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

Daniel, I agree. I reckon it's a bit like riding a bicycle in that it is easier to ride the bicycle faster, but if you try to ride it really slow, you need to have control and balance over the bicycle or else you will fall down.

Another thing I noticed recently in using the metronome at half speed was that previously when I would be playing at full speed without learning the piece slower, I would usually hit a hard spot where I would slow down to at least half speed or slower without even realizing it.

So what is the point in being able to play the easy parts fast but then having to slow down for the trickier parts? It's like what you said, Daniel. It is better to learn piece playing it extremely slow and smoothly and then bringing it up to speed.

Folks,

I'm nearly finished with Book 1, and was thinking of moving on to Book 2 soon, but my piano teacher feels he does not like this book as much and wants me to move to something else. I'm just wondering what you're thoughts are on this. Is it that the pieces aren't as educational, or the value is diminished compared with the first book? I realize that in the first book, each piece seemed to teach a new skill. Does this book do the same?

Thanks!

for my two cents worth I think book 2 does all that it sets out to do. Anyone coming from book 1 will be surprised how hard the pieces become but there is plenty of variety to teach new skills which frankly you are going to have to learn sooner or later from one source or another.

The two main criticisms are that the repertoire is not inspiring and that so much of the music is chord based. While there are a few classical pieces most would fall under the folk banner and that can be a bit of a turn off to some.

You and your teacher have to enjoy what you are learning and so it may well be best to take your teachers lead on this one. After all that is what you are paying them for. I am sure your teacher can come up with equally fulfilling pieces.

My own experience was I started with book 2 & 3 as well as a teacher. I cherry picked pieces from both books for a while but like most I could not get enthused about the material. After a while I switched to another book Essential Repertoire of the 17th 18th & 19th Centuries by Keith Snell and am steadily working through most pieces of this book. However this is just classical pieces and my not be everyone's idea of fun.

Imho one should put aside the general negative opinion on Book 2 and objectively listen to some Alfred 2 playlists from youtube before deciding whether the book will be to his liking or not. I know I was afraid it would be terrible after reading the comments but it turns out I really enjoy the selection of pieces in Book 2. (I can not comment on its pedagogical/instructional value though) Currently working on the Theme from Hungarian Rhapsody and it's great fun. And although it's not very classically oriented there are more classical pieces in it than Book 1.

Anyway; here is some progress, I finished the Theme from the Overture (from the Opera Raymond):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mb2_pxJYTA


Recorded with Pianoteq and this piece finally convinced me to purchase the Stage version! I love the action on my Px 350 but the sound & dynamics are not on par with the action. It sounds somewhat bland/digital and the only perceivable difference between p & f is volume to me. I tried some other software pianos but they were not much different than my dps, and those that people regard highly (Ivory II, True Keys etc) do not seem to have demo versions so I have no idea if they are better. So at this point Pianoteq is the best choice for me.

As for the piece, I think it's good enough to move on.

I think you need to proceed with material that you enjoy. I think the personal opinions of the material is why there are negative comments about Book 2. Some people just don't enjoy the genre. If you enjoy the material in Book 2, then by all means you should continue with it. If not, then find a genre you do enjoy. You do not need an "All-in-One" book. You really need to find scores that you want to sit down and work on. Keep it enjoyable.

Another nice piece!

Thank you for your Pianoteq uploads. I have been thinking of converting to Pianoteq too. Which piano did you use on this recording?

@Scorpio
It was one of the default presets of D4. (Classical BA) I still had the trial version when I recorded that video, the good thing about it is that it does not have a time limit and all the extra instruments (bluethner, upright etc.) are there. The only restriction is that you will have to restart it every 20 minutes and there are several black keys missing in some octaves. As long as the piece does not include those missing notes one can play with all the other instruments (as long as he/she is content with restarting every 20 minutes).

I have a question for those of you working in book 2.
Do you primarily play looking at the music in front of you or at the piano?

I think for the last year I have mistakenly gotten in the habit of "memorizing" a piece so I could look at the piano when I played. This has been when I have had just one hand to keep track of moving.

I am working on Pomp and Circmstance now. This is more movement with both hands. Earlier pieces had the left hand playing a repetitive pattern while the right hand carried the melody. My goal for this piece is to be able to play the entire piece in the dark and perhaps I will try to work on doing this for pieces going forward to train my brain to feel for the keys instead of my eyes looking for the keys.

I have done the same; I memorize pieces. Now that I am with a teacher, he wants me to only look at the score. If I have to look down when I have to make a jump, it should only be a slight glance. He has really worked with me on sight reading and feeling the geography of the keyboard. So far, it has worked well.

@sydnal
Oh the memories! I played that piece for my first ABF recital. Your recording has a lovely sound.

I used to do like you and would eventually memorize the piece and then mostly look at the keyboard as I played.

Then near the end of book 1, I started putting more emphasis on looking at the sheet music as I played and not so much the keyboard. It does help with sight reading.

Finally starting to get the hang of the rhythm of Guantamera, at least for the first page. Those dotted quarter notes on the G7's are throwing me for a loop, but it does seem that I am beginning to get the hang of it.

Sydnal, I just gave this one a listen as I am working on it now too. Overall, you did a great job. You're timing sounds good, and considering that the timing is tricky on this song, that is well done.

A couple of things though. I'm not sure if you realized it, but in the 2nd measure on the top of the 2nd page, you played an extra beat with the right hand.

Also, in that final arpeggiated chord, I think you played both hands at the same time. However the wavy line stretches over both the bass and treble clefs. I think this means we are supposed to play very quickly the six notes separately, the left hand first immediately followed by the right hand. - C, E, G, E, G, C -

Edit: Just noticed another thing - for the last ( C ) chord, you need to bring your left hand up an octave.

