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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, mom3gram!!!!

Happy birthday!

I found this file on the desktop today. I had been meaning to post it here. It's my (very) personal opinion on all the songs in Book 2 and what learning them was like. Not sure anyone will be interested, but I am going to post it anyway. Bear in mind that my teacher goes quite fast and we don't usually practice the songs to perfection. However, I trust him since he is obviously very familiar with the book and has taken a lot of students through it.

Down in the Valley – I can almost sight read it, but not quite.

Bridal Chorus – More difficult than it looked, and I didn't really like it.

Guantanamera – I like this arrangement very much. It uses a lot of stuff from book 1 but in a new way. The rhythm and dynamics are quite difficult but it is very educational to learn this one. It is the first piece in the book which is harder (or as hard as) the final stretch pieces in book 1.

Overture – Pleasant but not very memorable. Another one that I can't quite sight read.

Light and Blue – Something slightly off about it.

Hungarian Rhapsody – skipped.

Morning has Broken – really fun and encourages improvisation and experimentation.

Alexander's Ragtime Band – liked it a lot. Didn't play it quite as well as I hoped in my lesson.

Solace – Very difficult, but educational. Did not master it.

La Bamba – The "Blow the Man Down" of book 2. A massive step up in difficulty.

La Raspa – Not Alfred's finest hour.

For he's a Jolly Good Fellow – Vanilla arrangement.

Maxican Hat Dance – Another rather difficult one and I didn't feel that the pay off was worth it for this one.

Tarantella – Quite fun. Throwaway piece. The book gets much better after this!

Festive Dance – Some dynamics etc. I found this one quite educational as well.

Scherzo – I hate these cutesy songs composed by the authors of the book.

Introduction and Dance – Loved this one. Spent several weeks on it.

Streets of Laredo – One of the easier ones although the final line is difficult (I think there's a surprise E minor chord in there or something.)

Plaisir d'Amour – Really liked this arrangement.

House of the Rising Sun – Very similar to the previous song. Tricky chords.

Sakura – Fairly easy but sounds nice.

Waves of the Danube – Also sounds good. Some difficult bits.

Calypso Carnival – More difficult than it looks. Sounds surprisingly good. I kept playing the wrong chords.

You're in my Heart – It's OK. Doesn't really introduce anything new.

Divertimento in D – Found it extremely difficult.

Brahms's Lullaby – I think this is better than the arrangement in Book 1, but I would rather have a new song!

Lonesome Road – skipped, but I quite like it.

Village Dance – fun and one of the very easiest in the book. I'd like to know what this tune is actually called. It's klezmer presumably?

Circus March – Another educational one that is more difficult than it looks.

The Hokey-Pokey – Or Hokey Cokey. It was very useful for me. Found it tough.

Chorale – Just an exercise I think?

Night Song – Found it extremely hard

Hava Nagila – Very much enjoyed this arrangement. Much better than the one in Faber. But it is spread over too many pages.

Space Shuttle Blues – The last blues song in Alfred! Liked it.

Olympic Precession – Managed to play it well for a short time. Huge jumps. Can't play it at all now.

Chorale – Another exercise?

Aloha Oe – Sounds really good. The rolled chords are hard to learn so there is a lot of value in this one.

Black Forest Polka – Another ragtime song. Tended to play it too fast.

Pomp and Circumstance – Found this extremely difficult and only ever got a shaky version.

Dark Eyes – Great song. I wish this arrangement was longer.

Etude – Spent a lot of time on this one and could play it well for a while.
Definitely very educational. Improved my playing a lot.

Swinging Sevenths – Hated it. But I guess it's OK if you view it as a useful exercise rather than a piece of music.

Polovetsian Dances – Not the most thrilling arrangement.

Bourlesq – An actual real keyboard composition. Very hard because of the moving left hand. I can't believe the speed you are supposed to play this at! I don't think I will ever manage to play that fast.

Arkansas Traveller – Quite a fun one.

Musetta's Waltz – Had difficulty with this in places. Fairly enjoyable.

Battle Hymn – skipped.

The Riddle – A nice one with melody in both hands. Helped me a lot.

Magic Piper – Not memorable.

He's Got the Whole World – Another repeat of a book 1 song. Kind of depressing that they can't pick something else, given the large number of songs in the public domain. The LH pattern is very difficult to learn but I have to admit that it sounds pretty good. I would have liked to spend more time on this one.

Ballin' the Jack – Despite spending several weeks on it, never got it really good. It is just a bit too hard for me at this stage.

