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Hey everybody - I haven't been here in a while but am still plugging along in Alfred's #1! Almost done though - I'm on Raisins and Almonds and I love that song.
For me - I have to hear a melody first - then I can play it. It's easier that way. I had the hardest time with the beat on O Sole Mio. Finally got it though!

Well, I'm through Jericho, that one is fun. But I think I'm going to wait until after my next lesson on Wednesday to start the stranger and work on polishing up everything I've been working on up to that point. I'm starting to get a little left hand and shoulder stiffness again, and I don't want it to get as bad as it did last spring, so I'm going to take it easy this weekend and not attempt anything new.

Things are getting quite harder as of now, Good People I already put on hold, didn't really like it and couldn't really do it well and progress have slowed quite a bit down. Then there's "Little Brown Jug" I'm working separate its all ok, so trying to put them together. Now here's the thing I have watched videos of course of people playing it, and they all play the left hand one octave lower than what I assume is normal. (Since chiapanecas is played at the "normal" LH position.) I've been playing that way, but even after looking at the sheet plenty of times, and comparing in with the Mexican hat dance, I don't realize why is Little brown jug played one octave lower.

Is there any way that I can see this on the sheet, the notes on bass seems very similar on both, and somehow I can't make it out what exactly makes you play the LH so low on the keyboard. Anyone would mind explaining to me why this is this the case, and how I'm able to recognize this in future songs?

Quagles,

I'll try explaining it as best as I can...that is if I understand your question correctly

Ok so as you know, the lower you go on the bass staff the more to the left you go on your keyboard. Now middle C would be the first ledger line above the bass staff. The third space (from the top going down) of the bass staff is also a C note, but that C note on the keyboard is the first C to the left of middle C.

Now in LITTLE BROWN JUG...in the second measure, they want you to play C and F

The C note would be the one I just described, the first C note to the left of middle C

The F note would be the second F note to the left of Middle C because...

The 2nd line from the top of the bass staff is F but that's the first F to the left of middle C, the next F note is the space right under the last line of the bass staff so going more right, that would be the 2nd F note to the left of middle C on your keyboard.

I hope this is making sense...lol

Basically, the lower the notes on the bass staff, like in Little Brown Jug, the further to the left you are from middle C on your keyboard. The higher the notes are on the bass staff, like in Chiapanecas, the closer you are to middle C on your keyboard.

I hope this helps...
and if this wasn't what you were asking about, then sorry lol

Zenobe: Glad to hear you had a pleasant vacation! Goodness knows I want one right now! (I have one scheduled for September, but it's only 5 days). I wish I had a lovely baby grand piano to play on to! It must be more inspiring to play on a wonderful instrument. You'll be catching up with me soon - I'm swamped with other (much harder!!!) pieces given to me by teacher and she wants me to try a duet

Recap of today's lesson : I think I got Greensleeves OK, but I'm still slow in changing hand positions with The Stranger. I'm currently working on Go Down, Moses . And a bunch of other pieces assigned by my teacher...including the dreaded duet...and another dreaded piano solo that's supposed to be my recital piece for next year...and I thought even next year would be a stretch, but my teacher apparently thinks I can start working on it now. Oh well, I guess it's good to be challenged But seriously....

I'm polishing Go down, Moses, Stranger and Jericho for my first lesson next Tuesday. Stranger is the hardest for me for some reasons, I can play each line very nicely but can't connect them as smooth as I'd like to. Now that I have a teacher I'm extra motivated to polish the songs and make them sound nice. Really, unitl this point it was more about getting the right notes at right tempo, now I'm starting to make it musical. So much fun, but can be frustrating too, when I can't make it sound nice.

Zenobe, thanks for welcome. It must be great to have a baby grand piano to play on - and how wonderful that you can share this journey with your son.

Dee180, Raisins and Almonds is one of my favourite songs in Alfred1. Was it hard to learn? I remember when I first got this book and was listening to the pieces in it from PianoNoobAlexMan's chanel on youtube, I thought if I could only play Raisins and Almonds I'd be very happy. I'm a complete beginner, never played any instrument in my life. Never thought I could. But I'm almost there myself now (2 more songs) and I can't wait. Of course now I also have different goals, looking forward to pieces in book 2 and 3 bacause I don't care that much for the Entertainer and Amazing grace. But book 2 pieces sounds much nicer, and to play Fandango in book 3 would be a dream come true.

Thanks Romolo, I think I'm pretty sure I understand how it works now, this should be good to to know for future pieces for sure.

No problemo!

If there are any pieces from any Alfred book you want posted on the opening page, post it here and drop me a PM. Some stuff gets lost in the conversation and I don't always read through every post of every thread.

Thanks

Mark...

I been working on Alfred's Book for a few months now and I have finally reached the songs at the end. According to the book, there is nothing new here and I should be able to play them. "Amazing Grace" and "Over the Rainbow" I picked up fairly quickly.

"The Entertainer" I am having a slight issue with the way the song sounds. After the intro on the 2nd Bar there is a right hand C and a left hand 3rd followed quick by another left hand C... Am I supposed to be playing both these notes? Maybe I am not as familiar with the song as I thought, but it sounds like there is an extra note that doesn't belong. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks.

Unfortunately I can't answer,but I can bump the topic at least. Ive recently learned little Brown Jug, finally its probably the song I've been stuck on the most. Unfortunately been hit by a terrible cold now so I can't motivate myself to start on chiapanecas, well I tried but reading the notes was very hard, so I think ill just repeat what I know until I recover.

I've been goofing off a bit this summer, and so to get back on track I've reviewed everything from BTMD on for a day or two. I'm now working on "O Sole Mio". Having a bit of trouble with the timing. I always seem to have more trouble with timing on slow pieces than fast ones. So far, I'm only working on the RH. I haven't tried LH or HT yet, but I'm wondering what to do when I get to that arpeggiated chord. Do I start with the LH and finger on up to the RH, or do I start them both together? That is, am I doing two arpeggios in a row, or one merged one? I tried to see what PianoNoob did in his video, but I couldn't tell. Any help with this would be appreciated.

I took a look at the "Claire de Lune from scratch" thread, and it looks really interesting. Part of me wants to try it, and part of me wants to put all my efforts into the last few pieces in Book 1. I think they will take all my time and energy and then some. I guess the "from scratch" thread will always be there.

Since they line up exactly I would say you do them at the same time... lowest notes on both cords and then roll into the higher notes.

Hello folks, I'm back after a long absence from the board with a new, more appropriate screen name. I appreciate you all and will encourage you all the
time as I need it myself. You seem to be about where I was when I left the keys
about six months ago. Now I will have to go back much further for a few weeks to get back into "time". Many blessings to you and talk to you soon.

@pianoprodigal: welcome back to the board!

@mom3gram: My teacher made me play the arpeggio from the LH to RH, depressing one note at at time, keeping the keys down until I've played the highest note.

Thanks, bobir and marimorimo - it seems that the vote is tied. LOL I will try both and see what happens, but I'm leaning toward doing it as marimorimo's teacher said.

Mom3gram.
i was taught to play that arpeggio starting with the left hand and keeping each key down rolling up through the right like marimorino. I think it sounds good that way too.

My teacher said the same thing as Marimorimo and Wj3, except she added that when playing it fast, you can almost play the two right hand notes at the same time for the same effect.

Okay, thanks a bunch!