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

Here is the 5th song/pattern. Still pretty simple. It's a repeat with 2/1 breakup in the right and a small change of alternating root and 5th half notes in the left. So he's introducing a little more movement with the alternating half notes in the left. This song was new to me. It's based on a 12 bar blues pattern.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp4nDaH6voc

God Bless,
David

David Lai

David B That's the melody of St. Louis Blues.

David B

David Lai That's the melody of St. Louis Blues.

Have you ever heard that song before?

David Lai

David B https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm-o8GIMtHQ

David B

Here is song number 6 in the course. This lesson has taken a big step forward for the following reasons.

Modulation/transposing was covered encouraging the student to find a key they are comfortable singing in. I've actually been doing that from the beginning because David Sprunger's voice is higher than mine.
New patterns were introduced. A nice alternating pattern between the 1st and 2nd in the right hand chord and breaking up the 1st and 5th in the left hand.
Open voicing was introduced. 1st inversion. 2nd with root on top in the right and root/5th in the left.
Multiple patterns in this song. The student is encouraged to be creative in how they mix the patterns per bar and where in the registers they are played.

I would suspect that for total beginners this lesson will require more time before moving on because of the multiple patterns and creative assignment. For me the hardest part is singing while playing. I'm not used to that and I can tell it's getting more difficult. I'd be more comfortable recording the vocals later, but this course is growing me in that area (and in my humility 😀).

https://youtu.be/ykCQBPzNFMU?si=0KH7ws2WRiDe6awx

God Bless,
David

David Lai

David B Really nicely done, David! For me, I'd be messing up the lyrics. Trying to keep both in place isn't easy, so good for you! Also, your playing has improved a lot, now it's smoother than before.

frapal

David B

I used to watch those demos videos. Rip david he had an amazing voice too. I'm particularly interested in the lesson about syncipated rhythms. I only have the teaser and can't access to the full lesson. Would you be able to send it to me if I gave you my email?

Kind regards

David B

frapal Rip david he had an amazing voice too.

He did. Really puts my voice to shame.

frapal I'm particularly interested in the lesson about syncipated rhythms.

That's number 17 in the series. Thankfully those lessons don't require a 32 bit Mac. Originally the lessons were all html links but I downloaded the raw mp4 files. They are too big to email. PM me if you have any other questions.

God bless,
David

David B

Here is song number 7. I've been traveling quite a bit but thankfully I've been able to take my Nord with me. This is the first chance I've gotten to record this song before I leave again for another week.

Two new patterns (not new to me) were introduced in this song. 1st, 3rd, and 10th arpeggio in the left and grace notes (added 2nd) in the right. Grace note pattern is done with an open voicing with root and fifth in the left and 3rd and root on top in the right.

This old folk song was new to me. I recorded it in one take both vocals and piano, but I didn't like the way the vocals came out, so I recored the vocals again and then overdubbed them with the video. 😀

God Bless,
David

Asunder

51 is a young end. That's too bad.

It seems a shame that family or someone else close to him didn't continue his site. I would have liked to check it out. The approach in his Piano Pattern course seems similar to Piano4All, PianoGenius, and some other courses that I have seen, where the others differ by using popular music, still teaching with an approach of rhythmic patterns.

David B

Asunder It seems a shame that family or someone else close to him didn't continue his site.

I've been stumped over this also. He knew he was dying. Why didn't he make provision for his legacy to continue? It would have also provided some income for his family. I went through a few of Duane Shinn's pianos courses and he actually died while I was going through his 52 Week Crash Course. I spoke with him a few times via email to get some advice. His son took over his business when he died and you can still get all his material today. Too bad David Sprunger's material died with him because he was a gifted teacher.

God Bless,
David

David B

I finished this course last summer but got lazy and didn't want to record/upload a summary of every lesson. The last quarter of 2025 was very busy for me with a lot of traveling. Here is a summary of the course.

This course is designed for someone who knows nothing about the piano. Someone who can't find middle C. If I was starting from scratch this would NOT be a good course for me because it teaches you nothing about how to build around the melody. This is not a course if you're interested in solo piano. While they are much more expensive, I would recommend courses by Duane Shinn and Greg Howlett for material on how to build around the melody of a song if you're interested in solo piano.

The courses by Duane Shinn and Greg Howett that I've gone through are far more advanced and capable of taking a beginner pianist and imparting the tools to build around the melody and dress up songs with fills, runs, and rhythmic techniques that make piano playing fun. However, like I said, they are much more expensive. I think one of the courses I went through from Duane Shinn was around $1000. Comparatively, ALL 17 of David Sprunger's courses - including this one - totaled under $50. I think that's a great value. 😃 If you're brand new to the piano, this is what you'll learn in the Pattern Piano Course.

How to find the different notes on the piano and how they repeat across the keyboard.
The difference between half and whole steps.
How to form any major/minor triads from the tetrachord + a whole step.
How to form dominate 7th chords.
The difference between whole, half, eighth, and quarter notes and how they are used rhythmically.
Approximately 15 basic patterns that you can apply to different songs.

You'll always have to sing the melody because the patterns are just meant for accompaniment.

The late David Sprunger was a great pianist, singer, and teacher. I just found this particular course not relevant to where I'm at musically in my journey. I have more of his courses that I'm going to go through because I'm sure I'll learn once we get past the basic pattern piano stuff. This course is marketed for beginners and David says that it provides a good foundation for the rest of his teaching material.

Here is a pattern/song from the course. I decided to upload it because I actually like the song. I first heard it in the movie Tombstone (one of my favorite westerns). It was sung by Dana Delany. I always liked it. As usual I had to transpose it because David's voice is too high for me.

God Bless,
David

Tractorbooty15

Hi, Does anyone have access to these DVD's as they may help some like me who plays guitar and would love to play the piano.

Best rgds.

David B

Tractorbooty15 Hi, Does anyone have access to these DVD's as they may help some like me who plays guitar and would love to play the piano.

I think this course is great for someone that wants to learn piano patterns to support vocal melodies. Unfortunately, I never see his content available anywhere. I originally purchased the digital content (for very cheap comparatively) and even that can only be played on systems capable of 32 bit format.

For the most part, David's material died with David. It's a shame. His his YouTube channel is still up with some content. I plan on going through some of his other material which I purchased along with the Piano Pattern course.

God Bless,
David