The Method, from the first note to the concert platform

Each level opens with what it is for, the exam grades it roughly matches, how long it usually takes and what is new in it. Its lessons follow in order, numbered by level and place: F.3 is the third lesson of Foundation, 5.2 the second lesson of Level 5.

A lesson pairs an idea with one piece, in five steps, the way the app plays them:

1. New idea. The lesson’s theory cards, each just before the first practice that uses its idea. Their questions come in the level’s Musicianship.
2. Warm-up. One short exercise in the key of the piece (a five-finger pattern, a scale or an arpeggio): right hand, left hand, then both hands, slowly.
3. The piece. The passages the lesson assigns, bar by bar: right hand, left hand, then both hands, each at 60, 80 and 100% of its tempo. Slower practice, at any tempo you type, is always there.
4. Fix and polish. The hardest passages with both hands, then the joins between sections, then the whole piece up to tempo.
5. Perform it. Where the lesson asks for it, the whole piece at full tempo, once through as a performance.

Four parts climb the 14 levels, each on its own: a part moves up when it meets its own goal, and one can be far ahead of another.

Pieces are the lessons. Where a lesson offers alternatives, any one of them fills it; from Level 3 you may choose your own piece for each style, and the lesson’s idea stays the same.

Technique climbs its own ladder of scales, arpeggios, chords and exercises, each step with its own tempo up to the target.

Reading is music you have not seen: unseen pieces in rounds of four, each read once without stopping, and a reading test you can take at any time, which finds your reading level phrase by phrase.

Musicianship comes in units, one beside each lesson: theory questions from the level’s cards, ear training, rhythm reading and keyboard harmony (cadences, chords under a melody, lead-sheet voicings, figured bass).

Each level closes with a Level check, judged like a conservatory exam. Your hands stay on the keys: between runs, C on the piano repeats a block and D goes on.

The styles are named as in the app: Baroque · Classical · Romantic · Modern, jazz and dance · Studies. Beside the styles, Changes plays your chord progression with a band in any key and tempo, and a piano, guitar or saxophone soloist that develops each chorus and trades bars with you; any of it becomes piano practice.