Classics By Ear – Student Reviews

Students are LOVING the Classics By Ear courses!
Now ANYONE can play their favourite classical pieces.

Pianoforall Classics By Ear Reviews

Jump to a course page on Pianoforall Academy

Erik Satie →  |  Bach Preludes →  |  Moonlight Sonata →

Erik Satie

THE MUSIC IS GORGEOUS

“My son, who is 10, has been learning piano through online courses and tutorials for about a year. We got him this one as he has been looking for some beautiful but challenging pieces. He absolutely loves it. It took him a few days to learn each piece. The instruction is clear and helpful, and the music is gorgeous. It’s amazing to see how he has grown with this course and lovely to hear him play these, with increasing confidence and feeling, throughout the day each day. As a course, we couldn’t recommend this highly enough. Our only suggestion would be to offer a follow-up to this one to teach the Gymnopedies. We would be the first to enrol!”

Lesia S.
Bach Preludes

“This is teaching at its BEST. The instructor goes step by step, giving clear instructions, and giving various tools to help you play and memorize the pieces. Thank you!”

Silvia Hammond
Moonlight Sonata

IT IS AMAZING

“Just up to bar 9 so far but it is amazing and I know already that I’ll be through with the whole song soon, but with the required practice on each bar. Feels like ONLY 60 bars to go :)”

Muhammad Haroon
Moonlight Sonata

THIS IS THE BEST COURSE I’VE EVER HAD

“This is the best course I’ve ever had. The teaching technique, simple and helpful explanations, duration of sections, … Everything is just perfectly adjusted.

Thank you so much.”

Gizem Aktuğ
Bach Preludes

VERY ENGAGING AND MOTIVATING

“Very engaging and motivating, inspirational and encouraging. Robin’s tuition – as with his broader course PIANO FOR ALL (which I also own and have gained much from) – is again superb! Quite simply piano tuition worth its weight in gold, but very modestly priced – a massive “bang for your buck”! Buy it and try it for yourself and you won’t be disappointed, I promise you; indeed you’ll be chomping at the bit to have a go and progress to the next level of your musical journey, discovery, and competence.

Thanks, Robin, keep up the good work – and keep bringing us more superb piano/music lessons in the near future, sir! :-)”

Chris Harvey
Moonlight Sonata

I LOVE THIS COURSE

“I love this course. Robin makes it so easy to understand and so calm in teaching. Just love all his course so far and want to learn more from him.”

Tammy Watanabe
Erik Satie

FANTASTIC COURSE

“Fantastic course to take a beginner like me through three beautiful classical pieces to the point that I can enjoy them from the perspective of a pianist (albeit a novice!) Thank you.”

Vincent R.
Erik Satie

ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT

“Great Course – Absolutely Love it. I’m currently taking Robin’s Piano For All course, and I’m in the Classical Section, so this fits right in. Robin’s style and methodology is fantastic. I learned No. 1 in less than a week. Take both courses – you’ll be so glad you did. — A grateful student.”

Paul L.
Moonlight Sonata

TRULY INSPIRATIONAL

“It is a truly inspirational course for me. I am making progress !!! Just in time I have found the words of encouragement and support. So important to have those. Great teacher. I am really grateful for the clear and easy to follow visual instructions that I needed most as I am studying without a tutor by my side.”

Sergio
Moonlight Sonata

MAKES LEARNING A PLEASURE

“Really enjoying the logical instructions and methods together with the clarity of the diagrams with keys and finger positions- it makes learning a pleasure”

David Edwards
Moonlight Sonata

A WONDERFUL AND METICULOUSLY PLANNED COURSE

“When the email came through, alerting me to this brand new “Classics By Ear” course by Robin Hall, I didn’t need to think twice about purchasing – indeed I was excited and delighted. Having purchased all of Robin’s previous courses, I was fully aware of just how excellent they are (not to mention very INexpensive) so there was no chance of my hesitating, and I purchased immediately. And from the increasing numbers of students who have also signed up within just the first few days, I am clearly not alone in my opinion.

Robin’s method is superbly in-depth and meticulous, taking things slow but steady, and breaking things down into bite-sized and easy to consume morsels – really zooming in on every note and nuance of every bar, little by little, utilizing sheet music, cheat sheets and also “Memorable Elements”, so that with each and every small step you know exactly what you should be doing, where you are heading, and how you should be playing – the fingering, expression, etc etc. Basically, you know that Robin really cares about teaching you how to play great music on the piano!

I have already made a start and am truly loving playing this haunting yet beautiful piece – a “timeless classic” indeed! After a couple of days I am already practicing the full page 1 (both with and without the splendid alternate mini-ending variation for bar 15 – a nice little touch which gives you the satisfaction of completing, if you will, a “Mini Moonlight Sonata” Prologue (“Op. 27, No. 2A”???) quite early in your endeavors; but which only whets your appetite even more to keep on moving forward – encouraging you to progress on and on to discover the rich beauty of this piece, and the amazing satisfaction that comes with getting it “under the fingers”… and “tantalising the ears”…

And so I am well and truly “juggling” 😉 … as Robin advises in his courses… although perhaps in a different way than he intends; but I hope that’s still okay, as I have several pieces on the go now – including the Bach Preludes (I’m saving the Satie course for now (although I have sampled several videos) so as not to take too much on, but will certainly be working on those pieces too when I’ve made significant progress with the Beethoven and Bach pieces).

