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Hi Key Notes.

My lesson was well , not that great. I still do not have the 1st piece down at all. There are a lot of bars that repeat themselves and its real easy to get lost! Not that I need any help in theat dept. It only took me
3 days to get the nerve back up to practice again. I went on Sunday when the shops were closed. (neat trick huh)I spent most of the time on one piece and still do not have it anywhere near down.
at least I dont play 3 bars,stare,play 2 bars,stare at the music,keyboard and my hands,play 3 bars ect.. Now its about 6 bars. I really need to just bit the bullet and do scales endlessly for about a half hour.
AS far as Beautiful Brown Eyes is concerned the hard part for me was the last 3 bars...I do not know why that piece was so darn hard.
Standing is hard because I cant play straight 8ths. Now I know why at least. I listen to a lot of Mid Eastern and East Indian stuff. I went to a great concert last night and looked at one of the mdunga players and said "gee now I know who to blame..."Right now I have a Viper's cd in.
It took me a while to get the bars for the left hand that requier your fingers to play 3 separate things.
Now I am on Aloutte. I have a tendency to play what I hear. Not whats on the paper!
I found a great Scaretti piece but it begs for flute and not keyboard. I played about 3 bars of this and said "forget this!"
My piano lessons are going nowhere now. I am spending more time on the carillon keyboard. (mew mew mew)
Mom3gram, the good news is that the next 2 pieces are a little easier then Brown Eyes.
Some one is asking about the cd. I have one and I am not impressed. there is this odd sound quality and you barely hear the piano thur the bad eletric add ons.

I may be getting somewhere after all!
I spent about 45 minutes on one of the pieces I need to learn and got it to the point where I only make about 3 mistakes.
Maybe I can do this...(just maybe) :rolleyes:

I dont know......Am I the only one who just isnt with Alfred. I bought the book. I am on page 30 but have honestly dedicated 2 hours at most to the book. I have just taken on challenging peices instead. I mean after completing a few pieces I went back to Alfred and breezed through it like no tommorow.Am I causing future trouble. I should be getting a teacher in a few weeks

You are the third person that I've heard that said that this piece is hard. Hmm.

Now I am on Aloutte. I have a tendency to play what I hear. Not whats on the paper! [/QUOTE]

Another cute and familiar song for me to look forward to. Yes, I have to also be very careful whenever I'm playing a familiar piece because I can easily skip a note and not realize it. Good observation because that means we're not actually reading every note or paying attention to the counts and lengths of each note at all. This may be good for the experienced pianists who can improvise but definitely not for us beginners at this point.

My piano lessons are going nowhere now. I am spending more time on the carillon keyboard. (mew mew mew) [/QUOTE]

That's really too bad. Why is that? But it's good that you are working hard with the carillon, and even made great progress according to your later post. Congrats! It goes to show once again that hard work does pay off. Good for you. Keep up the great work!

Key Notes

I'd like to introduce myself. My daughter has studied piano for almost 2 years (and loves it) using an inexpensive Yamaha keyboard. She really likes her lessons and we finally went ahead and purchased an acoustic upright for her. I've always wanted to play an instrument but thought I was "too old" to start and my fingers were "too short" for piano. However, when we received the piano, there was some great feeling about just sitting at the bench and playing with the keys. I decided I just had to try and learn.

Like most new members, I lurked the PW forums for a while and learned a lot...browing this forum showed me you could start at any age and that it was not as hard as it looked. I've purchased the Alfred's Adult All-in-one books 1 and 2 and so far am on pg 47. I have just mastered playing the two versions of "Saints go marching on" and it feels really great. I will try and participate as much as possible in the forum, but don't get to the PC very often. Thanks and good luck to everyone here.
Regards,
Al

welcome, redeagle. Please keep us updated on your progress.

It's not specifically germane to this thread, but I would be interested in knowing what upright you ended up with, and how you made your decision.

Hi, Al, welcome aboard. It's very helpful to be in this thread and know that you can find someone who is a little ahead of you, and someone who just starting out, and that every song that you get stuck on someone else went through and conquered. There's a lot of good advice here - this thread is where the "real" beginners hang out.

Sure. I hope everyone doesn't mind this reply posted here in this thread.

