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

Just follow your own advice and you'll surely come a long way!

Welcome to the Piano World forums!

Talk about making the ordinary special !
I had to think for a minute, then got it.

If you mean "Blow the man down" not as far as I know.

What I have to do is Hanon... My first week learning piano and I get some easy songs and Hanon...

Thanks Doug. I was pushing really hard these last 3 weeks to get through as much as possible. I'll be slowing down now. Good luck getting through those pieces. You'll be able to do it.

GustavoF, welcome! Glad you're joining us. You are so right...it is the journey, not the destination that we need to enjoy. I find Hanon kinda enjoyable. After you get the pattern down it's not so bad...but I've only done a few exercises.

AimeeO, looks like you're well on your way in Alfred's already. Would love to hear how your lessons are as you go along. Welcome!

nancymae, you should just practice with your husband around. My husband is so use to it. I think there are times he goes outside just to get away from the noise of me practicing the same thing over and over again. I have no desire to play in front of anyone else though. A couple of months ago my in-laws came down for a week's visit. I played every once in awhile, but I didn't "practice" anything repeatedly.

starbug, my teacher played Raisins and Almonds for me this week and I didn't recognize it at all. Good luck with it.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I'm having a rough week practice-wise. Does anyone ever feel that you are your own worst enemy? I keep playing Scarborough Fair - over and over - and I keep messing up in spots where I know there's a possibility of me messing up. But when I'm only somewhat paying attention to what I'm doing, I nail the notes. Of course, now that I'm so busy messing up the song, I'm not working on what I'm supposed to be working on. Does anyone have any hints on saving yourself from yourself?

Hi AimeeO - I'm working on Raisins and Almonds and just got through with Scarborough Fair. I also had trouble with a few of the measures in it. For instance, I had a tendency to play measure 9 in the bass clef (mar-y and)as another DFA instead of DGB. It came to me that the DGB is really an inverted G chord and when I thought of it as a G chord, I could finally play it. The same thing would happen in measure 13 (me to) with me wanting to play CEG instead of CFA which is an inverted F chord. I'm old enough that this song is "burned into" my mind. Thanks Simon and Garfunkel! I even have their old Greatest Hits guitar tablature book from the 70's!

Now if I could get my pedaling down a bit better! I still tend to operate in a complete "pedal on" or "pedal off" mode.

Oh dear.. I seem to be finding "He's got the whole world in his hands" particularly difficult

It is difficult starbug. The difficulty was increased tremendously by the fact that I HATE THE SONG!!!!!
I just barely passed it at my lesson. I think that my teacher uses a "passing" scale based upon my fondness for the song.

Yes.. just the start even feels against the norm, but I think it's down to the speed.. playing back the tracks compared to the last piece (Raisins) you hear the increase in speed.

For me, it's the hardest piece in the book so far.. I've not been stumped like this since BTMD! Back of to practice

GlassLove,starbug - I can't stand "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands". I never liked that song as a kid. Big deal, playing a song in three diferent keys! Big Whoop! I think I'm going to skip it and concentrate on "The Entertainer", which I love and will spend a lot of time (happily)to perfect it. I skipped "Greensleeves" too ...went "sleeveless"! I'll pick up a "What Child is this?" in a Christmas book at some point anyway!

My husband complained about Greensleeves because it is a Christmas song and I was playing it in April. It didn't help that the unseasonably warm weather we were enjoying changed to a snowstorm during the week. He claims that I brought the snow with my playing.
The Entertainer is very fun to play. Not nearly as challenging as I thought it would be. Amazing Grace is actually a very nice arrangement too. Perhaps the best in the book. While I am not particularly fond of the song, it was fun to play, nonetheless.

Well folks, I'm about to begin "The Entertainer". I've actually been sneaking forward in the book from time to time, to practice a few measures. As for "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" ...well "He" ...meaning me....dropped it!

I must be getting better since I saw this printed at the bottom of "The Entertainer" page.

You are now ready to begin:

Alfred's "Easy Bach Pieces For People Who Shouldn't Go Near A Piano"

Alfred's "Sacred Hymns and Bawdy Drinking Songs All-in-One Level 1.556"

Alfred's "Angst-Ridden Teen Vampire Movie Themes for Beginners"

All I can say at this point is, by the time I get to be semi-competent on the piano, Alfred's and Hal Leonard will probably have a better balance sheet than Apple, Intel and Microsoft combined!

AimeeO, just take it slowly and keep practicing Scarborough Fair. It'll come together. There have been several songs that I've come across that I didn't think I'd get pulled all together, but given enough time it does.

