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

Thats some great progress.

Thanks Oxfords Gal

It's a totally different experience from my old one, lol.

old
http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee213/okyep/keyboard.jpg

new
http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee213/okyep/newkeyboard1.jpg

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Oxfords Gal:
[QB] Doh Ogrt, look into playing by intervals that will help you tremendously.

This is a super comment - and one that really gets overlooked in learning to read music. Most of the time, students are asked to memorize the staff by rote ("all cows eat grass..."). This works, but is where most students stop.

The problem with the exclusive use of the above technique is that your reading will never get very fast.

Alfred was a pioneering company in recommending that students also learn to see intervalic distances.

What I always taught my students to do was to use the sentences ("All Cows...) to find the first note of a staff, and then learn to see the distances between the notes from there. My opinion is that the combination of the two methods really seems to be the most efficient method of reading.

hi all,

I'm currently on page 80-something, doing alouette. going well so far, i hope to finish book 1 by Nov 26 so i can play The Entertainer for my mother when she comes to visit me from Wales.

I do like the alfred books since they provide a structure of learning easier pieces first and progressing onto harder pieces. The songs are nicely arranged as well. My favourite so far is the Harp Song. I'm a sucker for simplicity!

My only real gripe would be that the book doesn't explain chord theory quite as much as i think it should. For instance, the introduction to the G7 chord provides no instruction as to why it's called a G7 chord, and makes no mention of it being inverted, or that the fifth note has been omitted from the true G7. I'm very interested in learning the theory, and I actually began lessons with a teacher who explained all this to me, so when I read that in the book i thought it was a little odd. I know that overloading beginners with theory would be a little wearisome, but a few sentences of explanation wouldn't go amiss I'm sure. But maybe Alfred goes into more detail later on, or I do believe there's an extra book.

Now, I just had one quick question. Is the Alfred book series related at all to grades? I mean, what grade would a person be able to master after conquering book 3 for example?

Cheers,
JFN

That's one of the things I dislike about Alfred. I've always been very interested in theory-REAL theory, not just here's a scale and here's another. But my teacher has not seemed that interested in it yet and neither has Alfred. Although, I do have to say that Book 2 does contain a bit more theory, inverted chords and such.

Thank you David. This is how I learned. I first learned to read music through flash cards and such but noticed how slow I was reading all the notes.

That's when Intervals was suggested by my teacher so now it's so much faster identifying the first note then doing intervals thereafter. After a while it's automatic and if you stop to think about it you say "Oh my I'm just playing without even thinking about notes or intervals anymore".

You learn to recognize intervals without even thinking after a while.

"Chase Away the Blues" - Alfred's Adult All-in-One Book 1 (without CD.) Pulling my hair out and I don't have any.

Is it me, or does the left hand sound more like a marching rhythm than the blues? I'm whizzing through this book at a pretty good clip, but get very frustrated with some of the Alfred arrangements that sound so horrible/hokey. Certainly they can keep it simple (for us beginners) while still challenging, but be more ... musical? Maybe it's just me ...

Does anyone have a clip of this tune they can post?

"Chase Away the Blues" - Alfred's Adult All-in-One Book 1 (without CD.) Pulling my hair out and I don't have any.

Is it me, or does the left hand sound more like a marching rhythm than the blues? I'm whizzing through this book at a pretty good clip, but get very frustrated with some of the Alfred arrangements that sound so horrible/hokey. Certainly they can keep it simple (for us beginners) while still challenging, but be more ... musical? Maybe it's just me ...

Does anyone have a clip of this tune they can post?

I'm really impressed with the progress some people are making here.

I posted earlier in this thread about my first problems with hands together during Chopin's Etude no.4

......er I meant 'Jingle Bells'.

I'm glad to say that it is not so much of a problem now when I do play it now I realise that my mind is not so much concerned about hitting the right keys at the right time but about how it sounds too.

Must be a good sign that.

I have just left my piano after another dreadful rendition of 'Lone Star Waltz'. For heaven's sake it seems so simple on paper, I've been at it for almost 2 days now and will move on and come back to it later this week.

I'm trying to figure out what is stumping me, and I think it's this: the fact that with these new pieces more of the keys are being explored, not to mention that 6ths are very new to me.

In previous pieces the hands basically stay in the same 'C' or 'G' position which I have gotten quite used to. The fact that I can do a decent 'Blow the Man down' is probably testimony to this.

Was just wondering what you guys think and how you managed.

The fact that your playing "Blow the man down" means you are progressing. It can be tricky. Keep working on the stuff thats giving you problems.

It's all about the practice. If you keep at it. you develop slowly but surely.

So when you going to upload a song for us...

Mark

I've been trying to learn by myself how to play piano for the past 6 months. I am working on "The Entertainer" and "Amazing Grace" now. I was pretty happy with myself with my playing level because with my busy work schedule and my 1 year old kid son, I was not able to allocate much time for any of my other activities including practicing.

