Tired of Guessing Notes?
Build Real Confidence in Reading Music
Learn to connect the notes on the page to your fingers on the keys – and never second-guess again.
Beginning Pianists:
Your journey in piano literacy starts here
Piano Reading Venture will equip you with the easy practice tools, habits, and techniques that allow music literacy to develop with you.
Venture is not a stationary, "middle-C" approach. Learn like grown-ups are meant to learn - comprehensively and systematically, all with flexible freedom in your curriculum, choice of songs, and practice duration.
Grow your literacy as your hands grow more comfortable with the keyboard.
Beginning Pianists:
Tired of Guessing Notes?
Build Real Confidence in Reading Music
Learn to connect the notes on the page to your fingers on the keys – and never second-guess again.
Your journey in piano literacy starts here
Piano Reading Venture will equip you with the easy practice tools, habits, and techniques that allow music literacy to develop with you.
Venture is not a stationary, "middle-C" approach. Learn like grown-ups are meant to learn - comprehensively and systematically, all with flexible freedom in your curriculum, choice of songs, and practice duration.
Grow your literacy as your hands grow more comfortable with the keyboard.
Member Benefits
The Venture Library
The Venture Library includes easy but instructive pieces, strictly in 5-finger positions.
Rather than focus on 'one-key-at-a-time' like most method books do, Venture start at various positions on the piano giving you a chance to develop literacy and familiarity with the keyboard as you move through the music.
The Count-Out-Loud Promise
As part of your piano journey, you'll master the fundamentals of rhythm and how to apply them effectively. Instead of oversimplifying, we'll learn rhythm principles comprehensively and practice them in the context of 5-finger pieces. That way your tactile awareness of the keyboard and your confidence in rhythm grow together instead of getting in the way of each other.
Solid foundations of reading music
More than typical methods, which are designed for kids, we'll dive deep into how to train your eyes to comprehend notes quickly. Piano Reading Venture will train you with good literacy principles, not short-term tricks that will hold you back in the long run.
A non-traditional way to learn traditional notation.
The vertical staff system gets you oriented quickly so you can understand and get reading quicker. While other "pre-reading" approaches use alternative notation system, Venture will train you how to look at real sheet music right from the very beginning.
Subscription Details:
$9.97 per month. You can cancel any time.
Select annual pricing for $99, you will also get "Venture Techniques"
VENTURE is Perfect for ...
Total beginners
I’ll guide you through the foundational principles of piano playing and explain why they matter. You won’t feel like you're just being told what to do with no reason—you’ll understand the "why" behind everything we do.
1-2 year players
If you're still struggling with note reading, this is your chance to strengthen your skills deliberately. We’ll work through music quickly, giving you sight-reading practice and refining the mechanics that might have felt clunky up until now. Once you are reading these 5-finger pieces with ease, you can move to Piano Reading SELECT.
Long-time players who need a reset
If you need to "reset" your understanding of sheet music or if you're returning to piano after a long time, Venture will be a great start for you.
Meet Your Teacher
Randy Peck is a pianist, teacher, and songwriter. He has taught professionally for over 17 years and has a passion for lifting the lid on the learning process and exposing the flaws of old-method axioms. His approach to "Creative Literacy" is centered on the belief that music literacy is always an advantage. Sheet music is not just useful - it is a launching pad for progress, fun, and creativity at the piano.
With the aid of sheet music.
If you are new to the piano, you'll want to start (sooner than later) developing the ability to read music.
Piano Reading "Venture" is for people who see the value in "things written down". They can see the logic in how reading in school was good for our education, and how the same is true for learning to read music.
If you have a feeling that reading music will be helpful to you, you're in the right place.
This is maybe one of the only places online that values sheet music in this way. And what's surprising about that is that most professional piano teachers value sheet music this way too.
The online piano problem ...
