Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum After Alfred's Level 1 - Am I ready for a repertoire book?

cunparis,

Bonsoir mon ami(e)!

The thing with the piano is: the more you read and play, the better you'll become. Finishing the Alfred book and the Greatest Hits will be good for your reading and your playing. I personally wouldn't polish the pieces in there unless you particularly like them. By the way, the Greatest Hits Book 1 is better used with Alfred Book 2, in my opinion.

The Masterworks is a great series. You won't go wrong with it if it's all you can find. I just prefer the Keith Snell because there are more pieces at every level, which makes it easier to find pieces for kids (they're WAAAAY more picky than adults!).

I personally don't like 'Succeeding with the Masters' too much. I don't like the setup, and the pieces are available elsewhere. I dunno. However, some people like them.

On the other hand, "The Festival Collection" is WONDERFUL if you can get your hands on it. Those books are much better designed in my opinion, however, I don't think there's enough pieces at every level. The Masterworks would probably be better.

Bests,
II

Bonjour II, vous parlez français?

The keith snell books are less expensive than the masterworks, I guess because the CD is separate. Do you think the CD is necessary? I think I could find the songs on you tube or elsewhere on the internet to have a listen.

So Keith Snell has études, baroque/classical, & modern. Would you recommend getting the first few levels of all three? Or just picking one style (say classical) and going through the levels? To compensate for shipping I'd like to order several at the same time and order them in advance (takes several weeks to get them here from SMP).

Merci beaucoup!

Un peu, mais pas tres bien

I know the Masterworks will seem more expensive, but I think that if you are going to buy the required books for the Keith Snell series, it may balance out.



For Masterworks, you need just one book, but can get two per level: the Repertoire books, and the Technique books:
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/search?q=masterwork+classics
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/search?q=masterwork+technical+skills
There are 9 books in total (Level 1-2 = book 1, then Levels 3-10 are separate books).
Level 1-2 has 27 songs. Until level 10, there is about 18-28 songs per book.




Keith Snell, on the other hand, requires at least two books:
-Baroque and Classical
-Romantic and Contemporary
and can benefit from the third:
-Etudes

To see an easy listing of what's in every level, please refer to this chart:
http://kjos.vo.llnwd.net/o28/pdf/brochures/snell_reper_index.pdf

This series moves a bit quicker and goes further than the Masterworks collection, and has more pieces to offer if you get all three books. Again, that's why I prefer it.

I personally don't ask any students of mine to buy the CDs. And the Masterworks will have enough pieces at every level so long as you at least 1) read through them all a bit, gain some technique from each song, not performance ready but playable, and 2) polish handful of pieces at every level, maybe 3-4.

Hope that helped in deciding!

Thanks for clarifying. I looked at the contents and now I understand it better. The Masterworks Technical Skills is the "études" (if comparing to Keith Snell's. So 2 Masterworks books or 3 Snell's. The Masterworks includes a CD, but Snells has more pieces in each book.

I'm going to have confidence and order the Snell books from Sheet Music Plus. I'll order a few levels so I can save on shipping.

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain all this. I never even knew these graded repertoire books exited (apart from Alfred's Greatest Hits) until I started reading about it when I created this thread. I've learned a lot about how to study the piano and I'm really excited.

Those that have finished or almost finished Alfred 1 and are looking for something other than Alfred 2 might consider book 1 and/or book 2 of "The Festival Collection" edited by Helen Marlais. Here's the link at SMP festival collection books 1-4
I think you get a lot of bang for the buck with these. Each book has selections from all four eras (baroque, classical, romantic, 20th cent.) and the number of pieces is better than average. Each comes with a well played CD. I've been using these for either sightreading practice or as 1 week "throwaways" and have found them to be fun, varied and far more musical than anything in Alfred ever showed me. None of the pieces are dumbed down - all are in original form but with dynamics and fingering suggestions. Here's what you get for less than $7 in book one:

Old German Dance Composed by Michael Praetorius

Allemande Composed by Johann Hermann Schein

Canary Composed by Hove, Joachim van den

Petit Minuet Composed by Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy

Intrada Composed by Paul Peuerl

Petit Rondo Composed by Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy

Minuet Composed by Turk, Daniel-Gottlob

A Carefree Fellow Composed by Turk, Daniel-Gottlob

Sonatina Composed by Turk, Daniel-Gottlob

Song Composed by Anton Diabelli

Allegro Composed by Alexander Reinagle

Agitato (T349/1) Composed by Bach, Johann Christian / Ricci, Francesco Pasquale

A Song (Op. 36, No. 3) Composed by Alexander Gedike

The Young Dancer (Op. 117, No. 7) Composed by Cornelius Gurlitt

Kitten Play (Op. 117, No. 9) Composed by Cornelius Gurlitt

Valsette Composed by Vogel, Moritz

Spring Waltz Composed by Fritz Spindler

Trumpets Composed by Kutnowski, Martin

Snowflakes Gently Falling Composed by Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee

