Frequently asked questions about Piano Wizard Academy

How much is it?

You get a no-commitment 30-day trial of our software and access to the first 3 lessons online. At any time you may subscribe to Piano Wizard Academy Online for only $19.95 per month. You may install the software on up to 3 computers in the household. Additional licenses are available for a one-time nominal fee.

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How do I cancel?

You can cancel your membership at any time. Just log into your Online Campus account and click Cancel. This will downgrade you back to a "Freshman" online account and deactivate your software.

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What do I get in this package?

You get a complete system that lets you teach your children how to play the piano. The Piano Wizard Academy exclusive package includes:

• Award-Winning Piano Wizard software (a revolutionary 4-step game to get your kids playing and reading music naturally).
• Piano Wizard Academy QuickStart Videos (to help you get set up and started).
• 200 ready-to-play songs loaded into your software with the ability to easily add any of your favorite songs and load them into the software as well.
• 50 video lessons online that guide you through every phase; Are geared toward parents, non-musical educators/piano teachers;  Teaches you to be your children’s “music coach.”
• Contains the equivalent of a full year of college curriculum (but is created for kids and adults of all ages).
• 50 songs in printable sheet music (5 books of 10 each) that coordinate with the software and video lessons.
  *50 additional self-taught lessons.
• Star stickers to help you celebrate every time your children learn a new song!
• *Color Coded Keyboard Stickers (washable and removable) to color-coordinate the keys of your keyboard with the computer game.

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What separates Piano Wizard from all the other software methods out there?

Our piano learning software is a video game. When you play the game, you are having fun, unknowingly practicing, and subliminally learning to read music too.

The game’s patented sound and color learning cues transform tedious and repetitive practice sessions into an exciting and rewarding video game experience for people of all ages and musical abilities. The initial goal of Piano Wizard is not to teach the technical aspects of music, but to engender a familiarity with music, how it is structured and played, and to develop enthusiasm for learning to play the piano keyboard. Music theory comes later.

Traditional piano lessons teach musical notation first before ever playing a song. But most of us don’t want to wade through the hieroglyphics of music notation before we get to play. We want to play NOW.

Piano Wizard incorporates a music-before-theory method that is in line with the way we naturally learn. Now anyone can easily learn to play the piano and play real songs in minutes – not weeks, months, or years by using our revolutionary patented Four-Step method.

Because our piano software method only uses POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT it’s specifically designed to quickly build a player’s confidence and self-esteem. The game automatically rewards players for touching the right note and ignoring mistakes, encouraging and conditioning players with fun and entertainment, to keep them practicing and playing while they learn practical music and piano skills.

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How is this different from Rock Band®, Guitar Hero®, or other software?  Is this just another type of advanced "air guitar" and a similar waste of time?

Actually, while Guitar Hero and Rock Band are fun games, they don’t use real songs, let alone teach musicianship or how to get away from the game and play a real instrument.

The Piano Wizard Academy does all that in minutes! Plus, many have said that it is even more fun than those popular games. You may have even seen similar-looking software...at least similar to our Step 1.  That's where comparisons end.

While that other software may help learn a song,  with Piano Wizard, you not only learn the song, but you learn how to read music along the way.  Add our 2 years' worth of lessons on DVD and you have an entire learn how to play piano package at a fraction of the cost of traditional lessons.

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 How old should my child be to use the system?

We recommend age 3 and older. However, we have seen children as young as 2 using it. That will depend on how well the child knows their colors, how disciplined they are, whether have they played video games before, and how big their fingers are to reach the different keys. Only you can judge the maturity level of your children. That said, it's been proven that early music learning is very valuable to children so you do want to start them early in life.

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Is this just for kids?

Not all. People of all ages have enjoyed Piano Wizard – from kids to teenagers to seniors. The “background themes” may give the game the look of a child’s game, but they can be changed or removed to suit your taste. Many adults love using colorful themes – it just makes them “feel” like a kid again!

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I am not musically oriented – how can I help my child with the program?

We call the Piano Wizard method “learning for the rest of us”.  It is perfect for non-music educators. You don’t need to be musically inclined or educated to learn to play or to help your children learn to play. Simply watch the DVDs and follow the steps and you become a “coach”.

When it comes to any educational program, it’s up to the parents to “guide” the child through. Kids are easily able to adapt to a schedule, so we recommend you set a routine of 1 to 2 lessons per week and stick to it. If the parent loses interest or suddenly finds he or she no longer has the time for it, the child may lose interest too.

IT IS DESIGNED SO PEOPLE WITH NO MUSIC EXPERIENCE CAN BOTH TEACH IT AND PLAY.  Parental “coaching” assures that children will excel with your encouragement and support.

