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

Agree - really good advice from Moonraker. Although I'm only 6 months into this and sometimes prefer to focus on the bits that I find more enjoyable/fun and skip over those that are more challenging/less fun to me, it sort of makes sense to 'do the work' in terms of following the 'programme' and to put my trust in it - and in my opinion, so far it has 'earned' that trust! To me Alfred - so far - is like how I'd like a teacher to be: kind, gentle, thorough, efficient - and effective!

Thanks for all of the great advice. I decided to start the book over (again) and not proceed to the next song until I can rate myself a 4 in each category. I found that some of the songs early on in the book were a bit challenging so I think this is a good approach for me.

Why do you suggest only doing the 2 Hanon exercises?

There is a progression of training and learning there.
My teacher has be do only these.
Yes there are some songs I work on outside of Hannon. She also looks at them and approves them. Things like making sure the key signature isn't something I haven't worked with in Alfred. My teacher has me look at Original versions also. But just look so far. Not play it.

I think it has something to do with what my Coach calls: Cocktailing. It's when you aren't focused on training. Try doing too many things at once. You get no results. Focus on certain results only. Then move on.

Thanks for the advice. I'm glad I came out here to ask for it. I am happy with my practice and starting over. I am up to Got those Blues...things are about to slow down. =)

@Scorpio and @sydnal - Congratulations to both of you for completing book 1 in a quick yet dedicated fashion.




My daughter is doing Suzuki, and I agree with you in that book 3 is too difficult of a jump. Suzuki Book 2 is about the right level for someone who has completed Alfred's book 1. You might want to take that up with your instructor.

Even Suzuki book 1 might be good for someone looking for alternative material while studying Alfred's book 1. While it does have a few simple children's tunes in it, there are even some songs like The Cuckoo, Au Clair de la Lune, Aunt Rhody which are used in Alfred's but which are more difficult versions in Suzuki. There are also some classical pieces which I find not especially difficult, but not completely easy either.

It is my experience that attempting to perfect a piece while learning is inefficient. You will spend a lot of time for little gain. If you simply move on, you will find that you can return to that earlier piece later and play it with little effort. It is very satisfying.

I am getting into the meat of book 2, and it is rather surprising how I can go back to book 1 and essentially sight read my way through the whole thing.

Try to emphasize quality of playing and not speed with which you are moving through the book.

It can be very satisfying to take a piece that you have great difficulty playing and work on it until you can play it perfectly.

Try to overcome the tendency to move on by telling yourself that ... "Oh, I could learn it if I wanted to, I just don't want to, right now". Don't give yourself that out. Keep at it slowly and carefully until you have it.

Then you will know you can learn to play things that you believed that you could not.

I think it is generally accepted that in order to truly perfect a piece your skill level requires you to be beyond the music's level of difficulty.

I got that feeling too while trying to play some supplemental pieces like Love Me Tender and Eidelweiss early on while studying Alfred's. In other words, I felt that I was spending too much time on them, and that if I would just stick to Alfred's progression, then I could go back later and play those songs more easily.

As to moving on to the next piece, I like to move on while I am finishing up on the previous song. I will have pretty much learned the previous piece, but it won't be perfect by any means. So I start on the next song while still trying to polish up the old one.

Thank you for the comment Johnny D. There was a bit of a miscommunication on my part; the piece I was assigned was in Volume 2, older editions. In any case, after having my second lesson the teacher is on top of it. The focus now is getting all of my parts (technique, theory, sight reading, etc) to the same level. The main thrust at the beginning is going to be working on fundamental drills and skills. Playing from start to finish is a bit off in the distance.

I am happy I started lessons. Yesterday's lesson was thought provoking, challenging, and rewarding. I was dreadful. But I was so pleased to have been stimulated and worked. I am most happy that there is a plan and a direction. And if I work hard, I will get to where I want to be.

EDIT: Now I got confused because I thought you were talking about Petzold's Minuet in G Major from the Anna Magdalena Notebook found in Suzuki Volume 2, and not Petzold's Minuet in G Minor from Suziki Volume 3.

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Petzold's Minuet in G Major from the Anna Magdalena Notebook is a nice piece. After finishing Alfred's 1 you should be able to handle that piece fairly easily as I don't think that there are any trills in that version. In any case, it doesn't look any harder than some of the bonus pieces at the end of Alfred's.

(Again the comment above was in reference to a song from an easier book - Suzuki Volume 2)

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Good luck with your lessons. It seems like you have found a good teacher.

