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

I thought about supplementing/the second book idea, but I decided against it for now. The problem is I am not a very motivated person, with Alfred's at least I have some notion of tracking my progress. If I was to work on stuff in parallel, even though if I was making progress I might not be able to notice it. So I don't want to dilute it for now, until the end of Book 2 or until I hit a roadblock and need some break.

Luckily though, the Tchaikovsky recital came to my rescue. I will be working on a piece for it so I have some variation!

Also updating with some progress, I recorded Alexander's Ragtime Band tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGmhI72HA0Y

The speed was what made it really hard for me and did not help with my tension issues either, oh well..

Nicely played sydnal

Thanks earlofmar.

Bumping the thread from abyss with some progress, finally

I finished "Theme from Solace".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SqdHWeSLZw

It was difficult for me and took a lot of time. Still struggling with playing La Bamba up to tempo but once it's done it looks like there will be smooth sailing for a few pieces.

Very nicely played sydnal. Congratulations.

sydnal, you did a great job with this one! Very very nice!

Thank you very much Ragdoll & Sinophilia.

Nice job on "Solace", syndal. You kept a nice steady beat - something that took me forever to get. And I never did get through "La Bamba". I bailed on it after more than a month. Maybe I will go back and try it again some day......Nah! I don't think so.

I'm working on Battle Hymn of the Republic, The Riddle and The Magic Piper. Last one I finished was the Chopin Etude - that one took me a few weeks to get through.

Also, Seventh Street Blues, Surfboard Boogie from Jazz, Rags and Blues level 1 and We Gather Together.

Good job, sydnal.

Thank you mom3gram and Johnny D.

@Ohio Mark:
Nice, you are close to the end of the book.

I've been trying to polish up Light & Blue while working on a few other pieces from Masterworks and Suzuki.

Light & Blue sounds pretty good, but I still can't manage to get through it without making a mistake. Last night I was 3/4 through it and it hit me that I hadn't made a mistake yet. Sure enough, the mistake came soon thereafter It always seem to happen like that - you lose your concentration or think too much on something and you make a mistake.

Anyhow, I probably should have moved on to Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by now, but when I started playing the first line a couple of weeks ago, I guess I didn't really find the way it sounded too appealing. Maybe it's the arrangement. Those left hand chords don't seem to go so well in it.

@Johnny D

Imho light and blue is harder than it looks and sounds. My particular problem was doing thumb unders in the swingy playing style (long-short-long-short etc.). When the thumb under falls to the short beat it is difficult to execute.

I have moved on from La Bamba, this is as good as it's going to get:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0L6aPuejMo

Probably the hardest piece in the book so far, I couldn't play it error-free how many times I tried, so I chose a relatively acceptable one. In this one I seem to have played the G note in the left hand (in the bridge section) half of its original value. Oh well..

well done sydnal, despite minor errors you have persevered to get it to an acceptable standard that not many achieve including myself.

sydnal, I enjoyed your La Bamba a lot - well done!

Thank you earlofmar and pwl. Next two pieces "La Raspa" and "For He is a Jolly Good Fellow" are relatively easy, the next heavy hitter seems to be "Mexican Hat Dance". Hopefully I will be done with the infamous Latin tunes section of the book soon, hopefully..

Fantastic "La Bamba"! Certainly better than I ever managed. Yes, having all those Mexican ones in a row was a bit annoying, luckily they weren't all as challenging as "La Bamba". There are some nice pieces coming up soon.

sydnal, well done! I love your perseverance.

Thank you mom3gram and scorpio. Your encouragement is certainly one of the factors that help me persevere.

Hi again all, I am finally finished with the Latin tunes section! (loud fanfare here)

After my last update which was La Bamba, I recorded La Raspa, For He's a Jolly Good Fellow, Mexican Hat Dance and Tarantella this past week. The hardest one was Mexican Hat Dance, though I was already working on these pieces while I was stuck on La Bamba so it did not take as long as I thought.


La Raspa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9drFebIMXDc
For He's a Jolly Good Fallow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAvW9t8aTw
Mexican Hat Dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8ieodVK2cc
Tarantella: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2MqnogqRrw

(Now that I listen again, I don't think I did good with this pieces, I was in a hurry for some progress after the La Bamba frustration)

The next 3 pieces "Village Dance", "Scherzo" and "Introduction and Dance" seem to be hard and long so I guess I will be working on them quite a while and progress will slow once again. (Also incredibly busy at work, there are days that I come home at 23:00+ go to bed directly without touching the piano :S)

At this point, it seems like no one is updating or following this thread and it's sort of embarrassing to use it as my personal diary, so I guess I will take a break from posting until there are other contributors. Best of luck to all threadies!