Sheet music is often a scapegoat for the frustrations that can come up when you are new to the piano. So a common online sales tactic is "don't try to do this the hard way", and by the "hard way", they mean sheet music.
A quick win via some "new" approach might be novel, but it won't help you become literate in traditional sheet music in the long run.
That idea of a quick win is understandable. It has a place and it can be really fulfilling to do something at the piano you couldn't do before. No harm, no foul.
But the marketing tactic to "take away the pain" of learning piano by means of an app or a shortcut is a gimmick, it's a simulation. It's not real.
I hope my courses will represent a legitimate, honest approach, and why I'm not the same as those promising "the ultimate shortcut to 100X your piano learning ... ".
Surely they're not overhyping, right?
The unmeasurable efforts piano teachers spend on degrees (for me a Master's in piano performance), teaching lessons by the thousands (I certainly have put in my "10,000+ hours" of teaching), and conferences for piano teachers (yes, many of them) would make us certain of THE way. Surely we could promise THE way to learn piano, right?
But while there is an abundance of great resources for aiding your journey, there is a shortage of honest, supportive materials about the process of learning.
I want to support you in your venture.
I want to help you navigate that burden of practice and discovery that is truly going to feel like ALL of the things: fun sometimes, discouraging at other times, inspiring and creative at times, humdrum and boring at others. We're skirting the line between frustration and fulfillment. That range of experience is why I love piano.
And no, I can't take away your pain. I can't promise it won't be hard. And by saying that, I have shot myself in the (marketing) foot. But I'd rather help you than try to evoke emotions to get you to buy something.
Are you serious about piano literacy?
While learning literacy will not be a linear venture, there is one principle of learning that is always true:
We learn simple things before we learn complex things.
Piano Reading Venture is all about approaching the simple things of piano with the future in mind. If you goal is not just to "learn a few songs" but to become proficient in piano, this program is for you.
One of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut said in a commencement address to graduating college students:
"You have spent most of the past sixteen or more years learning to read and write. People who can do those things well, as you can, are miracles and, in my opinion, entitle us to suspect that we may be civilized after all. It is terribly hard to learn to read and write. It takes simply forever. When we scold our schoolteachers about the low reading scores of their students, we pretend that it is the easiest thing in the world: to teach a person to read and write. Try it sometime, and you will discover that it is nearly impossible."
Well, you're a grown up now. You've probably learned to read and write. Adults, especially those that went to school, have an advantage. You are literate in language and you can use those skills to become literate in music. You can see through different lenses, and understand and apply principles. That is exactly what you'll start to do in Piano Reading Venture.
Piano Reading Venture
$9.97 Per Month
Member Benefits
The Venture Library
The Venture Library includes easy but instructive pieces, strictly in 5-finger positions.
Rather than focus on 'one-key-at-a-time' like most method books do, Venture start at various positions on the piano giving you a chance to develop literacy and familiarity with the keyboard as you move through the music.
The "Count Out Loud" Promise
As part of your piano literacy journey, you'll master the fundamentals of rhythm and how to apply them effectively. Unlike most piano methods that oversimplify rhythm, Venture provides an in-depth rhythm training designed to teach rhythm comprehensively and make it applicable to any sheet music you choose to learn.
Solid foundations of reading music
More than typical methods, which are designed for kids, we'll dive deep into how to train your eyes to comprehend notes quickly. Piano Reading Venture will help approach piano with good literacy habits, not short-term tricks that will hold you back in the long run.
A non-traditional way to learn traditional notation.
The vertical staff system gets you oriented quickly so you can understand and get reading quicker. While other "pre-reading" approaches use alternative notation system, Venture will train you how to look at real sheet music right from the very beginning.
Subscription Details:
$9.97 per month. You can cancel any time.
Select annual pricing for $99, you will also get "Venture Techniques"
VENTURE is Perfect for ...
Total beginners
I’ll guide you through the foundational principles of piano playing and explain why they matter. You won’t feel like I’m just telling you what to do with no reason—you’ll understand the "why" behind everything we do.
