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I use these videos for obscure pieces when I'm not sure how it should sound. I wanted to see how he played Jingle Bells chords with his left hand since this is all new to me.

Gawain

I am not a big fan of Alan Chan channel on YT. There are so many better examples out there. Here is just one: http://youtu.be/wZEbfzmGQwo

She is also a member of PW.

Both examples are IMHO poor. The first is much too fast and is really just loud banging, and thus totally unmusical. The second example is clunky and also somewhat unmusical, not smooth, as if a machine is hitting the keys. But it is considerably better than the first example.

A musical and pleasing playing of Jingle Bells in Alfred's Book #1 is not all that hard to accomplish for a beginner.

I have yet to have a student who is not able to play it smoothly and musically, usually with just a play-through by me as an example to demonstrate smoothness and musicality.

And I do not proceed to the next thing in the book until there is some level of musicality present.

Understand. And this is why I suggest for anyone going through Alfred AIO Book 1 to get the DVD with the book. But my real point is that if you search YT you will find helpful examples - there are many (probably should have left it at that in the first place).

How does a self-taught beginner with no teacher or mentor or guide know if a YT example is good, bad, or ugly?

YT is often presented on these forums as a perfectly valid alternative to a live Piano teacher, yet this thread just presented two examples from YT... one that is terrible, and another that is questionable.

I always watch several and not just one. I do a search for the title and composer and usually a big list comes up. I don't just pick one and go from that I watch/listen to a lot of them somewhere between 5-10. Which for me when I search on there I'm mostly looking for timing. Agreed that there are some really bad examples out there and it's up to us to weed them out when we're looking for examples of what we're learning on the Tube.

Exactly how I went about it when I went through the book, without a teacher. Currently I study with a teacher.

You always have to weed out the good examples from the not so good examples. And quite honestly you have to weed out the good teachers from the not so good teachers - and there are many not so good teachers. You just have to be smart about it.

How do you know if you have a good teacher or a bad teacher? I believe both videos/examples are from piano teachers.

This lady's playing is musical unlike the gentleman's. My piano teacher, who is also my son, would never let me pass a song with such unmusical playing.

The lady has recorded 95 videos from All-in-One Level 1 and 58 from Level 2. I am on level 1 and I have listened to hers as good examples. I also listen to and play along with my Kawai CN34 as all the Level 1 songs are part of its internal Lesson function.

Level 1 playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRe3dlAzLRw&list=PLeW-cELRAmSl9fQyFwa9BIpeSHzlxuSYM

Level 2 playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc7LXuFanpk&list=PLeW-cELRAmSlTrOaPvXTUby4HaGp-GwNE

Scorpio, if you'll forgive a rude question, how did your teacher assess your skills when you were first evaluated? That is, did you find you had picked up a lot of bad habits from self study that you had to go back and correct? Or did you find that you had progressed just as well at the beginning (although perhaps more slowly than you would other wise would have) without a teacher?

Warm regards

It's a good question. I don't know if I have a good answer. There is a long answer, but that is probably due to my insecurities as a student. Here is the short version of the answer...

When I started out looking for a teacher my first goal was to find someone that works well with adult students and one that could break any bad habits that I developed on my own. I kept hearing about bad habits and wanted to make sure that was addressed. I go to a music school located at a local college. My teacher has been teaching for 40+ years. The long and short of it is that he had no issues with how I presented. In fact, I think I presented myself better than my ability. So that has caused some other issues. Do I have things that need to be corrected, for sure! Did I do harm self-learning through Alfred 1, it does not appear so!

I am pretty diligent when I go about things. So much so that the biggest issue my teacher has with me is that I over think and not just play. Of course I have other things that need to be addressed, but I am a student afterall. I am still learning.

Just to add to my insecurity, haha. How do I know if my teacher is good? Maybe my technique is a mess. Maybe I have bad habits that I am not aware of and is not being addressed. Maybe Alfred 1 was bad for me. I don't know. I just try to keep working and not over think.

I also like the links David51 posted. I have used her videos as a reference as to what should be acceptable musically for each of the pieces.

I think that her style has the basic musicality for a beginning learner. I use her videos primarily for two things - one is to get an idea of what the song sounds like (especially if I have never heard the song before) and secondly is to get an idea of the correct tempo/rhythm of the song. And for this I think she is a good example.

I find that my own teacher adds in additional phrasing and interpretation that isn't present in the above mentioned youtube videos. But I think the point of the youtube example is a baseline of what should the song sound like in terms of notes, rhythm/tempo.

On a separate note, I'm really happy this thread is alive again. It's so nice to see so many people posting in here.

I'm now working on Cafe Vienna and Lullaby.

Cafe Vienna is a really fun piece to play and has a great melody.

Lullaby has a nice melody but is a challenge when trying to play hands together and get the correct rhythm its definitely going to challenge me similar to Blow the Man Down perhaps even more so...

How's everyone else doing with their pieces?

Just a note to say that the videos by the woman sitting at the upright piano were very helpful, and much easier to achieve. I am now struggling with "When the Saints Go Marching In" on page 45. I'm having trouble making the chord transitions go smoothly but that is what practice is for.

Yes it is. Believe it or not, with continued practice it will soon be second nature. In fact, I'll offer a tip (which you may already be doing). practice just with the hand making the chords, over and over, not just for that song but for any variation:

C -> F
F -> C
C -> G
G-> C
F -> G
G -> F

So you might do something like (this is purely random and made up)

C -> G -> F -> C -> F -> G -> F -> C

Just practice all those chord changes over and over until you can do them smoothly (not looking at the score, just practice moving from one chord to another randomly). You want to get the feeling of it under your fingers.

I'm playing a C chord, I want to move to G chord, so hand does *this*

Once you've got the motion down, learn to associate that with the chords on the score. Instead of trying to learn the individual notes, learn to read the block chords by their shape/position. Make Flash cards if you need to.

Then...when you've got the recognition down, and the movement down, put them together.

Playing piano is an incredibly complex skill, you're trying to do many things at once. The fastest way to learn something complex is to break it into more manageable parts, master the parts separately, then put them back together.

In any case, good luck with your playing.

Thanks! I have actually done your suggested exercise a little although I'll try it more now. I'm sure piano is more complex but right now it seems easier than Guitar to me because I can hit an F chord on piano!

I'm working on "The Donkey" so I'm just a couple of pages beyond. I worked on The Saints for quite a while but I've pretty much got the chord changes down.

I agree that right now piano seems easier than guitar. Big keys instead of little wires and all the notes right in a row!

Next week I'm going to start the eMedia course, I have it loaded on my laptop and ready to go. I got it on Amazon for $43 which I thought was very reasonable.

I'll use eMedia for a while and then go back to Alfred or perhaps even use the two together. I'll see how it goes.

Piano has even got me playing guitar more often. I'd slacked off for a while but I am transferring some new knowledge back to the guitar. I was pretty strictly a guitar tab guy now I'm spending a bit more time with sheet music.

I've encountered something now that I am curious about. In the Alfred's book pg 36 it shows the G7 chord as B,F,G. However over the weekend I purchased a piano chord chart and it shows G7 as G,B,D,F. Is this just a simplification for beginners or is there another reason for the difference?

Finfan

The GBDF is the correct notes for the G7 chord. But sometimes you'll find that one of the notes is dropped to make the chord easier to play. That's not just for beginners, you'll even see that in advanced pieces. Sometimes a note is dropped because it makes it easier to transition to the next chord in the piece. Also, a lot of times a note will be dropped in the chord, but you'll find that "dropped" note is being played in the melody by the other hand (so the full chord is still being played across both hands).