Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and All in One Adult Piano Course Book #2

Oh, I think you should keep the easier/fun music too.

The Etude pretty much demands the one-measure-at-a-time treatment which to my mind isn't all that fun or satisfying, just necessary. (My teacher said several times: "Don't go on until you get this section."

Having something a bit easier makes it easier to hear some progress. And gives something to do besides playing the same 8 notes over and over.

I'm not sure how this happened, but after months of having but not touching the book, I've finally started on book two of Alfred's. Previously I thought the songs boring, nothing of the book containing anything of interest, but after reading around PW a bit, I decided to open the book and see where it takes me. It's actually quite fun, not half as bad as I thought it might be. The songs aren't entirely the same in my book as the All-in-one mentioned in the original post. So far I've played Down in the Valley (yawn) and Tumbalalaika (yay). Determined to play through it this time. I did finish book one.

I must say that I'm enjoying this book more and more as I move forward, I skipped several songs in the first part but now I find myself playing each song at least a few times, although not memorizing and polishing everything.

I was getting a bit frustrated trying to memorize the Etude (the only way I could dream to play it properly), so I had a look at the following two pieces and feel a bit relieved now! Swinging Sevenths sounds good and is quite easy to learn. The Polovetsian Dance is also nice, I need to figure out the chord progression but I'm almost there. It's weird how these books put a difficult piece here and there and then go back to more feasible stuff. Or am I the only one who thinks that not all songs are progressive in difficulty? Am I the only one who had a hard time with stuff like Alexander's Ragtime Band, Hava Nagila and the Etude?

You are quite right, Sinophilia. I had a hard time with the second page of Alexander's Ragtime Band. And absolutely could not play La Bamba (did you have this one in your book). After struggling with La Bamba and a few other somewhat easier Mexican type pieces, there were several pieces that I thought were pretty easy. I haven't gotten to Hava Nagila and the Etude yet, but I can tell from looking at them that they will give me trouble. And like I said in an above post - I recently tried Fascination, which is almost at the end of the book, and it wasn't really any more difficult than many of the way earlier pieces, except that it's in a new key. In fact, from now on, if I come to a piece that I can't get with a few weeks of hard work, I will just skip it and come back to it later. I know now that some of the next pieces will be easier.

Tonight I am leaving for a two week visit to my daughter and family. No piano in their house. I hope I don't regress too much.

zrt - you're right, of course...they're just chords! thanks for the practice tips!

malkin - the second page of Étude isn't necessarily more difficult than the first. I mostly struggled with the top two lines of the second page, the part leading up to the ritardando.

Sinophilia - I agree 100%. The jumping around in difficulty is a little frustrating. On the other hand, it's kinda refreshing to have an easier one thrown in the mix, as it boosts my confidence a bit.

I'm still working on the same two Alfred's pieces, moving slowly because I'm concentrating more on my other stuff right now - Miniature Waltz by Rebikov (which is nearing completion!) and Mozart's Sonata Facile (which is probably a bit over my head, but is slowly but surely coming along).

I did ok with La Bamba--it was hard, but I really liked working on it, but I thought I might never finish Hava Nagila. My teacher said he has had students ready to quit piano altogether because of La Bamba.

I can play the Etude up to the hard measures on the 2nd page, and I can play the RH separately through that section in a sort of grounded out way. For the bottom of the second page, I think the music is so pretty that it will come together all right when I get to it.

It is a pedagogical principle to alternate hard and easy material or at least to slip in some easy stuff after a real killer, not just in music. You can see this in lots of learning materials.

Yeah, well I kind of like the emotional roller-coaster
It keeps me from getting bored, and unfortunately I'm not the kind of person who can spend weeks or even months on a single task. I'm currently working on 3 Alfred's songs, a couple of Czerny's studies, the jazz/rock stuff, and... yes, I confess... a simple arrangement of Downton Abbey theme

After all, I don't seem to progress at all if I repeat a passage for over 10 minutes or if I spend my entire daily practice on just one song. So I'd rather go back to it the next day and it usually gets a little bit easier.

WAAAAAAH!
Friday morning is my usual uninterrupted, play as long as I want time. Today we are having new window installed, so I spent the early morning covering the piano and the furniture and I will spend the rest of the day waiting for these guys to get finished and out of my house. Then I will spend the evening cleaning up after them.

It will be nice to have efficient windows though. The house is 100 years old and while I love the wiggles in the glass, the draughts have been remarkable.

Where is everyone?

I'm working on the 2 hardest measures of the Etude. It takes as long as it takes.

There is no étude in the basic book Is it only in the all-in-one?

I'm working through the 'repeat' sections at the start of the book. It's not very hard yet.

