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 never thought about pedaling in that way. It makes a ton of sense. What great advice! I was shying away from the pedaling because of the errors, but will now put in the extra time to start getting the pedal down. Plus the pedal really makes songs so much better.

Thanks Kim

You're welcome! Happy to help!

Kim

I just registered for this forum today. I've been watching this thread for a few weeks now and I decided it was finally time to post. I'll go into where I'm at right now.

I have been doing Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Book #1 for about 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I just came back from a 1.5 week break. I was out of town and didn't even get to touch a piano. I played again today and I caught up to where I was.

Right now I am on page 69. I'm working on Beautiful Brown Eyes and Alpine Melody. I keep stumbling a bit throughout them. It's probably because of all the broken chords and the pedaling. Oh well, nothing repetition won't smooth out.

And I do have a teacher helping me out although she hasn't helped me with this book yet. I ended up buying this book after our last lesson and since then I couldn't meet up with her because of conflicting schedules. Our next lesson is next Thursday so I'll have plenty of time to practice.

Anyways, I'm glad I registered and I'm hoping to finish this book. From what I've heard, The Entertainer and Amazing Grace are great pieces!

Welcome Grand Key! It sounds like you are doing well with the Alfred book. And your right about the practice, with time and hard work you will just get better and better and work your through the book in no time. You will truly enjoy the Alfred Amazing Grace and Entertainer...followed by book two of course.

We have some great knowledgeable teachers who keep an eye on us beginners here in these Alfred threads, so if you need anything please ask...

Mark

Mark: Thank you for the encouragement. I'll definitely continue to post my updates here (at least until I reach book two, of course. Plenty of time until then though).

One of the funny things about "On top of old Smokey" is the ending (last couple of measures), which caught me off-guard at last week's lesson. The song was tricky to sight-read, but as I continued on I noticed the second half was identical to the first (or so I thought).

Some time around that halfway point my brain decided to stop trying to decipher the notes and just go from memory. And then I saw the ending, and my playing turned into a musical train wreck (including the mis-reading of a tie as a slur).

Getting a little better at it now, thankfully.


Kim: No worries at all, your comments and encouragement are highly appreciated. And yes, I forgot about the obvious "wanting to do well for my teacher" feeling. In that case, maybe the pre-lesson nervousness is a good sign.

Although today (my latest lesson), I arrived a little later than usual, so I didn't have any time to sit outside, ponder my fate, and think of nervous thoughts. I didn't even notice that until after the lesson ended. Surprising in a way.


In my latest lesson, the G-major scale was introduced, I attempted "The Can-Can" a few times (why is it so hard to resist playing that song at a fast tempo), and started on "The Marines' Hymn", with its tricky second measure (playing the same note once with each finger).

Looking forward to the next lesson.

"On Top of Old Smokey" was giving me so much trouble I had to highlight (yellow marker) where the A, G and D kicked it with the right hand. Its one song I still try to go back to because it was a tricky one for me.

And your getting close to "Why am I Blue" which is one of my favorites from book one. It has a real full sound. I think you might like it.

Stay the course...

Mark

Mark737, thanks for the welcome.

Right now, I'm on page 74 (Good Morning To You!) and I'm ready to move on to page 75 (Happy Birthday To You!). I have a few questions though.

Did any of you follow the Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Greatest Hits - Level 1 book? On page 54 of the course book it says you are ready to being Greatest Hits, Level 1. Fortunately, I discovered I already owned the book and had played a few (maybe like 2 or 3) songs from it. So as of now I'm following it. I've played Love Me Tender, which was pretty simple and I've been trying to get through Edelweiss. I think part of the problem of playing Edelweiss was that I was unfamiliar with the song. Apart from the challenge of playing the notes, I couldn't "piece together" what I was hearing. Well after a couple rounds of it, I'm happy to say I can hear it better somewhat but I still need to work on it. I looked ahead and the next two songs are not as difficult as this one.

