The method
Learn it by ear, with someone talking you through it
Encordia Piano is built on two ideas. The first is that you learn music faster when you start from sound rather than notation. The second is that a teacher is more useful than a score screen, because a teacher can explain, demonstrate and notice all at once.
A lesson, step by step
Choose the song you want to play
Your goal is a piece of music, not a course number. Everything the app does from then on is in service of getting you there.
Get the skills it depends on
Each song rests on chords, hand shapes and listening skills. Those become a path, in dependency order, so you are never asked for something you have not been shown.
Learn each idea out loud
The teacher explains, then demonstrates on a 3D keyboard, then waits for you to play it. It hears the notes as they arrive and responds without breaking stride.
Prove it, briefly
Short quizzes check the idea landed — play this chord, name what you just heard, play back that phrase. Answers are judged against the music, not estimated.
Take the song a few bars at a time
At the piece itself, you work in chunks by ear: listen, play it back, one hand or both. The app shows which notes matched and which did not.
Let review come back to you
Skills fade. Encordia brings old material back into the rotation as it cools, so your foundation does not quietly crumble while you push ahead.
Why by ear
Sound first, symbols later
You hear harmony instead of decoding it
Working from sound teaches you what a minor chord does, not just where it sits on a page. That is the knowledge that lets you play something you only just heard.
Your hands learn the shapes
Chords become physical patterns you reach for, rather than stacks of symbols you translate one note at a time.
It transfers
Reading is a separate skill worth learning, and one you can add later. Playing by ear is the one that makes you useful at a piano at a party.
Before you start
What you need
- A MIDI keyboard
- Any digital piano or controller that connects over USB or Bluetooth. There is an on-screen piano, but the product is built around a real one under your hands.
- Desktop web or an iPad
- Chrome, Edge or Opera on a computer, or the native iPad build. iOS Safari cannot access MIDI devices at all, so it will not work there.
- Somewhere you can talk
- Lessons are spoken aloud and you can ask questions out loud, so headphones or a quiet room help.
An acoustic piano will not work yet. Encordia reads the notes from your keyboard directly rather than listening through a microphone, which is what makes the feedback exact — and also what rules out acoustic instruments for now.
Join the beta list
Testers are invited in small batches. We will email you once, when there is something ready for you.
Read the FAQ