My answer is "Not the one I would have had I read this forum in advance :-) ... just kidding. Despite the often negative comments about chinese-made pianos, I am very happy with the new George Steck (Sejung) upright we acquired. A summary of my decision points are:

1) It will have lots of student use for the next 5 to 7 years (myself and my two young daughters are all learning to play).
2) No spinets, I wanted a full-size piano action for the feeling it provides. No grands since they cost more and we don't have the space.
3) I wanted a new piano (even though I have no problems with used products) for several reasons.
4) Under 5K since we are on a tight budget.
5) I found this piano a great value. Good quality parts, materials and production and I think most of the price difference to "better" brands in this price range comes from labor costs.
6) It felt and sounded nice to us and our piano teacher (who owns two *very* good grands and an upright.
7) I expressed to the dealer that I felt that prep was very important and did not just want the 2 free 'tunings'. He agreed and his PTG tech spent about 3 hours working on it about a week after delivery and another 2 hours about a month later.
8) A call to Sejung USA with some questions about their models was responded to very nicely and promptly.

So far, we are very satisfied.

Thanks. I am in a similar situation as you were when you were buying... I am learning, my 6 year old daughter is learning, and my 5 year old son will begin lessons next year. So whatever we end up with is going to get a great deal of use, but we're in no position to spend as much money as I would like. Maybe later on down the road (you too, perhaps?).

I still don't know if we are going to end up with a digital, a used upright, or a new upright. But I do believe that if we go the new acoustic route, I think it is most likely that we'll end up with a Chinese piano. So you're among friends here.

Always Wanted to Play Piano,
Thanks. We all love having the acoustic piano, but I will add one comment.

My kids can practice after school. When I come home there is lots of family stuff to do and our youngest (3) is in bed at 8:30. Basically, my schedule best allows me to practice an hour or so each night, preferably late. I would think hard about a digital because the volume control and/or headphones is the single best way for me to be able to maintain or increase my practice time.

Al, we're living in the same world. The arguments for a digital at this point are pretty compelling.

1silkyferret - not that you necessarily want to make Beautiful Brown Eyes any harder, but you can make it a little more interesting musically.

Hrere's how: once you get it "down" fairly well, do this: repeat the last line, slowing down slightly starting with the 3rd to last measure, and instead of the left hand pattern in the next to last measure (that you played the 1st time thru) simply play the full G chord, and hold it for the length of the last two measures (6 counts).

Too much to ask at this point? Well, maybe. But give it a try. This technique can be used to add an enhanced ending to any number of the pieces you'll play in the future. In fact, if you really want to get a little fancy, you can take the last few measures of a song (usually the last "phrase") and use it as an "intro" at the start of a piece.

Good luck and above all have fun!

Regards,

JF

My update... I have three things I am "working on" (meaning I can plod through them at various levels of success):

- Why Am I Blue? - Have just a little trouble with the fine...
- Good People - Just can't quite this... I'm close.
- Little Brown Jug - I've made it through this twice at tempo without errors.

I've also begun the painful introductory phase of learning Chiapanecas. It's the first piece, to my recollection, where the LH and RH have comparable levels of difficulty.

So far, I really like this Alfred's Adult All-In-One Piano Book 1. I have several other piano books laying around, but this is my main learning tool and I plan on working my way through Alfred's as much as possible before supplementing with too much other stuff. I am also getting lots of good tips and info from this forum. Thanks to all of you, especially those who have posted their renditions on youtube or box.net.

The past few days, I have become quite expert at making those Saints March. Today, I was able to go past that point and focused on "Money Can't Buy Everything", which is the intro to the G position. At first, it was like taking a big step backwards. When I try to play the notes, I stop and start and get a bit confused with the fingering, but when I ignore the notes (except the first one) and play the whole thing by intervals, I go through it pretty easily.

So far during my first 3 weeks of using Alfred's:

1) It is great fun and I am enjoying it very much.

2) I have easily picked up a lot of the music theory (beyond what is in the Alfred's books) and have very little problem reading sheet music. My biggest challenge right now is perfecting the physical coordination and dexterity to actually play the songs I see on the sheets. I wonder if this is the norm or the exception?

3) Although I know the notes and staff well, I find myself going through all the songs by fingering to the note intervals...its just so much faster and I realize that while I am playing I really couldn't tell you what note I need to play or is coming next. Is this ok or should I try to force myself to play by the recognition of the notes?

4) It is easy to advance with practice, but it is hard to get enough time to practice. This week has been a bit tough to advance in the book. My practice times kept getting cut short. I normally start with a warmup by going back a few pages earlier in the book, but I have been getting "stopped" each day just when I get to new material. I have to come up with a good practice routine to address this. I am thinking maybe just some quick scales and right into new material, and them wrap up with older stuff to reinforce past lessons. It doesn't seem like the best way, but it will maximize my time on working through to new stuff.