Many parents overlook a music curriculum, not because they don’t believe it is important, but because they feel ill-equipped to teach such a large (and seemingly daunting) subject. With Piano Wizard Academy, problem solved. You CAN have your cake and eat it too!

We also assume zero previous musical experience for either the parent or child. The game does the heavy lifting, i.e., they learn by doing, and the game keeps them focused and moving through the song without effort on your part.

You (parent/teacher) do need to set it up, and then set them up with the process so that they know they are to not just stay in the game, but graduate to playing the piano. This happens in minutes with the game if you follow the guidelines carefully they are reading sheet music on a song they did not know 15 minutes ago. With kids these days though, they figure out the software faster than we do and then race ahead.

You mainly need to slow them down so that they go through each level and song or they quickly load songs they like that are still beyond them. The key is like anything else, they will pay attention to what you pay attention to.

If you reward their successes with star stickers on every level, they will move through the levels to get the star stickers. If you make a big deal about them playing from the sheet music (level 5) they will strive to please you and perform from the sheet music at the piano. If you praise every completed song, they will move through the curriculum with pride.

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 Can I use Piano Wizard Academy for homeschooling music?

Yes! and many families do just that and have made it an integral part of their children’s home school curriculum.

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Will I (or my child) really learn to play piano?

We get that question a lot because it just seems too good to be true. But in fact, the game was designed primarily to teach people to easily play and read music, not just to entertain, but to use play and interactive feedback as a guide and motivator.

That being said, once the game came out we saw that the kids tended to stay within the game if not invited to the piano, but that when they did get invited to play on a real piano, they loved picking out the songs they had learned.

Our Academy is designed specifically to systematically bring the kids off the game onto the piano, playing real music they learned in the game, but it requires a facilitator such as a parent, a non-music educator, or a piano teacher to reinforce that behavior, habit, and goal.

That outside facilitator and coach could get incredible results if they just knew how to walk their students or children through the sequence. Kids want to please, and want to be rewarded, and they want attention and interaction with their parents. That is the food they seek, and by structuring our Academy to be a great musical facilitator of that precious time spent together, we found this had a natural and wonderful bonding effect and motivating force on both parents and children that led naturally to show off at the piano… quickly.

The visual, aural, and kinesthetic feedback and interaction cross-train the mind to master the little universe that is the song in amazing ways. Once a song is mastered, the music notation is merely a reminder and guide of a path well traveled. Then they can explore the pedal, the phrasing, the nuance that makes music so personal and so special. Endless variations and little experiments in sound ensue, both in and out of the game.

This is a deep program, made with lots of care and years of development work. It gets results if you follow it. But there is the old joke of the guy who bought a chainsaw and brought it back and wanted his money back, saying it took him ten times as long as the old way with the axe. The store manager was puzzled, took it outside pulled on the start-up chain, revved up the chainsaw, and the customer exclaimed, “What’s that sound?”

Once you have the videos, the software, the sheet music, and the guidelines, it is up to you to follow them. If you follow the video guidelines and then replicate the pattern your kids will learn to play and read at least 5 songs in a week or less.

Do we think the Piano Wizard Academy is the only instruction you will ever need? We hope not, there are wonderful teachers out there ready to take you to the next levels of technique, phrasing, interpretation, improvisation, and the deeper arts of music.

But this game can take you surprisingly far, mainly because it lets you practice almost any song or passage, master that, and then go to the next level. The real gift and secret is that this is a joyful way to practice, and the music-making just comes.

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What are the system requirements for running the software?

• Our Next Gen 2.0 SOFTWARE is FULLY compatible with Mac OSX and Windows 98 through Windows 7 / 8 /10 – 32 and 64-bit systems.
• Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP /Vista/ Windows 7 / 8 / 10
• Macintosh Mac OS X versions 10.2.8 and higher but NOT compatible with Catalina or newer OS.
• 733+ MHz processor, 32 MB video card
• 200 MB free hard drive space
• Internet access to register, update game, and download more songs.

* Regarding our discontinued Premier Software, there is an issue with Vista upgraded to 7, a non-fresh install can cause issues but this has been resolved by using Windows XP Compatibility Mode when running the Piano Wizard Premier software.

The M-Audio KeyRig 49’s native software (LiveLite) is NOT compatible with Windows 7. This has no effect on usage with our game. The M-Audio KeyRig 49 also has issues with plug-and-play in some instances of Windows 7, however, that issue can be EASILY remedied by following a few simple steps on the M-Audio website. If you use Windows 8, please review Windows 8 Keyboard Troubleshooting.

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Will it run on an iPad or tablet?

