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Thank you!

Ogrt48, welcome back. Hope you'll stick around and graduate this time around. Best.

I like it much better too.

Thanks everyone! I have two songs left in the book. So, I hope it won't take too long to 'master' them! "The Entertainer" is coming along much better now than a week ago, and I am getting there with "Amazing Grace". but, I know it will take some time to finish it!

Well, in my review I found I was making a mistake in "Lullaby"!!!! I was playing c, e-g instead c, f-a!!!! I obviously need my eye sight to be checked and probably new glasses! (I am very short-sighted and over due for that one...)

Can anyone tell me what is so good about Alfred's Course? I am trying to learn how to play (can read music), but I have been burned by other "teach yourself" systems...and I am worried that this will not give me what I need. I am working through my keyboard's teaching system, which is not working out well for me. I practice a few measures of a particular song (right now it's Fur Elise) and then play it with the piano and the metronome (both installed in keyboard). I can play the first part of the song fairly well (without playing along with the keyboard..which freaks me out for some reason!), but not sure about my finger placement. Are there exercises or tips in the Alfred book that helps with the finger placement? Or are there just songs to play?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Nancy

PS: Is this truly a "teach yourself" type of book..I have no access to an instructor and I really need a self teaching type of book. Thank you again!

I am loving this book, and I think it works pretty well. You can look on google books inside more and see what you think:

Adult all-in-one course

Hi all, I am have just started the Alfred book 1 recently, and now playing the Got Those Blues! (page 67). I am having some problems with playing the 5th bar.

After playing the E-Flat, should I move my fingers back down so that i can play the G and A at the "normal" position, or is it alright to press the G and A at the position between the black keys?

Thank you

Addition: I have watched some videos on youtube and it does seem that some people do press at the positions between the black keys, and so i a rather confused

Hi Nancy, welcome to Alfred Book I.


I can read simple scores. Sometime after Thanksgiving, I was able to spend a few hours figuring out the simple versions of “The Entertainer” and “Amazing Grace” in the Book and have been practicing them since. I hope I’ll be able to polish them to sound like the accompanying CD, but I’m still a long way there.


Every piece in this book shows some fingering patterns. To take full advantage, it’s advisable to start from the beginning to build up and have a feel for these patterns as you advance through the Book. They cut back on fingering numbers and only show those moving out of certain patterns/positions.


There are theories, some finger aerobic exercises, then pieces to carry out these theories and exercises as you progress, All-In-One Book.


Fur Elise is quite an advanced piece which is included in this series somewhere in Book 3. Hopefully some experienced pianists will give you tips if there are any practices gearing to help tackle that piece sooner if that’s what your goal is. You can start a thread just for this Topic. I’m sure a lot of members will give you some guidance. Following this series will take you quite sometime to get to that piece.


P.S. I think this method, or probably any method, is designed to teach with an instructor for optimum efficiency. I started this as a casual hobby self-learning student as well. I think it requires more work self-learning but it has worked for me so far in this book. As I become a bit more serious now, I hope I can fit an instructor in my schedule going forward. Hope this helps.

I think you mean the 5th measure of the piece, 2nd measure on 2nd Grand Staff? If that’s the case, I play G & A in that same finger position between the black keys. The next Measure is in the same position so it helps transitioning over smoothly.

Hi

I'm working on Jericho and The Stranger now (I don't think all versions of the book have that last song). It seems the end of the book is in sight and with it, the songs I find most interesting. I think after this book I might try another method though, I'll see what my teacher thinks.

Thanks Nguyen for the suggestion.

Hi Everyone,

Haven't been around in awhile....had to get a job and can't practice piano three hours a day anymore

Anyhow, I just have to get this off my chest:

I, too, HATE 'Blow the Man Down' and would like to thank all of you who have also posted about how miserable it is. I feel like they left out some learning steps or something...learning this makes me feel like I have brain damage.

Anyhow, thanks for reminding me that some of the pieces are much harder than others. Maybe I'll just skip ahead for awhile.

lvp, I found it easier to do by just tapping out the lines with my fingers slowly. That really helped when I put my hands together. Start really slow too. Good luck. You'll get it!

Thanks Graciecat!

