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I was wondering if anybody else uses The Older Beginner Piano Course By James Bastien? I am really enjoying it and it progresses quickly. There are several companion books with it depending on your taste. I am using Classic Themes.

Hi Melissa.

I am using the Bastien books. I did not know that there are companion books other than the theory workbook. I will have to check it out.

There are 4. Classic Themes by the Masters, Religious Favorites, Easy Piano Classics and Solo Repertiore. My teacher purchased Classic Themes for me I think she got it at Sam Ash.

oops double post. Sorry

Melissa,

I just ran a search on those and they look great. I will definitely get the one that you have.
My son has worked through the Bastien books for kids and they are good as well.

Are you on book one or book 2?

Cindy

I am on book one. Pg.41 to be exact. Those chords are driving me nuts.

Hate to tell you this but it doesn't get any easier.
You'll be surprised though how quickly you get better at it.

My fourth fingers and my pinkies are really very weak. I know they are getting stronger but it can be frustrating when working on bigger chords.

We'll get there though

Hi Melissa,

I've also been using the Bastien's Older Beginner Piano Course (I did try for a "Really Really Old Beginner Course" but nobody seemed to do one. )

My copies are about 30 years old and had been gathering dust since a friend gave them to me about 20 years ago. So it's a bit faded and moth eaten - but the information is still fine. I've now got a number of other books too (including Alfreds's) but James Bastien was the one who took me through all the early steps. I still enjoy playing Careless Love from book 1, and in fact played it again yesterday.

I've got a couple of Bastien 'Musicianship' ('Technic', sight reading etc) support books, but not the others that you mentioned, so I'll have to check them out. Thanks for the tip.

Cheers,

Chris

Hi Melissa,

You are right. Sam Ash does sell the books. I may want to give them a try. I am using Alfred's and would like to see the difference between the two.

- Mark

Just started teaching myself last week and I'm using this version of Bastien:

Beginning Piano For Adults

is this the same one you guys are using??

- Zak

This is the version I am using Older Beginner\'s Piano course I am on level one.

What about everybody else?

HI Melissa,

I will have to try and find that book next time I am out and about. I am taking 1/2 hr lessons once a week and my teacher has me doing kids books. I would like to take a peak at adult books. I will be finishing "Teaching little fingers to play" and "John Schaum piano course pre-A The green book" next week. Im thinking that I would like to maybe work on an Adult book at the same time. Then maybe I can join everyones discussions, I feel like I am the only adult beginner doing kids books and taking lessons. I think I need to get with the program here!!! I flew through those two kids books mentioned above in 4 lessons.

Does anyone out there think that doing kids books with my teacher and adult books on my own might be a little crazy?????

Thanks for your time, AspenX

Just a quick note about my above reply, I started a new thread with that same question.

Thanks, AspenX

Sorry about crashing in on your thread, Melissa.

This is a good start. My first teacher had me use this and with my second teacher we worked half way thru book 2 before jumping to Frederick Harris's Celebration Series. I can't say enough good things about The Celebartion Series (they now call it The Celebration Series Perspectives). For me Bastien was a good start but Celebration while being a significant jump has a great deal to offer. It is very left hand intensive, not a lot of chords here. I had a very hard time with it at first.

My opinion, start with Bastien and jump to Celebration when ready. Celebration is a graded program and it offers CDs which you can listen to.

You can buy Bastien or Celebration at PianoatPepper. I like PianoatPepper because they have free shipping and free is good. If they don't have what I want on their web site I send them a mail and they have always been able to come up with an order number. Very friendly people to talk with on the telephone as well. No, I do not work for them nor own the company.

http://www.frederickharrismusic.com/fhmcUS/Frederick.jsp

http://www.pianoatpepper.com/catalog/pap_index.jsp


Have fun,
Steve

Thank you Stevester,

I have added you rtwo links to my "favorites" and I will look into them. I am enjoying the kids books alot. But I was kinda surprised when my Piano Tuner made a comment about them being for kids.
Thanks!!!!
AspenX

Aspen,

It sounds like you are serious.

Lessons are important. I worked on my own for three years which was a mistake. While I made good progress for the first two years the third year was a waste. I then searched for a teacher, the first one I had had a bad attitude and did not like teaching and in my opinion was not very good at it. I did find a good one who is reasonably priced after asking just about everyone I know. I now take a 45 minute lesson every two weeks and I see steady and solid progress. She helps me with the liltte things I would not be able to pick up on my own.

I would also suggest you get hold of the Harvard Dictionay of Music. It was recommended on the forum several years ago and when I first got it I thought it was a waste of money buy I now use it for notation, etc. You can probably get it at your library.


http://www.amazon.com/Harvard-Dicti...mp;s=books&qid=1211506044&sr=1-1


Yes, get away from the kid stuff as quick as you can. It has its place but you have to push yourself to move on. Don't be surprised if you end up looking for another teacher in the process. My teacher pushes me very hard, she would not have let me stay in kids material very long.

I am also using monsiuer James Bastien Ive got adult book 1 and Ive got his simplified Joplin book........ They are awesome the entire collection is like 70 books ...