intro of this review, I didn’t want to get bogged down in deep diving into the endless things that the SK Pro can do. But, I do need to mention though, that . . . there is a level of customization available in this keyboard that is so far beyond anything I’ve ever seen in another keyboard, I can’t even begin to describe it. I’m personally not the type of player who wants to spend ANY time tweaking sounds; I don’t even usually do anything more than adjust reverb and EQ – I rarely even play with effects; I just want to play, so I often stick to the built in sounds the way they are for the most part. But if you ARE the type of player that loves to deep dive into customization? You will NOT be disappointed! And it goes way beyond just inserting some effects, you can deep dive into any voice and edit so many things; with the organ, you can deep dive into editing the Leslie, the leakage, there really is a crazy amount of customization available; to be honest, I get nervous even browsing through these menus because it’s so far over my head that I don’t want to mess anything up – but, if this is your kind of thing and you know what you’re doing? I think you’ll be thrilled.
Connectivity
OK, so for connectivity? I’ve NEVER SEEN this much connectivity! But before I get started, SUPER unique (and super cool) feature on the SK Pro? The way they implemented the power! Instead of an adapter plug or “wall wart” of some sort, there is a PROPER AC outlet and power cable – this is AWESOME. Also, if you buy an SK Pro, and leave it on and walk away, don’t be alarmed when you hear a loud snapping sound – when the SK turns off due to inactivity, the big power switch on the back will actually snap back to its off position! And another thing to keep in mind is that the SK Pro actually uses a tiny bit of power when plugged in even if it is off, so if you won’t be using it for a period of time, it’s a good idea just to unplug it from the wall.
OK, let’s go over all of this connectivity from one side to the other:
- 11 pin Leslie speaker connector – for all you hardcore Hammond fans who own actual Leslies, this is for you! Note that if you have an actual Leslie connected here, the onboard digital Leslie effect is disabled at the headphone and line out ports
- 1/4″ stereo headphone port
- L/R 1/4″ mono line out ports for connecting to external audio equipment, and if you just use the left port, you will get a merged LR mono signal (so you can use this if your PA system or amp only has one available port)
- now for some fancy high end Hammond connectivity that is new to me:
- 1/4″ rotary out; this outputs the rotary channel of the organ section – it allows you to bypass the digital Leslie if you want a “dry” audio output from the organ section
- 1/4″ organ pedal out: another thing I’m not familiar with, but this will output the pedal part of the organ section so you can connect it to a subwoofer to beef up the bass
- there are 2 x 1/4″ “Individual Outs” – these are outputs you can assign in the menu to the non organ sections and connect to external mixers or effects units; these outputs will NOT include the master reverb, EQ or volume
- now we’re back to connectivity that I AM familiar with 🙂 there is a 1/8″ stereo audio in along with a gain knob for you to stream external audio from a device; while this is intended to stream in external audio like backing tracks from a device (which it does work really well for), I’ve actually also used this to stream in a stereo signal from the headphone out on my Yamaha PSR-E383 keyboard, streaming in drumbeats to practice with, or even taking advantage of the E383’s extra sounds like saxophone, etc and it works really well
- there are TWO 1/4″ configurable foot switch jacks; you can use a basic sustain pedal (which is an on/off switch) to do things like speed up or slow down the Leslie speed, or you can even scroll through your favorites; I have a basic Yamaha brick pedal that I use for the rotary speed which is super handy
- there is a 1/4″ customizable expression pedal port that I’m using for organ volume swells; I’m currently just using an inexpensive M-Audio pedal; I might one day upgrade to a Hammond pedal, but they’re super expensive, and this one does the job well enough for me for now
- there is a 1/4″ damper or sustain pedal port for connecting a generic sustain pedal for use with your piano patches
- the SK also has traditional 5 pin MIDI in and MIDI out ports, so you can use the SK as a controller, or you can access the SK sounds from another controller; the most likely use for this in my opinion would be to use a fully weighted and graded hammer action controller connected to the MIDI in on the SK for playing the awesome piano patches on the SK Pro (if you really want a truer piano action)
- there is a USB to host port for transmitting MIDI to apps on a pc, tablet or phone, which can also be used for loading and saving setup files; it is a shame that this port doesn’t also transmit audio, but . . . there had to be SOMETHING missing 😉
- and finally, there is a USB flash drive port which is also used for loading and saving setup files
So this an amazing amount of connectivity, including a bunch of advanced stuff aimed at hardcore pro Hammond users, so . . . super cool. Some people might wonder on a product this expensive; why no BlueTooth? Well to be honest, for a stage keyboard? I would personally never trust a wireless BlueTooth connection onstage myself, I would always want a wired connection for that, so I don’t feel that is a loss.
What’s Missing / Could Be Improved?
