I have reviewed many piano courses since beginning as a music director in the seventies and your course is by far the best I have reviewed and studied. Now as a pastor I am excited to be able to share it with our piano students and seasoned pianists serving in our ministry. Thank you for sharing your love for music and especially your emphasis on congregational accompaniment.

Tim Sparks

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In a nutshell, it was an absolutely incredible experience to go through the content/techniques, samples and your experience. I have been playing keyboards since over 15 years and it was a pain to understand how to get these special harmonies/ sounds/ progressions going beyond the usual chords. I have referred to a number of sources and purchased the courses without much success in increasing my understanding and the skill level. It is your course which I think provides a very well insight into the aspect of reharmonization.

E.g. There are many courses that explain how to organise a 9th/ 11th/ 13th chord however it is only you who were spot on to teach that we should try and put the melody note on the 11th/ 13th and take it 'off the scale'. This was amazing.

I must say, I was very impressed and for this content I would have happily paid double. You should consider repricing this particular course.. :-)

A. D.

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Your presentation of the lessons are great and the lessons are very informative and interesting. I love your teaching style and it's a lot of fun to listen to you and then watch your demonstrations on the piano of what you've covered, all of which are very clear and easy to understand.

Barbara

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I really enjoyed your course on congregational accompaniment! I am currently beginning to play hymns using your octave interval tip as outlined in your course. I find it challenging and rewarding to incorporate this tip into our worship service. I hope in the future to order another course from you and would highly recommend your course to any pianist who desires to play better!

Darlene Hoggatt, Montana

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Very good stuff - informative, straight to the point, useful and helpful in teaching myself to play the piano...

Peter, England

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I received the DVD's last week, started one and have been encouraging my friends who are pianists to sit down and watch the DVD's with me . Every course you offer is either an area that I needed to know how to teach others, an area I desired for self improvement, or any area I had given up believing I could do.

I am inspired to keep learning because the DVD's offer the tools to actually improve my skills in a systematic, easy to understand format. Having the DVD is like bringing my own teacher to Brazil.

I have been here for four years participating on a team that is church planting, working in the areas of music and teaching. My primary goal with those I receive as students is to help equip the local church in the are of music; thus, I train to the specific end of developing hymn players. This course seems tailored to my situation-- improving my skills and visualizing the specific steps to pass on to others as I teach here. Because of how you have organized your courses, I have a clearer sense of what I could teach as a class (theory, charting songs, etc.) here at the Bible college.

Thank you so much for investing so much time into the video clips, links and DVD's. It is HUGE to me that the Lord brought all this across my path.

Tati Cordeiro

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Your DVD's have helped me understand things concerning chords that have had me confused for a long time. The DVD on charting a song has been an eye-opener in learning the relationship of one chord to another. I had learned to play what was on the score but never before understood the theory behind the music. You have explained difficult things in easily understood terms.

Charles Dicks

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I have just about finished previewing the three movies contained in this package. I have been playing for about 20+ years and for the most part self instructed with the exception of some very brief periods where I had the time to take some { music Therapy as I called it} with a great pianist here in NYC. I must tell you how much I enjoyed the lessons so far. I have really just watched them through at this point, and worked a little on some of the instruction, however, you manner of teaching and spirit is great to listen to and be around. I have not played in a Church now for about two years but am open to Gods leading as He wills, but in the meantime, this is fantastic instruction and I will persevere in it for a while to come. Thanks for the great job you have done on this production of the DVD and the patient manner in which you teach.

Charlie V.

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I am thirteen years old, and I'm from Singapore. The concepts you taught were quite easy to understand, although I did have to watch it a few times to grasp them fully. Although I have almost no knowledge of theory and charting, the lesson helped me very much area such as open voicing, open arpeggios, rubato, and very importantly, 7ths. I have not really added a lot of color notes, but I found a few that seem to always work. For example, in the key of G major, if there is a D major chord, I like to add an Eb, which is the flat 9th. One color note that I picked up from your arrangement of Just As I Am is the G7 (b9th). It worked very well in the key of C major, especially in the hymns Just As I Am and Sweet Hour of Prayer. I am still trying to apply your concepts to other more complex keys and chords.

Bryner Lee

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Hi Greg, thank you so much for your ministry. My friend bought me the arranger's package for Christmas and I just ordered the church musician's package, and I'm really excited to use these tools. Already, I am seeing improvements with my harmonies and such.

Carise F.

