Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum OSCAR PETERSON - Jazz Exercises, Minuets, Etudes & Pieces

That is a really nice recording, PianosaurusRex. I am so excited for my book to come. It hasn't even shipped yet

YEAH!!! I just got notice that it shipped. I like the idea of working on the same lessons and discussing them. I love the idea of recording ourselves. I haven't managed to record myself up to this point. I did do some digital filming (with my camera), but the sound quality was pretty poor. How did you record yourself, Pianosaurus?

Glassglove, glad your book has shipped! woohoo!

CMohr, I have no idea how we're going to move ahead with this - post our successes? Comments? Ask each other questions? Maybe just encourage each other.

PianosaurusRex - nice recording - you say you did this a while back - do you feel you're making progress on it?
I noticed you only played the first chord of the right hand in each bar - (at least that's how it sounded, I could be wrong) - however, that seems like a good idea as a "building step" for gradually working into the piece - while getting the left hand under control.

I did some work on Minuet N4 and I have to say I didn't care for it much. I think n. 2 is a very pretty little piece. 3 is a bit more challenging, but I've been focusing more on my Purcell "AIR" and getting dynamics into Vinciquerra - Lilla than working in this book.

I don't know when I'll get around to doing recording. I have to move the computer over to the piano and last time I tried undocking it I ran into problems... grrrr. Now that I know how to do it all, maybe it woun't be so irritating. In the end the set up /connection was quite easy, I used Audacity and then converted to Mp3.

Maybe next weekend.

Hi everyone,

Out of interest and as a guide if I should get the book, those that already have the book, what grade/level are you?

I started playing 1 week after you . I had never played piano before that, though I play clarinet and guitar.

I'm a pretty clear beginner! This book is, aimed at "young pianists" (in the preface) ...and I take that "young" as being "new"

There are 14 Exercises and Minuets, 10 Etudes and Pieces and 10 more advanced exercises at the end of the piece. It seems to me that the level of difficulty increases as you go along, but it doesn't look intimidating.

Hope that helps.

Thank you very much!



I used my laptop, which is positioned right on top of my Digital. I'm going to try recording my acoustic tomorrow, I think I'll have to place my laptop a bit further away.



Hah, I'm definitely making progress. I play it pretty much the same now, except I can do it a bit faster if I'd like. Also, with each exercise I learn, the others become much more manageable!

And this exercise actually only has a single right hand chord each measure, I think you might be confused with minuet #6 which has several chords over the same left hand.
I'm working on minuet #6 now, and it's pretty tricky, I'm not gonna post a recording of that yet!

What you said kind of described the way I did learn exercise #6 though. At first when I still had trouble with it, I only played the right hand and the first note of the left hand in each measure.
After I got all those chords down it was really easy to add the remaining left hand notes.
It's a trick my teacher told me to use, and it paid off really well!



I also started late December, like many of us here. I think the book will suit you well.
The exercises get progressively harder, so I'm sure there's plenty of useful material in it for you!

P-Rex, you're right - I was looking at the Minuet, not the exercise!

I guess a lot of us got our pianos for Christmas eh?

Hehe, just a coincidence in my case. While my piano was indeed a gift, it wasn't necessarily a Christmas gift.

Anyway, I just returned from my lesson. My teacher said I did all my Peterson exercises really well, but she wants me to continue them for one more week because I still played with a slight amount of hesitation here and there.
Also she said that after that, I'd be done with them for a while and we'd move on to Czerny for a bit.

I still have the minuets to all exercises I did so far though, so I still have plenty of Peterson material to keep me going for a while.

What great feedback from the teacher! Good for you!

Do you know which Czerny you're going to be working on?
That will be interesting!

PRex- Sorry I can't seem to listen to your recording. I don't think my old ITunes likes wma files.

Howser - I'm not a true beginner, intermediate I suppose, but I just started the jazz thing last November. I do take lessons and anything I can get my hands on to help me through this journey is all gravy.

Casinitaly, PRex, and CMohr thanks for your responses. I am getting the book, looking forward to it.

Just got an email from Amazon that my Oscar Peterson book was shipped today, so I should have it by early next week. Can't wait!

Yipee! That will be fun.

I have to confess, I haven't been paying much attention to Oscar the last little while, - Mr. Clementi grabbed my attention!

I've had this book for a while but never really learned the excercises,I just play through them for fun. I have played jazz for many years but switched to classical when I heard someone play a great piece and now I find classical more fulfilling and interesting. But after reading this post ,I may pull out that O.P book and memorize a piece or two.

Thanks for the heads up about this book.
I just ordered a copy.

I just got my copy, and started with the first exercise today. The book seems to start right at my level, which, according to the pieces I am working on, is mid-late beginner.

This summer I have switched my focus from classical to learning the basics ragtime, blues, and jazz, and I've been having a lot of fun with it. I'm also working from Tim Richards _Improvising Blues Piano_, which is simply the best music instructional book I have ever run across.

I am finding that this shift in focus has helped me develop a much deeper physical/rhythmic/kinesthetic relationship to the piano. Something about the swingy, syncopated rhythms awaken something inside me, and sometimes give me this strong sense of dancing with the piano.

I got mine today too!

I am collecting mine today.

Right on! I'm clicking through to Amazon to get this very rich resource...

How cool! Our numbers are growing.

I've been out of town for a few days, back to the keys tonight!

I've got some catching up to do.