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Theory

There are also brand new books for both Level 1 and 2 for Sight Reading only. My teacher is evaluating these books to see if they would add any value to the overall experience.

May be a dumb question: What do you mean by "DD"? Is that your daughter?

I remember the first time I felt stuck and frustrated: About 5 minutes into my first lesson

DD = Dear Daughter

She's too young to be practicing on her own so it helps that I'm relearning - at least I hope so. She probably won't be able to practice truly independently until she is 6 or 7 so unless she quits, I'd be tagging along for a few years.

I was thinking about what to do about this all night. I flip-flopped a few times in my head and I decided to go with Adult All In One Book 2. I probably should add on theory and other elements from this point on and I don't think I can manage 4+ books and stay disciplined without a teacher. I polished up the last few songs from FAPAOB Level 1 last night and I feel okay about moving on.

You should be in good shape here. Just a word of note: My brother has the Level 2 All-in-one book (he just started it last month). I noticed that this book basically starts where FAPAOB level 2 almost ends (but not quite).

In other words, if you go from FAPAOB level 1 to the all-in-one level 2 book, there is a gap. Not sure if this will be a problem for you; I just wanted to point this out.

Best regards,
Brian

I finally found the table of content:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/halleonard-closerlook/00420242/420242-2-TOC-z.jpg

and I can see that I really didn't cover much since I only did the lesson book. I don't know if I really want to go through 160+ pages to but since the book is only $12 from Amazon, it'd probably worth having as a reference book and to pick up as much gaps as possible. Seems like I have a curriculum now for the fall semester, so to speak. Thank you for your input, Brian, you've been a big help.

Glad to be of help!

The good news is that the books are relatively cheap.

The only issue that I have with Faber is that at the beginner level there are three different paths to choose, and these paths are not completely interchangeable using their numbering system.

1) You can do the Basic PA for level 1, 2A, and 2B or;
2) Accelerated PA for Book 1 and Book 2 or;
3) Adult PA All-in-one Book 1 and 2.

For the first two series, they merge perfectly at Basic PA Levels 3A and beyond.

However, based on what I can see the end of Adult PA all-in-one Book 1 or Book 2 does not match the other two PA series, either Basic or Accelerated Adult as far as their "level" or "book" numbering.

So my advice would be to plot out your overall path through these book and either stick with Basic or Accelerated PA all the way, or stick with Adult PA All-in-one until the end of book 2, and then move over to Basic PA somewhere in the middle of Level 3A. Confusing to say the least.

If you go to www.pianoadventures.com it explains this a lot better than I could.

Regardless, Faber rocks and I'm 100% with this approach.

I've never looked at the Alfred books but why are they so hugely popular here?i have started to learn a piece from Per Gynt in book 3A. It is very recognizable. But almost all of the notes are with ledger lines above the staff and it's a little daunting.

Brian,I'm going to stick to the Adult All-in-One. I'll be helping DD with the regular children's PA books so I'll be going through the process twice. That would probably be good for me.

alans, I've read that the Alfred's series for adult is more suitable for self-teaching?

DD's teacher has been teaching over 40+ years and she puts all her beginning to intermediate students on Faber but I haven't asked her why she likes Faber over other series.

My order of Fundamental Keys Piano Method has shipped so I'm curious to compare the two methods.

As for my progress, I've been practicing Arabesque by Burgmüller, which was my first childhood recital piece. I try not to think of it as being back to where I was when I was 7.

littlebirdblue;

Sounds like a plan to me. I actually think Faber is more suitable for self-study IMHO.

Coming up this month: Hopefully finishing up Book Two for FAPAOB. Hopefully some new things will be introduced into my curriculum, in addition to PA Level 3A.

LittleBirdBlue
I really like the fundamental keys method. I also think it works great as a complement to other methods like Fabers and Alfreds. I suspect that you'll find it to be useful.

So BrianDX, you are working with four or five books for weekly lessons? Does that mean you learn one piece from each so in total you are studying four (I think you said one is theory)pieces at any given time? How do you find the books apart from
the lesson book, which is the only one I know. And can you please tell me the title of the four books you are using..I imagine one is technique, one is performance..