I am also reading some technique books. With the information I get from those, I feel I did quite Okay with my work with Piano. I was highly motivated with those.

But when yesterday when my wife wanted to make a video of my playing after my 1 hour practice session, I made a lot of mistakes hitting wrong notes. Of course, she laughed at me and was making fun by saying "Hey you were practicing all time and you are not even able to play a single piece properly". That hurt me a lot and now, I am low on confidence.

I am really at the end of the world. In my whole life, this is the only activity I enjoyed. I love music.. especially classical and new age music a lot. How do you guys achieve perfection? Please pour me some advices to play pieces perfectly all time.

Well done with reaching the end of Book 1 in six months with restricted practice time! I started in February. I don't seek perfection but strive to play competently within my current level whilst working on those pieces which will hopefully move me forward. I still make oodles of mistakes, particularly when aiming for a faster tempo and when recording myself and even more so when others are within hearing. It's as though knowing I have an audience turns my fingers into fumbling digits disconnected from the brain. I think {hope!} it is not uncommon. I think it's called red dot fever.

If I may offer a couple of female thoughts on your wife's comment. Does she appreciate just how important this is to you? Perhaps her comment was a loving teasing. I bet your practice session was better than the recording so perhaps she offered to make the video out of pride in your accomplishment. Lastly - a one year old - can take a heck of a lot out of a mum if they have been with them all day. I know mine did.

Amazing Grace is, in my opinion, a leap in difficulty over the other Book 1 pieces. Don't be too hard on yourself. Look back on that recording in six months or a year and I bet your thoughts will be more like Wow, haven't I come a long way. I find a confidence boost when I play some of the earlier pieces I've worked on and find where once was difficulty now it's easy.

Look forward to seeing you in the Book 2 thread.

Honest answer is: you never will.. there is always room for improvement. But no despair! You can play to your own satisfaction. That everything fails when recording it is something we all suffer from (some worse some less) but that will become better as well. The key is to keep learning, you will advance to next levels playing more difficult music and when you go back to the "simple ones" you notice how easy they've become. Sure you will make mistakes but you be able to repair them and the next time you play the song they are gone. Look at it this way: you study at level 5 and be able to play with ease level 3 (these are just random numbers to give you a idea).

To overcome the red-dot syndrome there is only one cure: do it regularly and it will become less of a obstacle.

Just don't worry.. keep trying!! And don't let anybody convince you otherwise than: Piano playing is fun (period!) and practice does make perfect!

vijay, hang in there and don't let anything or anyone bring you down.

The piano is one of the most difficult instruments IMO besides the Oboe to master. I think your wife just doesn't know how much is involved in learning an instrument. Sitting her down with you might give her an understanding.

First of all you're reading music on 2 staffs, your brain expects you to read these 2 staffs at once, while your hands are doing 2 completely different tasks from each other. In addition you have to know how to read music, know phrases, counts, tempo, and make your fingers land on the keyboard comprised of 88 keys.

Pat yourself on the back for accomplishing this against all odds, and don't feel bad about making tons of mistakes. I go into mistake mode as soon as my record button is turned on.

On mastering the piano, well it's possible but playing with no mistakes whatsoever is virtually unheard of.

when you make mistakes you just continue as if nothing ever happened. Concert pianists make them all the time but know how to cover them up.

good luck and welcome to Piano world.

Vijay, six months with limited time is very fast to progress through book 1. Maybe too fast.

Sometimes it takes a long time to play pieces clean. I finished book one in June and I'm still cleaning up Amazing Grace and the Entertainer as well as others. So you are not alone. Just keep practicing and as time goes by you will play cleaner and cleaner.

Mark

I've suffered from that from time to time but treat it as part of your practice routine, playing in front of an audience, even just your wife, is preperation for things to come, just close off of your mind and concentrate on your playing, just ignore the obtuse comments, that's what I did when I played classical guitar too. A friend of mine used to play guitar in Folk Clubs and had to withstand constant mindless heckling from the audience...I still dont know how he kept his temper. Anyway, if your on Amazing Grace you've left me behind, my practice schedule has been interupted, for various reasons, several times since I started in June and I'm just breaking out of O Solo Mio.

Guys! Thank you for all your replies. I am very pleased to have so much support from these many people. I think I feel Okay now. Whenever I am down, I will check some posts in this forum for boosting my confidence. And, it helped this time too. Let me keep up my spirits.

I, very much agree with Crusader, with the fact that there will be a lot of critism from people for any artist. Why should I be an exception . Thanks for reminding me that, Crusader.

Mark, well, I thought I was progressing slower than other people. While I started, I rushed at times. Eventually, I learnt it is not possible to learn to play in short period. Hence I slowed down and practice most of the pieces in the book during my daily practice sessions. Though I am working on the last 2 pieces, I keep working on all other pieces too. While doing so, I learn my earlier mistakes and feel satisfied figuring it myself. I also feel 6 months is a bit fast. So planning to hang around with Course 1 up until for one more month atleast and get confident with each and every piece before moving to next one.

