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John, I went "Prelude in C Major" as directed and found that the "Prelude in D Minor" was good preparation for playing the piece. As we have discussed before, I worked out the chords first and found that to be a great help in learning to play it. Apparently teachers like to use this piece to show how chord sequences relate to the sound of the piece. It's pretty neat. I played it a little slower than my teacher, but he was very satisfied with my version. You can do it!

Bob

Bob - thanks for the info & encouragement! I usually work out the chords to every piece and write them on the music too.

piano4 - when I said that the "Star Spangled banner' was butchered I was referring to all the strained & off-key and mangled vocal versions I've heard over the years before various sporting events, etc. (including many singers forgetting the words) From what I understand the melody (which jumps all over the place is an old English drinking song - and I sometimes think that you have to be about half "tanked' to hit some of the notes!

Regards, JF

The Star-Spangled Banner is one of the most difficult pieces for anyone to sing. It's an octave and a half in range, starts in the lower register and moves really fast into the high end. That top note, on "the land of the free," is a high F. Not a lot of singers can sing that kind of range easily. And the mistake a lot of them make is starting too high. Then you're sunk when you have to try for that top note. I definitely prefer playing it on the piano!

Hey! We fell back all the way to page 2 of the forum. I don't like that!!

Oldfingers...still obsessed by the moonlight sonata?? It's so much fun to work on a piece that really 'grabs' you! I'm still giving it a rest, but I may be back soon!

John...I was as obsessed by the prelude in C major as Oldfingersd is by the moonlight. I loved it! And am still playing it. I found it fairly straightforward once I got the 'feeling' of how it's built up. But the real challenge is to make it sound the way it should. Kind of flowing and smooth, but still with a kind of well contained 'excitement' in there that avoids the pitfall of it sounding very boring. It's easy to play it as a 'warming up exercise'. Very metronome tempo, same volume throughout. But is't a real challenge to make it sound good. And a fun one as well. Since just playing the notes is not that difficult one can really work on the dynamics etc to turn it into (oh boy, there I go again, sorry!) a 'real piece of music'.

I'm doing things the other way around by the way. I'm now starting on the Clementi prelude in D that was supposed to be the preparation for this one. We'll see in the coming days how that's going to work.

Classy Rag is as good as done. Nice piece. But I struggle with the same problem as you, John. Its so jumpy, there's a mistake happening somewhere, everytime I play it. or I get so concentrated on my hands that I'm messing up the order of all the repeat sections that are in there. GRRR!

An then on to that star spangled banner I guess. Isn't that a kind of US national anthem? Kind of Obama inaugeration stuff? It's sometimes a bit of a disadvantage for a european, to use US books. It would be fun for a change to play a dutch or european 'classic', however overplayed they might be, instead of those US evergreens (or maybe it's an advantage after all. For me the star spangled banner may sound a lot 'fresher' then to the average american. But these anthem-like songs aren't really my type of music anyway...)

Ingrid

PS...John. Did I read somewhere else that you practice 3-5 hrs/day???!!! Every day??!!

Wow!!!

Where do you find the time???

Ingrid: Yes! It's quite weird actually. Many years ago when I was enamored with golf, I'd hit golf balls again and again, every once in a while catching one on the sweet spot, which would entice me to hit more. Well it's a similar thing with the Moonlight Sonata. I'll play a section over and over and every once in a while I'll get it right and it feels great, and I'll play it again and again.

I've been at it for two weeks and can "play" it through. Now I'm trying to smooth out the rough spots and think about the musicality. At my lesson today we talked about the chord progressions, as I understand you are doing with the Prelude in C Major, so that I can see (hear) where the music is going. I can't say I understand it fully, but I get the idea, sort of.

When I started Alfred's Level 2 a little over a year ago, I would not have dreamed that I could learn to play the Moonlight Sonata. I am very grateful for the Alfred series, and my teacher, of course, who supplemented the lessons perfectly.

Bob

John Frank, I definitely agree with your statement.... I just don't want to be butchering "The Star Spangled Banner" on piano

Ingrid - yes, you did read that somewhere else, and yes, I typically do practice 3-5 hours per day on most (but not every) days - I do this in 3 separate sessions: morning, afternoon and early evening, working on different pieces in each one. Doesn't everybody have that much time?

Regards, JF

P.S. be aware of (or beware of) the "cut time" time signature on the Prelude in D Minor as was discussed above.

