Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1

Keep at it Bootsybleep as the advice given by Earlofmar, PianoStudent, & all the others is gold.

Like you I've come across my stumbling blocks (currently The Stranger with it's hand gymnastics) but with patients I'm slowly working my way thru it. As Daniel C pointed out you'll find you'll pop back to the pervious song you learned and play them with no problems. I myself use some of the ones I found more difficult as part of my warm up exercise to keep it all fresh in my mind.

At the moment I'm working on The Stranger, Go Down Moses, Scarborough Fair & just started Raisons and Almonds. Once I get these all polished off I'll be tackling the last three songs one at a time.

Have fun & keep at it

I use the same for warmups. The exercises have helped with rhythm and timing.


Looking back, I think "Blow the Man Down" is an important exercise. You really need to tap and/or count the beats (before you start to play) to get the rhythm. You are going to run into those eighth notes soon enough. Obviously the prior comments are wise and should be used for any song that causes issues.

I was lucky, I had learned Ach Du Lieber Augustine (https://www.box.com/s/hm93smglyhdeouayrzuj) before I started Alfred's.

In some sense I feel like I just mailed these in. All three have their issues, some glaring some not so.

Auld Lang Syne (https://www.box.com/s/hojubul68mi4vdi9rakg)
My least favorite of the bunch. This is not a polished take, but we are going with it for now. I skipped the last two notes on purpose; I didn't like them there.

O Sole Mio! (https://www.box.com/s/eqctudk61bhkxq4nkp1l)
The longest recording I have made so far; and boy, if you mess up toward the end, UGH! Anyways, my legato leaves much to be desired. If anything, this one has pointed out issues that I need to address.

Jericho (https://www.box.com/s/cxzrrtt1biymygb5g21i)
I had fun with this one. There are a few issues in there, but I like how this one gets the fingers moving.

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I have been working on "The Stranger" and "Greensleeves". I am starting to appreciate why these tunes, and others, have been included in the method book. "The Stranger" is a bit tough but I like how it gives the fingers a workout. And "Greensleeves" is helping me to conquer the pedal.

scorpio: You are learning fast recently. I have just passed "Little Brown Jug" and started to learn "Chiapanecas".

I am waiting for "Greensleeves". I like the melody of this piece.

I took a couple days off, but today I perfected Raisins and Almonds. I also mostly completed the next few pieces and started on The Entertainer.

My lessons with my teacher are done for the Summer. I start again in September.

I've had a cool electronic keyboard since October 2012, but never took the opportunity to utilize any of its features so I decided I would delve into this over the Summer.

1 - I decided to start by spending some time learning to program-in some basic drum beats. I picked up the book "Drum Programming" by Ray Badness to help.

2 - Although I will be continuing on with the A-AIO books in September I thought I would jump into the world of chords a little more and just started the book "Chord Piano Is Fun" by T.K. Goforth.

3 - Finally coming in the mail is the book "Playing Keyboard Bass Lines" by John Valerio.

I'm hoping the 3rd book like the first two is fairly elementary so messing about over the Summer will be fun. I'm hoping I can report back in September if the books and going off on a tangent were any value to me.

Actually I feel like I have stalled a bit. I have not been able to practice as much I as want. I am focusing on Alfred's so I can complete the book in the next several weeks.

I am sure you are doing great! Keep up the good work. I always look forward to hearing your progress.

I am really intrigued by this book. I have been thinking about messing around by adding some bass and/or drums to the mix, just for fun. But I have no idea where to start. I am interested to hear what you think about it.

Enjoy your summer! It will be a great time for you to experiment and expand your repertoire.

The Drum Programming book consists mainly of tables of drumming patterns for each of the main elements - kick bass, snare, hi-hat, ride cymbal, tom-toms, and misc cymbals. Its intent was to help musicians program their drum machine, but it's equally useful using the same patterns for the drum track of my keyboard.

Hi all;

This is going to be my first post on the forums and these Alfred's Adult Course book threads were what encouraged me to register. I have bought a digital piano in February and I have been using the Adult All-in-one book 1 since March. I started recording my progress in this youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/sydnal

I have some questions; I finished Amazing Grace and I'm now at the last part of the book with 7 popular selection pieces (Somewhere over the Rainbow, At last, Laura etc.). I am working on Somewhere over the Rainbow but what I realized is it's hard, and includes some new techniques that were not introduced in the book. (More counterpoint-like left hand rather than chords, notes held through while the same hand plays another note..). Should I consider these as supplementary pieces and move on to Book 2 while working on them in parallel? How is the difficulty level of these last 7 pieces compared to pieces at the beginning of Book 2? And can I consider myself a graduate of Book 1 at this point, seeing that some versions of Book 1 do not have these pieces and end at Amazing Grace?

