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I can't wait to play The Marines' Hymn. I am not far off. Having been a Marine, we had to sing that song every night as a platoon before going to bed. It still puts chills down my spine and I know the words by heart. @AndrewJCW you mentioned you were not sure what it was (in your youtube post) so now you know. Nice job playing it.

Thanks so much for the warm welcome everyone. :-) I had a breakthrough yesterday and managed to play the C major scale with both hands at the same time (I have been struggling with this) and then I even surprised myself and managed the G major scale with 2 hands at once too. When I get both hands actually working together on this I'll try 2 octaves instead of just one. It's probably a pretty stupid thing to be happy about lol, but it's taken me weeks to try to co-ordinate my rebellious fingers. What is the recital thing about Andrew?

A good weekend so far for me. I've had lots of free time for practicing. I'm going through the middle C section right now. Next up is "Standing in the Need of Prayer." Aside from that, I think I may have found a piece to work on for the recital. I haven't really looked at it that closely yet, but I'll do that tomorrow to see if it's going to be doable or not.

MandyD Well done with the C major scale. I've been practising it every day and I have it pretty smooth today, and I started working on the G major today as well. For me at least for reference it probably took 30 mins to get one hand scale sounding good, then 2 hours to get both hands good, and then 10 hours to get both hands 2 octaves good. Not saying my times were fast or slow or whatever, just the 2 hands 2 octaves is a real challenge so stick in there! I also want to start working on F major too but it's fingering is quite different.

I've been practising the chromatic scales too which is nice and simple.

The other progress I made today was taking a song I know by chords and transposing (changing it's key) it in my head. I was talking to a piano teacher friend today and she said it's really good practice to get into doing this every into all keys. Helps you really think about chords usefully instead of just abstract letters.

This is explained briefly in the Alfred's book as the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord etc. For example if you're playing in the key of C a I, IV, V chord progression would be C Major, F Major and then G Major. Now if you transpose the song to G it would become G Major, C Major, D Major. I also need to do lots of practice with the different chord inversions...

Anyway, in short I have a have tons of stuff to practice even without Alfred's, but I got some practice in on that too today and decided I actually like the funny O Sole Mio song! Struggled with it a bit today but am hopeful I can get it recorded tomorrow.

Andrew's busy practicing right now.

Piano World holds recitals 4 times a year. It's open to everyone, from the newest beginners to the most experienced players. Recital dates are February 15th, May 15th, August 15th and November 15th. Some more info about the recitals is in the Important Topics thread.

Here are a couple links to the last recital: Recital 34 --- May 15, 2014 and Recital 34 --- General Discussion Room

And for the upcoming August 15 recital there's The Famous (infamous?) One Month to Recital Thread.

Andrew I haven't got as far as the F major chord yet lol, and you are certainly picking it up quicker than me! My fingers and brain haven't co-ordinated yet lol. Thanks TX (can I call you that?) for the info about the recital. Would I look like an idiot if I posted something really really basic? Also is it only for adult beginners? I was talking about it in front of my 8 year old daughter who's learning with me and she said she wanted to do it too, but I told her she probably couldn't as you need to be a member of the forum.

MandyD, several years ago a guy named AW2PP (AlwaysWantedToPlayPiano) was taking lessons with his daughter (also somewhere around 8 years old), and I think the daughter played in two of the recitals. I don't know if they bent the rules for him or whether it just hadn't come up before so there weren't any rules, but I don't think anyone would mind.

Hey everyone!

I'm not sure what came over me, but I'm currently working on 4 songs at once: "Standing in the Need of Prayer," "Alouette,", "Lavender's Blue," and "Kum-Ba-Yah!" I actually like them all and I'm having fun learning them. Right now they're all pretty much at the polishing stage.

I had planned on doing Hanon exercises on a daily basis, but now that I've read more about them, I'm not so sure anymore. However, I'm thinking (hoping?) that learning to play scales will be enough exercise.

Mandy: You can call me whatever you want.

Andrew: Congrats on your transposing project!

mom3gram: I've read through almost all the posts in this thread, so I'm familiar with your progress as you worked your way through the first Alfreds book. I almost want to ask for your autograph.

I've been reading through thread as well. The thread actually started in 2007... 7 years ago! It's great to read the thread and see people grow from complete beginners through to finishing the book, sometimes it seems like people progress very quickly but I guess that's because it only takes 10 mins to read 6 months of time if you're skimming through.

I'm still making steady progress, another song down.

Here it is if anyone's interested.

[video:youtube]ytJXvRu50_w[/video]

I think it is natural to broaden your scope a bit as you progress in the book BlueBonnet, that's what I've been doing at least. I need to take a few days at least to get used to a song before you can really get a handle on it. I try to have quick goes at 3-4 songs ahead of where I'm up to and maybe check out some youtube videos of them if I have to. That way by the time I'm actually trying to work on the song I've already heard it and tried to play it (even if it's just right hand) a few times.

So I know I need to stay disciplined and keep working through the basics and learning through the Alfred's Basics Adult Books, but I really want to learn more Jazz, Blues, Ragtime, and more popular pop stuff, some Billy Joel, etc. Thats the stuff I really want to play. I am struggling to enjoy some of these works and don't want to get bored. At what point do I start trying to fit what I like in with my "classic" lessons?