Given that this thread has almost disappeared from the ABF I might be talking to myself, but I thought I'd give an update on my work on Moonlight Sonata. Having now made it all the way through with only a couple of rough spots remaining, I am now confronted with the problem of high-lighting the melody notes. A few months ago the problem was how to play the left hand more quietly than the right, but now it is how to play the right thumb more softly than the right pinky. Any suggestions?

Oldfingers!

You're not talking to yourself! I'm still here! Somehow I lost my login-password for pianoworld during the changeover to the new format. For some weird reason I never had to log-in in the old version, so I never used the password, and had to retrieve it through pianoworld. But did it! Even re-established my old avatar, and upgraded the format to something that is pleasing to the eye!

Seems that I wasn't the only one that disappeared during the black out period! Where's all the rest? Especially John, who always keeps us on page 1 with at least an every-other-day update! (I would manage that if I did 5 hrs exercise a day! That would allow for a lot of regular updates! Ha!)

Anyway, I got the classy rag in the pocket, and am almost done with the clementi prelude. No more spectacular stuff, I'm having 3 birthdays in the family in 2 weeks time, so am a bit busy with other things.

On a broader musical note...I am currently also working with the kids on a primitive type of school 'orchestra'. We got all the instrument playing kids together, and divided them into smaller groups, and are now preparing some pieces to play at a real performance thing planned for may or june. It's fun! We've got pianos (of course!),violins, flutes, sax, jembes, guitars, and you name it. Really nice to work with those kids. Fortunately my piano teacher is helping out a bit with the repertoire, and transposing/adapting some stuff were necessary.

And Oldfingers...on the moonlight sonata...

Getting that melody to stand out out was for me the most complicated part of the piece (and probably one of the reasons I put it on hold for a while)

Are you able to play al the octaves an ninths (and the stuff in between) with 'relaxed' hands?? While keeping them 'on the keys'?

For me it helped a lot to kind of release your other fingers from the keys when playing the pinky-melody (I had to do that anyway, bacause my hands certainly don't make the ninth, en got all stressed when playing the octaves-and-stuff-in-between).

But this approach gives you (at least that's how I felt it) more strength in the pinky to make that melody louder.

Disadvantage is of course that you 'lose' your fingersetting for the next few notes (since there's a lot of repetitive broken-chords.

Good luck!!

Ingrid

oh, and PS, Oldfingers!




At least we're making progress!! (eehm. YOU are making progress!) it's a never-ending journey though, I guess!

I'm here, tho there has been really no progress to report. I haven't had a lesson in 3 weeks, so I'm pretty much cruising along where I was. Did I mention (I'm too lazy to go look!) that we cleared Toreador Song? Rock-A My Soul is still giving me problems with rhythm in s few spots, but it's slowly, slowly coming along. We picked up the Heller Prelude in E flat, and it took me a few tries to get the feel of it, but I think I'm doing ok on the first part, at least. And still working on the first 2 pieces in Meir's Romantic Impressions Book 1. I think we will call the first one "done" next week.

I have not ventured (as yet) into the Ambitious section of the Alfred's book. Those pieces look too scary!

Hello all you book three'ers of whom I am so envious. I am nearing the end of book one, about to start on book two and was wondering if I could get some quick feedback on how long people have taken to get through book two. I know it's influenced by lots of variables, but among those of you who primarily just studied the Alfred's All in one book two, how long did it take you to complete it?

I hear it's much more difficult than book one.

Well, it took me about a year, but that was with some supplemental items in there, as well. And I didn't push super hard to finish it in a hurry, either.

And I can't compare to how long it took compared to Book 1, since I didn't use that one.

I finished book 1 & 2 in about 1 1/2 year. Book 1 was a lot faster then book 2 by the way. I guess book 1 took 4-5 months, and book 2 about a year. but during book 2 I did quite a lot of stuff 'on the side'. I played from what you guys call fake books (still do that by the way, it's good for learning chords, and fun to play popular music, or childrens tunes). I also do weekly etudes (what you call hanon I think), and I had a large 'special projects' over the last summer, which was learning all 6 Gnossiennes by Satie.

No real idea how slow slow or fast I am. But I'm having fun, and that's the most important! (for the record, I'm 43 and never played an instrument before)

It took me about 3 years combined to get thru Books 1 & 2 - not sure exactly how long on each, but sure that Book 2 took longer than Book 1 - also working on numerous other pieces from other sources simultaneously - and yes, Book 2 is more difficult than Book 1 (as you would expect and as you should hope), but the approach is gradual so that if you're persistent and consistent you shouldn't have too much trouble.