I have the AIO-the piece is a simplified arrangement of a Chopin Etude.

My hard work paid off, and it looks like I will be able to play the whole thing by next week--knock on wood, and of course there will need to be plenty of knocking on the keys this week! Using the pedal the whole way through may be a bit of a hitch, but I'll give it my best shot.

Hi Everyone.

I'm new to the board and Piano. I had a question about Alfred's book. Whats the best way to go about walking through it? Should I stick to a page until I learn a song and play it perfectly a few times or just kinda skim through if I can passably play? What are your recommendations? Thanks all and I'm excited to start reading everyone's progress here

Firstly, let me be the first to say welcome to Piano World!

To answer your question - It depends. I can't speak for everyone, only to my experiences. Do you have a teacher? Are you working on other pieces in addition to the Alfred's book? How far along are you in book 2?

I'm working with a teacher. When she says I'm done with an Alfred's piece, I'm done with it. Sometimes, she seems to me to be overly lenient, and sometimes she seems to demand perfection. I'm paying her to make these kinds of decisions for me, and so I trust her judgement. I guess maybe that sounds a little naïve, but I'm comfortable with the way I'm progressing. I'm also always working on several other things in addition to Alfred's.

Hi syntoast and welcome!

For me a teacher is essential, because I would give up immediately on just about everything, but lots of people make lots of progress on their own.

It is a fun forum!

Good for you! I got so frustrated with the Etude that I moved on to the next few pieces. I'm working on 16th notes and Bourlesq right now - not too hard in itself but hard to play as fast as it should. I keep practicing the Etude, it's a bit better but I haven't tackled the hardest part yet. There's something about this piece that eludes me... I'd love to have a teacher who could show me what it is.

This morning a weird thing happened to me... I saw a black wooden piano stand with a 3-pedal unit near the rubbish bins, I gave it a look and understood from its shape that it was meant for my digital piano... so I picked it up!

So now I have 3 pedals to take care of

Congratulations on your new pedals and stand!!!

Much of the instruction I got on the etude consisted of 'slow down and don't move to the next section until you've got this one down.' Also "don't get frustrated." So I worked phrase by phrase and very slowly. The top of the second page is still pretty dicey. And when I pedal everything falls apart so I need to slow way down again. It does seem to have fallen back into the realm of possibility though which amazes me.

I would have bailed on the first day without a teacher.

Hi all!

Sinophilia: Congratulations on your pedals and stand!

I hope you are all doing well!

I'm currently working on Brahm's lullaby, Lonesome Road and the chromatic scale. How are you doing?

A few weeks back I got a new DP with pedals, and it's surprisingly difficult to pedal and play simultaneously! Just as malkin says it all falls apart. Ah well, I refuse to give up, so eventually things will come together....

"Whole World in His Hands" and "La Donna" are officially DONE. "La Donna" definitely had some tricky parts (I now officially DESPISE triplets....but I digress), but it eventually came together ok. I never got "Whole World" to the point where it felt nice under my fingers...the chord changes in the right hand always felt strained. For one thing, some of my fingers are too fat to fit way up between the black keys, so I'm rather awkwardly jumping my hand forward to hit black keys with my pinky then back away from the blacks so that my middle finger hits only the white key instead of a white key and two black keys! I'm sure with a lot of practice I could have eventually gotten that chord change buttery smooth. And if I actually liked the song, it might even have been worthwhile LOL.

For now, it's crunch time. The fall recital is Sunday. I'll be playing the Rebikov waltz that I've been working on.

Gahdzila, I'm working on Musetta's Waltz right now, so I'm just some ten pages behind you!

I'm getting frustrated though, as most of the pieces require me to practice very slowly no more than one line at a time, or maybe even a single measure. I know this is how it should be, but I'm not enjoying the process very much and my progress is so slow. Sometimes I wish I could just learn building blocks and then be able to play popular tunes instead of struggling with specific pieces, a bit like when you learn chords on the guitar and you can start playing plenty of different songs in no time. Now every single seemingly easy song in the Alfred's book requires so much focus and patience, plus I seem to forget them so easily even when I've memorized them well as soon as I put new material in my brain.

I guess it will only get worse as pieces become more difficult...

I love my current Martha Mier piece, Red Rose Rendezvous, and could practice it all day (and still not get it right!). Not too interested in my current Alfred piece (piece of what?!) I forget what it's even called--the one with all seventh chords in the left hand, stomping up and down the keyboard. I can't play it well, but I looked ahead to the next one anyway and arrived at the Postalopavlovladivostokilovanianilaikan Dances or something like that, with the whole note chords that I can't read in the left hand.

*sigh*