Hi sydnal, welcome to the forum. This question is really for the ones that have progressed to Book 2. But I can tell you my plan as I am not quite there yet. Yes, once "Amazing Grace" is complete, I would consider yourself a Book 1 graduate. I plan to do a few of the supplemental pieces at the end, the ones I am interested in playing. But I will move on to Book 2, and continue with my other supplemental studies. Really, you can do whatever you want. The canvas is open, and that is both good and bad.

Those pieces at the end were not originally in the level one book. Somewhere along the way, they were added from various other Alfred books. Maybe they are intentionally more complex to entice you into buying the level two book.

I tinkered with Over the Rainbow, but I am not spending any time on the others. I got Entertainer down reasonably well, did Amazing Grace once or twice, and moved on to level two.

I suspect it's more a case of giving you a taste of things to come...

Thanks for the comments. I was free yesterday so I was able to work on Somewhere over the Rainbow and it isn't as terrible as it used to be. Though it will still take me a lot of time with correct pedaling and all. I also peeked at the next piece (At Last) for a few bars and it looks easier. Here is what I decided: I will work on Over the Rainbow and At Last, then start Book 2. If the first songs happen to be easier, I will continue with Book 2 and work on remaining Book 1 pieces in parallel. If they are not easier, I will just force myself through the remaining pieces.

Sydnal, just to clarify, there are 5 extra songs at the end of the self-teaching book (not 7). The Entertainer and Amazing Grace are not optional - they had their study notes before hand. Anyhow, you said you already completed those two pieces, so good job on completing the main part of the book, and it's great that you are looking forward to continuing with book 2 and piano in general.

Personally, I wouldn't ignore the bonus songs, as they are nice songs, and they help you transition to other things. The most difficult thing I find about them is that they don't give you as much help as to which fingers to use. They help you a little, but then you have to learn by yourself or guess which is best.

I'm on Laura, been on it for months. The song is exposing the fact that I haven't learned sight reading well enough because it sometimes takes me a few seconds to figure out what note is what on the staff, and this song is hard to memorize probably because there are lots of sharps and flats, and the melody seems to involve both hands.

It has helped to learn the piece line by line instead of always starting to play it from the beginning. I was wasting time earlier by playing it from the start and then I'd get to the 3rd line, struggle with it for a few minutes and then quit. So, I decided I would just skip the first 2 lines which I had already learned and just work on the 3rd line as if it were the beginning. That seemed to have worked to have got me over the hurdle. Now the 4th line is almost learned and lines 5 and 6 are pretty much just repeats of lines 1 and 2 so only 2 more lines to learn and then it's Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas which doesn't look too difficult.

Johnny D I think we have different versions of the book, mine has 7 songs from page 144 to 159 (Over the Rainbow, At Last, Singin' in the Rain, Laura, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle, Chattanooga Choo Choo).

Keep up the great work everyone. The books I use for my adult students are the Faber and Faber books, they are good. Never underestimate finger exercises before practise.

Sydnal - sorry about the mistake. My book does not have Gilligan's Isle and Chatanooga Choo Choo.

After a few days of intense practice I had a go at recording Over the Rainbow. It turned out mechanical and unmusical as many of my recording attempts do but still I consider myself done with the piece. I hope to forget it ASAP to free some memory that could be better used for pieces I don't hate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncMSstNWOLM

There is a lot of debate on how to approach Book 1. But for me, I want to build a strong foundation so that as I work on more difficult pieces I don't get slowed down on trivial stuff that I should have worked on now. Hate the pieces or love them, all of the "songs" are included for a reason, not to develop a repertoire but develop technique. For instance, "Go Down, Moses" at first glance looks simple, but if you approach it as written, it is much more complicated. There is the legato and all the dynamic changes, it is far more complex than it appears. The notes in "Go Down, Moses" are almost as simple as "Jingle Bells", but compare the two.

I get very confused. If the book is not being used for what it is trying to attempt, then why do it? And if the songs are not liked, so that you have to race through the book, then why attempt them? I suggest to move on to what appeals to you. I am not speaking to anyone in particular. But I do see all the videos out there, and there is very little attention paid to the details of the pieces in Book 1. What is even more fascinating, is that those same players seem to stop posting videos after the book is complete.