As a beginner learning to play the piano, it’s important that you choose the method and lessons that suit you best. Selecting the source of your online piano lessons isn’t just a creative decision; it’s often a financial one, too.
Online piano lessons can be expensive, and the best solution might be to start with some free content. I’ve picked out the best free online piano resources, so there’s no excuse not to start learning now!
Why you should trust me
As a pianist with over 20 years of experience, I’ve approached piano education both as a student and a teacher.
Over the past two decades, I’ve tried and tested many teaching methods, developing a clear understanding of what works well for most students. More importantly, I can quickly identify teaching practices that lead beginners into bad habits.
Can I really learn to play the piano from free online lessons?
The short answer is yes, you can, but there are a few pitfalls to avoid along the way.
Most free piano education online is a preview of a paid course, including many of the resources listed below. But I’ve only included resources offering free content that will help you make genuine progress. So, if you study with any of the resources below and never upgrade to a paid subscription, you’ll still learn a lot.
However, you must have realistic expectations and know that you’ll unlikely go from beginner to professional with nothing but free content. With that in mind, I aim to help you avoid some pitfalls of searching for the best free online piano resources.
Plenty of free content provides little more than an advert for a paid product and wastes time. You can forget about the timewasters because this list only features resources offering a significant amount of free material.
Another pitfall of searching for free lessons is the lack of structure on popular platforms like YouTube. Without structure, students can waste time and effort working on material they are not ready for, leading to bad habits or even quitting.
While I can’t eliminate that problem entirely, I’ve limited the risk significantly by only listing resources that prioritize solid fundamentals and are easy for beginners to navigate.
These free lessons won’t make you a professional pianist, but they will take you some way through your beginner journey without spending a penny!
Here’s a list of all the free resources and apps I recommend for learning piano online:
- Piano Marvel
- Pianolessons.com
- Creative Piano Academy
- Perfect Ear
- PianoPig
- Jazz Skills
- Piano Lessons On The Web
- Music Tutor
- Pianonanny.com
Piano Marvel
Piano Marvel is my favorite online piano lesson platform; it doesn’t get much wrong at all. Piano Marvel is a paid platform that is well worth the money, but I’m glad to say that a free membership also has a lot to offer beginners.
A free membership for Piano Marvel provides access to over 200 piano lessons and 150 songs. The featured free lessons include over 25 video lessons and three sight-reading tests. The sight-reading tests are, in my opinion, the best online and a valuable practice tool for players of any level.
A free membership also comes with a free trial of Piano Marvel Premium, which provides access to premium features and most of the Piano Marvel music library for seven days.
Piano Marvel offers an in-depth series of theory and practical piano lessons that focus on building rock-solid fundamentals. The attention to detail shown by Piano Marvel and the refusal to rush or skip vital aspects of theory or technique is second to none.
I think most people who sign up for a free membership will probably upgrade, but even if you don’t, Piano Marvel is a fantastic place to start learning piano.
Read my full Piano Marvel review to find out more.
What I like
- Over 200 free lessons.
- 150 songs.
- Sight-reading tests.
- Great arrangements.
What I don’t like
- Not the most engaging for young students.
Pianolessons.com
Pianolessons.com is a free online piano resource from Pianote (check out my Pianote review) that has been around since 2009. More specifically, it’s the Pianote legacy archive, where Pianote started before changing the name.
Some of the content is older, and you can see a difference in video quality between old and new. But music theory hasn’t changed, so this material is still valuable, and I’m glad that Pianote decided to leave it online.
Pianolessons.com features Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced video lessons, many of which come with a downloadable PDF. Although it offers content beyond the beginner level, it’s best to stick to the beginner lessons and think of the more advanced stuff as a preview of what you’ll get if you decide to join Pianote.
What I love about Pianolessons.com is that it has enough material to get you at least halfway through the beginner stage. So, if you decide to join Pianote later, you should fly through the early lessons.
It also covers a wide range of topics and methods, from chord inversions to scales/modes and time signatures to song structures. It would have been a great shame to take this content offline when it’s still so helpful; it’s definitely one that beginners should check out.
What I like
- Wide range of content.
- Well-organized archive.
- Video lessons with PDF.
- Ear training.
