Unlock Your Piano Potential: Top Phone Apps for Learning Piano

Normally technology annoys me, but I recently made an effort to explore various cellphone apps designed for learning piano and I want to share my results:

Learning to play the piano has never been more accessible, thanks to the power of smartphone technology. With a myriad of piano learning apps available, beginners and even seasoned players can enhance their skills, practice anytime, and enjoy a personalized learning experience. In this blog post, we'll explore some of the best phone apps for learning piano that offer interactive lessons, sheet music, practice tools, and much more. So, let's dive into the virtual world of piano education and discover the apps that will help you unlock your musical potential!

1. Simply Piano by JoyTunes: Simply Piano is a widely acclaimed app that caters to beginners and intermediate players. It offers step-by-step lessons, interactive exercises, and instant feedback on your playing. The app uses your device's microphone to listen to your playing and provides real-time guidance, making it feel like you have a personal piano teacher right at your fingertips.

2. Flowkey: Flowkey is a versatile app that offers a vast library of interactive sheet music, tutorials, and lessons for pianists of all levels. With its user-friendly interface and visually appealing design, Flowkey provides a seamless learning experience. You can learn popular songs, classical pieces, and even tracks from your favorite movies or artists. The app listens to your playing and adapts to your skill level, ensuring you progress at your own pace.

3. Yousician: Yousician is a comprehensive app that covers various instruments, including the piano. It offers interactive lessons, exercises, and a vast library of songs to learn from. Yousician provides instant feedback on your playing accuracy and timing, helping you improve your skills and develop good musical habits. The app's gamified approach adds an element of fun and engagement to your practice sessions.

4. Piano Marvel: Piano Marvel is a powerful app suitable for players of all levels, from beginners to advanced pianists. It features an extensive library of sheet music, video lessons, and practice tools. The app's innovative technology tracks your progress, provides detailed performance assessments, and offers personalized recommendations to help you improve. Piano Marvel also includes a comprehensive practice mode with metronome, loops, and performance assessments.

5. Playground Sessions: Playground Sessions combines interactive lessons, video tutorials from renowned musicians, and a wide range of songs to learn. The app offers a unique "Bootcamp" feature that focuses on specific skills and techniques, helping you progress and challenge yourself. Playground Sessions provides real-time feedback on your playing and keeps you motivated with a points and rewards system.

6. Piano Academy: Piano Academy is a beginner-friendly app that provides step-by-step lessons, interactive sheet music, and practice exercises. The app covers essential piano skills, music theory, and offers a variety of songs to learn across different genres. Piano Academy also includes a built-in keyboard view that displays finger placement and note names, making it easier to follow along.

7. Pianist HD: Pianist HD is a versatile app that offers a virtual keyboard with a wide range of customization options. It allows you to play along with pre-loaded songs or import your own MIDI files. The app features a recording function, allowing you to listen back to your playing and assess your progress. Pianist HD also includes various practice modes, such as a game-like "Magic Keys" feature to improve your accuracy and speed.

Conclusion: In the digital age, piano learning apps have revolutionized the way we approach music education. Whether you're a beginner seeking foundational skills or an experienced pianist looking to expand your repertoire, these apps provide a wealth of resources, interactive lessons, and practice tools to enhance your piano journey. So, embrace the power of technology, choose the app that resonates with your learning style.

 

Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies = Gambling

 Okay so I got an email this morning from someone wanting to do a "guest post" on my blog and they wanted to know if I charge a fee for guest posts / sponsored posts.

Yes, definitely. If you're wasting my time then I am definitely charging a fee. As should everyone who accepts such advertising. Everyone should always charge a fee for their time + the value of the service being delivered (the more popular the website, the higher the fee).

But then I read what the person was advertising...

Bitcoin.

From an economic standpoint it is my opinion that Bitcoin is effectively worthless. Also it could literally crash at any time and become LITERALLY worthless.

So as far as I am concerned Bitcoin (and all cryptocurrencies) are essentially gambling.

The only people making lots of money in that 'industry' are the people "mining" it, and the only people mining it are companies with lots of computing power which have set themselves up in countries where electricity is super cheap (and often involves coal power, which means it comes at the expense of more CO2 contributing to global warming/climate change).

