Skoove Review – The Piano app for beginners

Skoove is one of the most popular piano learning apps available. It has online piano lessons, but it also provides content on how to read notation and play chords too.

This app is available on Android, iOS and Mac and Windows operating systems so there is no excuse not to try it. To use this app, all you have to do is hook up your keyboard, hopefully, you have one already, and start following the lessons.

They come with notes on hand positions when playing the piano as well as sheet music for you to read along with.

Skoove states that their app “is the easiest way to learn piano“. So, we should find out how good this app is for learning and if it really is the easiest way to learn piano.

Skoove Review

First thing is first, you have installed the app, it gives you three options. These options are to provide information on your experience with playing the piano so far;

• None
• Basic
• Advanced

It’s a good decision to try Basic if it’s been a while since you’ve played piano, or if you’re brand new to the instrument.

You are then asked to sign up to the app using Facebook, Google account or email address. Once the sign up is finished, you are offered a free trial to use Skoove at the premium level, you can skip this offer with the ‘X’ in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Most people will start by learning the notes of the James Bond theme tune. The videos are extremely short and they can be a little confusing at first about when you are supposed to be playing and when you are supposed to be watching.

After watching the video, you can then interact by playing what you just learned – your device will listen and tells you if you are doing it right.

If you make too many mistakes at the end of the video you will be restarted on that particular practice. The free content is extremely limited learning just the first part to two songs preselected for you like the intro to Skoove, but it gives you a good taste of what to expect whilst using this app.

Skoove Levels

Piano Beginner 1: This is the most basic level that Skoove offers, it looks at rhythm, correct playing posture and notation learning.

Piano Beginner 2: This is where you learn how to play using both hands.

Piano Beginner 3: This is where you will learn why we use two hands to play the piano and how it benefits you whilst playing.

Piano Songs Beginner: This area looks at learning songs such as My Heart Will Go On at the most basic level.

Beginner Theory: This area teaches notation as well as gives a better understanding of areas such as rhythm and notes.

This is not something that you have to learn to play, but from experience, it is better to start learning it early on in your journey.

Piano Intermediate: Like the beginners’ course, this is made up of three levels. It looks at inversions and chord variants and gives a more comprehensive look at areas you should be familiar with.

Pros and Cons of Skoove

Skoove is definitely made for beginners just starting to learn the piano, it has a really good collection of tutorials to learn the fundamentals of theory and practice.

Skoove can also be used alongside a digital or acoustic piano depending on what you are using to learn whereas most apps require a digital keyboard to play along with.

The lessons themselves, visually are great, sheet music runs along the top with a demonstration of what to play is underneath.

The app seems to quite literally dive straight into teaching – normally this is a good thing, but in this instance it made the process feel rushed like it was just trying to get you through to free stuff to convince you to continue.

It has a good collection of songs for you to learn from, although not the biggest from other similar apps. One noticeable issue you may see with the Skoove app is that the sheet music is simplified massively to align with the level of programme you are using.

This means if you learned something through the app, once you get to the advanced stage of the song, you will only know how to play that song the same way the course creators interpreted it.

This may not sound like the original piece of music you are playing, which is a bit annoying.

Features of the app

Skoove has a whole variety of features that make up its curriculum and it lays it out simply:

Chords and Scales: To help you along in the journey, Skoove helps you to understand the importance of chords and scales in music theory as well as examining progressions.

Pop Piano: Here you learn everything you need to learn pop songs on the piano, it gives you chord progressions to work on as well as demonstrates how to improvise where needed.

Keyboard for producers: This is quite a unique feature of Skoove, it helps the user learn how to digitally produce music. It teaches you about aspects of producing such as modulation and the Mixolydian scale.

This area is not geared towards beginners, so if you are new to playing the piano, don’t go onto this part for a while because it requires some experience.

Common Questions about Skoove

Conclusion

Learning something like an instrument is never going to be easy. But after going through the Skoove app, this is actually one of the easiest ways to learn the piano.

It has a lot of great stuff for all levels with a particular leaning on the beginners’ area. The style of teaching that Skoove uses makes the process smooth and allows you to set the pace of your learning no matter how fast or slow you wish to take it.

Skoove is budget-friendly and with covid-19 offers even more free lessons to help you continue doing something you love.

It has a large repertoire of lessons and support as well as gives a great overview of music theory to help you understand music better. It is definitely something I would recommend to people looking to play the piano, particularly if you are just starting out.