Curious Digital Things
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A visual workbook for self-taught players

You can play the songs.
You still can't play the piano.

You've memorised a handful of pieces and they sound good. But the moment the learned notes run out — a friend wants it lower, someone says "just play something" — you freeze. This is the workbook that teaches you the instrument underneath the songs.

Piano Theory Unlocked workbook and the One-Page Piano Map poster
Just the book
The 45-page PDF workbook
$49$22
Best value
Book + Poster
Everything, on screen and on the wall
$27.95
Just the poster
The A2 One-Page Piano Map
$5.95
Instant PDF download · 30-day money-back guarantee
45
Pages
10
Lessons
3
Reference sections

Not two hundred pages of everything — the handful of ideas that actually unlock the keyboard, then the cheat sheets you'll keep on the music stand.

Why it works

Learn the instrument, not another song

01

Stop collecting songs

Learn the patterns underneath every song, so song ten stops costing as much effort as song one.

02

See the whole keyboard

Twelve notes, one repeating shape. Every diagram is a real keyboard you put your hands on.

03

The three things you're missing

Transpose on the spot, work a song out by ear, and improvise eight bars that sound deliberate.

04

Fifteen minutes a day

A 30-day plan that fits around a life — not a course you'll abandon in week two.

The shift

It looks random. It isn't.

How it looks now

Eighty-eight keys, no map

You know where your fingers go in the pieces you've learned. Move one note outside them and there's nothing to work from.

How it works

Twelve notes, one repeating shape

23 23

Black keys come in twos and threes, and the group never moves. Find it once and you can name any key on the instrument — then the scales, chords and progressions sit on top of it.

Look inside

Hands on first, then read why

Every idea shows up as a shape on a real keyboard before it ever gets a name. You see it, you play it, and only then does the page explain what just happened under your fingers. No walls of text, no sheet music to decode — just clear, visual diagrams you can copy straight onto the keys in front of you.

An interior spread from the workbook
Piano Theory Unlocked on a tablet Reads beautifully on a tablet at the keys — or printed and marked up with a pencil.
The workbook fanned open, showing keyboard diagrams across several pages
Every concept drawn on a keyboard before it's named.
The Piano Theory Unlocked cover with the workbook pages stacked behind it
Forty-five pages, print at home or read on screen.
A keyboard diagram of the kind used throughout the workbook, with keys highlighted
The diagram style you'll see on almost every page.

A glimpse, not the whole book — the other 42 pages are the part you're buying.

Turn the pages

See exactly how it teaches

Six pages from the book, unedited. Click through and read them properly — this is the whole method, not a mock-up.

Page 6 — the keyboard is a ruler: twelve notes and one repeating pattern Page 8 — naming any key from the black-key groups Page 12 — intervals as distance, with songs you already know as anchors Page 16 — one scale shape, moved through every key Page 20 — chords built as stacked thirds Page 26 — the progressions already in your ears Click to zoom
Page 6 of 45

Six of forty-five. The rest is the part you're buying.

The roadmap

You always know where you are

Ten lessons, each built from the one before it, then three reference sections you'll keep using long after you've read the rest.

01

The song trap

Why tutorial-learning stops working, and what replaces it

12 min
pp. 4–5
02

The keyboard is a ruler

Twelve notes, one repeating pattern, no memorising

20 min
pp. 6–9
03

Intervals you can see

Distance as shape, not vocabulary

25 min
pp. 10–13
04

One scale shape, moved twelve times

The formula that unlocks every key

25 min
pp. 14–17
05

Chords are stacked thirds

Major, minor, diminished, augmented — built, not memorised

30 min
pp. 18–23
06

The number system

Why musicians say "one five six four"

20 min
pp. 24–25
07

Progressions already in your ears

Six patterns behind an enormous amount of music

30 min
pp. 26–29
08

Transposing on the spot

The moment the theory proves itself

25 min
pp. 30–31
09

Playing by ear

Bass note, then quality, then the rest

35 min
pp. 32–33
10

Improvising eight bars

The smallest version that actually sounds like music

30 min
pp. 34–36

The 30-day unlock

Fifteen minutes a day, in order

pp. 37–39

Cheat sheets

All twelve keys, every triad shape, the progression map

pp. 40–42

Blank keyboards & practice tracker

Print these. Write on them.

pp. 43–45

Work through it in order — every chapter is built from the one before it. The exercises are the point; the prose is just the setup.

How it works

Three steps, thirty days

Download instantly

The 45-page PDF lands in your inbox the second you order.

Sit at the keys

Every lesson shows a shape before it names it. Hands on first, then read why.

Play what nobody taught you

By day 30 you can move a song to any key, find one by ear, and improvise without freezing.

The 30-day plan
The honest comparison

Where the other options leave you

Piano Theory Unlocked
Tutorials & subscription apps
Built for self-taught players
Assumes you read sheet music
Every concept on a real keyboard
Walls of text, few diagrams
Transpose, play by ear, improvise
Another song to memorise
One-time $22, yours to keep
$15/month forever
Why this exists

I wrote this because I needed it.

I taught myself piano. For years I could sit down and play pieces I'd learned, and they sounded genuinely good — right up until someone asked me to play one a bit lower, or just to play something. Then nothing. I had a collection of songs and no idea what any of them were made of.

Every book I picked up assumed I could already read music, or opened with a wall of text about circles of fifths that never once told me where to put my hands. What finally worked was seeing the shapes on the keys first and reading the theory afterwards — which is the whole method in this workbook, in the order that actually made it click.

If you can play the songs but not the piano, this is the book I wish I'd had at year one.

The complete set

One shift. Two tools.

The book teaches the structure. The poster keeps it in front of you while you practise.

An interior spread from the Piano Theory Unlocked workbook
The framework

Piano Theory Unlocked

45 pages from "I only play what I've memorised" to transposing on the spot, working songs out by ear, and improvising eight bars. Ten lessons, a 30-day plan, and cheat sheets.

$49$22 · instant PDF
The One-Page Piano Map — A2 wall poster
Daily reinforcement

The One-Page Piano Map

Every scale, chord and progression from the book on one printable A2 sheet. Tape it above the keyboard and the map is there every time you sit down — no page-flipping.

$5.95 · printable A2
Just the book
The 45-page PDF workbook
$49$22
Best value
Book + Poster
Everything, on screen and on the wall
$27.95
Just the poster
The A2 One-Page Piano Map
$5.95
Both arrive in the same email, seconds after you order. The download link stays live for 30 days.
A good gift

Under $30, delivered the same day

One of the better under-$30 gifts for anyone who plays a bit but wishes they understood it — instant delivery means you can gift it the same day.

Questions

Good to know

How do I get it?
It's an instant PDF download. The moment you order, it lands in your inbox — yours to keep and print as many times as you like.
Do I need to read sheet music?
No. The whole book is visual. Every concept is shown as a shape on a real keyboard, not as notation on a staff.
Do I need any music theory already?
None. It starts from the twelve notes and builds up from there. If you can find your way around a few songs, you're ready.
Will this make me a concert pianist?
No — and it doesn't pretend to. It teaches you to understand what you play: to transpose, work things out by ear, and improvise. Technique and repertoire are a separate journey.
What do I need to use it?
Any keyboard with at least two octaves, a pencil, and about fifteen minutes a day.
What if it's not for me?
There's a 30-day money-back guarantee. If it doesn't help, email us within 30 days for a full refund.
Reviews

What readers say

The tutorial ends.
You keep going.

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