Review of Simply Piano, app for learning to play the piano

In this article I will try to analyse what are the advantages and disadvantages of using an app to learn to play the piano, in particular I downloaded and tried for a few days Simply Piano, one of the most popular. So here are the advantages and disadvantages of Simply Piano and of piano-playing apps in general.

Simply piano and other piano apps? My experience as a teacher

As a piano teacher, I met students who had practised for a few months with a piano learning app, such as Simply Piano or Flowkey, before coming to me for individual lessons. I expected these students to have developed some basic knowledge, but in reality I had to start practically from scratch every time.

The students who had practised with Simply Piano or Flowkey knew the position of the notes on the staff in treble clef, but had learned absolutely nothing about rhythm and hand independence. I therefore decided to try Simply Piano myself, to find out how it works and why learners make such limited progress, even after practising for a few months.

A Simply Piano review: the elementary level

Simply Piano is divided into modules and at first the app is well organised. It proposes simple melodies of two, three, and finally five notes. Afterwards, it introduces slightly more complex pieces but still with your hand in the initial position.

In this, the app is similar to most beginner books. The difference is that Simply Piano listens to you while you play, with the intention of correcting you if you have made a mistake. Does it succeed? It seems so, but in reality it only recognises some mistakes, and ultimately causes others, paradoxically. So lets see how it is structured.

Simply Piano asks you to play while the score scrolls on the screen, with a cursor highlighting exactly when you should play a certain musical note. Although the melodies have a regular rhythm, especially at the beginning, we are inclined to follow the cursor and play when it reaches the designated note.

The result is a kind of target practice, just like in a video game. The visual aspect clearly prevails over the auditory one, and we find ourselves shooting notes like we shot spaceships in early 80s video games, such as Space Invaders or Arkanoid.

As the notes flow, we pay more attention to the position of the cursor than to the duration of the notes or the rhythm of the melody. This is why the student does not really become aware of the rhythm of the music, but only learns (at best) the position of the notes on the staff.

In particular, here are the problems with learning to play apps such as Simply Piano and Flokey. Some can be considered bugs, i.e. caused by the malfunctioning of the smartphone or tablet’s microphone, but others are congenital in the learning mechanism.

• Simply piano recognises the right notes, but lets the wrong notes pass. If you alternate between a wrong note and a right note, you are playing well for the app, even if in reality you are not.
• If you skip the rests, that’s OK with the app. The important thing is to play the notes more or less when they are reached by the cursor sliding on the screen. This is precisely why we are inclined to pay more attention to what we see, than to what we hear. To really learn how to play, it is necessary to get used to respecting the duration of rests as well.
• The microphone sometimes does not recognise the notes, so we are inclined to play everything loud and staccato, separating the notes well for our smartphone to recognise them. Piano technique is exactly the opposite, you should learn to play softly, tying the notes to each other.
• The microphone sometimes recognises a note but not the octave in which it is played, so it accepts for good even notes played in another register. This can really confuse a beginner, who normally struggles to learn the precise correspondence between notes on the staff and their position on the keyboard.
• The app listens to you but does not look at you. It is unable to correct you if your hand position is wrong. In particular, the anxiety to ‘centre’ the note highlighted by the cursor, leads to playing with a stiff hand. In this, too, I am reminded of the sensation of a tense, aching hand holding a joystick in old video games.

Let us now look at the intermediate/advanced level of Simply Piano.

Simply Piano, intermediate and advanced level

An intermediate study course is more difficult to design. In fact, after the first few months of study, the difficulties are not exactly the same for all learners. For some people it is easier to progress in reading than in independence, for others the exact opposite is true. There are those who have problems with hand position, and those who play naturally correctly.

In the case of Simply Piano, the problem is made even more complex by the poor work on rhythm and note duration. In fact, we have already mentioned that in the elementary part of the app the student plays by following the cursor and does not really learn how to keep time and count notes duration.

This creates serious problems when it comes to putting the two hands together and playing more complex rhythms. The student is therefore inclined to play by imitation, rather than actually reading the music and understanding its subtle mechanism.

In the intermediate level of Simply Piano, some elements of music theory and harmony are introduced, in particular scales and chords. The topics are touched on in a somewhat superficial way, but interesting nonetheless. I also tried the jazz section, and here I found chords so simplified that the pieces are totally unrecognisable. Jazz music requires a good knowledge of chords, and oversimplifying the harmony makes the songs meaningless.

So far, I have listed what are all the shortcomings of Simply Piano and other piano apps. However, there are also some good aspects. Here are what they are.

The merits of Simply Piano and other piano apps

Simply Piano, like all apps on our smartphones, is eye-catching and graphically well done. The app offers short explanatory videos showing the position of the hand, or explaining simple concepts such as triad chords, or the pitch of notes on the staff.

The videos are alternated with the exercises, so it is not too boring to listen to some theory between one exercise and the next. Moreover, being on our phone, the app itself will remind us of our daily study session. Simply Piano encourages us to practise a little every day, and this is one of the most important things for those starting to play.

Unfortunately, they lead to predominantly incorrect practice. But continuity is still something useful, if only to establish a habit. Spending time playing, even in a somewhat haphazard and inconclusive manner, is still a good exercise for the ear. In particular, those with a good musical ear can partially overcome the limitations of Simply Piano, and autonomously notice whether the execution is really correct or not.

Another positive aspect is that these apps, although they fail to take the learner beyond an elementary level, are continuously updated with new tunes. If the initial level is fun enough for you, you will always find new tunes to try.

Here is a summary of the positive aspects of Simply Piano

• Encourages consistency
• Introduces some simple elements of music theory
• Periodically proposes new elementary pieces

The Simply Piano review: conclusions and tips for use

Apps for learning to play are mostly a game. If you have a keyboard at home and want to try playing a few notes, without great ambition, Simply Piano might be a good start.

If, on the other hand, you really like music and want to try playing the piano, other methods are more effective and will prevent you from wasting time or developing major faults. Individual lessons are definitely the best way to go, but also the many music video courses available on the internet, including on this site, are in my opinion more effective than Simply Piano and the other apps.

In summary, to fully understand what you can get from an app like Simply Piano, simply replace the definition ‘app for learning to play the piano’ with ‘app to have fun with music and learn the notes on the staff’.

Simply piano is not an ‘app to learn to play the piano’
but an ‘app to have fun with music and learn notes’.

Having fun with music can be entertaining, and maybe it will make you really want to learn to play. But don’t think that Simply Piano can replace a piano teacher or a serious studio, because you will be disappointed.

If you have any experience with Simply Piano and similar apps, I would be very happy to hear your perspective. Leave a comment and tell me how it went, if Simply Piano really helped you learn or if it was just a pastime, maybe fun, but didn’t lead to serious progress. Thanks in advance!