@sinophilia
Thanks, I think the lovely sound is more of pianoteqs doing than mine! Are you an Alfred 2 graduate? (or even 3?)

@Ohio_Mark
I seem to have developed the same habit. I work on a bar/phrase very slowly note by note and memorize it thus my sight reading is terrible.. I don't think I can even sight read a piece with 1 octave C major scale quarter notes only, pretty sad. I am thinking of ordering one of the books mentioned in sight reading boot camp thread and devote 20 mins daily to it.

@Johnny D
Thanks, I have checked it and you are right. I guess these are all related to the problem I mentioned above, I memorize quickly and practice from memory. Thus small mistakes here and there seem to creep into the music. As for the arpeggiated chord, I realized both hands had to be arpeggiated and that's what I tried to do but it's hard.

Currently working on "Light and Blue" and I have 2 problems:
- I seem to not be able to play p chords with left hand, I guess it got used to bashing them all the time. Moreover playing 3-1 and 2-1 thumb under runs with consistent p is hard. Most of the time the thumb struggles and comes down too fast..
- The chord jump at the end of the piece. Is it me or is this jump a lot harder than the rest of the piece?

Your ending sounded nice, and it was arpeggiated. It just seemed like you arpeggiated both hands together at the same time instead of arpeggiating the left hand first and then the right hand.

It's true it is not the easiest thing to do. It usually takes me a few tries to get it right. I find that using the arms more, pushing down on the keyboard helps.

I finished book 2 and got halfway through book 3, I think I will pick it up again next year just for fun, but I wanted to play more classical music and easier music in general - I found most book 3 songs quite hard and did not have the patience to spend 2-4 weeks on each one of them!




Light and Blue is hard. Or at least it was hard for me. It took me forever to learn it, and then I only really managed to play it fast and well when I went back to it a few months later. Practice the final jump by itself many times. To be honest, the LH accompaniment doesn't sound very good anyway.

@Johnny D
Sorry I think that phrase was not very explanatory. I realized both hands had to be arpeggiated one after the other, left to right, that's what was hard for me. And that part is executed quite fast in the CD. (Fast and p, especially on left hand is something I am struggling with at the moment.)

Once again thanks for pointing out the mistakes I updated the info on youtube so that people do not take it for a correct playing of the piece and make the same mistakes. There doesn't seem to be as many recordings on Alfred's books post Amazing Grace and I have been getting some messages from people telling me they listen to my vids to see how those pieces sound. (Big mistake if you ask me XD)

@Sinophilia
Last Alfred 1 pieces were already taking me up to a month so I'm sort of used to working in snails pace Luckily I have changed my working habits and I am working on more than one piece at the same time now, seems to help.

I am almost at an ok level with Light and Blue except the last jump. I guess I will just have many takes and hope in one of them I can land the last jump right.. Also I had a chance to start working on "Alexander's Ragtime Band" yesterday. Considering the tempo it's played in the cd, all I can say is I'm horrified XD

In the Alfred's 1 thread, I posted the bpm from the CD.

For Alfred's 2, I recently figured out the bpm for the first 10 songs. I will add the others later, but for now here are the first ten:

bpm - Title

100 - Down in the Valley
130 - Bridal Chorus
096 - Guantanamera
088 - Theme from the Overture (Raymond)
100 - Light & Blue
098 - Theme from Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
100 - Morning Has Broken
163 - Alexander's Ragtime Band
094 - Theme from Solace
154 - La Bamba

We are relative beginners. Everybody make mistakes, and many of us don't have teachers so it is excusable or part of the learning curve.

Personally, through watching your videos, I noticed that I had been playing something wrong. For example, when I told you that you needed to come back up an octave in the ending to Guantanamera, I wasn't even going down an octave in the first place when I was playing it. That's how I noticed it. I saw that you went down an octave, checked the sheet music, and realized you were right, and I was playing it wrong. But then I noticed that you didn't come back up.

So I learned something from your video. It showed me that I wasn't playing it quite right, and so even if you make a few small mistakes on the video, there is something that can be learned by others. Also, I think your timing is quite good.

@Johnny D
I like watching other beginners videos too.. But for getting a feel of the piece I use the cds because I am afraid of errors getting stuck in my head. I didn't have the cd for first book, luckily most pieces have a version played by a teacher/professional on youtube. The only exception being the popular selection pieces at the end of the book. There was only 1 video of them that I could find, on an account called pamspiano (Seems to have changed into "Pam's Piano Studio"). So for anyone doing the last pieces (Laura etc) I would recommend her videos, they're really good. I find the playing on the cd quite bland, not even sure that's a real piano actually. And the dynamics sometimes feel wrong/nonexistent, oh well.. (Thanks for the metronome chart btw)

I also have some progress to report, had a loong 3-4 hours session tonight. Thinking I have well passed the point of diminishing returns, I decided to record Light and Blue as is. What I realized with this piece is long-short-long-short swing rhythm + thumb unders do not go well together. Anyway here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU3L7fP8KCw

There were two other pieces in the pipeline waiting for Light&Blue, they were also almost finished so I practiced and recorded them too.

Theme from Hungarian Rhapsody 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvjZtWvufxg
I guess not bad overall except the staccatos don't sound very staccato-like at times.

Morning Has Broken:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFO2bml1mVA
One of the easier songs in the book so far. I played the repeat using the broken chord/arpeggio pattern in example 2 for a little bit of challenge + sounds better imho.


Now working on: Alexander's Ragtime Band.

I will also try a new approach in my practices. Not a fan of Bernhard's but having done some weightlifting I wonder whether resting the muscles would really work for piano. I am thinking of splitting my practice into A and B days, with 2-3 pieces for each day. So I will be working on the same piece only every 2 days. Let's see how it will turn out.