I have decided to listen to the audio with my practice before going on to the next song. What a difference it makes...just when I thought I was doing ok - I get to go back a few pages. =)

I wrote a little while back about not being able to 'hear' the tune when I played 'Good People'. After getting some advice I gave up trying and and focused just on playing the correct keys. Yesterday I decided to revise by going back to the beginning of the introduction to Major keys - especially as I'd discovered that I hadn't understood that sharps and flats referred to each occurrence of that note in each octave. However, I reached 'Good People' again last night and had 'forgotten' that this was the one where I couldn't 'hear' the tune coming through - and as soon as I started playing it, I immediately could hear the tune/melody/whatever, even though it's still slow and a bit laborious, I can now hear it 'emerging'. Result!

always good when a misconception is straightened out and you can see a result as a consequence. Hence why theory is as important as the playing

Hello fellow Alfred'ers,
Hope everybody is making progress. I'm up to "The Stranger" now, a very nice piece. I made it past "Little Brown Jug" and the Chia-pet thing. Those two are probably the low point in Alfred's 1, IMO. Not that they're really that bad, just not my favorite type of music.

I've decided to find a piano teacher. I figure it probably can't hurt, and probably will help. I'm worried about how my motivation will stand up in the face of "expectations", both from the teacher and myself. I've been avoiding expectations pretty well so far, just pluggin' away and taking the progress as it comes. Of course, now is the steep part of the learning curve, where progress is fast and cheap. And I'm having a blast. The real problem is staying motivated when progress is slow and hard.

Congratulations ajames, not only in getting this far but deciding to get a teacher. The teacher you eventually settle on should not be the pushy type if you do not react well to that, so choose wisely and don't settle for the first one. There are criteria you should look for and perhaps make a checklist of what you want and don't be afraid to discuss in an open manner your thoughts. Your teacher can be a long term relationship so best to get it right from the start.

Don't be too concerned about progress being slow and hard from now on. With a teacher you can relate to and material you are involved in you can have a much fun as ever.

Thanks Earlofmar, good idea about the checklist.

Up and until now, I have only learned to play the piano by studying piano tutorials on youtube or different Synthesia arrangements I have found. And it has worked rather well.

I am able to play a few songs flawlessly by memory. For instance, I can play Yann Tiersen's "Comptine d'un autre été, l'aprês-midi" (the first song I learned) and a song from the japanese anime, Naruto, called "Sadness and sorrow". I can also play the entire into of Metallica's Fade to Black (this one was kind of difficult to learn).

However, I have come to realise that learning from video tutorials and Synthesia arrangements won't really be enough. I don't get to learn and understand the underlying musical theory. Here I am talking about notes, chords, sheet music, musical structure, rhythm etc. All I am doing at the moment is memorizing which keys to press and when.

Just a quick note - I have never ever been taught or learned anything about musical theory in my life. I am 23 years old at the moment.

So this is why I have decided to use Alfred's books. I want to learn how to read sheet music and, perhaps one day, to be able to play by ear!

To that end, I have a question. On Amazon.co.uk, there are a ton of different of Alfred's books. So which one is the "correct" one - the one you are all using in this thread?

Is it one of these two, or another completely?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-All-In-One-Course/dp/0882849948/ref=sr_1_3?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1380986184&sr=1-3&keywords=alfred%27s+basic+and+all+in+one+adult+piano

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adult-All---One-Course-Technique/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1380986184&sr=1-1&keywords=alfred%27s+basic+and+all+in+one+adult+piano

And for future reference, I am guessing these two are the levels two and three respectively?

Level 2: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/B00D7J8QWU/ref=sr_1_6?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1380986184&sr=1-6&keywords=alfred%27s+basic+and+all+in+one+adult+piano


Level 3: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0739000683/ref=sr_1_4?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1380986184&sr=1-4&keywords=alfred%27s+basic+and+all+in+one+adult+piano

By the way, I hope I am allowed to link to Amazon products. I am not sure if it's considered advertising. That's not the purpose of this post. I just want to be sure that I am buying the correct book(s).

When trying to learn a piece, which do you think works better, taking a measure at a time and perfecting it, or playing the whole song through. I am struggling a bit playing Ole Sole Mio.

Lystig, The Level 1 book I recommend is the one with the DVD:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfreds-Bas...c+and+all+in+one+adult+piano+level+1+dvd