No. You cannot run software programs on such devices, only “apps.”  That being said, we do have a Piano Wizard App for iPad in development.  It’s a much scaled-down version of our software and will not include all the extras you get with Academy, such as DVD’s, songbooks, etc.

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My computer doesn't have a CD Drive

We provide a downloadable version of our software so you need not worry about not having a CD Rom.

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What songs will I learn to play?

Piano Wizard software includes 200 songs – 100 lessons and 100 additional songs. Most are well-known recognizable traditional tunes ranging from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

You can also import any MIDI file from a song that you want to play and it will render into our 4-step game format.

For the best possible and most accurate learning solution, you’ll want a high quality professionally done MIDI file. If you are adept at MIDI programming, you can also create MIDI files yourself and load them into the game. This is very useful for teachers who want to add their curriculum to the game. Be wary of systems that focus on letting the student learn only with songs they like or want to play. There is “gold” in classical and traditional music and each song we include teaches a particular lesson, fundamental, or technique. Of course, after the lessons, with Piano Wizard’s MIDI file import feature, you can then start to learn songs you would like to play.

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How do I use the sheet music?

Our software includes 100 lessons (equivalent to 2 years of children's level curriculum).  With Academy Family Pack 50, we include video lessons and sheet music for the first 50 lessons.  Lessons 51-100 are self-taught.

The object is to go through Steps 1-4 in the game, then move on to the piano (or digital keyboard) to play the lesson by reading the corresponding sheet music.

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Does Piano Wizard teach Ear Training?

I’ve seen this question asked several times so I thought I should address it. The secret to ear training is repetition and there are several ways that Piano Wizard facilitates this. First of all the connection between a particular key on the piano and a particular sound is reinforced constantly and naturally with the game-play. The singing of the note names (when enabled) in steps 3 and 4 also reinforces this association.

What many people associate with ear training is the identification of musical intervals and chords. Piano Wizard does not address this directly, but games can be created by piano teachers or musically literate parents with the Free Play mode where they can both hear and see the notes and intervals and chords they create, making a very abstract drill a little more fun.

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Will learning with the color-coded system impede my child’s transition to a piano?

Not at all – and quite the opposite. There’s a reason we call Piano Wizard “training wheels for the piano”. When you learned how to ride a bike, you had training wheels. Then your parents took them off and held you until finally, you rode the two-wheeler on your own. The same process takes place with Piano Wizard (and the same excitement!). The transition is so natural through sensory learning and repetition that the color takeaway is hardly noticeable.

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How soon can I go from the game to sheet music?

At trade shows we regularly can take an absolute novice from zero to playing a simple song with both hands from levels 1 to 5 (reading the sheet music) in 10 to 20 minutes, depending on their inhibitions. (Some people have so much musical trauma from past bad experiences, that half the battle is getting them to stop criticizing themselves and talking themselves down, and try.

Those are the most amazed because they didn’t start at zero, they started at negative 50 in their minds.) Afterward, they are stunned at how much they learned, and the sheet music they just read. The mind is an incredible sponge, you just can’t fill it up with an eyedropper, you need to immerse it in action and interplay, and then it absorbs.

The short answer is YES. So fast you won’t believe it, even after you did it. And because it is open source converting any MIDI into a new game, any new song can be imported at will, there is no upper limit to what you can do. It is a self-contained music learning system for life.

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I don’t have a real piano.  How do I progress from the game to piano (Step 5)?

If you are serious about playing piano, eventually you’ll want a real one.  But if that’s not possible, digital keyboards will do.  While you are learning you can easily use your digital keyboard in step 5 (reading the sheet music).  If you are using our USB keyboard, just open up free play mode in the game.

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How Do I Use Piano Wizard Academy?

Please refer to How To Use Piano Wizard Music Learning System.
Additional instructions can be found in the game's help section, or in our KnowledgeBase and online tutorials.

Please be sure to watch the Academy QuickStart Course.

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What digital keyboards work with Piano Wizard?

Actually, any digital MIDI keyboard will work with the software. Please review our Keyboards page.

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I need help setting up my keyboard

Please review our Knowledge Base first, and then our Help Desk if needed. Also, review How To Connect Digital Keyboard To Computer

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Do you accept Purchase Orders?

Absolutely. Please fax your P.O. to 1-303-530-4217 or for more information click here. For more information on our school programs or to request a quote, please review our Bach2School page.

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Weren’t you guys working on a version for guitar called Guitar Wizard?

Yes, we were. Unfortunately, that project has been put on hold for now, although we still hope to have that fully developed in the future.

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It sounds just too good to be true.

We get that a lot – always from folks that haven’t tried it. But our system has been proven and we know it works. If you are still skeptical, we invite you to try it for yourself. Remember, we back it with our rock-solid money-back guarantee so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.