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

Got mine in the mail yesterday. It's the 96 page version and came with the CD. I like the sound of many of the pieces and am looking forward to working through this. Now if I can just find some time.

I downloaded a trial of this software the other day and im absolutely loving it. Check it out if your into blues/jazz piano!

http://www.pgmusic.com/bluespianomasterclass.htm
http://www.pgmusic.com/pianolessons.htm

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Making really good progess with Chiapanecas, Auld Lang Syne, O Sole Mio and Jericho but irritatingly still finding Lullaby and Little Brown Jug a bit of a headache !!

I agree with the Little Brown Jug. I don't really care for the low left hand playing, and tried to do it an octave higher--it does make it a little more light...but I can't get the Glen Miller version out of my head and want to play it that way!!

Looks like many of us are on the same pages. Wish we could get together for a recital! I like Chiapanecas and am trying to get O Sole Mio. I finally mastered Can Can, so I went back and, low and behold...I got BTMD now!! Sometimes it just takes moving on.

Wish I had more time to practice! I really love playing!!!

Nancy

I AM ON THE LAST PIECE IN THE BOOK!!!! Well, sort of, my teacher asked me to keep playing The Entertainer to increase my speed and smooth out transitions, but I am also working on Amazing Grace now. I cannot tell you how many times I looked at those pieces in the early days (first 30 or so pages) and thought that this day would never come!!!!
Amazing Grace is TOUGH. It has really awkward arpeggiated chords (awkward hand position) and jumps all over the place. My teacher said that rhythm-wise, The Entertainer is a lot more difficult, but for some reason I had a much better time with it.

I remember how thrilled I was to get to these. DH thinks if I can play The Entertainer and some Vince Guaraldi I should be happy. But for his birthday I am learning the Big Note Phantom of the Opera.

Kim in IL

Well done Glass Love. Im jealous ! You going to leave all us Book 1 people behind now and be off galavanting about with your fancy Book 2 friends ?

I had a crack at The Entertainer and Amazing Grace today but found them really difficult. Im not too far off but obviously have to cover faily important ground before I get to them.

Which piece from Phantom, Kim? I really like that music a lot.

Smokestack: Given the difficulty of Amazing Grace, I might be here for awhile!!! However, I am not going to use the remainder of the series. My teacher and I decided it would be more gratifying to learn outside the context of a "method book." She has collected a variety of pieces (gradually increasing in difficulty) that I will play over the next couple of months. I am really looking forward to it.

Hello all

Ive been messing around with some new graduate signature tags. Inspired of course, and with all due deference to BazC's originals. These might be too large (or too rubbish) but hey ho. I was bored



http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/2807/alfredlevel1forum.jpg


http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/853/alfredlevel2forum.jpg


http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/2762/alfredlevel3forum.jpg

If anyone would like any kind of custom signature id be happy to knock one up for them if they email me.

Those are really cool, Smokestack. I recommend one change. Can you put the first few notes from Blow the Man Down on the staff of the Level 1 graduate image? And then add a person jumping up and down with excitement, symbolizing the joy one feels when they finally master that piece?

lol yeah I should do. Beating that piece feels as good as finishing the whole first part of the course id imagine.

How are people getting on with playing scales in contrary motion ?

Im finding it pretty difficult to keep my fingering correct with both hands. I want to cross under both my thumbs at the same time !

Really need to get that Hanon book and develop my finger independence I suppose.
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Working on O Sole Mio, Jericho & The Stranger

Great job GlassLove, I keep flipping ahead to the end of the book, & I think I will enjoy playing most of the remaining pieces. I have a lesson this afternoon and am hoping to pass at least Good People (finally) & Little Brown Jug (ugh!) and possibly Chiapanecas (probably not but I like playing this anyway). I am intrigued that you are not continuing with the series and have been meaning to ask my teacher if he plans on going on to book 2 when we finish book 1.

I have worked through Auld Lang Syne and the first few measures of O Sole Mio! and they don't seem like they'll be too difficult.

I am getting very frustrated at my lack of progress on What A Wonderful World. I need some advice from my teacher on what to do. I spend a lot of time working on it but don't seem to be making much progress. It's 4 pages so it's the longest piece I've attempted but it is not very difficult. There are sections of it that I have no trouble with at all so I don't spend much time on them but it's the repeating sections of the main verses that I can't seem to get down. There are 3 sections that kind of repeat but each one has a few differences so I think that's my problem. For most of the pieces in Alfred's I seem to finally get good at them when I have them pretty well memorized but I don't seem to be getting this one memorized because of the differences. I can read the notes as I play but not fast enough to play it smoothly so I keep stumbling through it over and over without ever really getting familiar enough with it to play it smoothly. I have tried note reading drills to try to improve my reading speed (bass clef) and just sitting down with the sheets and reading through them again and again but neither seemed to help.

SmokestackLightnin, I am working on the D and Bb Major scales right now. I have C, F & G down pretty good but contrary motion hasn't given me any trouble. I do have a hard time remembering my fingering in similar motion unless I really think about it and then I hesitate too much.

