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 loved Greensleeves too. It was the first piece I ever played in lesson without a single error (not sure why). I thought the overlapping pedal was awkward at first, but after a few days it came to me.
Have fun with Greensleeves.

I've been hearing a lot about Alfred's series lately, and only good things too!
I might get volume 1 soon and see what it's all about! Especially with a large group of people in here working their way through the same book this might be a very fun and valuable way to learn!

You guys will hear from me once I find time to pop into my local music store and pick up a copy of this book!

P.S. I've been playing for about 5 months now, I think this book will be a great supplement to my current practice routines, no?

Hello Pianosaurus Rex,
Yes, I think that you will really like it. If you have been playing for 5 months, I think that the last third of the book will be just right for you.
Welcome to the forum!!!!

Alright, thanks! I'll see if I can leave work early Tuesday so I can pick up the book before the music store closes. (It's closed on Mondays. )

Hopefully the book will return some of the enjoyment to my practice sessions, that seems to have been replaced by frustration lately.

I haven't posted here in awhile, but I haven't stopped learning! Two and a half months on and two months into lessons! My enthusiasm has not waned. I even bought an acoustic piano!

I have for the most part finished Alfred's all in one book 1, but I never got around to playing the songs at the end. Now I am using the succeeding with the masters book 1s, with a little poking around alfred's book 2.

My son is now joining me (age 10) and has had his second lesson today. I told the instructor that I was going to order him book 1 in the regular alfred series rather than play from the adult book, but she said he is a very fast learner and needs the fast pace of the adult book. (I am so proud!) After one lesson and almost no effort, he is reading music just fine. We still have to work on the no effort thing though. I know he could do amazing things if he actually worked at it.

I am just loving learning piano!

I'm probably comitting blasphemy when I say this but... "Blow the Man Down!" is now one of my favorite pieces from the book so far. I don't understand why it's got so much hate, as I find it a lot of fun to play up to tempo (or faster). In fact, I even found myself whistling it in the car the other day!

Also found that learning Silent Night at the same time seemed to help, since there are some similarities between the pieces.

At any rate, going to work on Alouette then maybe pick some new pieces for later in the week.

I can imagine that after ive progressed a bit and come back to BTMD it will be as you say quite an enjoyable piece to play at tempo. its a very playful melody.

I think the reason it gets so much "hate" as you put it is that its given most people that I've read posts from a bit of a headache when they first come across it. more so than even later pieces.

I found Silent Night a bit of a handful as well actually and im still polishing that up even now.

shponglefan!!!!
Wow!!!! That is great that you love BTMD!!! I HATED IT, but to each her/his own. You will really love "He's got the whole world in his hands" because it has the same rhythm. There are a few others in the book with the same pattern too, I have forgotten now.
You should feel awesome though, if you can get this quickly AND LIKE IT, the rest of the book should be a cinch.

GlassLove> im just curious. those Purcell and Vinciguerra pieces on your signature..are they what your working on just now ?

how far along the Alfred course are you ? those seem pretty advanced. at least to me anyway!

@SmokestackLightnin: BTMD is definitely a piece that benefits from a quicker tempo (similar to Beautiful Brown Eyes I found). You should definitely enjoy it. And good luck with Silent Night, another beautiful piece.

@GlassLove: Thanks for your kind words! That's some nice encouragement!

Hello Smokestacklightnin,
Yes, the pieces in my signature are what I am currently working on. I can only play one (Minuet in A minor) at full speed without mistakes, the others are "works in progress." They certainly are pleasantly challenging, but not too hard. I think that you could tackle them. I am two pieces away from the end of Alfred's book # 1.

Brilliant - thanks for the advice and tips Jim, this is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.

I appreciate that like anything worth learning, getting the hang of these things will take a lot of time, patience and work. It's also nice to have some specific exercises to try out to iron out possible problem areas.

In that vein, I've also got hold of another book of simple beginners' pieces (The Big Book of Beginner's Piano Classics) which looks pretty good to me. Hopefully learning a couple of pieces from it, plus the Greatest Hits book in addition to the main Alfred's book can't but help.

I've started working on the first piece (a very simplified arrangement of a Bach minuet) which is sounding pretty good so far. I'm also learning Eidelweiss from the Greatest Hits book, and I'm finally up to BTMD in the main book, which I attempted last night for the first time. I didn't manage it straight off, but it wasn't anywhere near as scary as I was reckoning it to be, thanks to its fearsome reputation in this thread.

So tonight - more on BTMD. Hopefully I'll get it, the Bach and Eidelweiss to a reasonable standard by the end of the week.

I've definitely slowed down, but I think (probably due to my new piano) that I'm enjoying learning the piano a lot more. I've not had this much fun learning a musical instrument since my first guitar about 25 years ago ...

A belated welcome to the new folks. I too am one of the few BTMD admirers. I think it might be because of the reputation it has and the fact that I didn't have too much difficulty with it. I go back and play it once in a while so I don't "lose" it. It's also one of the ones I can do with someone watching and they actually recognize it.

I have a lesson tomorrow so I am trying to concentrate tonight on the areas I am having difficulty with in the pieces I am working on.

First up will be Good People. I have been on this one for a few weeks and am really sick of it. It is in pretty good shape now and I am hoping to get passed on it but it has not been an easy one. I finally have the rhythm down in the spots I was screwing up but my fingers get twisted occasionally in the right hand. I also have to look at my hands a lot more than I want to else I screw it up. This ones getting tossed out behind the barn with Lavender's Blue never to be seen again.