So what’s missing on the Hammond SK Pro? Not much! This keyboard is an absolute BEAST! The semi-weighted waterfall key action is top of the line for organ playing as far as I’m concerned, I’ve never played anything better myself. And the fact that they’re semi-weighted makes them totally playable for piano as well – it’s the perfect compromise for me, and allows me to get away with only one keyboard for band practices and gigs. The organ sounds are absolutely fabulous, the piano, electric piano and pad sounds were a very pleasant surprise, the connectivity is amazing, the user interface is complicated at first, but once you get the hang of working with the patches and combination patches? I can move around the UI very quickly and easily to do what I need to do, which is huge for a stage instrument. The screen has super useful info and is easy to read from all angles and in different light levels, and I love the physical controls that are split into their respective sound engines. And the super easy sound engine buttons allow you to split and layer quickly and easily.
I really have nothing negative to say at all about the SK Pro; is it expensive? Absolutely! Are you getting ALOT for that price? Absolutely!
The Competition
Hammond SK Pro vs. Nord Electro 6
The closest direct competitor for the SK Pro that I know of would be the Nord Electro 6, which also comes in 61 and 73 key versions, and also has an organ engine as well as other sounds available. The 61 and 73 key Nords are actually about the same price as their Hammond 61 and 73 key counterparts.
The Nords also have a great waterfall key action (I believe they use Fatar keybeds) so the key action is awesome, but it does always feels just a touch heavier and less smooth than my SK. Now I have never used a Nord other than just in stores, so I can’t really offer much of an opinion. I do find the user interface confusing while testing them on my lunch hour in the music store, but I found the SK a bit confusing at first too, so that’s not a fair criticism. I do know there are TONS of Nord fans out there, and rightly so – Nords are one of the most commonly seen stage keyboards EVER, for good reason. They’re built very well, and they also have great sounds. So, why did I buy a Hammond instead? I found the key action to be just SLIGHTLY preferable on the Hammond, and I was super impressed with my M-Solo’s sounds, and . . . to be totally honest . . . when spending this much money, I really wanted a true Hammond; I knew if I’d bought a Nord, I’d probably still want a Hammond one day so . . . that’s the direction I chose.
Hammond SK Pro: The Verdict
As I mentioned earlier, I really have nothing negative to say about the Hammond SK Pro. If you are looking for a high end stage keyboard with top of the line key action, sounds, user interface, customization and connectivity that also has some surprisingly good extra sounds like pianos, electric pianos, pads and strings (and oh yeah – it also has a synth engine!), this is an absolutely fabulous keyboard! It’s perfect for me to use with my band, and allows me to only have to carry one keyboard around.
When Would I NOT Recommend The SK Pro?
- if you already have a stage piano/keyboard that you’re happy with that has piano, electric piano and other sounds already taken care of and you’re only looking for an organ? Then I would recommend the Hammond XK-4 or even the Hammond M-Solo
- if your main focus is piano/electric piano and NOT organ, and you are looking for an all in one stage keyboard that has everything, but you’re more focused on piano? Then I would recommend saving some money and looking at a Yamaha CK88 which is a fantastic stage piano with fully weighted keys, that still has some decent organ functionality and sounds
- if you want a stage keyboard that is great for organ and piano, but the SK Pro is just too expensive? Check out my favorite budget stage keyboard with a full organ engine: the Studiologic Numa Compact 2X
So that’s pretty much it for this review; as always, I have links in the description below to products I’ve mentioned here so you can check out current prices in your area, as well as some links to other relevant reviews of mine, and also some links to online piano training that worked for me that I highly recommend.
So thanks again for stopping by, and happy piano shopping!
Thanks so much, and happy organ playing! (and organ shopping 😉 )
Links To Check Out Current Pricing:
(please note that as an affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases)
Piano Training I Recommend
I’ve taken a number of online piano courses; the ones I’m listing here are my favorites and I can highly recommend any of these if you are looking for some online training to get started on learning piano, or to take your current skills to the next level.
This is a fantastic option if you are mostly interested in rock music (and if you’re interested in Hammond organ!) This course was created and is taught by Marine Lacoste, who is not only a fantastic instructor & pianist, but she is also a very accomplished hammond organ player – she performs regularly with her own band, as well as playing keys regularly for multiple recording artists on tour. I started this course in 2023 when I joined a band, and it is helping me greatly in taking my playing to a new level!
If you sign up for Online Rock Lessons yearly subscription, use code PIANOTONE at checkout to let Marine know I referred you, and she will give you some free bonuses!
This course is an amazing option for learning piano from beginner up to being able to perform; it teaches multiple genres of music and focuses on how to be a “one person band” on the piano. This course is taught by pro pianist Steve Lungrin – Steve has been teaching and performing his whole adult life and is a fantastic instructor and performer.
I took this course from 2020 to 2021 and it elevated my playing from a very basic level to being able to play songs in multiple genres.
Bird’s Piano Academy (Beginner Blues):
If you like the blues, and (or) want to ramp up your improv/soloing abilities on the piano, this is a GREAT course. It’s taught by Arthur Bird, who has a number of courses available on blues, jazz, as well as just getting started on piano. I found his beginner blues & improv course in 2022 when I “hit a wall” in my soloing abilities, and it really helped my improv and soloing in a big way.
If you’re looking for the least expensive way to get started on piano, Pianoforall is a great option. It’s a unique course created by Robin Hall that uses downloadable eBooks with embedded videos and audio instead of a website.