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Congratulation Rodmichael, I'm just behind you, hope to see you in the Book 2 thread soon!

Thanks for the good wishes, everyone. I don't often post on this thread and have just plodded on, occasionally looking to see what (and how) everyone else has been doing. I generally drew encouragement realizing that we mostly all struggle with similar issues. Some us go slower or faster than others. I have come to think that my progress may be slower than average. But that's OK. I have enjoyed the whole journey and continue to enjoy the challenges.

Best of luck to you all and I expect to see you all on the Book #2 thread, probably many of you passing me at some point.

Best regards,

Physics, which piece are you working at?

Today my teacher told me that I don't have to count as long as I stay in pace. However, I must learn to recognise the notes properly instead of playing by intervals only. He doesn't think I'm rushing things...
Other good news is that this time I was not nervous at all. I played everthing up to Lavender's Blue without mistakes so I can continue my journey in the same tempo as I did before.
I just started with Blow the man down and at first it seems indeed difficult. But I like the piece very much so I practiced for 2 hours non-stop. At a very low speed I can play it now. I'm so happy! :-)

I don't mean to "fish," but I'd like to get some feedback. Does this merit "completion" of Book #1? It took a few more "takes" than I had hoped. Still a couple of rough edges. But I think it's 90% "there."

Completion of Book #1

Best regards,

Congratulations rodmichael!

And it does merit completion of book one.

Congratulations, Rod Michael, your "Amazing Grace" sounds great! You said that it took you 21 months to finish Book 1. Well, I'm a little past 21 months now, and I still have to polish "Greensleeves", "Scarborough" and "Raisins", learn "He's Got The Whole World...", and then "Entertainer" and "Amazing Grace". I'm hoping to come in under the 2 year mark. But hey, I'm happy, having fun, and amazed that I've come this far. Have fun in Book 2, and hopefully I'll be joining you sometime in January.

Nguyen, that study group would have been fun. I will have to look at "Why Am I Blue" again to see if it will help. I wasn't very good at most of the blues pieces but I did get them eventually. I've tried Marimorimo's suggestion to use the LH chords as a metronome, but I can't keep my RH up with the steady beat yet. And I still get confused if I think too much. LOL

n303y- looks like you are going at a good pace, and congrats on getting "Blow the Man Down" so easily.

Wow, have I been overdoing my practices? If we don't have to count on songs that we can figure out ourselves, that'd be great. I don't have to slow me down for that. Anyone else have any take on this? Please comment. I'd love to not have to count everything... Congrats on BtMD. You should be very happy. I was so intimadated by that piece and thought every song is like that, I might have to quit. Luckily after that one, it comes a little easier so I didn't have to quit. You have done well.

Rodmichael,
Bumber I don't have speakers to listen. I will have to check it out on my bro's laptop. I guess if Marks... & mom3gram approve, it has to be very good if not great. Congrats. I'll see you in book 2 in a few months LOL...

mom3gram It'd be very nice to help and inspire each other to get through our struggles. I think I'd be so into it.

Well, my agenda for tonight and next week (my whole Thanksgiving week vacation) is to struggle some more with "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".

Have a good evening everyone.

Rodmichael, yup I'd say that merits a pass If you're anything like me you can probably play it better than the in the video anyway? I always make more mistakes when recording than when I'm just "playing for me"!

This is very true

Thanks mom3gram. The piece is like alphine melody so much fun to learn/play.

Nguyen, I'm not sure if the same will apply for you. My teacher said that I'm doing things on hearing instead of reading which is the reason I can play at pace without counting. For me it could be a long way before I can actually read notes (sight reading) so I'm not sure if it's a good thing.
Another thing, he actually thinks that the completion of level 1 can be done in less than 4 months so I hope that he's not rushing things...

Speaking of counting, I have a question for folks who count. Do you find yourself "singing the count" or do you count in a monotone? I find it very difficult to count in a monotone while I'm playing a song, so I tend to sing the count. Basically I kind of pretend that the song has an endless set of lyrics that go "one two three one two three one two three" and as I count I sing the numbers to (approximately) the tone that I'm playing on the piano.

