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I just received adult piano 2 and I immediately opened it up

and began playing mocking bird
easy enough piece but I am going to make sure I dont repeat my mistake
with the thompson series
I am going to transpose these pieces as it the book asks you to do at the end of the piece
transposing is a requirement in church music for you have no idea what key a singer will start a song off in. and you dont want to play the song outside their range so it is customary to let them start the song and catch pick them up
unless you work out the key ahead of time which isnt always possible
ie funerals impromptu soloists walking through the door at the middle of a program


if you ever want to play in a church or back up singers
this is a necessary skill

and the only way to improve it is to use it

for me I use a movable do or numbered system to help me with transposing my skills are rusty though but this is exactly the level to brush up with.

Wow.....are you transposing songs from hymn books while you are playing? That sounds tough! I transpose the pieces in the book, but it takes a little concentration to keep my hands from playing exactly what's written. I usually do ok until I have to move my hand.

movable do is the key

you know do re me fa so la ti do

each scale has
do as its first degree

so now you you are looking at your notes as they fall in their respective do re me places

pick a book on sight singing and go through the exercises
or just sing do re me for whatever you are playing then change the key still singing the do re me

eventually it gets easier it definitely doesent come over night
but 12 weeks is not uncommon for you to begin to get a handle on it if you practice

try it with some written scales or really simple music like really early beginner music
this way your brain will have a chance to proces it

go to your first pieces in your primer book

Michael,
I just checked out your youtube videos and they sound great! I love the Christmas songs. I hope I can handle the Faber Bigtime book by next October because those arrangements sound nice. You had better get Rudolph posted soon because Christmas is almost here.

I'll be starting the Faber Adult Book 2 next week. I just need to clean up the second-to-last song in Book 1, (I can't remember the title), and then learn Carnival of Venice.

Becca,
Way to go with the rhythms! Keep at it, it's worth it.

Way to go Dio! I bet your excited to be so close to the end of Book 1! Do we get a recital from book one?

Maduro: wow. LOL I am so lost in that post of yours. Transposing is way beyond me at the moment. So how do you like book 2 so far?

Michael Taylor & PianoStudent: So have you decided what book to move to next?

Thanks for the encouragement on the rhythms! I'm still on page 12&13. Exploring seconds and Exploring thirds. I'm applying the rhythm to both and playing both tunes in different c positions as it says. I noticed today that playing the furthest c to my right (I only have 61 keys remember) that I am having issues reaching with my lh, especially my thumb. Is there a trick to this? Do I shift my body over? Roll my hand? I also caught myself slouching today! I need someone to smack me with bamboo or something to stop that! I'm trying to pay attention to it but I get so absorbed in playing that I forget then I get sore. UGH.

For those of you without a teacher, how have you set up your practice each day? Actually and with a teacher!

Right now, I'm using a book for techniques, so I do 6 mini technical exercises. Then I work on my Faber book for about 15 mins or so, then I work on applying my knowledge to 3 Christmas songs that I hope to play on Christmas. I try to do this twice a day because I get fatigued quickly (mostly my horrible posture.) I want to get my scales I work on back in there but I'm so worn out right now I'm having difficulty with it.

Becca

BeccaBb, I have the same puzzle about playing the LH high up on the keyboard. I'll try to remember to ask my teacher about it tonight.

I keep trying to get my teacher interested in teaching me from the PA books, but so far she's resistant. And I have enough other music to work on that (shhhhh, don't tell) I haven't been working in them lately. But when I _am_ working in them, I'm working on 3A. From the other music I've been working on I'm probably more like level 5, except that the speed of the PA pieces challenges me, so I'm not as solid on the level 3 and 4 skills as I should be.

For solidarity with this thread, I'd like to finish playing through Adult 1 and tackle Adult 2, too. I got up to The Entertainer on Adult 1 and it seemed distinctly harder than anything that came before. Did anyone else feel that way about The Entertainer?

I have a teacher, and she assigns me 4 technique pages a week, plus 2-4 pieces that I'll be working on at a time. I work on scales, technique, pieces, earplaying, in roughly that order. I'll add sight-reading soon -- I have some of the easier Denes Agay "Classics to Moderns" books on order to use for that. Then at the end sometimes I'll noodle around on things which are usually still far out of my reach (Chopin Preludes, anyone?). At some point I want to add arpeggios with the scales, but first I have to learn how to play multi-octave arpeggios in a relaxed way without hurting my wrist.

The technique and the pieces come from what we work on in lessons. The scales, earplaying, and sight-reading are my own additions.

On posture: Stott Pilates healed me of twenty years of sporadic back pain and taught me how to sit and move with effortless good form for my back. All this in less than 6 months. I highly recommend doing some classes if you have the opportunity. I have no commercial interest, just a very happy customer.