Nice job on the signature tags.

Thanks, Doug. The last two pieces are the most challenging. I think Amazing Grace sounds a bit like A wonderful World in that there is a lot of jumping around. Being a good sight reader would definitely help. I don't know if my teacher's expectations are low, but she said that she wouldn't expect that I could sight read Amazing Grace right now, that if I wanted to practice sight reading, I should be able to read and play my son's music (level 1 of a Bastien children's book) upon first sight. I decided to get another book to do that. I thought it might be difficult or demoralizing for my son to hear me playing his music for sight reading practice.

Now that's a loving mom!
I have a Bastien book for adults - shall I send you a sample?

Thanks, Casinitaly. I actually found an old level 1 Alfred's book from my older son's early piano days. It is actually pretty fun...many of the songs are even "easier" versions of my all-in-one book (i.e., less busy left hand).
Getting excited for your recital?

Glad you found something you are happy to work with Glasslove!

I'm actually on hold a bit.... I will definitely play the duet with my 6yr old buddy, but I'm waiting to hear if any other adults are playing. I spoke to my teacher and told her that if it is only going to be the youngsters playing, I'd feel really out of place playing on my own. She does thing that there are enough adults to make it work though, and I continue to work on my pieces - Lilla and Verde Smeraldo

I am the only adult student my teacher has. She let me off the hook this past recital but is likely to put some pressure on me to play in the next. While I thought I would feel positively goofy being the only adult to play (one of the many many many reasons I had for not playing ), now that I have attended her recital (my son played beautifully in it), I think otherwise. I think the audience may have appreciated hearing a more "adult-type" piece (even if I didn't play it perfectly). The two pieces you are working on are so enjoyable....I say....Go for it regardless of the number of adults. Who knows, you could even inspire a few adult audience members to pursue their piano dreams. I am sure your teacher would thank you for that

Well, ohhh............. ouch....... I'm at least re-thinking after reading your post......You have a point - the kiddie songs are readlly cute (and the kids even cuter!) , but very simple (not a criticism, hey these kids can barely read books, and they're reading music too!)...Maybe something more grown up would be nice.

Doug, are you playing "What a Wonderful World" too fast? My teacher is always telling me to play slower. I'll be playing fast and doing well, then I come to a spot where I tend to mess up and it's like hitting a speed bump at 50mph. LOL Play the whole thing S L O W L Y.

It would be great if we could all share recordings of our playing. I'm thinking of getting a digital recorder...

GlassLove, congrats on getting to the last piece. Those last pieces look hard to me. I've been working some on Amazing Grace, but the right hand only. By the time I actually get to that page, I'll have half the song finished.

nancymae, I'm on the same pieces with you! I worked a little ahead of where my teacher stopped me so we'll see what she passes me on today.

mom3gram, are you around? Thanks so much for recommending the (WP41) Religious Favorites by James Bastien. I love it. There are so many in there I can play with a little practice. My favorites so far are pages 22 & 87. Many many many good ones in this book. I bought a used one from Amazon for like $8 which included shipping. Great book for anyone here wanting to do some basic hymns. The whole book is playable by anyone reaching page 100 or so in Alfreds. It shouldn't take much work for most of the songs.

If I had to choose between Alfreds Sacred Book or Bastien's Religious Favorites, I'd choose Bastiens. BUT, Alfreds progresses by difficulty and is better for learning from in my opinion.

Someone here asked about scales. I hate them so much I've stopped practicing them. I'll do 2 octaves, hands separate only. (Key of C, G F) I guess I have a hard time seeing what the point is.

I'll update after my lesson.

Yes, I'm around. I'm glad that you like the hymn book. I picked that one because there were more hymns that I recognized than in the Alfred one. There are a few chords that we haven't learned yet, but it's easy enough to figure them out and write in the notes.

I'm working on a lot of the same supplementary books as you Book 1'ers, and the Book 2 thread isn't very active, so I do come here and read every day. Glad to see so many of you getting to the end of the book. Maybe the Book 2 thread will be picking up soon. :-)

Another lesson over. Passed on Good People & Little Brown Jug. I was just lucky on getting passed on Little Brown Jug. Have to polish Chiapanecas (maybe more than just polish ). She assigned Auld Lang Syne (which I'm almost finished with because I worked ahead) and O Sole Mio!

I've already touched on Jericho a little so I'll be working on that too.

She didn't sign off on anything in my classical or sacred book. I didn't play much out of there this past week anyway. She did assign a fun "looking" piece out my classical book. Looking forward to trying that out. It's in 6/8 time so that's different.

To be honest, I'm just not liking my lessons. I have several pieces in my sacred and classical book that I've been working on since Fed-March. They aren't perfect, so she won't sign off on them. Week after week we go over them. I'm so freaking sick of the songs. They aren't hard. I can play them. They aren't polished because I'm sick of them. I just don't care about them. I am looking forward to my lessons being over. I'll pick up lessons again after I progress further. Maybe next Jan.