Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1

How's everyone doing? I've finally started to move forward a bit. I'm working on the G position (which is kinda nice) and am working on the song "Money Can't Buy Everything." My theory is way ahead of my skills, so I'm just working on trying to catch up and improve my technique.

It feels really slow going to me right now. I have to keep reminding myself that it is slow, I'm still sick and I am still adjusting to my new board! I wish us adults had a "be nice to self" button we could hit! LOL

Hope you feel better soon Becca. I am exhausted tonight ( busy week). Had my piano lesson earlier and was really struggling with timing on the Brahms Lullaby (teacher gave me) so we used an online metronome. Feels like I'll never get timing right- will be working hard on this. I am on page 29 of Alfred's and have been given page 32 and 35 specifically to do but will do pages inbetween those as well.
On the upside I played a simplified version of Beethoven's sonata no 25 2nd movement opus 79, which I had from last year and found it so much easier than when I first was learning it- I noticed my finger positions were improved which I think made the difference. OK I was probably getting the timing not quite right and I have the letters of the notes written on there (which I was doing til my teacher stopped me doing in the first lesson!) but it was flowing better. I thought I might have a copy on my PC as I was asked to print it out without the letters of the notes on, b ut I haven't so I will have to tippex them out and photocopy it. I used to play it far too fast before.
I find it much easier than the Brahms Lullaby.

I am still working in "The Stranger". I am a little surprised because it took little time to remember what I have learned before my holidays.
I found this comment in this thread, made by Doug F, in June, 30th 2010:
"I also got passed on The Stranger. I would have to say that was probably the toughest one in the book so far; it has so many things going on - melody switching hands, dynamic changes between hands and on the repeated lines, changing rhythms, and on and on"
For me the biggest issue is the big jumps, that I am trying to do without looking to the keyboard.

I had fun play "Money Can't Buy Everything".



Brahms Lullaby is more advanced than those pages of Alfred. You will go through them without big issues.

Sounds like you are doing well! Haven't got The Stranger in my Alfred's book- you must have a different book to me.





Don't I know it! It is starting to wind me up a bit- wake up hearing it played badly
in my head and cannot get the timing right- the stuff I am doing in Alfred's so far has been ok.
I confessed to my teacher yesterday I nearly put it in the recycling bin!
Personally I am beginning to think I shall always be pants at sight reading and thinking to give it 6 months and then can it and just do the chords and playing by ear route which I am so much better at.
Means I won't be able to play my favourite music which is Classcial and will have to stick to pop but hey ho.

Hi everybody! Hope everyone is progressing along in our piano learning journey.

I'm working on Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It's a song I've always liked and I'm finding it enjoyable to play. It still needs work, but I think I will take a look at At Last next week while I am still trying to polish up Over the Rainbow.

I am also trying to play the previous couple of songs as well as they need a bit of work too. Amazing Grace is definitely one of the more challenging pieces in this book and I suppose that's why they put it at the end of the book. The tempo on the CD seems a bit fast for my liking and it also makes a couple of those stretches more difficult. Oh well, I just like to play it the way I feel it, and in this case it is a little slower.

Good to see everyone plodding on.

My wife and I only started this a couple of weeks ago but are thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

We don't get much bench time, tends to be 10 or 15 minutes here and there dotted throughout the day. As such, I didn't expect much, however we have both surprised ourselves and each other. From those first tentative steps, fist notes and single finger playing, to now being able to play recognisable tunes incorporating several chords.
It's all very exciting and we find we are fighting to see who gets a go next.

I find the Alfred book to be very clear and well thought out.

Keep it up girls and guys. Onwards and upwards!

Alfred's is great in that way. You can really teach yourself how to play piano.

Well done folks!

Has anyone ever decided to just start over from the beginning in the Alfred's book after being more than half way through?

I think at the time I may have just memorized the songs instead of learned how to read the music. I find I have a lot of trouble playing outside the key of C and think maybe I should start over. I've been playing over a year...but I am struggling.

