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almost at the key of E b section. Looking forward to get to canon and OUT of this book LOL

Good for you, Joe. I know how you feel about Book 2, so I won't even ask if you are planning to go on to Book 3. LOL! But what ARE you planning for after you master Canon?

I'm not sure that I can finish Book 2 this century. I'm just so slooooooooooooow!

I might go to book 3, not sure yet. My progress in book 2 has been slow due to the fact of me getting a teacher and working on other books/pieces. Right now I'm working on solfigietto by Bach with her...beautiful piece, also many other supplemented materials

I have officially started Canon in D (yay!). I'm spending some time practicing the cords at the top of the first page and have looked through the score and penciled in some of the timing. Looks like the left hand pattern repeats a lot, so that should be straight-forward. As for the right hand, it consists largely of variations on those cords at the top of the first page. I'm starting with the most difficult bars toward the end of the piece and will get those down first, then go back and pick up the earlier sections.

The next to last piece, Danny Boy, is still "under construction." It's kind of a schmaltzy piece, but I like the drama of it, lol, and will polish it up. I'm about done with Loch Lommond--can play it from memory, but I don't like it enough to really polish it. Deep River, Love's Greeting, and Figaro are pleasant enough and give me some good left hand exercise and I can play them from memory, so I will continue to keep them in the rotation for a while.

I have Book 3 and plan to continue, but I will start pulling in some other stuff as well. I have to say the books have been very useful in keeping me disciplined (I don't have a teacher). The temptation to start a lot of pieces and never finish them up is really strong, so the discipline of making my way through the book has been welcome.

Yes the books are a great basis and foundation quite frankly

I got book 3 and found that the pieces I enjoyed playing years ago (like Canon in D) are coming back quite quickly, but the other ones not so much haha. So I'm going to start from the beginning and force my way through. As it seems to be helping with the other pieces I'm working on as well. Just getting back to remembering old lessons

I'm still having a little trouble seeing/reading my sheet music. It's hard to tell whether a note is on a line or a space. But my eyes are a lot better than they were last month.

I can play "House of the Rising Sun" well enough HS, but when I put them together I'm just barely stumbling through it. It looks easy, but each measure's LH chords are different and you have to really pay attention. I've only played it HT for a couple of days though.

I'm spending most of my time with Christmas music. I'm working on "Carol of the Bells" but I still have trouble reading all those LH chords fast enough. I've pretty much got David Nevue's "O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Postlude)" down. I love the high notes contrasted with the low bass notes. I'm also having fun with Alfred's 1B Christmas Hits. It has all the fun ones like "Frosty" and "Suzy Snowflake".

I'll be putting all the Christmas music away after Christmas and concentrating more on Book 2.

I had to rescue this thread from WAY back at page 4!

As I had already paid for my son's and my lessons for the month, and my son had to skip this week, I got to have an hour long lesson with my teacher today.

In Alfred's, I did Village Dance a couple of weeks ago. Finished that one in a week. It seemed to come easy to me. The next one, Circus March, seemed more difficult to me. It's a fun tune, I guess....but for some reason I absolutely loathed playing it. Which means I practiced the bejesus out of it so I could squeak by and not have to practice it for another week LOL. I started Hokey Pokey this week.

The Bach minuet in d minor is pretty much done. Gonna work on it one more week, touch up the trills and improve the dynamics a little more.

Fur Elise is getting really good! So good that she thinks I'll be finished soon, and since we had a whole hour today, we started on what is going to be my next hard piece. The name is cut off of the top of my music, so I don't know the exact name of it, but it is a Prelude by Gounod, and it's in c minor (or Eb major? maybe?). I tried poking around on youtube, but I couldn't find it. Anyway....she played it, it's a beautiful piece. I looked over the music and thought there's NO WAY I'm gonna be able to play this. We spent 20 minutes or so muddling through it. I have serious doubts that I am going to be able to play it. Lots of weird hand twisting, and hold this note with this finger then play a chord with your other fingers then switch fingers on the first note....ugh. Almost every time she gives me something new like this, I think its WAY too hard and that she's overestimating my abilities, and that I won't ever be able to play it. Then in a couple of months, I can play it LOL. So I'm trying to just keep my mouth shut and trust her judgement.