This seems to work for me, but I worry that it is perhaps a harmful practice? It's harder to count without singing the count but it might be one of those things I need to force myself to work on in order to master the skill of counting...?

Congrats Rodmichael!

And don't worry about how long it took to go through it. Aside from the fact that there's no deadline, every time I hear about someone taking a good amount of time with something, my first thought isn't, "Wow, that's slow" -- it's "Wow, that's thorough."

Happy Thanksgiving, Book 1-ers. I'm leaving in the morning to stay the week with my son and his family. They do have a very old digital piano (with a key that doesn't work - the B above Middle C). But with 7 kids in the house, and Thanksgiving preparations, and little ones who want to play Candy Land with Grandma 24/7, I don't know how much "piano time" I will get. I am bringing my Alfred book and my Christmas book, but I'm not counting on anything.

I don't find the pieces after BTMD easier. Especially Cafe Vienna is a little tricky with the introduction of finger numbers on different keys. Left-right coordination seems easier though. I have to practice more on my reading...

Moonshinator


Yes, I do this all the time. Its actually pretty funny because I usually play with headphones and thus anyone listening hears nothing but my pathetic warbling of one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and-one-and-two-and..... to various melodies. It gets even worse more for complex beats where I sing a mnemonic. Clair de lune is driving my wife nuts with its 9/8 meter which Hugh Sung has given us as bum-ble-bee-bum-ble-bee-bum-ble-bee, mixed in with the occasional duple buzz-zing-buzz-zing.

I don't see the harm in it, except maybe to my ego when somebody actually hears me

New poster here. I am in Alfred's Basic Adult Course book #1 and basically hit the wall at Blow The Man Down. Before that it was fast going. I had some lessons as a kid which I grew to hate. I am at the point where I can play the first two full measures of BTMD over and over so it's just a matter of time.

So far I really liked Standing In The Need Of Prayer - I am playing on a keyboard and put it on organ sound, sounds really nice. When The Saints Go Marching In was a lot of fun. For some reason I thought Jingle Bells was hard.

Welcome bolt. It sounds you are making great progress! I think Jingle bells is the first piece which has to be played with both hands. Standing In The Need Of Prayer is indeed nice. For me it was the first piece where I could actually recognize some patterns instead of reading notes.

Welcome, bolt! Jingle Bells is definitely hard for where it's located in the book, since it's the first piece that requires you to play hands-together. Not counting the Alfred's Greatest Hits book, I think the two pieces I've struggled with the most so far are Jingle Bells and Alpine Melody. Of course, I haven't gotten to BtMD yet.

Well, here's an update on where I am... I took a big step recently and upgraded my crappy keyboard to a digital piano and WOW what a difference it makes. Playing dynamics is SO much easier, and having properly mounted pedals makes pedaling much easier. And finally, my favorite difference is that the right-hand D7 chord is much, much easier to play. I am not sure exactly why, I think perhaps having to put more force into the keys makes it easier to hit all three notes simultaneously? I also think the voicing of the chord is so much better. On my old keyboard, even when I played the chord correctly it sounded like crap and if I played it slightly off it sounded abysmal. On the DP when I play it correctly it sounds nice and if I play it slightly off it sounds slightly off. Obviously, I want to be able to play it correctly but it's nice that the sound of the chord doesn't completely fall to pieces when I make a slight error. Well, whatever the reason I am not going to complain.

So in order to adjust to the new DP I am going to start the book over and ensure that I still have all of the earlier concepts mastered with the new keys. I figure this should take me a day or two and then I think I am approaching BtMD... *shiver*

Don't be too intimidated by BTMD, most people do seem to struggle with it but once it clicks you'll be sooo proud of yourself and it's great fun to play!

Yep... this represented an "over the hump" type challenge for me also.

Don't worry, you'll get it eventually and wonder why you ever sweated it...

Have fun,
AC