The FAPAOB series for Level 1 and 2 (actually Book 1 and Book 2)consists of four books each that work together as an integrated set.

Generally each week my teacher will start with the Lesson book for the main course curriculum. The Technique/Artistry and Performance books have footnotes as to what pages they go with in the Lesson book. She will normally assign a couple of pieces from each of these books each week as well. The Theory book does have some pieces as well, but mostly deals with written exercises and self-composing.

So for example, this week I am studying F Major. The Lesson book explains the scale fingering and major chords, and then has a complete piece in F Major. The Technique/Artistry book has a short one-page exercise piece in F Major. The Performance book has a complete two page piece in F Major. The Theory book has a written exercise, as well as a simple piece with a lead sheet in F Major.

So if I spend the week studying and practicing these 8-10 pages (spread over the four books) I am getting a nice complete F Major primer.

Hope that gives you a rough idea of how the four books work together as a unit.

8-10pages a week is a lot. How much time do you find you have to Practise?

Randall Faber gave a talk at a music store near me this past week. I would have loved to have heard ( even lunch was thrown in and the event was free) but I just found about it today. A fellow working in the store told me the Iplace was packed with over 80 piano teachers and it was pretty wild.he said Randall is an amazing speaker and incredibly knowledgable on piano education.

At this stage of my life I try to practice about an hour per day on average. Some days I spend more time while learning a new piece, once in a while I'll take a day or two off, not counting times when we are out of town.

There are a couple of thing to understand about my routine. First, not all of the pieces in the 8-10 pages are difficult. Some take only a minute or two to practice. Plus, if I spend five to ten minutes per piece, that can be easily fit into one hour. Also, because I generally pass less than 50% of my pieces at my lesson in a given week, some of those 8-10 pages are repeats where I'm simply trying to perfect a piece I already know.

As I said, once in a while I spend extra time learning a new piece from scratch. This week for example, I sat down for an extra hour or two and figured out the fingering for two new compositions that had not yet assigned to me. That's how I keep my momentum going forward.

Brian,

Were there specific pieces outside of Faber that you wanted to learn? Is there a piece that you wanted to learn that triggered your piano journey?

fizikisto,

Thank you for the encouragement. I hope it'd click with me. I can't wait to get started but book hasn't arrived yet. I'm learning without a teacher but if I manage to get back to near the end of my previous piano life, I might contact Rachel to ask about her Skype session rate. I could use some feedback. Right now, as I practice scales and Arabesque, I hear my old teacher's voice yelling at me, "Your left-hand pinky, how many times have I told you? It's TOO QUIET." Yikes.

I opened up my Faber technique and performance book today, thinking I could probably sight read the opening sections. No way! They both require really careful study. Even though they match pages in the lesson book these pieces are not a breeze. So although I only have four pieces left in the lesson book, I feel I have to return to square one with the other two.

Not really, although I would love to learn the opening 12 bars of Claire De Lune

Actually, I'm very interested in how the next month goes. My teacher has stated that after finishing Book 2 she will start introducing "additional material" beyond Faber.

Very much looking forward to that. After somewhat "racing ahead" to try to get from the beginning of Book 1 to the end of Book 2 within one year, it's almost time for me to chill just a bit and move forward with patience and attention. To give you an idea of how intense it is right now, I have 12 pieces left in the four books in order to graduate from this level. I'm working each night on all 12 pieces. Good grief

My guess is that you will do quite well with this additional material in not a lot of additional time. Most of the material in the Book 2 series is hard for me to sight read unless I go extremely slow at first. My goal at this point is to try to learn one page pieces within a half hour to an hour, and then spend more time fine-tuning the dynamics and other details.

Understand that at this point it is very hard for me to pass a piece the first time I play it at my teacher's house. There are always things to work on, and most of the time these corrections can't be made in "real-time" during the lesson, so off I go for another week to fine-tune the piece. Hopefully at the next lesson I'll hear those magic words "very good, we're done with that piece"

So, did you hear those magic words?

DD officially graduated My First PA Book A and started on all 4 primer books. She wanted a strawberry float to celebrate. She was high on sugar all day.

I got inspired and polished up the last few songs of Level 1 book to a recital-ready quality. I'm going to get myself a decent bottle of wine later.