There are so many different options for those who want to learn how to play the piano themselves without having lessons in person. You can easily get confused by all of the applications and online platforms allowing you to learn the piano, but we’re here to help. In this guide, we’re comparing Flowkey and Yousician, two of the most popular platforms for piano learning out there. Which is best for you? Which features do you value and which will be the most suitable for the style of piano you are looking to learn?
Learning Piano or Learning Other Instruments?
In this guide, we’re looking at learning how to play the piano. As well as piano lessons, Yousician offers a variety of other lessons for those who want to learn how to play the guitar or even other instruments like ukulele. These are not all built into the same app, and Yousician offers different apps for different instruments. In this guide we’re just looking at Yousician’s piano app.
Flowkey is just about piano learning and doesn’t feature other instruments. You can still learn sheet music, music theory and even a variety of different songs. The songs are embedded within the apps to help you to learn how to play complex piano techniques.
Prices – Is Flowkey or Yousician Better Value?
One of the reasons people are often left with the decision of Yousician or Flowkey is the fact that they are both very similarly priced. People who are looking to get started learning piano are often looking to get the best value for money. So how do these two stack up in terms of cost?
Both have monthly pricing, if you only want to pay for one month at a time. $19.99 per month is the price if you don’t want to subscribe for a longer period of time. If you do wish to subscribe to either service for longer periods of time then you can save a huge amount of money as a piano learner. This is especially true if you compare the price of the subscriptions to how much you would pay for a music teacher or piano teacher to visit you and teach you how to play.
Yousician costs $119.99 per year for the standard edition and $179.99 per year for Yousician plus, which includes all of the songs in their catalog.
Flowkey costs $119.99 per year if you opt for the “billed every 12 months” option. You can also pay for a lifetime membership, which costs $329.99 and for the rest of your life you can have access to the application and all of the songs within the Flowkey library.
All of these prices are for those based in the USA. If you subscribe somewhere else in the world the pricing might vary slightly. This is true for both apps.
Both apps offer free trials for the short term. This means you can get started and work out which one of the apps you prefer the layout of before making a choice. They are very similarly priced, so this probably won’t swing your decision one way or the other.
Best Piano for Learning On Flowkey or Yousician
Both of these apps can be used with either acoustic or digital pianos. If you are looking for an option for learning how to play the piano that works with your acoustic piano, it will use the microphone of the device it is installed on to pick up the notes you are playing and interact in this way.
Both of these apps are interactive and fine for use on both digital pianos and acoustic pianos. Both are better at working out the notes you are playing if you connect using a USB cable. The acoustic piano technology of using a microphone via the app is not without flaws.
Flowkey can’t do this quite as well as Yousician. In general, the Yousician app seems to do a better job of establishing whether or not you are playing notes correctly from an acoustic piano. Flowkey doesn’t quite have the same accuracy. From digital piano options and keyboards there is very little difference, and you can get reliable feedback by being connected via a USB cable. The best piano or keyboard to use in conjunction with these apps is something that has a USB-MIDI connection.
Interface
Being able to use the applications to reliably learn how to play the piano means having an interface that you enjoy using. There is not much difference when we are comparing Yousician vs Flowkey for quality of their interface. Both of the apps are very straightforward.
With Yousician, you can log on to use a “Quick” lesson, “Casual” lesson, or the 30-minute “Intense” lesson. These are prompted when you log onto the platform.
Both platforms allow you to switch between video, interactive lessons, and learning songs relatively easily. They are simple to navigate and work well on a desktop or if you are using it via an app. Applications are probably the most common way they are utilized, as people install them on an iPad and then use them while they are playing on their digital piano.
Flowkey might be a little more intuitive when it comes to altering lessons and making changes in order to suit your own musical needs at any specific time, and as your ability levels advance. You can choose to learn in slow or fast modes, and loop certain sections if you are trying to get to grips with more difficult aspects of a song. You can also choose to play one hand at a time.
Flowkey Vs Yousician for Learning Sheet Music
A lot of people opt against reading sheet music. In this day and age, it is possible to learn by ear and not everyone wants to know the ins and outs of music theory. We can watch tutorials and learn by watching and listening rather than using sheet music like we would have had to many years ago.
If you do still want to get to a stage where you are comfortable reading sheet music then you need to get to grips with sheet music and learning a piano musical staff and all the other “traditional” aspects of music theory.
Yousician has a few downsides when it comes to learning theory. We’re splitting hairs a little bit, as it is still certainly more than possible to learn on this app, and it is still a very good way to pick up the piano, but Flowkey is maybe a little more suited to those reading sheet music.
Allows note-reading crutches – In-person teachers usually try to phase out aides like colors and labels as soon as possible, but Yousician lets you keep them in as long as you want, which makes it harder to adjust to sheet music outside of the app.
With Yousician, you can’t print out the sheet music from the app. Even though you will learn many of the aspects of sheet music by playing through the songs, you can’t print them for reference. Some users have said that they don’t get the same feel for playing music as everything stays within the application.
With Flowkey, you can see the music at the bottom of the screen alongside learning the songs “live”. The sheet music follows the tutorial so that you can combine the two, seeing the notes in the top half and the musical staff at the bottom. Gradually, this will help you to learn more about theory.
Video Content
A quick word on video content. If you are looking to compare Yousician vs Flowkey for video content, you should know that both have a few basic videos, but nothing like some of the video-based courses on Udemy or other online learning platforms. If you are in the market for something interactive then either Flowkey or Yousician can be good choices, but for a video approach to piano learning then you might get more from other types of courses.
Both have video content within to get you through some of the basics and learn more about the very basics of playing the piano, such as posture, but the majority of learning is actually done within the app by going through the interactive lessons.
Included Songs
Both of these apps have a huge number of songs available if you download the full version and pay for a subscription. Yousician offers over 1,000 songs to learn! Flowkey has a huge number of songs, too, and this is getting updated all the time. The songs can be loaded in their interactive interface and allow you to learn in the simplest way possible, and with Flowkey you can control speed and which hand you are using.
If you are looking to get the most music choice, you might think that Yousician is the better option, but you should also consider that you only get access to all of their songs on the “plus” version of their app. Flowkey allows you access to all of their library once you have signed in, with no extra monthly supplement to access these.
Some other apps, such as Playground Sessions, only allow you five songs a month, after which you have to pay for each one individually.
Conclusion – Which of Flowkey vs Yousician is For You?
So, how can you make your final decision? Which is better out of these two piano learning platforms? Both are extremely highly rated piano learning apps. It is more about establishing which of the features are most suited to you. For example, if you want to use an acoustic piano then you will find that Yousician probably has more accuracy than Flowkey.
For music theory, some will find the “inline” piano staff within the interface of Flowkey to be the ideal choice.
We certainly recommend downloading both of the applications and taking advantage of the free trials so that you can play around and see which app is the better choice for you. It could be that after a few hours of use, you work out which app has the best functionality for you, or a learning style you prefer. Both apps have their merits and one may be better than the other for your own needs, though both do a brilliant job in their own way!
