flowkey User Reviews

flowkey – Learn Piano

flowkey GmbH

Education

Music

Reviews Summary

Positive highlights

🎓

This app hasComprehensive lessons and courses for beginners to advanced players

🎹

This app hasWide selection of songs across different genres and difficulty levels

🔍

This app hasAbility to isolate and practice specific sections of songs

🕰️

This app hasFlexible learning pace with options to slow down or loop sections

👀

This app hasVisual aids like hand positioning and note highlighting

🤖

This app hasResponsive note detection and feedback

🌟

This app hasMotivating and engaging learning experience

🌍

This app hasCloud sync to access progress across devices

Negative highlights

💰

This app hasExpensive subscription model, especially for the yearly plan

📜

This app hasLimited sheet music availability, making it difficult to practice independently

🔇

This app hasInconsistent note recognition and MIDI support, especially on non-digital pianos

🧭

This app hasLack of navigation options to easily jump between sections of a song

🕰️

This app hasFrustrating when the app gets stuck or jumps around during lessons

🔍

This app hasOverwhelming amount of information on the screen at times, especially for beginners

🎨

This app hasDesire for more customization options like background and song selection views

Top reviews

Most RecentHighest RatedLowest Rated

My savior

Ok, I never write reviews... like ever, but this app deserves it. I am completely new to piano, never have taken a lesson in my life and while I have been trying, I couldn’t play with two hands to save my life, that is until I found this app. Even though I have only played through a little bit of the beginner songs, I CAN FINALLY PLAY WITH TWO HANDS!!!!! I have tried everything, besides a teacher because I like to learn by myself, and this app is the only thing so far that has helped me to play simultaneously with two hands, and actually play the piano well. It allows you to go at your own pace and slow songs down, and while it’s a little pricy, heck, I might even buy a subscription. So to all my newbies who also have no idea how to play and are loosing hope, this app helped me, and although you can only access a few songs before buying a subscription, I recommend it for the short time you can use it before it blocks off.

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mouse642

6 years ago

Could be much better

The wait mode functionality on this app is quite frustrating. This is the mode in which the song waits until you hit the right key before moving on. Without MIDI functionality on your keyboard you are stuck with it trying to recognize sounds through your phone mic. There is no keyboard calibration setup or anything to let the app know what sound corresponds to what key on your keyboard. So if your piano is slightly out of tune or if you have a cheap electronic keyboard like myself, it has a hard time picking up certain notes. This severely disrupts my flow during a song when I have to repeat a key until it finally recognizes, or it randomly skips notes sometimes. As a beginner i find the sections that are hardest to learn are the ones were I have to repeat notes because it cannot properly recognize them.

Also if I search a song that I would like to play, i can’t add it to “my songs” to save it for later. It appears that you can only save songs to your list if you so happen to come across it going through the songs tab and clicking through categories and scrolling forever trying to find the song you want to save. Very inconvenient.

Much to be desired after paying $100 for this app....

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Zagmongor

6 years ago

Response from developer

Thanks so much for your honest feedback. I'm really sorry to hear that the note detection isn't working well with your keyboard. Sometimes, it helps to change the piano voice on your keyboard. Most keyboards have several different piano sounds, so that's definitely worth a try. I can imagine how cumbersome practicing can be if you have to hit the keys several times. When you are on an iPad, you can mark songs as a favourite in the search by clicking on the cover art. The audio preview will start and in the low right-hand corner of the app, you'll see the heart icon to mark it as a favourite. On smartphones, we don't have this option yet (due to the limited space). However, I will make sure that this will be discussed again with the development team since I can totally understand why it would be convenient to have on smartphones as well. If there is anything else we can help you with, please feel free to write us an email to support@flowkey.com or send a message via our in-app messenger.

Worst ever app I have use. Can’t event recognize the piano sound

Thanks for the charge

Mister rich

6 years ago

Response from developer

We're sorry to hear that you are experiencing such issues with the tone recognition. Our support team will be glad to help you with this as quickly as possible, please make sure to get in touch for any further help you might need. We hope we can resolve everything quickly for you so that you can enjoy learning with us: support@flowkey.com or via our in-app messenger

Bad Audio Recognition

I purchased a 1 month membership for Flowkey, and at this point I don’t feel it was worth it due to the poor note recognition/clumsy software. I get false reads/misreads fairly regularly, so whether it be I’m jamming the correct key until it hears me and I can proceed with the song, or it proceeds through a part I’m playing incorrectly (or not at all), it’s always frustrating and I don’t feel like I’m getting much out of it. This is particularly prevalent in two-handed learning. I know it’s a software issue because Yousician, which does virtually the same thing, proceeds almost flawlessly every time under identical circumstances. This is probably because it has an actual calibration menu, unlike Flowkey—maybe Flowkey expects you to be playing on an actual piano, whereas I’m on a smaller electric keyboard. It’s too bad, as Flowkey does feel like the more formally instructive option, but I must say I’m disappointed.