The Sparrows Composed by Rubbach, A.
Hungarian Song Composed by Bela Bartok

Arabia Composed by Alexandre Tansman

Air for Southpaw Composed by Frackenpohl, Arthur R.

The Shepherd Plays Composed by Salutrinskaya, Tat'iana

Since I suggested it, here's the 36 selections in book 2. These are more challenging than book 1, so I'd suggest the latter as a first step.

King William's March Composed by Jeremiah Clarke

Rigaudon Composed by Georg Philipp Telemann

Burleske (from Leopold Mozart's Notebook) Composed by Unknown

Gavotte Composed by Speer, Daniel

Minuet in F Major Composed by Johann Kuhnau

Menuet en Rondeau Composed by Jean-Philippe Rameau

Sarabande Composed by Arcangelo Corelli

The Village Prophet Composed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Sonatina in C Major Composed by Andre, Johann Anton

Allegro Composed by Alexander Reinagle

Sonatina in G Composed by Thomas Attwood

Lesson I Composed by James Hook

Bagatelle Composed by Anton Diabelli

Swabian Tune Composed by Bach, Johann Christian Friedrich

Scotch Dance No. 1 Composed by Friedrich Kuhlau

Little Dance Composed by Turk, Daniel-Gottlob

Russian Folksong, Op. 107, No. 3 Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven

The Hunting Horns And The Echo Composed by Turk, Daniel-Gottlob

A Hymn Composed by Schytte, Ludwig

Petite Prelude Composed by Schytte, Ludwig
The Hunt, Op. 117, No. 15 Composed by Cornelius Gurlitt

Etude Composed by Ferdinand Beyer

Mazurka, Op. 36, No. 23 Composed by Alexander Gedike

Song without Words Composed by Fritz Spindler

Theme and Variation, Op. 300 Composed by Louis Kohler

Hunting Horns Composed by Oesten, Theodore

Night Journey Composed by Cornelius Gurlitt

Timid Little Heart, Op. 47, No. 5 Composed by Robert Fuchs

To the Garden Composed by Alexandre Tansman

Rippling Waters Composed by Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee

Mister Czerny in New Orleans Composed by Manfred Schmitz

Waltz Time Composed by Manfred Schmitz

The Bear Composed by Vladimir Rebikov

Long Gone Blues Composed by George Frederick McKay

Two's Company Composed by Alec Rowley

Una Capricciosa Nuvola Estiva (A Capricious Summer Cloud) Composed by Ermirio, Federico

Thanks for the recommendation. I compared the song list with the Keith Snell series and surprisingly there was very little overlap. For $7 w/ CD it doesn't sound like a bad idea.

I'm in the UK and was getting fed up with Alfred. I do a lot of scale /arpeggio practice and some Czerny too. It is difficult to get hold of Keith Snell here ( and I loathe paying customs charges) , but am enjoying Helen Marlais' Succeeding with the Masters series and intend getting the Festival collection too.
It is easy and musical and satisfyingly different to the Alfred style , without attempting pieces beyond my reach.

As I mentioned before, I agree that The Festival Collection is wonderful. Very diverse and interesting pieces. If you can buy that as well, you'll have PLENTY of repertoire to last you a while.

To update the thread for those who may be interested, I ordered Keith Snell prep, 1 & 2 classical, romantic, & etudes. I also got festival collection first few levels as well. Shipping is 10 euros to france. I'll probably have to pay 19.6% VAT tax. I couldn't find Keith Snell in France and the other songbooks I found in france were 2x the US price. I should get them in 3-8 weeks! I'll be busy with Alfred's in the meantime.

Thanks to everyone for the input. The Festival has very little overlap with Keith Snell so I think the two complement each other well. I'm a total newbie on classical music so I'm looking forward to discovering classical while learning to play.

The Snell prep book has a little overlap with the Masterwork Classics too.

Looks like you have a lot of fun music to look forward to.