1-2 year players
If you're still struggling with note reading, this is your chance to strengthen your skills deliberately. We’ll work through music quickly, giving you sight-reading practice and refining the mechanics that might have felt clunky up until now. Once you are reading these 5-finger pieces with ease, you can move to Piano Reading SELECT.
Long-time players who need a reset
If you need to "reset" your understanding of sheet music or if you're returning to piano after a long time, Venture will be a great start for you.
Meet Your Teacher
Randy Peck is a pianist, teacher, and songwriter. He has taught professionally for over 17 years and has a passion for lifting the lid on the learning process and exposing the flaws of old-method axioms. His approach to "Creative Literacy" is centered on the belief that music literacy is always an advantage. Sheet music is not just useful - it is a launching pad for progress, fun, and creativity at the piano.
With the aid of sheet music.
If you are new to the piano, you'll want to start (sooner than later) developing the ability to read music.
Piano Reading "Venture" is for people who see the value in "things written down". They can see the logic in how reading in school was good for our education, and how the same is true for learning to read music.
If you have a feeling that reading music will be helpful to you, you're in the right place.
This is maybe one of the only places online that values sheet music in this way. And what's surprising about that is that most professional piano teachers value sheet music this way too.
The online piano problem ...
Sheet music is often a scapegoat for the frustrations that can come up when you are new to the piano. So a common online sales tactic is "don't try to do this the hard way", and by the "hard way", they mean sheet music.
A quick win via some "new" approach might be novel, but it won't help you become literate in traditional sheet music in the long run.
That idea of a quick win is understandable. It has a place and it can be really fulfilling to do something at the piano you couldn't do before. No harm, no foul.
But the marketing tactic to "take away the pain" of learning piano by means of an app or a shortcut is a gimmick, it's a simulation. It's not real.
I hope my courses will represent a legitimate, honest approach, and why I'm not the same as those promising "the ultimate shortcut to 100X your piano learning ... ".
Surely they're not overhyping, right?
The unmeasurable efforts piano teachers spend on degrees (for me a Master's in piano performance), teaching lessons by the thousands (I certainly have put in my "10,000+ hours" of teaching), and conferences for piano teachers (yes, many of them) would make us certain of THE way. Surely we could promise THE way to learn piano, right?
But while there is an abundance of great resources for aiding your journey, there is a shortage of honest, supportive materials about the process of learning.
I want to support you in your venture.
I want to help you navigate that burden of practice and discovery that is truly going to feel like ALL of the things: fun sometimes, discouraging at other times, inspiring and creative at times, humdrum and boring at others. We're skirting the line between frustration and fulfillment. That range of experience is why I love piano.
And no, I can't take away your pain. I can't promise it won't be hard. And by saying that, I have shot myself in the (marketing) foot. But I'd rather help you than try to evoke emotions to get you to buy something.
Are you serious about piano literacy?
While learning literacy will not be a linear venture, there is one principle of learning that is always true:
We learn simple things before we learn complex things.
Piano Reading Venture is all about approaching the simple things of piano with the future in mind. If you goal is not just to "learn a few songs" but to become proficient in piano, this program is for you.
One of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut said in a commencement address to graduating college students:
"You have spent most of the past sixteen or more years learning to read and write. People who can do those things well, as you can, are miracles and, in my opinion, entitle us to suspect that we may be civilized after all. It is terribly hard to learn to read and write. It takes simply forever. When we scold our schoolteachers about the low reading scores of their students, we pretend that it is the easiest thing in the world: to teach a person to read and write. Try it sometime, and you will discover that it is nearly impossible."
Well, you're a grown up now. You've probably learned to read and write. Adults, especially those that went to school, have an advantage. You are literate in language and you can use those skills to become literate in music. You can see through different lenses, and understand and apply principles. That is exactly what you'll start to do in Piano Reading Venture.