- Various genres.
What I don’t like
- Older videos look dated (not as engaging).
Creative Piano Academy
Creative Piano Academy is an online piano lesson platform from the pianist Josef Sykora. Josef is a piano teacher with around 20 years of experience, and his platform offers a 12-day free trial that you can cancel anytime.
Rather than focus on Josef’s paid courses, I want to focus on the free Creative Piano Academy YouTube channel. Like all YouTube channels, students have to be careful that they are learning things in the correct order. The safest way to make sure you don’t try anything too advanced for your current level is to stick to videos marked for beginners.
The thing I like most about Josef is his delivery: he is one of the most relatable music teachers on YouTube. Josef has a way of communicating with his audience, which makes it feel like a friend is teaching you to play piano rather than a tutor. The most important aspect of his approach is that his lessons are highly productive while being fun and casual.
Josef focuses a lot on the basics and doesn’t skip as many steps as some YouTubers. He also introduces a lot of techniques that help beginners make simple techniques sound more polished and professional. If you want a fun but attentive teacher before committing to paid lessons, Josef might be the one for you.
What I like
- Excellent delivery.
- Lots of beginner content.
- Fun but productive lessons.
What I don’t like
- Free material only takes you so far.
Perfect Ear
Perfect Ear is a free music education app that offers sight-reading, rhythm, theory, and ear training lessons.
This app doesn’t teach users how to play the piano, but it covers a lot of essential lessons that many piano lesson platforms ignore. I recommend that students of all levels download the free Perfect Ear app and use it as a daily practice tool with additional piano lessons.
What I like most about Perfect Ear is that it teaches students to identify sounds by sight and sound. Most piano lesson platforms cover sight-reading, and that’s great, but in the real world of music, you won’t always have sheet music, and you might be expected to know what to play based purely on what you hear.
I love that Perfect Ear goes beyond identifying single notes: it covers scales, intervals, and chords (in varied degrees of difficulty). Once you start correctly identifying intervals and chords, you’ll hear them in songs on the radio or TV, making it much easier to learn new songs.
Ear training is the best way to start identifying common patterns in music rather than thinking of every piece as a new, unique challenge.
What I like
- Scale, interval, and chord training.
- Rhythm training.
- Sight-reading.
- Theory lessons.
- Singing exercises.
What I don’t like
- Offers in-app purchases.
PianoPig
PianoPig is one of the most popular piano-based channels on YouTube and has been since 2016 (over 30 million views). The channel offers a massive amount of free video content covering beginner, intermediate, and advanced ability levels.
Before I discuss what I like about PianoPig, I should say that beginners do have to be careful because the channel offers a lot of content that they won’t be ready for yet, and it’s easy to get lost.
One of the reasons PianoPig is so successful is that the channel publishes new lessons every single week (every Friday).
As a beginner, PianoPig walks you through the basics from middle C to your first scales and chords. As well as engagingly delivering information, PianoPig also breaks down elements of music in a way that a complete newbie can understand.
This thorough and logical approach remains the same whether the topic is easy or difficult, and I love it.
Another cool thing about PianoPig is that it can continue to help you beyond the beginner stage because it covers genuinely advanced topics, like jazz harmony and soloing (just make sure you are ready for them).
What I like
- Perfect explanation of musical concepts.
- Lots of beginner content.
- New lessons weekly.
- Great advanced lessons when you’re ready.
What I don’t like
- Beginners have to be careful to avoid more difficult lessons.
Jazz Skills
Jazz Skills is an online piano lesson platform and YouTube channel from Shan Verma. Shan Verma is a London-based jazz pianist and teacher with decades of experience.
I’d love to place Jazz Skills higher up the list because Shan is my favorite piano educator, but since it’s for jazz beginners, not absolute beginners, it’s fair to drop it down a few places. The Jazz Skills course is a paid product, so I’m focusing on the free YouTube content.
Shan studied with the legendary bebop pianist Barry Harris, and much of his teachings came from things he learned directly from Barry Harris. The main reason that I rate Shan so highly as a teacher is that he can simplify complex concepts in a way that other tutors struggle to offer.