Oxfords Gal, you lined out the fact about Piano Learning. Yes, I totally agree with you. Man, it is tough but enjoyable and self-satisfying. Why should I let it down myself. Let me work on my playing ignoring all distractions. Thank you very much for your inspiration.

Pevawi, I always wanted to spend more time for practice. Let me organize my time on a whole. I think that should help me achieve near perfection. As you said, I felt the ease on the earlier pieces. I will keep doing it and increase my practice duration.

Sundew, I totally understand my wife's situation and I don't take her criticism or teasing so seriously. It just hurt me for that moment. The last thing I want was discouragement. I can very well take the criticism if it is somewhat constructive. But I believe I just love her too much to take it lightly. I will learn to ignore things like these affecting my spirits.

I got enough encouragement and inspiration from you guys to keep practicing. Thank you all.

Another Alfred's Beginner.

Hello everyone. I've been lurking on this board a while and figured it was time to post. About a month ago, I started what I hope will be a life-long journey in piano-playing.

Some background. I'm 41. I've never played piano before, but I did play sax and a bit of oboe between the ages of 11 and 14. Looking back on it, I never really felt inspired to learn and I definitely felt that I never made a true connection between music theory and music playing. At the same time, I've always loved music of all sorts and have always admired those who can play.

About 2 years ago, my two eldest children began taking piano lessons with a wonderful teacher. She started them with a "traditional" approach. Somehow she sensed that they would do better with Suzuki and switched them to that method about 8 months ago. They have really flourished using Suzuki--especially my 9-year old son who seems to learn and play effortlessly. In turn, I was inspired to try to learn.

So, a little more than a month ago, I bought the "Teach Me Piano USB Kit". It combines music teaching software with a MIDI to USB cable. I also purchased a copy of Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Piano Course (Book 1) along with the CD and the MIDI disks. I've been working through the TMP lessons as well as the Alfred's. In a strange way, they go well together. The TMP lessons have emphasized rhythm and a more extensive use of the right hand, while the Alfred's has had more theory and hands-together. They both end with pretty similar versions of the "Entertainer". What's really terrific about the TMP program is that I can load the MIDI songs/sheet music from Alfred's into the TMP "Songbook" and listen to and practice them that way. The TMP sofware lets you practice a piece by focusing on just the rhythm, just the notes or both together and also let's you practice hands seperate and hands together! When you practice, the software starts a little metronome and follows along with the music. At the end of segment or song it'll grade you and tell you where you need work (e.g. "in measure 4 you played an extra note."). You can speed up or slow down the metronome as well.

So, I've been using TMP (and Alfred's) on our little digital piano and then go and practice what I've hopefully learned on our new (to me) Bluthner grand. [I've also been trialing Earmaster Pro to work on my pitch recognition. It's a pretty cool but tough program].

Anyway, I'm about half-way through the TMP lessons. On the Alfred's side, I've just started Lavender's Blue and Kumbaya. I've taken one lesson with my kid's instructor and will try to take them as often as possible. Unfortunately with my schedule, I'll be lucky to see her once every few weeks. I'm trying my best to put in at least an hour of practice every day that I'm home.

What I find so strange (magical almost) is how one day you can be really struggling with a new piece (thinking that you'll never get it) and then the next day it just seems to fall into place as if it were always a snap. This phenomenon has happened a couple of times already and has motivated me to keep practicing even when it seems impossible.

Of course, this forum has also been an invaluable resource on many different levels. So thanks everyone for your posts and encouragement.

Welcome SHPiano, it looks like you have a great plan on learning piano.

As for those magical moments, I like to call them growth sputs. They really do keep you motivated.
But its just the reward for practice...

So when you get a chance upload some of your work and join our quarterly recitals...

Mark...

I've been trucking along as best I can. I was out of town last week but I've been practicing whenever I can. I've finished "Lavender's Blue", "Kumbaya" and "Blow the Man Down" and I've started the "Lone Star Waltz" and the "Lullaby." "Blow the Man Down" is certainly tricky and I will probably continue to work on it especially to smooth out the right hand while keeping the left staccato and softer.

I had my first real lesson today. I played a few of my pieces. My teacher and I've decided that she'll focus her efforts on technique and skill development. For example, today we worked on playing the right hand in "Standing in Need of Prayer" more legato and working the crescendo and decrescendos of the phrases into and overall approach for the piece. In short we worked on the musicality of it.

I've also been working through the lessons on Teach Me Piano. However, for now I think I'll probably focus on the next few Alfred's pieces and a couple of others (a simplified Moonlight Sonata and a simplified "Christmas Time is Here") I've always liked.

Now that my Bluthner's all tuned up, I'm feeling pretty good. The Moonlight in particular sounds great even though I've only got a few measures under my fingers.