Overall Rating

 

 

 

 

Rocket Piano is both a piano lesson software and an online product. Previously, it was only available in software form but at a great savings you can now download everything they have to offer from their website. Rock Star Recipes is the team that brings you this product, but Ruth Searle is the team leader providing video instructions and weekly newsletters. Although a classically trained pianist, she has extensive experience in multiple genres that include Jazz, Pop, Rock, and Gospel. Her composition expertise is manifest through her creative work on the Rocket Piano program. Ruth states on her website that ‘you can discover an amazing, new piano learning method that will teach you how to play virtually any piano song you hear, with the timing, rhythm and magic of a professional’. Rocket Piano's easy to use program is quite versatile, and includes a number of great supplementary features, helping them standout from alternative choices. This program also received our TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award because of their unique way of teaching the piano. The program doesn't integrate with your actual keyboard the way our higher ranked choices do, but Rocket Piano is definitely worth checking out.

Lesson Coverage:

Not sure if Rocket Piano is for you? Try six free beginner lessons available when you sign up on their website. These are surprisingly comprehensive in nature and cover posture, hand position, notation, and more. Once you purchase the product you download eBooks, Audio files, Video lessons, and bonus software from the website. Download them all at once or download as you learn each lesson. There are seven eBooks covering beginning through advanced, fingering, Jazz, Gospel, and advanced techniques for the piano. As you progress through the lessons, links for audio accompaniment files or video lessons are embedded in the pages; however, you can’t access these from this link yet so you need to find the corresponding file number and download it from the website. This is cumbersome and time consuming, slowing down your lesson. Easy to follow instructions and tips are given with each lesson plus the sheet music. You can read these from a computer screen or even better, print them off and take to your keyboard.

Features:

Rocket Piano is always on the go, sending out free weekly newsletters covering various musical topics. A recent newsletter discussed how to play with a band or another musician, a tricky rhythm feat at best. Currently, Ruth Searle is developing two new eBooks that will cover playing-by-ear and an updated theory book that complements the concepts already discussed in the lessons. Audio tracks and Video lessons are a key component to the quality lessons produced by Rocket Piano.

Missing from the product is the ability to plug in a MIDI-enabled keyboard and play along, adjust tempo, tracks, etc., but there are audio and video tracks downloaded to your computer that you can turn on while you play on a separate keyboard. While the website is easy to navigate, you don’t have the online forums and discussion boards that are so valuable on some of our other top ranked piano lesson software.

Practice Tools:

It is hard to beat the amazing price of the digital Rocket Piano, so it is surprising to find that you get games and a metronome as bonuses with your purchase. Jayde Musica Pro is a notation game and Chordinator is a speed test game concentrating on chords. Each eBook has a progress tracking page where you can note the skill you’ve learned plus the date it was accomplished.

Ease of Use:

Rocket Piano is one of the easiest to use products that we tested. The digital downloads are quick and easy to implement partially due to the fact you’re not trying to download everything at once, just the lessons, media, and bonus features as you need them. Video lessons are available by streaming, or you can download them to your computer to view in a larger window. The quality of the audio tracks and video lessons are clear and concise, making viewing easy on the eyes. If you prefer hard copies - printed books, CDs, and DVDs – you may purchase these as well, but the price jumps significantly for this option.

Help & Support:

A FAQs section should answer most questions pertaining to product use, downloading and web access but if it doesn’t, the answer is just an email away and response time is quick. This is always a huge  plus when you have an irritating problem while trying to use a product.

Summary:

Although Rocket Piano lacks the online support systems and ease of use options available on some other piano lesson software, don’t dismiss this product. For the genres, audio tracks, video reinforcements, games and eBooks available you won’t find a better value anywhere. If a great product for a great price is what you're after, Rocket Piano is going to be hard program to beat.

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