Finished off the "Prelude in D Minor" with a fairly good recording, but not quite up to the ideal tempo - currently working on the "Star Spangled Banner" and finding it not very challenging (even the tremolo part is easier than I thought it would be) - I have changed their recommended fingering in about 7 or 8 places to make it (I believe) easier, and I'm finding myself doing this much more frequently now in most of the Book 3 pieces - also working on a neat little Minuet in A minor by Johann Kreiger (a contemporary of Bach, I think) from the 1st volume of Alfred's Essential Keyboard Repertoire - in addition, working on the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" which has a very beutiful melody.

Regards, JF

P.S. Yes, I'm still around - just been very busy lately - will try to check in a little more frequently - anyone heard from our "founder" Mark? - he seems to be MIA since some of us newbies showed up here.

Before I started Alfred, my lessons were focussed on playing from a fake book so I had learned the scales, many chords, inversions and voicings. A year and a half ago I decided to learn to read all the notes and started with Alfred's level 2. It took me about six months to complete. Last spring I started on Alfred's level 3 which I am about to finish. It was more difficult than level 2, but with more effort nothing was insurmountable and many of the pieces were quite rewarding. Unlike others in this thread I worked exclusively on the pieces in Alfred as I wanted to complete the series as quickly as possible. It's amazing that I am now very comfortable reading all the notes. Here-to-fore, I never thought I could have done it. Three cheers for Alfred.

I'm here too! I haven't been on computer keyboard except to do grad papers! I am still progressing on Toccata... I'm starting the third page:-). Also, I've started Hanon and this may sound strange but I didn't realize I could play the first one at the tempo of 65!!! My instructor mentioned that I should put that on youtube:-) I'll think about that. Good luck on Moonlight Sonata, and Meir and all other fine works. Take care everyone!

Here's a personal update:

Will finish up "The Star Spangled Banner" this week in Book 3.

Also just finished work on a neat little Minuet (in the lovely key of A Minor) by the German Johann Kreiger (a contemporary of Bach & Handel). I have a good recording of this which might just show up in a Monthly Piano Bar or the next ABF Recital

Still working on the hymn "This is My Father's World", a great video of which can be found here in this thread in the ABF (the 9th post):

Favorite Video Thread

How are you all doing?

Regards, JF

JF, glad to hear of your progress. I continue to work on the Moonlight Sonata and probably will for the rest of my life. I can play all of the parts OK, but not all OK at one time, if you know what I mean. I'm also a little confused about the proper way to play the ninths. There is a U-tube video of Kempf playing the sonata in which all of the dissonance has been eliminated, which means laying off of the RH thumb. For some reason I can't bring myself to do this, even though I know it sounds better.

My final piece of work in Book 3 is Fur Elise which is also proving to be a challenge. The first two sections are OK, but when I hit the third section I have to slow down to a crawl.

My teacher suggested I try some Satie next. We'll see.

So far so good! I'm on the third page of Toccata and on Hanon #2. I'm getting some of the Communion songs from last year so I can get ready (somewhat) for this year's group practices.

Even though this is taking me a bit more time ( and it's worth it) I'm enjoying Bach! Haven't forgotten any of my pop songs....I'll get to those a little later.

Take care all!

Yes, I know very well what you mean - I've had the same problem putting it all together on several pieces - I think the ability to do that depends a lot on the particular piece in question, but also is a skill that will slowly come to us with much more practice over much more time - this is especially true where you work on a piece real hard for awhile, then let it go as you move on to more demanding pieces, and then come back to that piece to review it and finally nail it down - I've had this happen a number of times thru the Alfred series.

I finally turned back and took a good look at the "Moonlight" and it consists of a continuous series of triplets! And the clef sign changes several times on the upper staff! The left hand looks like it is playing mostly octaves. Glad you're working on it and not me - although I will eventually - could be a very difficult piece to memorize because the RH triplet pattern is never broken and it would be easy to get confused or lose one's place. I think for now I'll stay out of the "Ambitious Section" - the rest of Book 3 is certainly ambitious enough for me at this stage!



The Minuet I'm working on is in the "Essential Keyboard Repertoire" series (Vol.1) which was one of the advanced series that the guy from Alfred recommended some time back in a previous post, although I think he talked about starting with Book 2 or 3 after Alfred 3. The format is very nice, the pieces are enjoyable and the books all come with a CD of the recorded pieces - this could be one of several places for you to go eventually (with the approval of your teacher).

Regards, JF