I did almost exactly the same yesterday but never ordered the level 2 books, i'll get them later. Good luck with these books, they should be fun.

I'm glad you found a combination of books, let us know how you like each of them!

cunparis,

Glad you got your books!

I'd focus on your Alfred book for now, try to get as far as you can with that. When the repertoire books come in, pull back on the Alfred's and get a good balance going.

Good luck, keep us updated!

ii just directed me here--this is exactly what I want to learn. It reminds me of golf, something I love. There is a correct way to swing the golf club. I don't want to screw up that part of playing the piano.

Can you have a good golf game with a weird swing? Sure. But your odds of success are a lot higher with a good swing.

A series I really like is called 'Fingerpower.'

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/search?q=Schaum+Fingerpower

Sounds exactly like what you're looking for.

But remember, doing these exercises is pointless if you're not also learning pieces.

You will defiantly need the right teacher; you just can’t learn this out of a book and feel confident that you have it
right.

@ II

Thank you for the suggestion about the Snell series. I'm using them with the RIGHT teacher now that has corrected my technique.

alfreds 1 is like pre k for adults lol

I finally got my books.

Now my question is how do I preceed? I'm starting at prep level so I have:

Snell classic & baroque
Snell Romantic
Snell Etudes
Festival Collection

I started with Snell Classical & Baroque. The first piece was Bagpipes and it's also the first piece in Festival Collection. That was way too simple but the 2nd piece in Snell Classical & Baroque "Echo Dance" was not easy for me. I think in the alfred's pieces most of the time the fingers in both hands don't move at the same time, but in this one they are constantly moving and in different directions. The 3rd piece, german march was not too difficult.

So I'm wondering if I should do a few songs from each book at prep level and then do the next few songs? That seems most logical if they're in order of difficulty. If I finish one book and then do another I'd be starting over with easier pieces again.

I'm really struggling to polish some pieces from Alfred's Greatest Hits Level 1. I was hoping to get some of my favorites at a level where I could record it but I'm not there yet. I either make mistakes or I have to slow down to avoid mistakes. I'm practicing with a metronome to try and keep time and that makes it harder. So I'm debating putting these on hold for a while so I can work on the easier pieces in the Snell books. Any advice on that?

Hi Cunparis!

First of all...congrats!

Secondly, I would definitely out the Greatest Hits on the shelves for a least a little while. It's a much harder book than its counterparts. But I also want you to know that the Keith Snell and Festival Collection books are not graded in order, but rather by time written/Composer's birthdate. So the first piece won't be easier than the second, for example.

Let's now discuss 'polish,' 'throw-away,' and 'passing a level.' I'll work backwards.

Passing a level does NOT require you to learn all these pieces in each book. A good selection, maybe 4-5 in each book, at this level would be fine. You will actually want to play more Baroque/Classical music because that is where your technique and independence will come from, while you play some Romantic and 20th Cent, and Etude, pieces. However, in the Prep level, I would recommend learning more than just 4-5, if you aren't too bored by that point!

Now, a throw-away piece is a piece that...well, you throw-away! It is a piece you AREN'T going to bring up to total speed, work on to that 100% point, heck you may not even take it 90% or 80%. Maybe not even 70%! These are just pieces that you will read and learn so that your fingers KIND OF get them and you will gain the reading experience. You may want to do this with almost all the pieces in the level. Don't spend long on them, maybe just a few days at prep level, a week or two later on.

However, you will want to choose some pieces to polish. These are the pieces that count for 'passing' a level. You need a good combination of both throw-away pieces (a lot of these) and polished pieces (a handful).

One idea is to polish all the pieces in the Festival Collection (though I hope you know there will be a lot of overlap later on), and use the Keith Snell pieces as throw-away pieces.

On the other hand, in the Keith Snell books, I would suggest polishing:
(Baroque Book)
1) all the Turk songs
2) Bagpipes
3) Wilton Sonatina
4) Der Hofe Canario
(Romantic Book)
1) Beyer Lyrical Piece
2) Bolck Five Note Sonatina
3) At least four of the Bartok or Kabelevsky
(Etudes)
1) all of the Beyer
2) all of the Gurlitt
3) Either:
KONRAD KÃœNz (1812-1875)
A Serious Event
or
LOUIS KöHLER (1820-1886)
A Pleasant Day

These are just suggestions.

Another idea is to read through all the pieces, and choose the ones that were the most difficult for you!

Hope that helps! Good luck! Keep us updated, and let me know if you have more questions.