I think the rest of this week and the weekend will be focused on perfecting "Money Can't Buy Everything" and "The Cuckoo" and improving my ability to switch between all the chords in both LH and RH. I am looking forward to getting to more challinging parts of the book like Blow the Man Down & Little Brown Jug, of which I have read a lot about in this thread.

Good night all...

Hmm, very interesting. I might have to try this too. Thanks JF.

Okay... I need some serious help with "He's got the whole world in his hands" I simply cannot bring these rhythms together. I can play the melody & bass line perfectly by itself, but bringing them together seems beyond my brain power. Reading the connected 8th notes and syncopated notes does throw me off a little, but I think it's more of a hand separation issue.

Any ideas on how to tackle this one?

Another cute and familiar song for me to look forward to. Yes, I have to also be very careful whenever I'm playing a familiar piece because I can easily skip a note and not realize it. Good observation because that means we're not actually reading every note or paying attention to the counts and lengths of each note at all. This may be good for the experienced pianists who can improvise but definitely not for us beginners at this point.

My piano lessons are going nowhere now. I am spending more time on the carillon keyboard. (mew mew mew) [/QUOTE]

That's really too bad. Why is that?

Its real simple,I only will have another week to enjoy this wonderful instrument then I hit the road for shows in OK,OH and VA as well as KS. I wont be back until 6 months,. so its gonna a bell-less existance for a while. So I am on this for 3 days a week for about 45 minutes at a time. I also have a tendency to practice the rhythems for the carillon stuff on the piano so the alfred's stuff isnt gettiing the practice it needs.
I used to look forward to hitting the road...now its crud I gotta leave...wish I could take a year off and learn this wonderful amazing instrument. But I need to work for a living and I am real fortunate that I have been able to do what I am doing and know it.
Once I get to OK,and hang with the buddies I will be ok.

I am thinking about doing VARf because there are 2 carillons withen 2 hours of the festival site. If thats not a bullsh*t reason for chosing a show,I dont know what is. its a long drive from OK to VA however and I would be there for 3 weeks then have to haul butt to Ohio. I would rather come back here,get 3 weeks of lessons and then head to ohio. My business partner thinks I am nutz for this. He keeps saying TCB, take care of business. I get more done in 1 day then he does in a week.

then its back to the piano and Alfred's when I am on the road.
when on the road,I hit the piano for 45 minutes for 3 days.
But it's good that you are working hard with the carillon, and even made great progress according to your later post.

Went back today and worked on the 2nd piece a bit. Here is the spooky part,I have most of Skater's memorized. I have to play the same stuff over and over again so I learn it. thus it gets memorized. I did not realize I was memorizing the piece until today. I have about a half hour to go I think until I get it down to passable.. (I hope). There was a couple sitting outside the restaurent so I quit before I had it done. I did not know they wer there until I wsa getting ready to do some real slow stuff. No one wants to eat dinner to the same darn piece being played ad nausuem. (oh gods) wish the practice keyboard was working..... :rolleyes:

Congrats! It goes to show once again that hard work does pay off. Good for you. Keep up the great work!

Key Notes [/b][/QUOTE]

Sounds like you are real talented.

Hi Key Notes - yes, it can be very interesting and you should try it - it's just a matter of adding a little enhancement or embellishment to your practice pieces as you expend alot of time & energy working thru them with dedication day by day and week by week.

Relatively simple techniques like adding a 2nd ending or intro onto a piece can really spice it up somewhat and make your whole experience a little more enjoyable - besides adding another dimension to your growing skills as a pianist and an "artist".

Note, in this regard, that it isn't always necessary to repeat the entire last line - usually just the last phrase is good enough (which may sometimes start in the middle of a measure). Use the phrase marks over the melody as a guide. Try using this same phrase as an intro. In both cases it's often effective to play this phrase a little slower (and softer) when used as a repeat of the ending or as an intro.

Another often used technique is to take that last phrase and repeat it as a 2nd ending - but then double the values of each note in the phrase. This, of course, doubles the measures in the phrase. And it has the natural effect of slowing down the tempo and emphasizing the finality of the ending. This is used alot in pop music.

There are several other techniques you can use for enhancement but I'll save them for later.

As usual, nice "talking" to you and have fun!

Regards, JF

Uh, oh. This one is coming up soon for me. I was counting on it being easy, as Little Brown Jug and (now) Chiapanecas gave (are giving) me fits.