If you really want a recital, Becca, you'll find a link in my signature. There are four songs; three from Faber Adult Book 1 and a Beatles tune from an old EZ Play keyboard book I stole from my sister years ago for use with my guitar, (it just has chord names and the melody, no bass clef). And one of the songs from Book 1 is The Entertainer, PianoStudent. It didn't seem like a huge leap to me, but is was a step up in difficulty. Just be sure and learn the RH and LH parts well separately at first and then work on putting them together. And now that I've played it a hundred times it actually seems quite easy which you will hopefully find encouraging. I think I almost have it memorized at this point. If I didn't have a digital piano with headphones then my wife would have killed me by now.

Hi BeccaBb, as for practice routines this is what I usually do (when I'm more focused and not playing all these fun Christmas tunes!). I have a teacher and we usually follow this progression in the lesson as well (except of course this last month or so that I've been on a scales strike and doing Christmas songs instead!).

- One page from A Dozen A Day (by Edna-Mae Burnam). Sometimes there are 3 exercises sometimes 2. I'm in Book One of this series but I believe there is a preparatory book and I think they go up to book four. I find most of these I can get within the week but then I'll hit one that I struggle with and have to repeat for a couple of lessons. Usually I only do these for 5 or 10 minutes at the start of practice. Sometimes I go back to the beginning and do the whole book for a super warm-up or just to see that hey I'm getting smoother.

- Scales. I start with the scales I already know that I'm specifically learning for my exam. Hands together, 2 octaves. Then I'll do the new scale I'm learning (usually 1 per week). Hands separate, then hands together. About 15 minutes per day on this.

- Chords/Inversions. I'll play these hands together for 1 octave, and hands separate for 2 octaves. About 15 minutes per day on this.

- Sight Reading. I'm working through the Four Star series and currently I'm in book 4. There are very short exercises per day so this only takes a couple of minutes. Lately I've gone back to some of the level 2 and 3 Faber books I've got and used those for sight reading as well. They are more fun to work on and these make me feel I've made great progress in my reading (especially the bass part for the left hand where I really struggle).

- Ear Training. I'm supposed to do a few minutes a day and haven't been. Still at the very early levels trying to play back 5 note patterns within a scale. I've never really done much of this and struggle. If I can get my husband to play these for me I can get through a page of exercises very quickly.

- Repertoire. I'll start with the song that is giving me the most trouble. I'll play it through a few times, then go back to the tough spots and isolate what I need to and slow it way down and try to eliminate errors. Usually the longer the piece the more such spots there are so I'll do several of these in one sitting. Then slow everything down and play through again. I'll repeat this for each song I'm working on. I may spend about 15-20 minutes on each song in this fashion but it depends on where each one is at. If I'm at a point of memorizing anything I add a few minutes of that in as well. Usually only a few measures at a time or a phrase (which makes more sense to me)

- To wrap up practice I like to play through things I already know as it's a nice way to relax and feels good to end sounding somewhat musical, instead of broken up little bits of choppy parts of songs.

I used to get really tired too when I practiced but I believe it had alot to do with tension and bad posture. I really focused on this and still try to at the beginning of each practice. I also found if I make slight movements with my upper body such as moving in towards the keys or away from them slightly it seems to keep me more relaxed in my shoulders. Sometimes I find that I'm almost holding my breath or something strange and I have to stop myself and relax and breath!!

I practice for about 2 hours/day Mon-Fri. On Saturday/Sunday it depends on how much time I have available (when I get done taking random naps throughout the day!) I currently work through 1 chapter of the PA book each time I practice. I will play each piece in a given chapter 2-3 times. Sometimes, I turn back a chapter or 2 to play a few exercises that I struggled with.

I am currently on chapter 7 of the All in One book 2. The following pieces/exercises are in this chapter: Deck the Keys with Dotted Quarters, Kum Ba Yah, Theme from Scheherazade, In My Red Convertible, Dotted Quarter March, Dotted Quarter Arpeggios, and Auld Lang Syne. I will probably work on this chapter for another week or 2.

I'm almost done with Adult PA Book 1! The last song is Carnival of Venice and I have it down pretty well at a slow speed. I'll have a good chunk of time tomorrow for practicing so I should have it down solid tomorrow. I'll try and make a recording.

I am loving book 2 the pieces are a little too easy but that is great I can use them as simple sight reading exercises which you can never have too much of in addition because these early pieces are speaking about specific things like reading the coda or octaves
I can concentrate on one thing at a time and learn something new. I dont know all the musical terminology and there are things I have forgotten


also since they are so easy I find transposing them very manageble.
like i said before I am not going to skip this very valuable step again.
the book speaks about using the intervals to help you transpose I dont do it this way but I am going to take their advice and try it.



skipping to the end of the book I see that these pieces are really below my level but I really dont mind I am looking at this as an opportunity to catch anything i may have missed
basics are the key to mastery so I really did want to start at just below my grade level and then work past my current grade level with a good method book.

when I finish I will move on to book four in the childrens series

I am also finishing adult PA book 1. My progress has slowed as the pieces have increased in difficulty. I am trying not to rush, as recommended by Mtaylor! I have worked on a few xmas pieces as well, but they are really above my level. I don't like spending a lot of time on something that I don't love. I want to play Blues piano, so my teacher selects on that basis. The only problem is that they tend to be a little too hard. I practice about 45 min a day 7 days a week, which everyone tells me is fine. I find I get bored with longer periods, but the problem may be not enough supplemental material. It sounds like you all play/practice with many more pieces. I have a "jazzy" sounding silent night in an easy arrangement, but it took so much time to learn it and the ending still isn't right that I am sick of it now. I think I will look for more books to play from.

as a side note. I listened to npr about an 85 yr old jazz who was "discovered" in a nursing home in Buffalo, NY. His story is amazing, as well as his playing. His name is Boyd dunlap and he is on itunes. Thought it would be interesting to this group.

