Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1

I absolutely do that. Id love to be able to one day play Chopin and Rachmaninov etc. (but thats probably daydreaming for me like you said) I think it does help to listen to music like that and try and see on the page whats being played. Ive done that for years with guitar tablature and I really do think it helps you to become a better music reader. I can only hope I get sufficient with standard music notation aswell.

That brings up another point though and its the only thing I dont like about the Alfred books. The backing track music for the pieces is absolutely terrible. Its really cheesy, corny and quite often makes it very difficult to clearly hear what your meant to be playing. They often change the sound of the piano to a weird organ sound or something similar. Id prefer if it accompanying cd had just a clean solo piano performance of whats being played.

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M-Audio Prokeys 88sx

I think that several people have mentioned the "cheesy" nature of the Alfred CD. You are in good company
Doesn't the CD also have a feature where you can turn off one speaker and hear only accompanying music? I think that would be really nice (despite the cheesiness)because you could practice playing along with (decidedly cheesy in this instance) others in using it. I am perfectly miserable at this and clearly need more practice. Every once in a while my teacher will play along with me. It, to date, is a recipe for disaster!! Even if I play a piece quite comfortably without her, the minute she starts playing I lose my focus.

Yeah adjusting the balance on your speakers does help a little but no entirely. thats why its been so useful having Piano Noob Alex on YouTube. he has a video for almost every piece in all 3 books no matter how long or short.

I never got to play along with a teacher when I was learning guitar but I did and still do love just jamming along with other musicians. Its just about relaxing and enjoying yourself. The rest will come naturally (hopefully!) and when you say you lose focus, is that because shes hot ? lol

I would think you should be able to tap out the rhythm of the songs (hands separately) without listening to it. If you are memorizing the rhythm from the CD, then you aren't reading the note & rest values on the paper.

I could be way off base though because I could already read music before I started with the piano. Maybe the whole purpose of the CD is to reinforce the rhythm. I used the CD for fun on the first couple of songs in the book, but I've never touched it since then. It's obviously there to be used though, just don't use it as a crutch to learn a new piece. Concentrate on learning the note/rest values.

GlassLove, that is an excellent idea of listening to advanced music on youtube and following along with the sheet music.

I think that objectively speaking my teacher is extremely attractive, but since I am a female heterosexual, I am not terribly distracted by her appearance. My son responds very positively to her and has said that he thinks that she is very pretty and smiley, and my husband responded to that by saying, "You have very good taste!" (now isn't that a polite/nonthreatening way of saying "Wow, your piano teacher is hot!!!)
I suspect I lose focus because I am so new to playing the piano that hearing anything other than what I have learned to play throws me off a bit.
Would you like my teacher's number?

It's interesting that the subject of playing along with the teacher has come up. My interests lean toward Rock, Country and Blues. I have expressed that I have enjoyed learning the several Blue pieces that have come up and I have 2 to play for him today. I am pretty comfortable with Why Am I Blue and he is planning on accompanying me on that at my lesson today. We have done it in the past on the previous Blues pieces and it was a lot of fun.

I had to prepare myself to be able to do that, however. My piano is a Yamaha DGX-630 and has accompaniments built in so I can pick a drum beat and practice along with that. It's pretty much the same as using a metronome (I use that a lot too). It has helped my rhythm and timing tremendously and has prepared me to be able to play along with my teacher without getting distracted. It took some time at first to get used to it but when we first did it at my lessons it was not very hard to get it going and sounding great. He sets up a drum beat on his Mac connected to an amp & speakers and plays a bass line on his digital keyboard while I play the piece on the acoustic.

I think this has been very beneficial to me in particular because it's where I want to end up; being able to play favorite popular material for myself, family and friends and it sounds so much better with accompaniment. I don't really have an interest in much classical (there are a few pieces that I do want to learn).

Your lessons sound really cool Doug. While I am really interested in classical music and would feel pretty happy playing solo piano, I think that getting thrown off so easily when playing together with my teacher is a definite sign of weakness on my part.
I have a friend who plays in a jazz trio and he has mentioned to me that I should attempt to play along with him sometime (he is a bass player). For now, I find it laughable. Could you imagine a jazz rendition of Raisins and Almonds? I think he must believe that I have progressed in my piano playing much more than I actually have.
However, I love jazz and have a book of Dave Brubeck pieces (too hard for me now). Once I manage to play one of those, I might take him up on his offer.

Sorry GlassLove lol.Whilst I would under normal circumstances take your piano teachers number, Im afraid Michigan is a bit far away from where I live in England. and yes, your husband is just being polite lol

I love Dave Brubeck and Bill Evans but I think it will be a long long time IF ever that im able to play any of that stuff. I'll be happy playing basic blues and easy classical stuff for a while.

and Gracie Cat your dead right. I shouldnt use the CD as a crutch and 99% of the time I dont but the temptation is still there. might get rid of them!

