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I would be completely doomed if my piano were any nicer! I'd never get anything else done, and I'd probably forget about going to work entirely.

I had been playing the yamaha clavi that I won in a raffle and taking group class at the university when I started wanting to look around at acoustics. Brewer used to sell pianos, and pretty well had his mind made up that an acoustic piano was just more trouble than it was worth, but he took me shopping anyway. At the second place we went, he was smitten with our Vogel upright--to the point where he dreamed about it (!)--and that was that.

Hi sinophilia. I think I'll stick with the regular book 2, but I'll take a look at the All series next time I'm at the music store. I have a habit of buying too many piano music books and already have enough to keep me busy a long, long time. I'm determined to use each and every one of them at some point.

Congratulations for progressing to the point where you can start on a song that you really like. You will probably do really well with it because you like the song so much. I think that really helps.

I'm collecting slowly collecting sheet music of some songs that I'd like to do, but for the most part they are too far ahead of my current skill. So its book 2 for me, for now!

I think the Piano for All series is only available online (pdf's with videos and mp3's) > pianoforall.com

But I'm with you on the 'too many books' thing, I think most of us adult beginners is guilty of this crime! I'm actually starting to pare down instead of increasing my learning materials.

My mistake, sinophilia. For some reason I was thinking about the Alfred All In One books when you mentioned the All series. I looked at that web site and noticed on one of the pages, it shows color coded pictures of the keyboard, instead of regular music notation on the staff. Is that they way the entire coarse is done?

Actually these books also use standard notation (something I like and understand better, having been through Alfred's books 1 and 2), it's just that the author keeps telling you "don't ask why it is like this, just trust me for now". That's the approach, to start you playing rhythms and chord progressions straight away without thinking too much. Videos are especially useful.

Still having fun in the refresh section at the start. The amount of La's in La Bamba are different every time played! Quite an achievement I feel.

You know, I might just give it a try.

I really like Alfred's for its structured approach, smooth progression of material, and probably a few other reasons. But I do feel I need to supplement it with other material. The sheet music for songs that I'm collecting for the future are pretty much all above my current level, and I don't think it would be the best use of my time to learn them now. I think maybe at the end of Alfred book 2, I will be in a better position to tackle some of them.

Meanwhile, I need material that will help my technical ability progress. I'm the type of person that needs to understand the details, and I'm quite interested in theory and learning as I go. Even though the Piano for All series that you mention asks one to "just trust me for now", I have the ability to investigate what I need further clarification on, and can do so. Primarily, I need to improve my overall technical ability.

Also, I trust your assessment of the series. So, I'm close to purchasing it, maybe 80% sure at this time.

Stephen, when I was working on La Bamba I watched a whole bunch of different versions of it on youtube==not just the piano versions, all sorts of crazy versions. It was great fun!

You can also check other people's opinions on this forum, there was a thread about it! I'm finishing the first of the 8 books, it's very quick to go through if you already know a few things, but I learnt some useful patterns.

I found the Piano for All thread and replied in it, so that I don't hijack this thread any further.

Forgive me if this question has been asked before in this thread, but since its so long I did not read it all.

I'm wondering what people generally think of Alfred book 2 versus book 1 as far as the ease of progressing through it? I know this might be different for everyone, but is there a somewhat general opinion? Since I'm just starting out, I can only guess, but I imagine it might be easier to get through it than book 1. I'm thinking that because at this point I have developed some technical skills, whereas at the beginning of book 1, everything was new.

The main theme here is to gripe about the pieces and to notice that the progression of difficulty is not linear. There will be a few easy pieces and then a whoppingly difficult one followed by some easier ones, so that just when you think you've finally got some skills, you get hit with a hard piece.

I don't know how self-learners do it. Without a teacher, I would have given up long ago.

When learning anything new, there's a special time in the beginning where one makes huge and rapid progress. The further one progresses, the slower the progress becomes. At least it seems that way to me.

Combine that truism with the fact that I had some music background, which helped me progress even faster in the very beginning stages.

And combine all of this with the fact that as I progress, I am doing more and more supplementary stuff in addition to Alfred's...and thus my practice time on the Alfred's pieces is probably less now than it was.

So, for me, I seemed to fly through the first half of book 1, two pieces a week with no problem. And my progress gradually slowed. Towards the end of book 2, it's taking me two or three weeks or more for each piece.

Malkin is correct that there seem to be two or three easy pieces followed by a much more difficult piece.

Malkin,
That varying difficulty strikes me as a good pedagogical technique actually. I suspect that if the pieces just got uniformly more difficult as one progressed through the method that people would be more inclined to give up. Sometimes you need a break. Also, if you struggle and struggle with a piece and get through it, and then get the next couple of pieces more more easily, I think it helps one build confidence, maintain motivation and not burn out. Besides that, sometimes the easier pieces can be more musically satisfying (not because they're easy necessarily, but just because the music speaks to you more, or is prettier, or whatever).

I understand the pedagogy but still moan and groan about the difficult pieces.

Well I'm just happy to have graduated to book 2! Even if it takes longer to do than book one, it sure is a good feeling to be in it.

And to gahdzila's point about doing more supplemental material, I'm also at the stage where I need to increase other material. The Piano for All course, working more with scales, and perhaps sneaking in some scores that I want to do. It seems that many more doors open at this stage. But I would like to keep Alfred's book 2 as my primary focus. Without setting concrete goals, I'd like to be done this year.

Something worth noting--a number of people have commented on a patch of Latin-themed pieces near the beginning of Book 2. The gist of the comments were usually that they were hard. They were for me. ( The general consensus is that La Bamba doesn't translate all that will to the piano. I got it to the point where I could hit the notes, but I never did get it to sound good. ) Don't get discouraged if those pieces are a slog for you--you've got lots of company. If you sail through them, hurray!

My two cents of advice (I'm working on various pieces in Book 3) would be to continue a good ways into Book 2 before doing a lot of branching out (unless it's just using an additional method book at roughly the same level). In addition to new keys, things like sixteenth notes, and dotted eighths, diminished and augmented triads get introduced later in the book. These are all very useful--and common--techniques and concepts you'll run into when branching out, so it's good to get some grounding in them first. Again, my two cents.

I actually liked quite a few of the pieces in Book 2, especially in the second half. The songs got more complex and interesting, and I had more bench time under my belt. That added up to making the pieces more enjoyable.

Thank you for that insight Stubbie.

Hopefully I can get through some of the Latin ones without too much trouble. I don't believe they are too my taste, but one never knows. I know all these songs have valuable lessons, and getting past the songs we don't like so much is kind of like paying our piano development dues. Alfred has enough enjoyable songs to make it interesting. I won't be straying too far from the book.

The other course I picked up is secondary, something that will help give me the ability to break my practice sessions into a greater number of smaller chunks of different material. I've come to believe that spending small amounts of time on many different things, is preferable to spending lots of time on fewer things. This concept was discussed in other threads, and forum members with opinions that I value have mentioned this concept for efficient practice.

Absolutely, thumbs up to small chunks and focused, disciplined practice--with the Alfred pieces as well.

Oh, and cool cat in your avatar, Hamlet Cat.