I have been away from Alfreds book 2 for soooooo long. But Ive make it my resolution to get through it this year. I last left off at Intro and Dance. So I have a ways to go. I am doing this on my own as my teacher has me working on other things to improve my technique. I guess I'll have to devote a little more time to my piano practice this comming year.

Up to Pomp and Circumstance now.. Not enjoying that.. the piece isn't as much fun as I thought it would be. Too dry and basic for me.

However, only 2 pieces to go until the first (simplified) Chopin piece I'll ever attempt. Very pleased

I can't wait till the Chopin piece.

Glad to see someone making progress again. LOL

I finished up Pomp and Circumstance at my lesson last week. I actually enjoyed that one. Working on Dark Eyes and the Chopin Etude Op 10 No 3 now. I just about have Dark Eyes passable but am having a tough time with Etude. I really don't like it and I have a hard time getting myself to work on it. My teacher is encouraging me to get through it but it's not going to be pleasant.

I think the Etude is one of the tougher pieces in the book to play smoothly and musically, but IMO well worth the effort. I'm at the end of Book II (working on Love's Greeting, Danny Boy, Canon in D) but still don't have the Etude down cold even after months of working on it.

I only wish I could play it like the big kids can.

Freddy Kempf Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 3

I was really rolling my eyes and groaning about having to play the Hokey Pokey. But you know what? THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT! (sorry, I couldn't help myself). It's got a challenging rhythm, but once you've got the rhythm conquered, it really isn't too terribly difficult, I don't think. And it's actually kinda fun to play! The abundance of big chords and the whimsical bass line make it sound more like "real" music than a lot of the Alfred's pieces. I can now play it HT at a moderately slow speed (ignoring dynamics and just banging). I think I might even have it passable by my next lesson.

I'm working on the pieces in the book that I don't remember from years ago lol. like Pomp and circumstance, theme from symphony number 6, musetta's waltz. Quite a few actually. Although I think I'm going to go out and buy book three and go back and forth between them to build back up the songs I can play. then go through both learning technique that I've forgotten and songs.

Oh and I got my piano tuned today and the dampening Pedal fixed bad news is it will take approximately 10000 or so to fully restore it, but good news is it's worth it

I'm not totally satisfied with "House of Rising Sun", but I moved on to "Sakura", which is pretty easy, and last night I hacked my way through "Waves of the Danube", which I will now go on to take apart slowly and learn properly. I suspect that this one will be fairly easy too with a little work. Next up will be "Rock-a My Soul" - D major scale with lots of 8th notes. I may be in trouble with that one, but no use getting too worried ahead of time. LOL

today i was trying out La raspa. It was fun. I forgot how much I liked it the last time I did this book

Today I finally jumped into Book 3. I'm still far from finished with several pieces in Book 2, but I got antsy and played through the first few pieces. Actually, I went through some of the theory pages (the first couple dozen pages are heavy on theory in Book 3) a week or so ago. I will review them a time or three to reinforce the info.

Book 2: Love's Greeting (Salut d' Amor) is finally coming around. I had a hard time with the left hand fingering for the first measure. Danny Boy: this is flowing better now, but still has a ways to go. Canon in D: I spent some time just practicing the chords at the top of the page and that helped a lot. Canon is longer than most in Book 2, but repetitive in that it works through variations on those chords. Etude Op. 10, No.3 Chopin. Yes, I am still working on that one. But it's getting better. I got through the whole thing yesterday without screwing up notes, no stutters, good flow, even some expression. I usually screw up right after I realize that I haven't made any mistakes so far. Sheesh!

Currently in the middle of La Donna E Mobile. Hopefully clawing my way out of a rough patch of practice. Seems like I've had to practice more to get things to a playable level, I don't if that because the last few pieces are harder or I've generally lost concentration or something. I've also started preparing pieces for the grade 1 exam, most of which I find more interesting than the alfreds.

La Donna e Mobile is great! I found it fun to play and am still playing it in my "rotation." It was a blast to watch the Pavoratti Youtube of Donna.
Pavoratti sings Donna e Mobile