The "Bitcoin miners" then sell their fake currency to "Bitcoin suckers", who buy and sell it to other suckers in the hopes that they will somehow make money off of it.

So the "Bitcoin miners" are effectively the casino providing the gambling chips (also a fake currency)...

And the "Bitcoin suckers" are the gamblers who keep sinking their money into it when they should probably be investing in something else that is more likely to keep its value / improve in value.

So how did I respond to the email?

I quoted a price of $60 USD for sponsored posts about Bitcoin or gambling.

Why such a high price?

Because if they're promoting some kind of Bitcoin banking service then they can definitely afford that price.

Just like a casino website can definitely afford a higher price. They can afford to just throw money at the problem of advertising.

What is also interesting is that every week there is another "Bitcoin banking" company that goes bankrupt and everyone who had their Bitcoins stored there has lost all of their Bitcoins... Which tells you what the state of that "industry" is. Completely unstable and unreliable.

It is effectively a Ponzi scheme built on a house of cards, except the cards are digital and doomed to come crashing down.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of these companies were also faking it. Eg. Selling people "fake Bitcoins" in a digital wallet, and never buying actual Bitcoins to back it up. Thus whenever too many people try to collect by cashing in their Bitcoins the company just declares bankruptcy and absconds with all the real money.

And that kind of fraudulent scam is just one more way for scammers to make real money off of the "Bitcoin suckers".

Unfriending Facebook Friends

Today I went from 386 Facebook Friends to 252.

Basically I trimmed the fat. Everyone whom I barely knew, didn't know that well, only met once, never met at all - they all got Unfriended.

Some of them were also old friends that I just don't socialize with any more.

I wanted to get 250 even, but I discovered I was unwilling to part with 2 more of them.

Some of the people I did keep were Canadian celebrities I have only met once or twice, so but I ended up unfriending at least 30 celebrities - especially politicians.

I probably could have unfriended many more, but that would likely have been upsetting to some people.

There may even people I later re-friend again, which means they will have earned their place. And others in the future whom I unfriend, so maybe someday I will reach that nice round number of 250.

I did this partially for privacy reasons. The more friends a person has on Facebook that you barely know, the less privacy you have - and the more likely that your privacy will be invaded.

I have also been updating my privacy settings. I would like to be able to update them further to tighten up security.

Why blogging is like essay writing

Some people compare blogging to journalism.

But really, most bloggers are not journalists.

Sure, they might sometimes talk about the news. But they are rarely reporting it.

Rather, blogging is more like essay writing. You write the essay, but unlike all those essays you did in university you don't have to worry about marks like you did back then. It is not like you are writing a dissertation that has to be "perfect", instead you can actually have fun writing your essay.

Sometimes it isn't even like an essay. Sometimes it is more like "Hey look, cute kitten photos!"

Like these kitten photos below. :)

Which means it isn't really journalism or essay writing either. In that respect blogging is more like scrapbooking - collecting photos and then putting them in your scrapbook as a collection of odd things.

And then there is the name "blogging", which is short for "web logging" - which means blogging is a bit like writing in a log book (like the captain of a ship). Which means blogging is more like a diary or journal.

So lets summarize here.

Blogging is

1 part journalism
1 part essay writing
1 part scrapbook
1 part diary / journal

It is no wonder we had to invent a new word to describe all the activities that a blogger does.

After all if only did journalism, or only essay writing, or only scrapbooking, or only writing in our diary - it would be kind of boring. But being all 4 at once allows us to do more innovative ways to use the technology at our fingertips.

And truth be told, while technology often annoys me, in this case I see benefits. Blogging provides a lot more freedom.

And what is more, it also creates an audience. Which means it is entertaining, and educational.

And anything that is educational can also legally break copyright laws - because if you share something for educational purposes, it falls into the terms of fair use.

And it means, that since bloggers are not journalists that bloggers should be held up to the same rigorous laws that journalists are. Which means you can call a criminal a crook, even if they are not convicted of the crime. (Although you might still get sued for defamation if the crook has a lot of money to throw around.)

Anywho, I think I have made my point.

Oh, I forgot one thing...

1 part rant

In other words, a chance for people to just complain about things that annoy them.

