Piano - music & songs games

Review by eFreeware

Anyone who has wanted to try the piano without buying one, booking a teacher or committing to a weekly practice slot is the natural audience for this app. Piano by MWM turns a phone or tablet into a keyboard simulator, and the developer's pitch is that no prior experience is needed. What it offers is a way to learn chords and notes by playing songs you already know, rather than by working through abstract exercises first.

That framing is what makes it appealing. Instead of a silent, text-heavy tutorial, you get a virtual instrument with a song catalog attached, plus games and lessons layered on top to keep practice from feeling like homework. With more than 10 million installs and a 4.7 average across a large body of ratings, it is clearly reaching a wide audience, though that popularity says more about accessibility than about how far the teaching goes.

I'd treat it as a friendly entry point rather than a conservatory in your pocket. The app is built for people who want to touch a keyboard today, hear something recognizable come out of it, and decide later whether they want to go deeper.

A keyboard first, a teacher second

The centerpiece is the keyboard itself. The developer describes it as ultra-realistic, with HD music sound, and the app ships with five instrument voices: Grand Piano, Vintage Piano, Electric Piano, Church Organ and Harpsichord. That spread matters more than it might seem. A church organ and a harpsichord behave and sound nothing like each other, so having them on hand gives you a reason to keep returning to the same piece and hear it differently.

The keyboard can be set up as a single or double layout, and there is a pedal plus scrolling keys, which the developer presents as part of making the experience feel like a real instrument. For anyone who has only ever tapped a row of rectangles on a screen, the scrollable keyboard is the detail that makes longer pieces playable without shrinking the keys to nothing.

What I like about this arrangement is that the instrument is not locked behind the lesson system. You can treat the whole thing as a sound source, and the songs are simply the material you play on it. That keeps the app useful even when you are not in the mood to be scored or corrected.

Songs, games and lessons in one place

The catalog is broad by design. The developer lists famous songs, classic tracks and lullabies, and says thousands of piano classics are available to play for free. The mix is sensible for a general audience: recognizable hits for motivation, standards for technique, and gentler pieces for quieter moments.

On top of the songs sit music games and a lesson track. The games are the quick-learning layer, turning note practice into something with a score attached. The lessons are the more structured side, with hundreds of them written by professional musicians and the goal of mastering each track. Trying to hit every note cleanly and push your score higher is the loop the app is built around.

Then there is concert mode, which lets you play alongside an orchestra for each song. It is the most theatrical feature here, and it is the one I'd expect to be the most motivating for players who find solitary practice dull. Hearing a piece fill out around your part is a different experience from playing it alone, and it gives the catalog a second life once you can get through a song without stumbling.

Composing when you would rather not follow along

Free play mode is the other half of the app, and it is the part that has nothing to do with lessons. Free play is the place to compose your own music, using the simple or double keyboard as your workspace. For someone who wants to sketch a melody or test a chord progression, that is a straightforward offer: the instrument, five voices, and no song to keep up with.

I would not expect a full production suite here. The value is in the immediacy: you open the keyboard, pick a sound and start playing, without a project setup or a timeline to manage.

This is also where the app can outlast its own curriculum. Lessons have an endpoint; a keyboard you enjoy the sound of does not. If you find yourself using free play more than the games, that is a sign the instrument side is doing its job.

What it asks from you, and what it costs

The app is free to download and carries ads, and it also offers in-app purchases. That combination is worth knowing before you start, because it shapes the kind of experience you get: a free entry point with commercial elements alongside it. I would not assume anything about what the purchases unlock.

The other requirement is more practical. This is a touchscreen instrument, so a phone screen will always be a compromise compared with a tablet or a physical keyboard. The scrollable keyboard and the single or double layout options exist precisely because screen space is limited, and how comfortably you play will depend a lot on the device you bring to it.

Beyond that, the app asks for patience rather than prerequisites. The developer's claim is that no experience is necessary, and the lesson structure is aimed at people starting from nothing. If you already read music and play, the beginner framing will feel slow, and the appeal shifts toward the instrument voices and the song catalog rather than the teaching.

Getting the most from a first few weeks

The sensible approach is to pick one song you actually like and stay with it longer than feels natural. The scoring system rewards clean playing, so repeating a track until the notes stop surprising you teaches more than skimming through ten different pieces. Once a song feels comfortable, switching the instrument voice is an easy way to make the same practice feel new.

I would also use the lessons as a spine rather than a buffet. Hundreds of lessons are only useful if you work through them in some order, and the developer's framing suggests each one targets a specific track. Following that thread gives you a sense of progress that random song selection never will.

Concert mode is best saved for songs you can already play. Its appeal is playing your part while an orchestra carries the rest, and that only lands once you are not fighting the notes. Used that way, it works as a reward rather than a practice tool, which is a healthier place for it.

Finally, give free play a fair chance even if lessons are your main interest. Ten minutes of unstructured playing after a session is a good way to find out whether the chord shapes you have been drilling have actually stuck.

A welcoming start for curious beginners

Piano is a free, ad-supported keyboard simulator with in-app purchases, and it is at its best for people who want to try the instrument without any setup cost or prior knowledge. The combination of a playable keyboard, a broad song catalog, scored games, structured lessons and concert mode gives a beginner several routes into the same skill, which is more than most single-purpose practice apps attempt.

The limits are the ones you would expect from a touchscreen teaching tool. It is not a substitute for a real keyboard if you intend to develop serious technique, and the beginner orientation means experienced players will get more from the instrument voices and free play than from the curriculum. The ads and purchases are part of the deal.

For a curious adult, a teenager with a passing interest, or a parent looking for something a child can explore, this is an easy install to justify. It costs nothing to start, the songs give you something recognizable to aim at, and the lessons provide structure if you want it. If you have been meaning to find out whether piano is for you, this is a low-stakes way to ask the question.

What's new in version 3.62.00

Bug fixes and improvements.