Practiced "Beautiful Brown Eyes" some more this evening. It suddenly started to fall into place. mom3gram, you were right, it's definitely a rhythm thing. Oddly enough, I found that playing it at a faster tempo actually made it easier.

Also started playing "Alpine Memory", which was a lot easier and I picked it up very quickly.

And in the mean time, I picked up a couple new books, Alfred's Christmas Book Level 1 and Greatest Hits Level 1. Just for some more variety.

Im really enjoying the part of the book Im at now. Im working on "Blow the Man Down" "Lone Star Waltz" "Cafe Vienna" and "Lullaby".

I like these pieces because they are all fairly long compared to whats gone before and theres a lot you can get your teeth into.

The previous pieces have taken a day or two to learn to certain extents but these four will take me about a week each I think to get them down to where Im happy to proceed.

shponglefan> I really liked Alpine Melody !! very catchy. Id be interested in getting the Greatest Hits level 1 aswell as Its nice as you say to have some variety. Are the pieces difficult ?

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M-Audio Prokeys 88sx

SmokestackLightnin, I haven't tried playing anything from the Greatest Hits book yet. It appears most of the pieces are designed to be played after completing a majority of the Level 1 book. In fact, each piece has a reference to the Level 1 book stating "play after page XX". Ditto with the Christmas book.

Wow!! If you really enjoy "Blow the Man Down" smokestacklightnin, you might go down in the record books as the first person on this thread who feels that way
That piece really trips people (myself included) up!!!!
I agree though, as you get towards the end of the book, the pieces are just more musical, thus easier to enjoy!!!!
I LOVE Raisins and Almonds. I generally like music in minor keys.

Oh dont get me wrong Glass Love. as far as learning its concerned its my nemesis at the moment. still trying to get my head around it. I just like the tune but I think its because I remember hearing it a lot when I was a kid.

and im really looking forward to learning the blues pieces, the entertainer, amazing grace, greensleeves and scarborough fair toward the end of the book !

The blues pieces are really very easy for some reason. I'll bet you will truly enjoy them. Greensleeves was a bit tricky because of the overlapping pedal being used for the first time.
I hated the sound of BTMD...so it was pure torture to learn it.

My lesson went well this week. She signed off on Got Those Blues (107). I'm to polish On Top of Old Smoky (which I enjoy playing). She assigned The Can-Can (113). I'm personally assigning The Marines Hymn too.

She signed off on one of my classical pieces (which I've had polished for a month). She signed off on one of my sacred pieces which has also been polished for a month.

I'm back to having trouble knowing the notes on the bass staff. I had studied them back when I first started. I used flash cards and on-line exercises. I knew them, but I've been playing by "interval" and other than C & F I don't know what the notes are unless I play the ABC game. Treble staff isn't a problem.

Fess up. What song at the end of the book have you all been doodling with? I'm working on Amazing Grace...right hand only. I'm paying special attention to the fingering.

I haven't doodled with any of them....I am not sure why. I don't especially like two of the last three (He's got the whole world in his hands and Amazing Grace), so that might be the reason. Or maybe I don't doodle because I am so obsessed with getting my assigned pieces just right that I feel like all my piano time should be devoted to them. I'll bet your doodling will pay off though. You ought to breeze right through the song by the time you get there.
Congratulations on passing so many pieces. I personally did NOT like the Can Can at all. I thought it was challenging and that was good, but I just didn't like the sound of it, even after I got fairly decent at it.

Ive some internediate rated books and ive doodled with moonlight sonata. I think im really going to need extra work on sight reading on the side of these books as im finding it a bit difficult to do it at any decent speed.

wish I had a teacher !!

I decided to go through the All-in-One as a review today. Some pieces that were challenging when I did them seemed a lot easier (Blow the Man Down). Some were still a little hard as I graduated from Level One not the All-in-One. It made me feel acomplished though.

I've been doing the same thing - simultaneously doing new pieces from Book 2, while reviewing Book 1. Even the ones that I get stuck on again come back to me after a few tries. I haven't gotten to the last several pieces yet. I really struggled with those the first time around. It is good to see how much we've accomplished, isn't it!

Hi All,

I have been inspired by ABF (particularly Einaudi thread) to try regular piano again. I took a couple years lessons 35 years ago but gave it up. Took a 1 semester group class 8 years ago using Alfred's Basic Adult but didn't stick with it either. After I retired I started playing arranger kb using chord and fake charts.

Since I started piano again (4 weeks ago) I have been working on several Alfred Level 1 pieces. Here is a link to "Johnson Rag" from Alfred Pop level 1:

http://www.box.net/shared/ntymqgnd4t

There a little hesitation at the end since I have to hit the octave transpose button on my 61 key psr-s910 to get that final G :-)

Regards to all and I hope to post another one soon ("Ain't Misbehavin'" from Alfred Jazz Rock)

Ed, Out in the West Texas town of El Paso