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I have been reading the website for a couple of years and just decided that I should go ahead and order. Greg teaches so you can really understand. I am a music major and have been involved in music for many years. The problem is that I first took all my music theory 15 years ago and have started back to try to get my degree finished....well, I have found that you don't remember theory if you don't apply it and use it. So I can hardly wait to start working on my new lessons. Thanks you for making them affordable and offering all the free lessons and short clips.

Sheila Bishop

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A couple days ago I downloaded a free course on Mood Music off of Greg Howlett's website. I would recommend it to anyone! I really like the way Greg makes things sound so easy and simple! I definitely have a lot of things to keep me busy improving! This is one of those areas that I have never quite gotten mastered and this course has a lot of good tips in it for me to work on!

Paul H.

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Thank you for putting these courses together. I have just finished doing your Chart a song course and can already sight identify chords in C, F and G. I appreciate your teaching method and i like the way you present yourself

Raelene

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I bought your piano course for my daughter. She is on lesson one...her piano teacher and I thought she she stay there for a year to be thoroughly comfortable with all the chords. She is going to be 12 in February and I am so thankful that she is learning this now. I know your method is going to help her be a wonderful church pianist someday. I am so thankful she loves music. My greatest dream for her is that she will play for the Lord. Your method is so great because you give precise instruction. I can't say enough how much I appreciate what you have done for future Christian musicians!

Delaine Harvey

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I am enjoying several of your lessons that you made available this year. I have learned a lot and still trying to apply may concepts. The more that I practice and try the things that you teach, it becomes easier for me. Now, when I play, several of the sub chords are becoming second nature. I mainly play by ear but I can read music but I prefer not to read if I can by with it. I used the hymnal, etc as a guide and improvise much.

Adam

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First and foremost I must thank you for all of your teaching. I cannot express how much I've learned from it. Last night I improvised the offertory for my church (I had an idea of the harmony I would use, but that's about all that was prepared beforehand). Much like you have mentioned recently in the blog, the improvised arrangement got a more meaningful response compared to other more organized, formal, and advanced arrangements I've played in the past. Needless to say, after experiencing what this is like I really want to learn the art of improvising, however difficult it may be. I'll be using Inspirational Improvisation to help with that.

Danny Gardner

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Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into the "Inspirational Improvisation" DVD's. The section that was most valuable to me as a pianist was the voicing section. The chart you included on pg 15 of the booklet is invaluable. I have never seen anything like that for explaining voicing. I also enjoyed the minor chord substitutions, explanation of color notes, and step progression. If your plans are to do more DVD's, I am personally interested in advanced chord substitution, more voicings, and advanced chord progressions.

This particular series would be difficult for intermediate pianists and for pianists without music degrees. I am thankful to have two degrees in piano performance, however not one of them, or the thousands of piano lessons I have taken, have ever covered the topics in your series, leading me to become a very frustrated church pianist!! For the past several years I have worked to include improvisation in my own teaching curriculum.

Kerry Turner

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Hi I ordered and downloaded the course on reharmonization last week. Thanks for your teaching - I am enjoying putting it into practice! I realise I was using some of the techniques already - 7ths, and some chord substitution (especially minor ones - what I would call II and VI).

Caroline C.

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I recently purchased your DVD set on Improvisation, and I can't tell you how much I have gotten out of it already. I have been playing the piano for years and like yourself have a classical background. I have read several books on theory and jazz and only with the help of your instruction have been able to start putting two and two together.

Gregg Plese, Tyrone, GA

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I recently bought and watched your course. I am doing what you suggested and going over the 5 chords in Lesson 1. Overall the course is excellent. A lot of courses like this hold back hoping for a part 2 and 3 just to make more money. You gave a lot of information that would take awhile to get through.

Bob D., Chicago, IL

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I am an older lady that has played the piano for a small conregation for many years. However, I did not read music and really only chorded. I finally purchased some playing by ear and Inpsirational Improvisation. I also began to take piano lessons from a classicly trained pianist because I wanted my music to sound pretty. I have been taking piano lessons for about 8 months, and have been working on the ear training stuff also (inversions, I-IV-V song structure, etc.). I love your teaching and I have found so much of your material interesting.

Trina

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I purchased your Reharmonization DVD and now the Reflections CD. I really enjoy your music ministry very much. I am 52 years old and have played in many Churches in the NYC area for a while now. I am self taught for the most part, if there is such a thing, and I think your lessons will help me very much. I enjoy your approach and manner; it is very heart felt and really just like sitting there and having a one on one lesson.

Charles Vacca

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