Any suggestions?

I'm only up to about page 50 of roughly 200 (it's the self teaching one), but I often go to the beginning and flick through, only takes 10/15 mins.
It's a good confidence booster as you suddenly find the earlier stuff so much easier than first time through.

Thanks, I am going through it now...it will be interesting to see where I start falling apart. I think part of the problem was my teacher let me skip or pass on songs I was struggling with.

I am no longer taking lessons, but I want to continue learning.
What do you find is the best way to progress?

I got up to Lullaby before really having any struggles. Can someone tell me the best fingering (righthand)for the last eight measures?

This is what I am using

5 313 213452411
5 313 314321

It feels awkward...

Trouble, usually when someone has rough spots that's when you dig in! I don't think there is anything wrong with backtracking. I took a break from piano this summer and when I came back, I started the Alfred's book with chords I already knew for a refresher.

Is there something wrong with the fingering that is provided for that song?

The entire fingering is not provided for this section,
starting with measure 8 it shows

5 (c) the next three notes are afg- no fingering providedand then picks up with 2 (e) 1 (c)

the three notes without the fingering is where it is awwkward...the last 4 measures are similar.

5 313 213452411
5 313 314321
the book leaves out where I put 313, but as you can see the measures lead to a different note...313 2, and then 313 3

Maybe it is supposed to be awkward.

Thanks for your reply.

Take what I say with a grain of salt here (as I'm not anywhere near that part of the book)

By looking at the score, I would take each phrase as a new hand position (it seems to repeat this throughout the score.) So I would ignore the measures for fingering and look at the phrases again. Where you have the two eighth notes e and c with fingering 1 and 2 I would consider that a new hand position.

After playing on my keyboard with this for a minute (having really tiny hands) I would play this with a few jumps. Eighth notes c as finger 1, half note c as finger 5, eighth note a as finger 4, eighth note f as finger 2, half note g as finger 3. Then switch hand position for next phrase.

What fingering have you tried and isn't working?

I use this (I think it is same as BeccaBB)
(10) 542 (11) 321 (12) 345 (13) 2411
(14) 542 (15) 431 (16) 432 (17) 1

The main thing i struggle with is time.
Between work and kids it's 10 minutes here and there. Though it should get better over the coming months.

I'm almost 2 weeks into Alfreds at the song "Beautiful Brown Eyes". I moved up rather quickly ( it's the smaller book with 96 pages, don't know the exact English title because it's in my native Dutch language ) and I'm definately happy with my progress so far.
I'm however not so sure about the chord emphasis that this book has... In the long run, I'm most interested in classical songs, not modern ones. I also hear that people complain about even the second level book, which still doesn't have attractive songs. Therefore I'm wondering if I should try another method book.

I also have the recently published "The classical piano method" by Heumann ( Schott-music.com ). This method doesn't build on chords. But there's also a couple of downsides: it's not popular, so if I run into problems I can't ask anyone. It won't be as motivating as Alfreds because there is not a thread like this one.

Any suggestions ? I definately need a method book that I can rigurously follow.
One more thing: beside my Alfred book, I'm practicing 'Fur Elise' ( I have the first 43 of 125 measures under my belt ) and also Burgmullers 'Arabesque' ( about a third of the whole piece ). Obviouslu much more difficult than Alfreds, but at least the efforts put in reward me with some beautifull sounding music!

I'm not sure how fast people normally progress through Alfred's, or if you have any prior experience, but your certainly making faster progress than myself. Well done!

Hi Stefaan! I would suggest - if you are self learning - to stick with the Alfred mathod book, and keep working on your classical pieces also. You might want to get a series of easier classical pieces to work from also, like "Masterwork Classics", which I think has around 10 levels. If you look it up on Sheetmusicplus.com, you can look at a few pages to see what they are like. The first book is pretty much on the level ofthe middle of Alfred 1.