Jazz Skills teaches in three levels, and if you’re a jazz beginner, I advise you to stick to the appropriate level. Students, especially in jazz, are often keen to fast-track themselves and learn the coolest, flashiest tricks and licks.
Jazz Skills focuses on teaching the language of jazz to help students develop creative freedom through solid fundamentals rather than copying others without understanding why. Shan is an incredible teacher.
What I like
- Barry Harris methods simplified.
- Outstanding teacher.
- Regular video uploads.
- Livestreams.
What I don’t like
- Not suitable for complete beginners.
Piano Lessons On The Web
Piano Lessons On The Web is a free YouTube channel with an accompanying paid music course. I’m focusing on the free YouTube channel and why it’s a helpful resource for beginners.
Piano Lessons On The Web is a channel created by Tim Wurm, a professional musician and educator. Tim started the channel in 2013 and has gained hundreds of thousands of followers.
One of the main qualities I look for in any YouTube piano lesson is that the teacher engages well with the target audience. Tim has a very casual, friendly approach and often references his time as a student, making him more relatable to his viewers.
Piano Lessons On The Web does a couple of things that I really like. First, it emphasizes the importance of routine. It doesn’t matter if you only have 10 minutes to practice each day; the important thing is that you make the most of those 10 minutes. Tim teaches practice routines that get results and fit into a busy schedule.
Second, I like that Piano Lessons On The Web covers elements of music that most YouTube channels don’t. For example, Tim will talk about piano books or other learning materials that helped him as a student. He also discusses common bad habits and the advice he wished he had as a beginner.
What I like
- Engaging videos.
- Practical advice.
- Useful routines and lessons.
What I don’t like
- Committed students will outgrow it quickly.
Music Tutor
Music Tutor is a free app that helps piano students improve their sight-reading skills through timed exercises.
The app is available for iOS and Android, and it comes with one catch: it contains ads. The ads aren’t overly intrusive, so it’s not a huge problem, but if it bothers you, a paid version without ads is available for a few dollars. The exercises found on both the free and paid versions are exactly the same.
Music Tutor gamifies exercises by keeping track of top scores on a leaderboard. The idea is to correctly identify as many correct notes as you can in the given period. Incorrect notes aren’t an automatic fail, but they will affect your accuracy rating.
The exercises are simple, using one note from the treble or bass clef at a time. However, being against the clock makes it easy to miss accidentals (sharps/flats), of which there are plenty.
Music Tutor isn’t going to teach you to play piano, but it’s a fun and valuable free resource that will work well in combination with piano lessons.
What I like
- Gamified exercises.
- Easy-to-use.
- 5-10 minutes per day makes a huge difference.
What I don’t like
- Ads in free app.
Pianonanny.com
Pianonanny.com is a 100% free online piano resource featuring lessons from Clinton Clark. Clinton Clark is an award-winning pianist and composer who primarily plays jazz and classical music.
There are a few things I like about Pianonanny.com immediately, starting with the fact that it’s entirely free and you have a very credible teacher. I also like that it’s been around for such a long time, and it’s still going strong. Pianonanny.com, formerly Piano on The Net, has been teaching piano since 1994, which is incredible.
If there is a downside, it’s that the website could do with a refresh; it’s too old-fashioned. However, it’s hard to complain too much when it’s free of charge.
The content comes in three categories: Starter Studies, Intermediate Studies, and Advanced Studies. Lessons are a mix of text, images, and audio files. I think younger kids will struggle to engage with this format, but it’s absolutely fine as a starting point for teens and adults.
The advanced content isn’t genuinely advanced, but I believe completing all three courses from Pianonanny.com will make life much easier when you move on to a new platform, teacher, or school.
What I like
- 100% free always.
- Established teacher.
- Long track record.
What I don’t like
- Outdated.
- Not engaging enough.
Conclusion
It’s important to remember that these resources are an ideal first step and not the entire journey. If you work through the free material above, beginner piano lessons will soon be an easy task, and you’ll be heading towards the intermediate level.
Don’t take any shortcuts, and you’ll get more from these free resources than you might from many paid options.
Recent updates
- March 25, 2024: I’ve made minor improvements to the article structure. No changes in resource recommendations.
- October 23, 2023: I’ve compiled the original list based on my experience with the tested platforms.