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kentahallis

6 years ago

Not what I had hoped for

So let me begin by saying I have been taking piano lesson from a teacher for 3yrs and this app is not something I would consider dumping my teacher for. The scrolling songs are interesting but to difficult to keep up with to learn the songs. If you are new to piano you will probably not catch on. I can read notes and play piano pretty well and I had trouble. The catch for me was they don’t allow you to download the songs and print them out. You have to go to another website and pay 6 dollars per song more if you want an actual copy of the song. A hard copy of the songs is important for learning the song so you can go at your own speed and not the speed the site sets for you. Even at a 50% speed can be to fast for a beginner. This is not a site I will continue to use. I will look elsewhere.

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colleen0523

6 years ago

Unable to upgrade to premium

It's showing that payment is successful and immediately showing it is failed!!!!

tinku4466

6 years ago

Response from developer

Thanks for reaching out to us. We're sorry to hear that and we'd love to help you as quickly as possible with this. Could you try to use the option "Restore Purchases" within the flowkey app? On an iPhone, please click on "My Songs" at the bottom of the screen. In the section "My Songs", please click on the cogwheel icon in the upper left-hand corner. A window will open where you can select "Restore Purchases" . On an iPad, you'll find the cogwheel icon in the lower left-hand corner when you enter the app. Clicking on "Restore purchases" will unlock Premium immediately. We hope this already does the trick! If you need further help with this, it would be great if you could get in touch with our support team via our in-app messenger or via mail: support@flowkey.com

Gentle Pace

My first introduction to the keyboard, thanks to my complementary course courtesy of Keyflow, allowed me to experience and remember certain key positions.
I found the tutorial selection of music pieces to be memorable and having a memory of the teaching piece allowed me to try harder to mimic the melody.
If I had a complaint about the method of teaching then it would be the waiting for the green tick to acknowledge my progress. Some of the periods which left me waiting for the tick seemed to go on for quite a long time and this had the effect of loosing my concentration even whilst I was very eager to learn. If my enthusiasm to learn led me to go too quickly through the tutorial and my iPad had difficulty in keeping up then I apologise, but at the same time I would urge you to extend the program so that the course can take account of faster pupils.
Kind regards Ray.

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dullstar1

6 years ago

Response from developer

Thanks for your feedback. It's great that you like learning with our app so far and we're sorry to hear that the note recognition via microphone so far didn't let you practice as smoothly as you'd wish to. If you're playing on an acoustic piano, there are some adjustments that can sometimes help to improve. the tone recognition. However, in case you're playing on an electronic piano, you might be able to connect directly via cable, which would resolve these issues immediately and let you practice with a fast and precise note recognition via MIDI/USB. Many electronic instruments provide either a "USB to Host" port for connecting via a normal USB printer cable (Type B to Type A) and in combination with a "Camera Connection Kit" from Apple you can connect your instrument with your iOS device. Some electronic pianos have an older MIDI 5-pin port instead. For this you'll need a "MIDI to USB" cable, which you can find online or in your local music shop. Again, in combination with a "Camera Connection Kit" you can connect to your iPad or iPhone. If you need any further assistance, our support team would love to help you out. Feel free to get in touch anytime via our in-app messenger or via mail: support@flowkey.com

Inconsistent

Lower notes not always or immediately recognized by the app when playing on the piano

ngoverno

6 years ago

App is great except for a few bugs

As an absolute beginner this App is great. My only complaint is that the function where the app waits for you to hit the correct note is troublesome when the app doesn’t hear the correct note even when you play it. For me it seems to hate the notes of E and F, whenever I get to these notes I have to repeat a few times before the app moves on (no matter the volume). Other than that, I have found the app very useful

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miss frosmo

6 years ago

Misleading prices watch out

This company missed lead me to think that I was paying a discounted price for the holidays. They discounted it from 999 and then charge you American. Which ends up probably being about the same price

Mattymachine

6 years ago

Response from developer

Sorry to hear that there was a misunderstanding about the currency. When you buy a subscription on the App Store, you will be charged in your local currency. In our browser app (for laptop or PC), the pricing is in US dollar which is indicated on the pricing page. But I can understand that if one expects the local currency, this can be quickly overlooked.