Emissary52, that's funny!

This week so far, I skipped to the end of the book accidentally. I can play Amazing Grace hands together. (Keep in mind I've been working on the right hand only, off and on for awhile now.) I don't play the whole arpeggiated chord on the 2nd page. (I don't play the F#.) I hope to polish the song by Friday when I leave on vacation.

I'm technically on page 129 though, so I did make it a point to practice The Stranger, but have a ways to go on that. Greensleeves wasn't too hard from the beginning. I'll play it a few more times and put it behind me. I'll end up playing and polishing it closer to Christmas.

On another note, I just ordered a digital recorder (Tascam DR-07) so I can start recording my songs after I learn them. I think it'll be nice to hear my progress and it'll help hold me accountable to really learning each piece as I go since I stopped lessons.

They'll be a lot of us hitting the 2nd book and the next 1-2 months!

What lesson goals does everyone else have for this week?

Still working on Chiapanecas, Auld Lang Syne and O Sole Mio!.

Chiapanecas just needed some work on the dynamics. I think I have that about as good as it's going to get.

Auld Lang Syne is ready for prime time.

O Sole Mio! is just about there, just need to smooth out some rough edges.

Scale practice continues on.

My next lesson is Saturday and I will be telling my teacher that I am sick of working on What A Wonderful World and making little progress. It's time to put that one away for a while and try something else. I have parts of it down but it's just not enjoyable any more and I really like the song and don't want to ruin it. I will work on it from time to time on my own instead.

I was cleaning out some old bookshelves last week and came across a 3 ring binder that I didn't recognize. Turns out it was my oldest son's piano lesson notebook. He took lessons for a time years ago from a neighbor who teaches piano. He's 32 now and was about 9 years old at the time. It was fun looking at his assignments, method books (Bastien) and other materials in it. He lives in Connecticut but is moving back to New York next month. I can't wait to show it to him and his girlfriend. She is a very good pianist.

AimeeO, I am impressed with your stepping into the middle of Alfred’s at the start. I am self taught on guitar and did not get a lot of cross over benefit or knowledge when I began piano. I have sometimes thought about going the self directed learning way for piano. I feel pretty competent on guitar – so why not? But my piano teacher is so supportive and methodical. I can just feel the progress piling up weekly. I won’t even compare my steady and focused progress with her as opposed to going it solo. I meander a very great deal left on my own. I guess that same trap applies to your note on practice. If I lay back and ‘play’ play – I make mistakes. If I play with intent, staying goal oriented and focused, then I work those mistakes out. But I cannot always be so focused. That is just too aggressive for me. Sometime I just have to ‘play’ and not let my mistakes bother me.

I follow along with starbug on The Whole World being difficult. It is difficult to switch keys like that. So, because it is difficult, that should be a pretty good indication that it is worth doing. That is how I think anyway. In fact, I have attempted most every Alfred’s piece in alternate keys at some point. My teacher suggested this to me. She wants me to do it on the fly, transpose in my head. I think this is why we don’t do scales as a practice. In lieu of scales my teacher has me do transpositions instead.

Still working on The Entertainer nancymae. It is starting to flow a little better, I can do it from memory now. It is better when played slower.

Started Amazing Grace. It is a beautiful song; however, I am not all that fond of the Alfred’s arrangement. It is nice, okay… but I think it really over does the triplets. I very much like the arpeggio. That is keen. I am going to try transposition to A Major. We have not covered A Major in Alfred’s to date. But I play what I think is a nicer version of Amazing Grace on guitar in A Major. Of course there are open string in A Major – not so for C Major in the guitar. That makes for a lot of resonance. I would like to record them both in the same key for comparison.

So when is it open season for Christmas? Last year I couldn’t do justice to any Christmas music. I had Jingle Bells in Alfred’s, but that is probably my least favorite. I feel ready for it this time around. I am thinking I’ll Be Home for Christmas this year. When do you think it is a good time to do Christmas? How about Christmas anthology recommendations?

The exchanges in this forum have been great over my first 7 months of piano. I have felt a lot of encouragement and gained some nice insights from this community. It is a nice place to register progreess periodically and/or just to chatter. It has been a pleasure throughout. I hope that carries over into Book 2. I will be moving over there in the next couple weeks. I will start reading the Book 2 backlogs now.

2 months is far out of reach for me! I'd hope to join you guys in thread #2 as soon as possible, though.

My goal for this week is Beautiful Brown Eyes under control by Thursday, so I still have a long way to go!