And one more question. When you got around page 75, how fast did you progress through the book? I feel like I could go a little faster, but I don't want to miss anything. Everytime I sit to play, I start from page 65 (Beautiful Brown Eyes) and play onward, adding maybe a few pages to where I was at. I figure I should be able to play the previous pieces smoothly. What do you guys think about this?

Your welcome!

First I'm not a teacher so take this with a grain of salt. I agree with your method of playing back through the older stuff and cleaning it up as you add new material. Its always fun to play familiar stuff to warm up before you go to new heavy duty playing. As for going at a faster rate, go for it. You will know when your having problems and then you can back off.

I just did that on my vacation. I was going strong and then kind of hit a wall and needed to stop and work on some stuff before moving ahead. If you have a teacher they also can judge when to speed up or slow down your pace. And best of all no matter how bad a time your having with a piece, if you stop at it and give it some extra attention you will eventually get through it.

So stay the course my friend, your hard work and dedication will pay off.

Mark

PS: If you find a piece your not familar with, try asking someone hear to upload the song or check out You Tube for examples.

I'm glad to say that I've progressed and I am now on page 84 (Lavender's Blue). I was glad I got through eigths. I was thinking I would have trouble keeping the count, but I actually played Alouette through the first time fairly decently.

And I'm also feeling a little more comfortable sight reading. Identifying notes on the staff has gotten easier since I started this book.

Oh yeah, I also took up learning a piece. I'm trying to learn Cristofori's Dream by David Lanz. Before I started this book, I was trying to learn John Lennon's Imagine, but right now I think I'm more interested in Cristofori's Dream. It flows so much better (and I think it's easier than the sheet I had for Imagine ). I've gotten through the first page so far.

I had my piano lesson today. I'd say she was pleased with my progress (she hasn't seen me since I started this book).

Right now I'm on page 89, Blow the Man Down!. I'm having a little bit of trouble with the different rythms in measures 2, 4, 8, and 16 (The treble clef is a dotted quarter note, eighth note, quarter note and the bass clef is three quarter notes). I know the solution is to practice, but does anyone have any suggestions?

I want to get this differing rythm down because a similar rythm appears in the piece I am working on (Cristofori's Dream). Thanks for the help!

Hello guys,

I've been surfing in that first book for quite a while but today, I've hit a HUGE wall. The reason of my wall is the song Blow the man down on page 55.

My problem with that song is getting my left hand to play at the right time. At the beginning of the song, the left hand is playing broken chords on beat but the right hand has a dotted quarter with a 8th note. I can't "tell" to my brain to play the 2nd beat of my left hand right before that 8th note. I've listened tje song on Youtube to get me some pointers but with no results.

Anyone had the same problem with that song? How to "tell" my left hand to play right before the 8th of my right hand?

Thank you because this book is GREAT !

Blow the man down and after that Top of old Smokey are both tough ones. I still go back and try to fine tune Smokey.

The best way to approach them is probably doing hands separate very slowly and the work them together slowly.. But the bottom line for me was just play them a ton of times for a long time. My teacher said Blow the man down always was a tough one for her students, so you are not alone.

I'm sure some of our teachers will drop by and give you guys some real pro advice.

Mark

Hi all,

Re: Blow the Man Down and learning complicated rhythms...

Being able to recognize rhythm and get your hands to play different rhythms (work independently) at the same time is definitely a new skill. It can be one of the frustrations that leads people to think "It's just too hard." So -- the difficulty isn't just in your head.

Here's my method:

Between the staves, write in your counting, as detailed as you need to. Make sure you understand each rhythm that you're playing.

Now you're going to put your hands on the piano. Look at each measure as a chunk of information. On each beat, or half beat, either your hands will be playing something together, or you'll have one hand or the other, playing separately. You're looking at the sequence of movements you're asking your hands to make.

So you'll have a sequence of movements, for instance: together, right, right, together, left, together, left, left.