Next will be Little Brown Jug. This one seems like it should be easy and really is when played hands separate but I am having quite a time with the last measure in each line. Did anyone who is past this one have any trouble with those 2 finger hops up the scale? This one is not ready to be passed and I hope my teacher has some suggestions for me. Left hand is not a problem.

I have also been putting in a lot of time on What A Wonderful World and have made progress. I started out with the one in the Greatest Hits book but didn't like the arrangement at all. I found a different version that is quite nice and is not too difficult. It has taken a lot of work but it is starting to slowly come together. I still have a lot of work to do on it but it will be worth it because it is one of my favorites and will stay with me for a long time.

I have also been working on scales. My teacher started me on Bb major and D major at my last lesson so I have been working on those along with C, F & G.

All of these things consume a lot of practice time so it feels like it is really going very slow right now. I was hoping to be finished with book 1 sometime in June but at the pace things are going right now it's looking like it will be more like August. I am in no hurry, I just like to work toward a goal and this one needs some adjustment.

Doug F> Good luck with your lesson tomorrow

Im working through the book without a teacher and it does make me realise how narrow a view im getting when you mention your teacher starting you on those many scales. Do you think its worth paying for even just a 1 hour lesson each week ?

I like the wee jazzy run at the beginning of Good People but its fairly child-like sounding. like something from Blue's Clues or something ! I hope these kinds of pieces are left behind when you move to the second book.

___________________________
M-Audio Prokeys 88sx

Working on... Lullaby, On Top of Old Smoky, The Can Can

That is so funny!!! It does sound like it is from Blue's Clues (take it from someone who has seen more than her fair share of that program).
For both Doug and Smokestacklightnin:
Why not try a few pieces outside of the Alfred book now? There are several that are perfectly doable, and the end result is so much more gratifying.
What style of music do you most enjoy? Once that is known, I am sure many on this forum could provide you with lists and lists of pieces you might try to tackle.
I remember listening to the recital online to get some inspiration too.

Smokestacklightnin - I do think it is worth paying for lessons. I have been taking them since January and I was about half way through the book on my own when I started. As I look back on what I learned from the lessons that I probably would not have picked up on my own several things come to mind. He has corrected something on just about every piece that I didn't realize I was doing wrong. They range from rhythm errors to something as simple as playing the wrong note without realizing it. He has improved my posture and hand positioning making it much more comfortable and possibly preventing injury down the road. He is very good at mixing both constructive criticism and positive reinforcement which keeps me looking forward to the next lesson instead of dreading it. Most importantly though is it holds me accountable and moving forward instead of allowing me to slack off. I have a clear understanding after each lesson of what I need to work on to be prepared for the next. I am taking a one hour lesson every two weeks so you may want to consider that instead of an hour every week. This seems to be just right for me as far as the amount of material covered in a lesson and the amount of practice needed to keep up with it before the next lesson. It works out right for my budget as well.

I have enjoyed most of the blues pieces but Good People doesn't make the cut. I'm not familiar with Blues Clues (our children are grown and on their own now) so I'll have to check it out to see what you mean. Maybe I'll look at this piece form a different perspective if I can find some humor in it. I am hoping for more satisfying pieces in Book 2 also.

GlassLove - I do work on different pieces outside of Book 1. I have the Greatest Hits book and liked Love Me Tender but after that one I tried My Heart Will go On (Titanic) and What A Wonderful World and didn't like the arrangements of either one at all. They both sounded very flat and ugly. I am really dissapointed in that book. I am now working on a different version of What A Wonderful World that I got from Yamaha's Digital Music store. It's a very nice arrangement and it's at my level. My main interests are Rock/Pop, Country and Blues. There's also a handful of Classical pieces that I would like to try at some point but I'm not really a Classical fan. I am looking for a good source of material at my level that suits my interests. I am tempted to try the All Time Hits book as Mom3Gram suggested recently. I should check out the recital too.

GlassLove> I keep my handy-dandy notebook with me at all times my step-son loved that show. Its seared into my memory for all time lol.

DougF> thats not a bad idea of just the one lesson every two weeks. hadnt thought of that. I wish looking back that id had a teacher for classical guitar because I know ive picked up SO many bad habits over the years that im guilty of on a daily basis.

Both> I have tried some pieces outside the book. Ive tried one or two Coldplay songs, the Theme from Schindlers list, How to save a life etc but the ones I would recommend to both of you are ones I just found yesterday. They are off the soundtrack to the french film 'Amalie'. There is a very popular piece from the film called 'Comptine D'Un Autre Ete' but thats a bit above me at the moment but on the soundtrack there are 3 pieces which all have a very similar pattern. They are pretty simple to play but sound absolutely beautiful and quite haunting. They are called 'Le Moulin', 'La Dispute' and 'La Valse D'Amalie'.

The piano part doesnt start until a minute or two in to the first two however. If you like these I have the sheet music I can email to you.


________________________________

"Im not afraid to die. I just dont want to be there when it happens!" - Woody Allen

Found the pieces on YouTube. they are all pretty popular it seems.

Le Moulin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_oGqsU2S08

La Dispute - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9OOHStu93w

La Valse d'Amalie - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFY1m3OD0jY&feature=related

this one is also a really beautiful piece but might take me a while

Sur Le Fil - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xacZFCPVCx8&feature=related

enjoy

Those are all very beautiful pieces. I especially like Sur Le Fil. I'm not sure if I can manage any of them or not but I sent you a PM with my e-mail address. Thanks for sharing those.

Likewise actually. Sur Le Fil is my favourite aswell. even more so that Comptine D'Un Autre Ete. Will email you the sheets