I'm currently finishing off the Donkey, after that I'm taking a break and I'll enjoy a nice glass of wine, and then I'm off to start Money Can't Buy Ev'rything!

Took a long break from Alfred's some time ago, but when I picked it up again I assigned a small part of my practise time to it again, learning When the Saints go Marching In. Just finished that one up not too long ago, and started to systematically work my way through this book.
It's going very well!



When did Greensleeves become a Christmas song?

It's the same as "What Child Is This".

CaptainZero, to truly appreciate this arrangement of Amazing Grace I think you have to have lived in the West Virgina mountains. That's where I grew up and vividly remember the harsh tone and twang of the singers voices. When I hit certain measures on the 2nd page, I always laugh as those memories are exactly what comes to mind. I do agree that there are better versions out there though.

Captain Zero,

I agree about Grace. I practiced it for quite a while and became very dissatisfied with the left hand. The RH is nice but the LH is choppy sounding to me except for the nice bass walkdowns. I would like to find a better version at about the same skill level.

I think the song I liked best in Level 1 is Scarborough Fair. I am not embarrased to play it for an audience :-)

My other 2 performance ok songs are Ain't Misbehavin' and Johnson Rag from the Jazz Rock Book and the Pop Song Book Level 1.

Since I kinda finished V1, instead of going on to V2, I'm trying some pieces from the supplemental level 1 books as above. Also I read AW2PP's blog and Anthony's and they started playing some new age (Einaudi) pieces at about the time they finished Alfred's Level 1. I thought I would try some but either I misread their blogs or I'm a lot slower because the new age pieces are MUCH harder for me. I'm doing them but it's really slow going.

Hey! Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Emissary - I have the same trouble spots as you in Scarborough Fair! Sometimes I'll do the same thing you're doing, or sometimes I'll play DFD - my left hand seems to want to be doing what my right hand is doing. I have that issue in measure 19, too. Then I start banging on my keys like a 2-year-old

Thanks for the encouragement, GracieCat - I have been going a lot slower, and it is coming together. I hope I have the pianissimo, piano, mezzo piano, and mezzo forte down. We'll find out tomorrow. I hope she passes me on the piece!

Captain Zero - I actually started piano lessons because I got fed up with trying to get past Little Brown Jug on my own. I am like you - I get sidetracked on my own. Having a piano teacher makes me learn the stuff I would skip. I also knew I needed someone to make me do stuff like scales and practice exercises for finger strength. It really has made quite a difference. I envy your being self taught on guitar! My SO tried to teach me guitar and that lasted about a day. Boy, did my left hand hurt, and I was only playing an SG Jr. Did having guitar experience give you finger strength at least?

Doing a little happy dance - I needed to learn two-octave C scale and after fighting with it all week, I think I got it! I was supposed to work on K545 with a metronome - metronome kept throwing me off on my iffy parts. I was getting discouraged by it, but it forced me to realize what parts I should stop and focus on instead of fumbling through them.

Good luck on your pieces, everybody!

Aimee

Hi Everyone!

The Entertainer is coming along nicely! It's much easier to "work hard" on a piece you really like. My Yamaha came with a 50 greats for the piano book, which has the full version of "The Entertainer". What a difference!!!! I think the authors did a good job of distilling the "essence" of that piece into something that sounds pretty good!

GracieCat and Captain Zero - I've tried a few measures of Amazing Grace. It's not as bad as I thought. I'm familar with triplets and have no trouble playing them! GracieCat - I know what you mean about your WV version. Having heard it sung from shape-note hymnals, it does sound "related" to what appears in Alfred's. Captain Zero - for a more "mainstream" version, I checked one of my old Judy Collins Songbooks and she does it in the Key of E, using E,A,B,B6,B7 and E7 chords. Even though her version is a vocals-only arrangement, it's still full of triplets. AG must be the "poster child" for triplets! If you want to play it on the Guitar, I'd capo up 2 and play it in the Key of D. Those B chords are nasty!!! At least with a piano, we don't have to worry about "barre chords" anymore!!! Yeah!! I'd transpose songs like crazy to eliminate or at least minimize them! In my next life, I want longer fingers!

I'm working on pedaling too! I got out my Faber Adult Book 2 (which is easier BTW) than Alfred's. It has a simple version of Brahm's Lullaby that is a good piece to practice pedaling. The tempo I play it would appeal to babies who are addicted to Ambien, but at least I'm pedaling everything. I'll steal from any source to improve! Now, back to playing The Entertainer! Keep playing!!!!!