I think most teachers supplement much material
even the thompson series
suggests other folios of music and etudes.

I would look at possibly buying some easy piano arrangements of whatever type of music you like to continue your journey

For supplemental material you may want to check out the Faber PreTime to BigTime series. They have a Jazz & Blues book for every level.

I’m self-teaching and I bought the level 2A and 2B performance books from the standard piano adventures series for supplemental music and I’m not enjoying it as much as I thought I would because the music is so childish. So earlier today I ordered the first two Developing Artist books, (Prep. Piano Lit. and Piano Lit. Book 1). I’ll see how it goes when they arrive. I’m not sure if they’ll be too advanced for me. Right now I’m about 22 pages into Adult Piano Adventures Book 2.

Thanks for the replies to how you guys practice. It gives me some better ideas and lets me know I'm on the right track. I also have Edna Mae's A Dozen a Day. However mine is the mini-book, it is the one before the Prepartory book. It was published in the 1960's! LOL I found it at a used book store.

I focused on my posture yesterday as much as I could. I caught myself a few times starting to slouch, but overall I felt less fatigued so I'm hoping that I'll start to be more self-aware and catch that more often. I have a cd on yoga and a few books and even the matts for it but until after Christmas I can't even begin to set that up. Company will be taking up my exercising spot! LOL

I've started to time myself during practice to see how long I'm actually there. I'm going to try to use that to slowly increase my time at the keyboard each sitting.

Yesterday was the first day that I was able to play through Jingle Bells with bh and it actually sounded correct! Yay! I'm making progress! I was very happy with that.

As for supplemental material, I used the internet to find appropriate ranged songs, and the used book store has all sorts of stuff in there too. I also know that I'm getting a pile of piano related items for Christmas and more music was on that list too. So I should have enough to last me the next few years! LOL.. I would be very bored without adding on. I need that extra music to drive me forward. I work on the method book to apply what I'm learning to my extra songs.

Dio: I listened to your pieces in your signature. They are very nice. I'm gonna have to look into doing something like that. What a great way to follow your own progress!

Way to go on Jingle Bells, Becca. And just in time for Christmas! Thanks for listening to my recordings. Let me know if you decide to record your work and I'll check it out.


Well I think I may have hit the point I've been dreading, where my previous musical experience on other instruments is no longer carrying me through. I don't think any songs in the Adult Book 1 took me more than an hour or so to learn. Now I'm working on "Allegro in F Major" on page 34 of Book 2 and it's taken me probably four hours to get down. And even then, the tempo on the eighth-note runs on the left hand is not always perfectly steady.

The last recording I attempted a few minutes ago was almost satisfactory except the tempo on one of those runs wavers a bit. So I'm not sure if I should just post the recording to my soundcloud account and move on to the next page of the book, or if I should get it down perfect before moving on. Part of me wants to move on and assumes my left hand timing will fix itself with more experience, but the perfectionist in me wants to get it perfect. And I'm self-teaching so I don't have a teacher to kick my butt. I guess I'll work on it some more tomorrow and then decide.

So how "perfect" do you guys get your songs before moving on in the book? You can check out a few of my Book 1 songs in the link in my signature if you want to see at what point I call it good and turn the page, (the Beatles song is not from Faber but the rest are). I don't want to short change myself by moving on too soon, but I also don't want to waste time making things perfect if the imperfections are things that will take care of themselves over time. I guess that's why most people say to get a teacher...

@666......you seem to be doing well. I move on when I don't feel challenged by the piece. The beginner pieces are so short and simple, they are easy to memorize. I move on when I start playing simple pieces from memory. I figure that once I am playing from memory, I am not learning anything.

My teacher says its ok to move on even if it's not perfected, but to make sure it's not because you are rushing. Also, it's imperative to move on if you are bored or frustrated. good luck!

Okay, thanks for the advice guys. I think I'm ready to move on from this one then. And I tried playing it again this morning and the timing on the runs went much better. I think my arms were fatigued last night and good night's sleep helped, so I recorded it and posted it to the site in my signature if anyone wants to give it a listen.

To reward myself before moving on to the next challenge in Adult Book 2, I learned couple easy pieces from the 2A performance book which were easy but fun. One was a duet so I recorded the first part and overdubbed the second. So as much as I would love to have an acoustic piano, the digital does have its advantages, (the duet is also posted in my sig).

Thanks again,