David Sprunger Pattern Piano Course Review

David B · 2025-02-20T04:36:34+00:00

David Sprunger was a musician and piano teacher that provided online courses for learning piano. He passed away in 2015 at the young age of 51, and unfortunately, his courses are no longer available. His YouTube channel is still up if you want to take a look. https://www.youtube.com/@pianolessonsonline I had purchased 17 different courses from him before he died, but never got around to starting any of them. I focused on different material in my musical education. I finally decided to go through this material in 2025. I went to open the first lesson and was surprised to find they were in a 32 bit format and wouldn’t open on my 64 bit Mac. I ended up purchasing a used Mac mini with an OS capable of running 32 bit programs. David’s first course is the foundation for all others is and it’s called Pattern Piano. It an accompaniment style where you sing the melody. It’s intended to teach students how to play any song by ear using rhythmic patterns. It’s quite different from anything I’ve done before. I’m going to document my journey though it. It’s a total of 25 videos. I’m currently on video 11. I haven’t learned anything new in the course so far. The course starts from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about the piano. The first two videos gives an overview of the 5 steps for learning to play any song by ear. Be able to find any chord on the piano. Lean to play open Voicings. Learn rhythmic patterns. Lean many different rhythmic patters to mix/combine in songs. Learn to create your own patterns. The next 6 videos deal with basic musical theory concepts. How to form major/minor chords, etc. The rest of the videos (9-25) are the various patterns being taught using a mixture of simple public domain songs both folk and spiritual. Here is the third song/pattern in video 11. It’s a very basic 2/1 breakup with root octaves in the left. I didn’t record the first two patterns in videos 9 and 10 because they were even more basic than this. Here is a quote in the material that comes with the course: “When you become an accomplished 'pattern' player and you would like to play solo piano, you will be able to insert the melody back into your patterns and maintain full, rich arrangements.” Sounds interesting. Here we go…. https://youtu.be/8Y4GPzxc17o?si=v6n9b5E991XVgkKU God Bless, David

David B

I downloaded his material years ago and it's only playable on an old 32 bit Mac mini I purchased for 50 bucks. The files are not playable on newer machines.

PASHKULI

David B

Not sure about Mac, mine are for Windows although now am not sure whether it is really only 32 bit.
They are packaged as installers. I will test it on a virtual machine later. I think I tested them on a 64 bit Windows 8 but it could have been 32 bit. I don't remember really.

MrKeys

PASHKULI

I had a bundle that included blues and salsa (and maybe more) , but I’m really only interested in the blues and salsa lessons which I started years ago using my internet files which are not functional anymore.

I would gladly it you for a DVD or any type method you can copy it for me ( even if it’s on a memory stick flash drive ).

I am in Alberta , Canada so of course I’ll Kay shipping as well. I really enjoy these videos on the last and I am motivated to start again.

I’m assuming they would on a video file.

Thank you !

My email for direct contact

[email protected]

PASHKULI

MrKeys

Got it, thank you. First I have to see whether those files (assuming video) can be self‑contained as the actual course was 'interactive' → you click on menu buttons, etc. → if they can be only on video it won't matter what operating system it is. Maybe only the codecs needed.
I will run it on a virtual machine first (Windows 8 or 10, which I have not done yet) to make sure the 'interactive' setup runs good.
So for you, only the Salsa + Blues lessons. I will try and consolidate them all, unless all become too many to rename and organize as video files.

MrKeys

PASHKULI

Thank you!

PASHKULI

I would like to ask you for a bit more patience. I am converting all I have (might have lost some) into sorted and categorized video player (VLC, MPC, PotPlayer, any modern video player should play them .flv files, possibly your internet browser too). I can convert them all to .mp4 but hopefully won't need it as they are really compressed already.

@MrKeys Blues (chapters 1 to 15) and Salsa (both volumes) I have them. I run them (install them) through Sandboxie (kind of a virtual machine under Windows 10, so it is a tedious process). Here is a teaser:

PASHKULI

Completed.

MrKeys

PASHKULI

Oh my 🙂

Let me know how to proceed.

I have a MacBook Pro, but I can have access to a PC as well. I can send you money for the copy and shipping by PayPal, if if you are in Canada - I can etransfer it as well.

I’m glad that there’s a chance for David Spurnger’s great work to still make music 🙂

PASHKULI

MrKeys

No money should be involved.

Regarding the files, they should be playable in any video player: Elmedia, VLC, 5KPlayer.
QuickTime probably does not play such older formats (FlashVideo) because Adobe stopped support of Flash long time ago.

I am on Windows 10 and use PotPlayer (with modifications). And Q-dir (my file browser) plays them without hesitation (uses MediaPlayer I guess).

The only one interactive tool you might not be able to use in Mac is the 'Chord Voicings' volume of the lessons. It runs from an .exe program with drop down menu for selecting chords, inversions, voicings, tonality. But the videos are in the 'fscommand' folder so, they all can be loaded in a video player without the need for the interactive interface. Names of those video files are descriptive enough for manual choice.

« Previous Page