I want to branch out too karamanathan. I'm going to at least finish book one before I really focus on anything else. I think the basics of piano, reading both staves, understanding chords, keys, timing, dynamics... These things are essential and it doesn't matter where you learn them.

I've been looking at a few things on YouTube, there's plenty of easy blues stuff to get started on. Jazz is like blues but more complicated. A lot of pop stuff is very easy to if all you want to do is play chords and and sing or a simple melody.

However I think it's worth it to get through AIO book one, and it's really not difficult. I mean it is, but not compared to the struggles that are coming with 'real' music. In this way I firmly think about Alfred's time as learning time, my like of the song or enjoyment of playing is secondary to learning. If I want to have fun learning a Disney song I do that afterwards.

I hear you Karmanathan, I feel the same way at times. I just want to be able to play real music and I want to play it NOW lol! In all seriousness what Andrew says is true though, all these little songs we are learning are all leading us towards where we want to head. I'm finding that learning the piano is incredibly difficult, there are so many things to focus on at the one time. I am just mastering being able to use both hands and do the dynamics at the same time, I have to say my biggest struggle is sight reading. I have sort of got the treble notes down pat but I really have to think about the bass notes. I think that's where Alfred's is good, because the more I plug away at it the more I am slowly ingraining those notes into my head. I have also downloaded a note reading app to my phone and that helps too, but I secretly envy people who just look at music and it all comes automatically to them. Good job on that last song too Andrew.

I'm holding steady with my little group of songs. Today's focus while working on those songs was on the crescendos and diminuendos, and the MFs, Ps, etc., and trying to lighten up on the chords while bringing out the melody more.

Andrew: I'm not familiar with "O Sole Mio!," but it sounded nice to me. Loved the arpeggiated chords. I'm not sure my fingers can move that quickly.

karmanathan: I don't know how far along you are in the book, but in the self-teaching version in the Eigth Notes section (where "Happy Birthday to You" is) the authors say, "Before we end this lesson, I'd like to give you some good news. With the completion of this lesson you can play a lot more music than you might think." Then it goes on to promote some of their level one, big note series, and greatest hits songbooks. So this sounds like that point you're asking about.

Mandy: You're doing great if you're mastering HT with dynamics. I have to get the notes and fingering well under control before I start working on the dynamics. I think I do ok with the phrasing and rhythm for the most part, but learning to control the volume is another matter.

In all honesty TX I have my piano teacher to thank for that, she really pushes me to play dynamics as soon as I see them, otherwise I am a slacker and would try and avoid them until I thought I had the notes totally down pat. Mind you I sometimes think that it would be much easier (and kinder) to do it that way. What songs are you working on at the moment? I've gone a bit ahead of what I'm doing at lessons and have had a go at all the songs up to Alpine Melody, but I still have a looooonnng way to go before I can play them in some way that they actually resemble the melody lol.

I am interested in this book since I am a complete newbie. I googled "Alfred's Adult Piano Course Level one," and the Amazon site shows the following:
Too many books
So I am confused which book I should get. Help?

Hi Dancer, I'm probably not the one to answer this as I'm a complete newbie too. But I started learning with Alfred's Complete Level 1 for the Later Beginner, but then I found a copy of Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course (which I think is one of the books this thread is based on?) and I have been using that too. I personally am loving using the 2 books as when they have the same song, they are played totally different so I am learning different techniques. However, I didn't have to make a financial outlay for the 2nd book. If I had to choose one obviously the Basic one seems to be better for getting forum advice for, and doesn't have so many kiddy kind of tunes, but it does push you more. In the first book (Complete) I am over half way through it and haven't even started playing full chords yet, but with the Basic book you start chords on page 18. I can't comment on the All In One book though as I haven't seen it. I do think I came across it on eBay though? Anyway I hope this all helps, but hopefully someone with more experience might be able to advise you too. :-)

DancerJ, If you don't have a teacher, take a look at the self-teaching version. Otherwise, I recommend the Adult All-In-One version, which has some helpful music theory mixed in that progresses along with the material.

I am actually at Happy Birthday this week. It actually came pretty easy. I was stuck on Alpine Melody for a few weeks. I practice a few hours a week. I have the All in One Course. Teacher has not been focused on things like pedals, Fermata, crescendo/diminuendo which is probably good because it may be too much for my brain right now, focus is on site reading and some timing. I am sure there will be focus on the nuances later.

Mandy: My ex-teacher suggested I get the notes first, then dynamics. Whatever works, I guess. I'm done now with 2 of the songs I was talking about, "Standing in the Need of Prayer," and "Alouette." I just need another day or two to wrap up "Lavender's Blue" and "Kum-Ba-Yah!"

DancerJ: Hello and welcome. I second ajames recommendations.

karmanathan: The happy birthday song is a good one to play around with to try and mimic the goofy, exaggerated way people sing it at parties. So you're just about to start "Standing in the Need of Prayer." I enjoyed learning that one, hope you do too.

Thanks for sharing O Sole Mio, Andrew. I'm familiar with it but could not find the rhythm until I watched you play it.