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DancerJ
There's a guy who makes a lot of them that has his own youtube channel. You can see a ton of them there.

https://www.youtube.com/user/MajorVsMinor/videos


Warm Regards

Thank you.

I think so. Well, fizikisto has explained it in detail (Thanks a lot )

Is your piece "Blow the Man Down" in Alfred's book? If it is, then I think it is C Major. Good luck with it. I will hear your piece when the recital is closed

I've almost got "Blow the Man Down!" completed. Just a couple of measures that I need to get smoothed out and at tempo. I also spent some time today practicing a recital piece, but didn't make very much progress with it.

Mandy: What's a shame is I wasted a nice chunk of the day trying to figure out what the problem is. And, unfortunately, I think I made it worse in the process.

Pete R: You can read all submitting a recital piece on the recital thread.

fizikisto: Thanks for all that. If I understand correctly you're saying you can't reverse engineer the key signature to determine the scale it's built on. I haven't reached the section in the Alfred's book where they start talking about scales. It'll probably be a couple of weeks before I get to that point. But at least now I've gotten a glimpse of what's involved.

EnGee: My recital piece is called Rondo. I'm not sure I have enough time to finish it, so maybe BTMD! will be something to fall back on. Either that or one of the other songs in the book.

Tx-bluebonnet
Well, the key signature gives you big clues. Most music is either going to be in the major or minor key associated with the key signature. So it's usually not hard to figure out what key a song is in based on the key signature. Mainly you can look at the chords which dominate in the piece, and especially look at the first and final chords used in the song. That will give you clues. When you start playing pieces in different keys, you'll also learn about the main chords used in those keys. That's covered pretty well in the Alfred's method, so when you get to that material in the Alfred's book, it's worth paying attention to.

Tx-Bluebonnet
By the way, I remember when I first started playing in different keys, I was really frustrated that I kept forgetting to sharp or flat the appropriate notes. I did come up with something that helped me a lot. I would make a photocopy of the score and mark over those notes with a red highlighter (the color doesn't matter, I just happened to have a red one handy . I marked up photocopies because later I would play from the original score without the cheat. I viewed it like training wheels. Eventually you don't need to use the cheat anymore, even on new music. But I think it really helped me out. I mention it just in case the idea might be useful to someone else.

That's a really good idea fizikisto. I might have to try that myself.

I asked my teacher the exact same question last week. Her response was basically "no problem - for now. Eventually after some amount of time that should no longer be necessary".

Thanks again, fizikisto. I will definitely pay close attention when I come to the scales section. As for highlighting sharps and flats, I'd actually already made a copy of this particular piece and did just that the other day. I didn't do it to begin with because I thought it was considered cheating. But the reason I ended up doing it was because at some point while learning the piece I realized I'd forgotten about the sharps! Which of course I had to unlearn. I do like the idea of thinking of it as "training wheels."

Brian, it's nice to know other teachers don't see it as an issue. I can only focus on so many things at a time, so the highlighting for now will be helpful.

Spent the weekend away at a wedding but finally back now. Good to see the thread is still chugging along with tips and encouragement. I'm working on 'The Stranger' which is a really nice little tune but jumps around quite a lot and is proving a little tricky. Hopefully get it recorded in the next day or two. Also my AIO Level 2 and beginner jazz and blues books should get here in the next couple of days so looking forward to that as well.

I think I'm going to focus on everything but the recital until I have about 2 days to go and then just pick and polish something I know I can do. I don't think I'll gain much by working furiously on the piece I originally chose, it's just too difficult at this stage.

Help! I caught myself humming "Blow the Man Down!" at work today!! I'm actually able to play it at a decent tempo now, so I am moving on to "Lone Star Waltz." Then hopefully I'll be able to get that BTMD! tune out of my head!

Andrew: I don't know that song, "The Stranger," so looking forward to your video of it. As for backing off your original recital piece, I can relate. I started out alright on the piece I chose, but then I sort of hit a wall and haven't made any progress on it in the last couple of days. I'm going to work on it some tonight and see how it goes. It's not the end of the world if we don't get something in on this recital. There's always the next one.

I've started working on "Lone Star Waltz" today and I have to say I'm not liking it much. For one thing, it doesn't sound anything like a waltz. At least not the way I'm playing it.

How's everybody else doing with their Alfred's progress?

I haven't got as far as Lone Star yet, I'm struggling a bit with Kum-Ba-Yah. I attempted Michael Row the Boat Ashore and Blow the Man Down but BTMD is still a bit beyond me & I'm sure what I was playing sounded nothing like it is meant to sound. I'm going to You tube it so I can have a listen to what it should actually sound like as I find this helps me a bit.

Good tip. I use YouTube all of the time to see how certain pieces are supposed (according to the pianist) to sound. There are lots of videos for the Alfred's series.

Isn't it great! I would be lost without them and I certainly wouldn't be as far as I am at this time without them. Every time I watch one I am so grateful to the people who have sacrificed their time to put them up. On and I had a giggle at your "supposed to sound" comment - in my case it's so very true lol!

I wasn't much a fan of Lone Star Walt either. Good luck with it. I'm having a lot of fun putting things on YouTube, even if not many people ever see it it's fun to be out there in the public. It doesn't take much effort once you get used to the programs and equipment you use. By far the hardest bit is playing the right notes!

I have my first lesson with a teacher tomorrow. Quite excited!

The reason I put that caveat in there, is that I have found many of the videos I've looked at as I have started to learn a piece have turned out to be played incorrectly, at least in my teacher's view!

As always let the buyer beware...

You should be! Hopefully it will be the start of a great personal journey. Even after 11 months I still remember every little detail of my first lesson.

Yes often the timing and dynamics are totally off even if they get all the notes and tempo right. I can see this on my own looking back at them. It is usually beginners playing them after all.

Well I just had my first lesson, not sure quite what to think yet. My teacher didn't even open the Alfred's book! I played a few songs and he's got me working on chord voicings (by practising I IV V progressions in C and G) and the e major scale. Also to learn the song autumn leaves just bass note and melody by heart.

He has a fantastic collection of keyboards, pianos and organs packed into a studio. I am convinced he loves music and is a very friendly guy, I guess it'll take a while to work out how good of a teacher he is for me.

He also didn't say anything about my technique or posture, maybe he's working out how I take criticism before letting me have it...