[bumelant]

Piano is not about mechanics. Everyone can do that. Piano is not about playing. It’s about hearing! And no app can replace professional human being with ability to hear these tiny nuances. Sorry to say that but if you want to play music, not piano, get a teacher.

[jlg23]

I agree that a teacher is invaluable, but for training your muscle memory (and sheet reading, if one does not already), apps can be a good-enough substitute: Instant feedback for almost free, visual aids that even a teacher could not provide, 24/7 availability.

Of course, some physical basics (like posture for piano, breathing for wind instruments) are ideally established correctly right from the start and that's where even a few hours spent on professional help will pay off.

Things I paid a teacher for (flute) that could have been easily checked by an app:

* tone: the right one? does it come out clean?

* pace: am I keeping the pace correctly? (a metronome does not flash red when I am out of sync, the 11 year old me could ignore it really well..)

* loudness

And last but not least: Apps work everywhere, lessons with teachers are hard to get in some places. When my parents decided we move, I had the choice between a 2h commute for a 45 minute lesson or to wait about 1.5 years for a place with a local teacher (despite having given solo concerts already). I stopped playing and regret it to this day.

[bumelant]

Sure, computers can be very helpful to master certain skills like learning to read music or maybe mastering some aspect of technique. But to decompose music into aspects like tone, pace and so on is a huge oversimplification. And by learning to play piano I assume one want's to play music. Playing piano again in my view is about hearing, you have to play it in mind, make it sing, and only then bring that to the instrument. The instrument is just a tool.

[nine_k]

Even if no app can replace a critiquing and guiding human teacher entirely, it could try.

Do many apps try that? Maybe it's a huge opportunity.

[veli_joza]

I would think so too. Everybody recommends finding a teacher (and a good one at that), but that's not possible for many people. Most people don't have access to good teacher, money to pay one, or enough time for scheduled lessons. Should they give up playing altogether? Even video courses are not good enough because they don't critique your technique or offer suggestions on how to improve playing at your level.

All the apps I've seen are terribly non-musical. They take small part of music (ear training, sight reading, repetition of phrases) and make you train in isolation. I would like to see an app that teaches music in context of music. Show me a concept in isolation (for example minor triad, or ii-V-I progression, or triplets), then play me some actual music examples, then allow me to exercise what I learned with some accompaniment and correct my mistakes. Such app AFAIK doesn't exist.