See what I mean? (It's so hard to do this via email!) And not only do you play it, but you speak the words out loud as you play. You're telling yourself what to do!

By focusing on the movement, and working in small chunks of information at a time (measures) you can break down songs and teach your hands what to do in complicated passages.

This is a slow-down method that totally takes you out of hearing the 'song' and gets you to focus on movement instead of on sound. I always found that saying "slow down" was kind of a hit-or-miss instruction... what is slow? What students believe is slow is not nearly what I call slow!

I've not had any tea yet this morning so if this all doesn't make much sense, please say so and I'll try to explain it better! ;-)

Best,

Kim

First of all, it's nice to hear others teling me that I'm not alone with this problem. This motivate me a lot to practice more and more.

Second, I will assure you that your post really make sense. I can't wait to try your suggestions. The moment my brain will "click" my problem will be solve. Tonight, I will put efforts to make my brain "click".

Before my purchase of that book, I was avoiding the things I wasn't able to do. I'm faced to battle my skills...and I love it now. After the realisation, you really feel you accomplished something great. Piano is great !

Thansk again for the words,

kinghippo423.

P.S. I might cut my poker session in half to be able to touch my piano sooner

kinghippo423, what a coincidence we were both seeking advice on the same piece and at the same time!

Mark and Kim, thanks for your advice. I just finished practicing and I got through Blow the Man Down! somewhat easier. I think the trick for me was to realize the counting and which note goes with which count. So in the trouble sections, I'm counting: ONE (TC and BC's quarter note), TWO (BC's quarter note) AND (TC's quarter note), THREE (TC and BC's quarter note). (TC=Treble Clef, BC=Bass Clef)

My last run through it was probably one of the better ones. I also proceded to the next piece, Lone Star Waltz and I have got to say... these pieces are getting more and more challenging! With all the moving sixths, 1 moving between C and D, and the moving hands, I've got to say I'll spend some quality time with this piece, lol.

Again, thanks for the input. I'm super glad I registered for this forum!

I'm glad the thread is helping.

Like I've mentioned before. People tend to go through the first 50ish pages fast and then things start slowing down. very normal and expected.

After reading the posts here I went just about all the way back to the beginning of book one to see how things played out, and I was amazed how much easier things went, even after not playing some stuff for a couple of months. It just proves that all the hard work pays off if your patient.

Stay the course..
Mark

Mark said:

Isn't that great? I'm glad you did that. It's awesome to do when you're feeling stuck, or as though you're not progressing. Or when you're just getting frustrated with your practicing, and need to get back in good mood!

Hope everyone's having a great Saturday!

Best,

Kim

Mark, that's awesome how things are easier now. Everytime I practice, I start from Beautiful Brown Eyes and play onward. Those beginning pieces seem to get easier and easier.

I just finished practicing. Everything went well. One thing I noticed was that I was really relaxed. Usually my shoulders tense up when I'm in a troublesome piece, but they didn't this time!

Blow the Man Down! went smooth (I only messed up on occasion, not every single time -- progress!). As for Lone Star Waltz, it's getting better as well. I need to work on moving my hands to a different spot on the keyboard. Any advice for this?

Hi all

I have had a huuuuuge break from the piano. I formed a band so I was concentrating on my guitar. Now we have hit a bit of a dry spot and I want to get back to the relaxing piano.

Does anyone know where to buy the Alfred CD for Adult couse book 1 in the UK? I have the book but no CD. I think I would be more inspired to practice if I heard the songs first. I only really feel comfortable playing songs I have already heard. Or could someone upload the songs in MP3 possibly? Even MIDI files would be great.

thanks

I'm not sure where to get only the CD, but if you go through this thread loly has kindly uploaded most of the CD'd songs...

Also you can ask the thread followers to upload a song if its not here.

I'd love to get all the songs from the book uploaded to the thread.

Mark