"How long do people usually stay on one piece/page?
Only right at the beginning, trying jingle bells and largo. Just wondered if you keep at it until you have it consistently nailed, or just till your happy then move on?"
ANSWER: I go to next piece when I can play the piece without errors with right tempo.
"Any tips or resources that could help keeping in mind I’m at the very basics?"
A new piece is a new challenge and new things to learn. As mom3gram said there is no magic tips. From this forum and other sources here are some tips:
- I start a piece clapping and count loud as advised in the beginning of Alfred
- Start to play very slow without errors is better than try to play faster with errors. Your mind will learn the correct keys not the errors.
- Play small parts of the piece until you learn it and than pass to the next small part of the piece, instead to try to play the complete piece. Do this when you practice. Do not practice the complete piece again and again. Practice the things you can not play so good as you want.
- use other sources to play other pices in addition to Alfred book.
- Listen de CD and otherpiano pieces, you have in this forum the recitals and the "Piano Bar"
Here are some books mentioned in this thread, as supplement to
the Alfred Basic Adult course or Alfred AIO Piano Adult Course
Alfred's Greatest Hits Book 1
Alfred's Pop Songbook Book 1
Alfred's Sacred Book 1
Alfred's Jazz, Blues and Rags
Piano Handbook by Humphries (I have this book. I did not start it yet. CD has nice piano sound)
My First Book of Classical Music
Alfred All Time Favorites (I have this one. Pieeces are challeging for me. I only played the first two)
Faber Adult Piano Adventures (Method Book, as Alfred)
Bastien Piano Basics Book 1 (Method Book, as Alfred)
The first two books are the most popular in this thread. Each piece has the piece number of Alfred Piano Book you should know to play it.
See also these thread
Sources for simple music
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1671838/