Well, my point is, there's always MANY ways to do things including learning, this is NOT rushing, that's why I say, you can take it slow, two weeks per class, heck you can adjust yourself, for easier lessons, you might only need little practice. Do you think what you're learning in school now is NOT simplified version? We're humans and we're always moving forward and advancing and simplifiying our life, make learning faster, etc... Be open and try to differentiate between "short-cut" path and simplified path... Many people can't accept these simplified or easier learning methods by simply accusing them as short-cut, etc...

Anyway, if you've been a teacher or teach before, any subject, you should know you can either teach the old traditional way, which usually takes a very long time, or you can find ways to make your student understand faster, etc.

For the "Play By Ear", there're teaching you creating music by your feeling and ear using the piano, the natural way, music is NOT paper, is your feeling and hearing... It's simply teaches you to understand what is music, how to create music, etc... You usually don't learn or understand it in conventional piano classes untill after Grade 5 mostly...

Before you judge something, try to understand what it does and how it works, this course is very straightforward and easy to understand, even old people can pickup easily, the oldest student if I'm not wrong is 80+, and got one Datin completed Level 2, fyi. Kids understand and can create and play the piano really really well within 2 years of classes usually (for Kids, they have 40 classes per level due to more attention needed). It's simply the same theory and technique when you self-learn, the founder/creator of this "Play By Ear" is a self-taught musician, he created all these simplified methods (e.g. formula for calculating MAJOR chords = R+4+3) and techniques, and he can play up to 9 instruments if I'm not wrong.

By the way, there're NOT just "Play By Ear", there're so many simplified courses out there on the internet, and it's not something NEW anyway. But if you plan to learn classical, then you're adviced to follow the conventional piano classes which will take years... Classical is a slow and tough path, if you can keep up and stay it's good, but don't one day say, "this is not what I wanted"... which happens to many who don't understand before taking up the courses, which is one major reason why they drop out of piano classes.

Try looking up Scott Houston "The Piano Guy", he has one book and video which teach you the simple methods of learning the piano... In the video, he also ask the question "Who wants to learn to play songs like the latest pop songs, christmas songs, etc?" and "Who wants to learn the classical music?"... obviously you know the results, and he also mentioned that many people didn't understand what the conventional piano lessons does and goes for it, and they're thrown book by book, playing "DO RE MI" for a few classes, and they can't even play the song they wanted after a long period of time... Watch the video, it's interesting and funny.. He also mentioned "Lead Sheet" (some called it fake sheet because they thought it's fake), if you don't know what it is, it's simply a song sheet without the bass clef, which many conventional piano players got confused and cannot play... In simplified methods, usually, they're using Lead Sheet mainly because they understand how music works, they can even come up with chords given the melody. For me, one drawback is I didn't learn to read notes, so I can't read notes, but even if I can, I can sight play, so this is one drawback/weakness with this course but doesn't mean one cannot learns it, just that I don't bother learning sight-playing as I don't use notes/sheet. I'm not really can't read notes, I know the "FACE" thingy, but I can't read it as fast. For notes/sheet usually I'll use to double-check for whether I got the correct chords, but you have to understand also that not all chords are fixed. I don't you don't take this as boasting, just sharing the information of what you can achieve from these courses, in fact, I'm considered not so good at it, if you compare it with the music coach, they can easily catch the chords and very fast, very impressive to even see. And don't say "because they're the teacher/music coach ma", most of them were students, many start from 0 or beginning, so some might only be few years or more exprience with the piano. Like my Level 2 music coach, which is only about 3 years in piano, but can play extremely well.

Lastly, altough all this *might* sound interesting and/or easy and intimidating... it's still important to understand and know that, which I've mentioned, you're required to work hard and practice as well and don't rush it... If you need more time to practice, do so,... it's important that you understand and can keep up...  Also, it does not mean no students will drop out / lost interest from these course, just less and depends on whether they know what they wanted and willing to work for it... For normal piano classes, you need to work hard as well, doesn't mean for normal it's slower then you can take it easy...