And now I shall stop stating the obvious. I am content that my point has been made.

Plagiarism in Essay Writing

Years ago when I was working on my Doctorate of Musical Arts at U of T when I was accused of plagiarism in some older essay work I had done.

Basically what it was I had written an essay years earlier, before studying my doctorate, and one of my professors thought it looked fishy when another copy of the same essay showed up and tried to prove it was plagiarized.

Fortunately I cleared my name by promptly showing all professors and university staff involved my rough drafts for the essay (I had gone through 4 rough drafts) which had been saved years ago and I had just never deleted anything from that part of my life.

Basically the fact that I am a pack rat saved my bacon. I don't throw things out, especially electronic documents.

So word to the wise people, save your drafts and keep them for posterity's sake. You will not regret it.

What had happened however is that I had posted my finished essay (the one I was accused of plagiarizing) online and I had posted it without using my name - in other words, I had posted it anonymously.

Someone else (I don't know who) then copy pasted my essay off of the website and then submitted my essay as their own professor.

What the student didn't know was that they were handing in the same essay to the same professor (for the same class no less) as I had years earlier.

The professor reading my old essay felt it looked familiar, as if they had read it before. So they checked their records / refreshed their memory and remembered me.

Yada yada yada, the next thing I know they are accusing me of plagiarism, of selling my old essay for profit and were threatening to take my degree away from me. (Which they can legally do if they can prove plagiarism.)

Fortunately I did prove that the essay was mine by showing them my old rough drafts.

And I was able to show them the old forum website which I had posted the essay on. Still there, complete with the date it was originally posted. (And I could prove it was me who posted it because I still had the login and password to access the forum.)

My name was cleared, but having such a bureaucratic spotlight thrust upon me (especially when I had done nothing wrong) had made me not very comfortable about the whole plagiarism topic.

It took me years before I finally decided to write this post and talk openly about the incident. Now that I have my Doctorate I feel much firmer and safer about talking about the incident.

Universities have become increasingly aware that there is a lot academic dishonesty going on - especially amongst women, who make up 80% of customers for essay writing companies in Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener/Waterloo. It is such a problem amongst female students that it has raised the grade point average of all the women in universities that have essay writing companies near the university campuses.

I think the issue for men is that men are too lazy and too cheap to hire someone else to write an essay for them, they would rather just write a poorly written essay, hand it in and get a lower mark rather than hire someone to write the essay for them.

The companies themselves have also legitimized themselves by also offering resume writing, CV and cover letter writing services. And even online classes on how to write assignments for classes.

Once they have a student hooked on their services it is really just a matter of time before students start paying for essays using their credit card.

The problem is even more prevalent at big universities that have a lot of prestige. The more important the school is the more competition there is from such companies that are offering essay and assignment writing services.

But I do have an important question.

What happens when these people get out into the real world and need to write reports for the company they work for? Are they going to hire someone else to write the report for them?

I have even heard tales of people hiring other people to write / create presentations for PowerPoint.

Back when I was in university we were still using overhead projectors and slideshows during presentations, but now with PowerPoint the information for the presentation can be written down and designed electronically, saved as PowerPoint document (PPT), sent to the person who purchased it... and then that person presents the finished product and utilizes their acting skills at lying.

How is an university professor going to accuse them of plagiarism when they are presenting it in person as a PowerPoint presentation.

I wish they would bring back overhead projectors and slideshows. Just my 2 cents.

Why are modern tvs so slow?

Have you ever noticed how modern TVs are so slow compared to TVs during the 1980s?

I am serious. TVs are now slower than they used to be because now they are digital and have to load a blue screen or some logo nonsense before loading the actual tv guide, list of channels or the channel that was last on before you turned off the tv.

And this is my beef with a lot of technology today... More technology is actually making things slower and more cumbersome.

Examples

ATMs and Credit Cards vs cash.

Downloading tv shows vs VCRs.

Text messaging vs just phoning the person.

Tablets vs pen and paper.

The internet vs the YellowPages and an encyclopedia set.

eReaders vs books.

Downloading a taxi app and figuring out how to use vs just calling a cab.

And the list goes on. Seriously, technology is actually making life more complicated than it needs to be.