It is coming along, but if I spend more than 15 minutes on it I get angry....so it's been slow. Plus, is this not the worst sounding song yet? I really think when I finish this book I need to go to another course. The music is so terrible. I have been downloading music and playing different things with my teacher, and they are so much nicer to listen to... makes me wonder why I am putting hours into a sea shanty that sounds dreadful. I wonder if book 2 is better? I know I am limited by my skill, but how come other starter music sounds so much better? Is this truly the nature of the beast, or is it really Alfred?

I am also just starting BTMD. My assignment from my lesson last week was to work on Lavender's Blue and Kum-Ba-Yah which we started at the lesson. He also said to feel free to go further in the book if I wanted to. I am still having some problems with Lavender's Blue but I found Kum-Ba-Yah to be very easy so I went ahead and had no problems with London Bridge and Michael Row the Boat ashore. I made a prediction that we would probably start BTMD at this week's lesson so I wanted to work on it a little. We did take a brief look at it at my lesson. I can do both hands separate with no problem but I too have great difficulty trying to put the hands together no matter how slow. I really have no ill feelings toward this or any of the other songs in the book. They all have some value in the learning process and this one is obviously for learning hand independence which is trouble for everyone. Once this milestone is passed it seems that similar pieces will come easier.

It has been suggested (by mom3gram) that one way to approach this one is to make a copy of the page and mark each beat with a line between the upper and lower staff. Then you can mark where both hands are playing a note or just the left or just the right. I am going to try that to see if it helps.

Hi guys, I just finished BtMD but unfortunately I don't have any good tricks to share, other than go SLOWLY SLOWLY SLOWLY and count the beats. Work one measure at a time and count it out very slowly and play along until you've mastered it. Writing the beats in, like mom3gram suggested, is a great idea as well.

I learned each measure at maybe 30 beats per minute or so, so one beat every 2 seconds. At that speed, I could play any given measure in isolation. So then I would repeat that measure over and over and over until I could speed it up to maybe 60 beats per minute, or a beat every second.

Then I would move on to another measure. Once I had all measures down at about 60 beats per minute, I tried putting the whole song together which made me have to slow it down again. Once you have it all together at a slow tempo, then you can just work your speed up.

The key I think is to find a tempo at which you can play a given measure accurately, and then repeat that measure over and over and over and over and over so that it sticks in your brain. Then repeat again with another measure. If you "learn" a measure to the point where you can play it at slow tempo, but then immediately move on to another measure, I don't think the first measure sticks in your brain as well. That's why I emphasize repeating it over and over once you have it accurately at that slow tempo.

Good luck!

I find the music in book 1 acceptable for the most part, since I don't expect too much from a book aimed at absolute beginners. However, I've listened to some of the songs from book 2 on youtube by that PianoNoobAlexbMan guy and they sound dreadfully boring. That's why I won't continue with Alfred when I finish the first book in (hopefully) a few weeks. I still might buy book 2 and do the occasional song, but I'm gonna see if my teacher can recommend something else.

If you find something you like, I'd love to hear-as you are a few months ahead of me. I am ready to jump ship too! I know most people don't mind the songs, and I didn't either...until I tried some other stuff. Ignorance is bliss, I guess!

I am enjoying Alfred's and don't plan changing it. It is a lesson to stick with the method as much as to stick with playing piano!

I haven't practised much over the last few days as we have a next lot of friends coming over this weekend and it is my husband's birthday tomorrow, so need to sort out the house (they are coming with 15 month old - everything has to be out of reach!), make the cake and have some rest if I don't want to be falling of my feet by 7pm.

But, I have decided that I am doing the exam this spring and that means I will need to do much more practice. I am still not decided on what pieces I will be doing, but I'll get there. To be honest, I don't mind to play them all as it is a good practice. I am not going to do grade yet, just step 2, but it will give me an insight on how the exams are run and what I need to work harder on.

So, still the same 23 songs left for me! "The Entertainer" and "Amazing Grace".

I agree, a lot of the Tunes in the Alfred's methods are Naff, but they have to treated as Etudes (Exercises) for developing technique. I've checked out other methods, at great cost, and the Alfred's is the best IMO. The trick is to ascertain at what level you are at then search for sheet music at that level outside of the Alfred's methods, I'm mainly interested in Classical music so I couldn't recommend any other types of music. It's worth browsing the contents of THIS WEBSITE.