The bottom line : I am truly addicted to learning this beautiful piece (quite possibly my favourite of Robin’s “CLASSICS BY EAR” so far); so many many thanks again, Robin, for a wonderful and meticulously planned course. And for those considering it – and especially if you have always wanted to play this timeless piece – do not hesitate. Just buy this course, press play on the first lesson – dive in (and print off the sheet music/cheat sheets etc) … take it slow and steady… and simply enjoy playing beautiful music. The fingering/octave+ stretches can perhaps be a challenge at times, but do persevere, and I promise you that you will be glad that you did, and will have no regrets whatsoever…

A wonderful piece, especially relaxing and therapeutic, and indeed something very worthwhile upon which to focus one’s mind, body and soul in particular as a most welcome respite and distraction during these challenging Covid lockdown times…”

Bach Preludes

THE RESOURCE PAGES ARE AMAZING!!!

“The resource pages are amazing!!! Definitely does great job at breaking information down into multiple concepts/pathways to learning & memorizing/reading notes while getting some real progress learning beautiful pieces (not stuck doing Mary had a little lamb!!!).”

Alyson
Bach Preludes

VERY CALM

“Very clear and easy to follow. Delivered slowly enough for me to “compute” think about what is being said and to touch the notes on my own piano. Very calm.”

Deirdre Fee
Erik Satie

AMAZING COURSE

“As an adult piano learner, I’ve studied playing piano with all kinds of methods for years. Yet I can only play two simple pieces. Following this course though, I learned the Gnossienne No 1 over a weekend(less than 10 hours).

It feels great! And I get more interested in music theory now (tried to study the chords and inversions once, but it hadn’t make much sense to me) as I can see how the chords work in action. Amazing course. Thank you for putting it together.”

Hua W.
Moonlight Sonata

CRYSTAL CLEAR

“Robin Hall is a superb teacher. The programme and its accompanying resources are crystal clear and Robin’s presentation of memorable elements makes difficult passages accessible to the learner.”

Fergus Ryan
Erik Satie

SIMPLY AWESOME

“Just completed this course.
I don’t think anybody make the lessons easier than this lecturer. Simply awesome and I think it’s a kind of psychological approach from the lecturer.
If you learn to play classical piano, please go dive into this right away!”

Tariq H.
Bach Preludes

YOU WILL NOT FEEL OVERWHELMED

“Absolutely the best breakdown of how to play piano I could imagine. The instructor is clearly talented as a teacher and knows how to teach piano in a way that is easy to take in bite sized pieces so you will not feel overwhelmed.”

Kim Vergottini
Erik Satie

MY ABILITY TO READ MUSIC IMPROVED SIGNIFICANTLY

“I enjoyed this course as much as any course I’ve taken. It is a good length and very focused–it teaches one thing and teaches it really well. It provides a step-by-step walkthrough for playing Erik Satie’s Trois Gnossienes on Piano. These are beautiful pieces and not too difficult to play, and Robin’s method makes learning them really straightforward. I can now play through these pieces consistently, more or less by memory. My ability to read sheet music for piano improved significantly, though that is only a secondary emphasis in the course. Highly recommended for an adult learner with a tiny bit of piano who wants to master one piece. I’m already moving on to Robin’s Bach course and looking forward to it.”

David L.
Moonlight Sonata

SO EASY TO FOLLOW

“I’ve always wanted to learn this piece of beautiful music when I first it when I was young. This course is so easy to follow and with a lot of practise and determination I can now play it through memory. The ability to just sit down at a piano and play this give me so much pleasure. I’m so grateful to you for sharing this. Thank you”

Peter Corrigan
Erik Satie

SIMPLY AWESOME

“Just completed this course.
I don’t think anybody make the lessons easier than this lecturer. Simply awesome and I think it’s a kind of psychological approach from the lecturer.
If you learn to play classical piano, please go dive into this right away!
”

Tariq H.
Erik Satie

THIS METHOD IS ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THE BEST

“This method is absolutely one of the best ones I have ever tried to learn piano with. thank you so much for putting all these lessons together and I can’t wait to learn more songs with this method from you, even the modern songs. thank you”

Ehsan G.
Bach Preludes

I’M THRILLED WITH MY ABILITY TO PLAY THESE TWO PRELUDES

“I played the guitar for about 20 years and learned parts of about 25 songs… However, I never COMPLETELY learned a whole song! In 4 months, being a BRAND NEW PIANO PLAYER with no note reading capability, I’ve memorized both pieces by EAR! It’s blown me away!

The key is I ENJOYED listening to the piece as I played. I still don’t read music and would like to… but, it’s not fun for me to read music at this stage. I’m thrilled with my ability to play these two preludes. I have the original course that I did not use but will go back and pick it up then move on to Satre’s and the Moonlight Sonata. Keep up this great work!

Magnificent and I would recommend it 10,000%!”

Ray Faulkenberry
Moonlight Sonata

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

“This my second course from Robin. I think he is one of the best in the world in terms of subject matter and also teaching in a way we can easily understand! Highly Recommended!”

John Khalkho
Moonlight Sonata

THE BEST COURSE THAT I HAVE BOUGHT

“The best course that i have bought. I would like to give 6 stars! Congratulations Robin, great work! l also bought the Preludes of J.S.Bach, very, very good! I never thought to be able to play them by ear – But finally I was successful! I hope there will be more “Classics by ear”! Thanks you!”

Christian Kritzler