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HAPPY ANNIVERSARY KEY NOTES!

Undone

Waltz – the updated recording sounds great! Once you have a piece like this down, the way you obviously do, it can be a lot of fun to experiment with different tempos, dynamics, and the like. Sometimes you can make it sound like two (or more) entirely different selections.

PS: The way I finally wound up dealing with the page turn in Hava Nagila was to simply memorize the first two pages. By the time I was anywhere near being finished with it, the memorization was no big deal (having played it so much).

Undone

Undone,



Eeehm. Do you have a printer at home that can do photocopies??
That's how I usually solve page-turning issues... Just attach the 1 or 2 extra pages to your book with some cellotape so you can flip them open to have the whole score visible at once....

Ingrid (from the book 3 thread, but I do read here regularly)

I rerecorded for the final time (3rd):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n8Zi9jzx14

This is just mainly for clarification since I took down the other two. This one still has some issues but I like it best (you guys don't have to watch again, but future AF2 generations may not like the "dead" links to the other two).

Hava Nagila has some difficult transitions to make on pages three and four. I can play each section well but the transitions don't generally go smoothly . Undone, you are right about memorization, I suppose I've been on HN for around 5 or 6 days now and the first two pages nearly happen by pure motor memory (I find myself nearly day dreaming while playing them ). Then pages 3 and 4 come and the dreaming ends.

Happy anniversary Key Notes

Wonderful Waltz!!! ... Maybe a day I will play like you!!

Hello everyone!!

I buy the Alfred Book level 2 - All in one, but only now I perceived the book do not come with the CD!!! Well, anyone know where I can donwload the music of this book? or if it is sold separately? I search in the google but without sucess!

Thank you very much Undone and Waltz for your thoughtful congrats.

Waltz, I couldn't get your 3rd recording of Night Song YouTube link to work. I don't know what happen but I'm sure that it'll sound even better than the others.

Sundew and IngridT, Thank you for the visits and the tips and pointers. It's always so very nice to have such a wonderful network of support.

rwvaldivia, Welcome! You can purchase the accompanying CD to the AIO, level 2 book at amazon.com

Key Notes

rwvaldivia,

Thanks! Although, I listened to your video of Fur Elise and thought it was excellent as well (with great dynamics).

Thanks to you too Key Notes for the vote of confidence

W

Key Notes - tks a lot. Exactly what I need!

Happy anniversary!!!!!!

Congrats on your year, Keynotes!

I'm a few weeks / months behind the rest of y'all. In fact, I have observed that I am completing about 2 pieces every three weeks. Unless my math fails me, that means it will take me almost two years to finish this book, assuming I complete all 66 pieces in it. This assumes I keep this pace up later in the book, when, as you have warned me, things become more difficult.

That said, here is the Raymond overture after two weeks. There is a slight hesitation at the end, but frankly, I don't like this enough to play it more, and grab a better recording. Light and Blue, on the other hand, I like quite a bit, but I am not yet ready to record it.

http://www.box.net/shared/9u0u5pzaq2

AWTPP,

I thought you did a great job with the Overture. Even with the hesitation you still recovered nicely and finished well. Thanks for sharing your recording

W

Thank you, Waltz!

AWTPP – Nice job on the overture! I always liked this piece in Alfred’s, but I think I’m in the minority.

As far as how long it may take to complete book two; I think that completing 2 pieces every three weeks is a pretty fair pace. Just remember that as you progress through the book you will come across some pieces that seem “extra easy” and will take less time and then some that may take twice as long as “normal”.

Undone

Where’s Undone?

Just in case anyone directs a comment or question at me over the next few days and wonders why I’m not responding – I’ll be away and “internet free” for the remainder of this week.

Undone

Nice playing, AWTPP, even with the slight hesitations.

Geez, if you think it will take you almost two years to complete level 2, it will probably take me three. To me, you seem to be moving along quite fast. I miss having you in "my" thread.

mom3gram, I still visit periodically. I posted just yesterday, as you know. But the main difference between now and when I used to post quite often is that, now, I have a teacher. I think it has made a difference, but it's still early, I've only had maybe 5 or 6 lessons. I think the advantages build cumulatively.

Well, one other difference. Now that I am in full-time job hunt mode, I also have more time on my hands to fritter away on the Ap-200...

So I did just that second time through. I am not much of an improvisation guy (some day maybe).

http://www.box.net/shared/c4l1v04o13

Sounds great. How'd you record from your AP 200?

Hi guys, wanted to introduce myself and this thread seemed the appropriate place.

Like a lot of people here I played piano in high school (actually I did it for years 11 and 12 and played the Star Wars Theme for my HSC exam) then stopped playing when I went to uni and then got a job. Now 20 years later I found myself inspired by Ronald Jenkees infectious enthusiasm for music so I bought a Yamaha PSR-e413 keyboard, Alfreds book 1 and 2 and have been relearning how to play.

I never learnt theory or had lessons in the past, just taught myself enough to read music and memorize songs so I imagine my technique and knowledge of music wasn't good back then. This time I'm focusing on the theory a lot more and trying to focus more on sight reading and technique.

Initially I was devastated to find I couldn't remember a single note of any of the pieces I used to play 20 years ago, hehe, but then I was happy to find that I picked up things a lot faster than I expected. I got to the end of alfreds book 1 in 3.5 weeks and have started looking at the pieces in book 2. I haven't been learning these pieces to any kind of performance level though. Each practice session I work on each piece 2-3 times, just enough to get through them slowly with a few minor errors or pauses, unless its a new piece. That said I can play most of the pieces in book 1 now first or second time without too many mistakes. I am still working on a few of the later ones, mainly Scarborough Fair (always get stuck in two spots in this song), The Entertainer (starting to get better at this one but still a lot more work to go) and Amazing Grace (didnt like this one the first few times I tried it because it sounded nothing like what I thought it should but its sounding nicer now). The last two I cant get through smoothly at all yet.

So far in book 2 I have played up to Morning has Broken. I like the Bridal Chorus a lot for some reason, as well as Guantanamera but that one is still tricky in places. I wasnt sure about Overture but hearing AWTPP's version of it made me want to practice it more, nice playing ;-) I think Light and Blue will take me a while to get the hang of. I
only had the basic version of book 1 so haven't practiced thumb under stuff a lot yet and I seem to get confused about where my fingers are on the keyboard when I do that, but I guess I need to learn that rather than look at the keyboard and slide my hand back and forth as I have been doing.

See you later ;-)