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

Thanks! The music selection in Book 2 does look much more interesting than Book 1 though still not exactly exciting!

I'm curious how everyone feels about following Alfreds and what you supplement with? I usually have a piece from Alfreds, a theory lesson to complete from the Alfreds theory supplement, and a side piece going at any one time. Sometimes it seems like other members of this forum have a lot more going on. I never improvise and I rarely do scales, although I think I have a pretty good understanding of music theory for my level...

Adult beginner; what do you mean about following alfred's? if you mean how difficult is it, the answer for me is 'very' but doable for most pieces. However, right now I'm struggling.

I finally gave up on alexanders rag time band. more or less can play through it, but I have trouble making jumps and I lose my place.

I've been working a little on Solace and that one seems very difficult. Is it or is it me?

Duke, Solace has a weird sound to it, which I think makes it harder..at least for me. My teacher actually let me skip it, so I'm working on La Bamba now. Alexander's ragtime band was not my favorite song, so I worked the heck out of it to get it done and over with (I didn't want to be stuck on it for weeks like I was with Hungarian Rhapsody). I am experiencing tempo and hand movement problems with La Bamba, but I guess it's just a matter of practice.

A lot of people talk about the pieces in this book being really easy, but I definitely have to work through them. I'm glad I'm not the only one! I feel like each piece is teaching me something and asking different things of me, if not in the reading of the music, then in the hand motions I'm being asked to perform, or in the tempo, etc.

AdultBeginner, I was kind of proud of myself upon finishing book one and eager to start level two. but I have been thoroughly discouraged with my progress now that I'm into it.

I'm hoping that once I get further along I'll be able to renew my enthusiasm.

I also find that a lot of the songs aren't very fun, but I remind myself that it's all in pursuit of better playing skills!



I hope you can renew your enthusiasm soon, too. A lot of new stuff coming up - 6/8 time and such. That's pretty exciting.

I enjoy some of the cornier songs once I can appreciate their teaching value. E.g., "Farewell to Thee" and "Black Forest Polka" are not songs I'm gonna whip out at the next cocktail party -- but they are pretty good for practcing the chord inversions and arpeggiated chord playing. The better I can play them, the more I like them -- corny or not.

I think I'm struggling with motivation lately and don't really progress lately. Been on this book for 1 and a half month and barely worked on it, or any new pieces for that sake. Trying to get into some outside the book but even that's not easy to get into either because there's usually something about them I just simply can't play.

So far I've finished the first two, morning has broken, la raspa and a few from the basic course. Working on Guantanamera and Overture. Progress much slower than first book, sure its harder but seem to have little motivation to even progress in this.

I don't know how others have managed to go through the three levels of Alfred without doing anything else, like learning by ear, playing from fake books, playing with various accompaniment, trying different styles and genres, etc! I think of Alfred as a method book to help you reach your goals, but waiting 3 or more years until one finishes those books, IMHO, is a mistake. So, my point is that you should take a break from this book and work on something else you like, then come back a month or two later to finish off.

At the level you are at in Book 2 I'm sure you would find lots of piano pieces you could play at that level outside the Book, lots of it free on the Internet. My own lack of progress in Alfred's is because of playing music outside of the book, but I don't think I could stick to playing just the pieces from the book.
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I was also feeling a little low on motivation after starting Hungarian Rhapsody and again struggling with the staccato right hand melody mixed with steady left hand quarters. My left hand just kept wanting to stick in the occasional random staccato bass beat. This really got frustrating, since it was just a few weeks back that I finished Overture, which includes the same skillset.

For a break, but without conceding defeat to the staccato beast, I spent a week or so with "On Broadway" (I think from the Alfred Greatest Hits book). Although this piece also mixes staccato in one hand with legato in the other, the familiarity of the melody and lyrics really helped me get through it, and to thoroughly enjoy the process.

Now I've gone back to Hungarian Rhapsody and it is starting to come together much more readily. Perhaps there is a lesson here. Sometimes we can find more familiar or otherwise appealing songs to play that utilize the same skills being taught in Alfred. Giving youself permission to "slack off" and play something appealing can actually be very helpful in getting over these little bumps in the road.

Hi, all. I've been away for about a month busy on the road for work. Things are starting to wind down, and I am catching up with piano. Closely related to this, I am fighting a sense of stagnation in my progression. For example, here is my House of the Rising Sun, which I worked on for a good three weeks:

http://www.box.net/shared/xj6rarzsf8

I posted about this on the blog, but I'll distill it for you here: I'm mostly pretty happy with this, but just couldn't iron out the pauses. After more time than I think it deserves, I concluded that this was as good as it was going to get, and I moved on to Sakura. (Another recording coming soon.) To me, the pauses make it sound tentative and hesitant, and that frustrates me.

But it does not discourage me, so I move on.

I know what you mean, it's a good piece but the chords are quite different from other pieces, and I felt it was more challenging than other "harder" pieces I did.

AWTPP,

I heard the pauses, but besides those, you actually played this very well. You had the rhythm and dynamics very well done, which is probably more important than "knowing" the piece well enough not to pause from time to time... unless of course you plan on performing this in public.

Thanks, Waltz and MiM. No, no public performances for a few months yet. I hope to have Einaudi's Le Onde ready by the first of June, but otherwise, no.

Here is Sakura: http://www.box.net/shared/yx9p17y925

This came more quickly than House of the Rising Sun... IE, 2 weeks instead of 3. It's a little rough, but again, it's time to move on.

Well done... it soundedvery good.

Finished Hungarian Rhapsody #2 (at least good enough to give the usual Saturday am. tele-concert to my 91 year-old Mom). Started right in on Morning Has Broken afterward. I think I'm going to like it as it was a big Cat Stevens hit back in my college days, making the melody very familiar. Really like that we are being asked to improvise the base-line. Does anyone have suggestions for what sounds particularly good in the left hand?

I can only point you to my attempt at this where I did it in block chords:
Block chords

Then in broken chords:
Broken

I tried the other broken chord style (as indicated in the piece) and did not like the sound at all

Finally, did it with strings for the fun of it:
With strings

Thanks MIM. You play them all very nicely. I've been fooling around with the rhythm and (dare I say it?) some extra notes in the right hand too.

I have discovered a way to get over my diminished enthusiasm which started soon after I began the level two. The first few pieces just seemed really challenging and the more I messed up, the more I started to make excuses not to practice.

A couple of days ago I sat down and started flipping through the book to look for pieces I might like to play. I enjoyed trying different ones and some of the pieces farther on in the book are actually easier than those in the beginning. Yesterday, I tried Sakura. I got it almost down in about twenty minutes and it sounds nice. Now I want to do more like that. And the good news is that when I arrive at them by following the book, I will only need to do a quick review. Has anyone else done this? Try it if you are getting bogged down. Merry Christmas everybody.