Nobody Knows – One of only three songs from which I got a "v.g" (very good) from my teacher. Also the easiest one in the entire book!

La Donna e Mobile – Some very hard bits. Didn't get it 100% accurate but it is quite fun to play.

Frankie and Johnny – Not the nicest arrangement but the 8th notes in the left hand are very educational so I got some value from it. Also very difficult to keep the rhythm accurate throughout because of the pauses in the melody.

Black is the Colour of My True Love's Hair – OK I suppose.

When Johnny Comes Marching Home – A nice easy one.

Waltz in G Minor – Quite nice and again, more difficult than it looked.

Symphony No. 6 – I really liked this one. I was quite surprised by how good it sounded.

Fascination – A 1900s pop song I think. I would have liked to spend a bit more time on this one as I did not get it really good.

Deep River – My favourite of the book. Performed in recital.

Loch Lomond – Definitely a fun one but there is a weird note early on. Not too hard after some of the difficult songs that have gone before.

Love's Greeting – Extremely hard. Didn't get it really good.

Marriage of Figaro – The 16th notes! I didn't do a really good job on this but my teacher was satisfied that I had done better than most people at this stage, and he has obviously taken a lot of students through this book, so we moved on quickly.

Danny Boy – Enjoyed it very much. Difficult to learn but easier than Ballin' the Jack.

Canon in D – skipped because my teacher hates it!

Thanks for the birthday wishes, Albunea.

Blackjack, congrats on passing your exam! And average on sight reading doesn't sound "deplorable" to me. LOL! But it never hurts to work on sight reading. I'm not very good at it either, but I've improved a lot this year thanks to the 40 piece challenge. You are working on some advanced stuff for a Book 2-er. I'm impressed!

C#cyclist, good luck on your exams.

Mom3gram Happy belated birthday! I've seen that you've been finishing a lot of piece so you're really making good progress! Definitely finishing more pieces than me. I've been very slow lately.

bSharp I took it through the Music Teachers association for California. It's called Certificate of Merit (CM). And it tests theory, aural, repertoire, technique and sight reading. It took a lot of preparation but I really thought it was useful. Good luck on your RCM test!

Cool, thanks Blackjack. My teacher recommended RCM, so I went with that. I do however have the Keyboard Sight Reading Exercises from MTAC (Music Teachers' Association of California) by Kuo. You can purchase them through the link below, if anyone is interested.

http://www.mtac.org/store/

Thanks UTKONOS for your opinions on the songs in book 2. I enjoyed reading the summaries. Did you move on to the third book? Also Happy Birthday to Mom3gram.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, Blackjack and Birdgolf.

Hello Friends, I miss my piano 😩. On vacation for while in Oceanside.

I had my lesson earlier this week so I'll post a little update.

I have hands together on Pomp and Circumstance pretty solid now. And I started adding the pedal this morning. My next lesson isn't for another week and a half so I'm crossing my fingers I will have it down well enough to pass it

My Bach Prelude in C is also coming along nicely. I have hands together although there are some spots I need to work on, and I also need to add dynamics.

I'm also finishing up the second movement of the Beethoven Sonatina which I'm also hoping I might pass in my next lesson. I think I will probably submit this piece in the next quarterly recital. It should be finished in time.

I passed my technical exercise in my latest lesson and I'm working on a new one which is based on the chromatic scale. It's pretty easy because we learned the chromatic scale in Alfred's already.

Birdgolf, enjoy Oceanside and your vacation. I'm in Vegas next week for a few days so I will be missing my piano too.

Hope everyone is doing well and has a nice weekend!

Hi All! Hope everyone is enjoying their Passover & Easter

Happy Belated Birthday mom3gram! In some parts of the world it's customary to wish people Happy Birthday after the fact. Dunno where but apparently I'm from there...

Been a while since I've last popped in here and looks like everyone's been busy with good progress by all

Thinks have slowed down considerably the past few months. What little time I've manage to spend at the piano has been on assignments with very little "play time", so getting very rusty with my usual repertoire.
Currently polishing off "Circus March", "Hokey Pokey" & "Night Song". Will be meeting up with my teacher later this month and hope to pass them. I really enjoy night song as it'd good for dynamics, which I now start working from the beginning when learning something new. All in all I didn't find it as difficult as some have said. "Hava Nagila" on the other hand.. gotta say I'm battling with this one. My issue is with the left hand and been practicing it very slowly (and I mean VERY slow) to a metronome.

I see some of you miss the piano while away on vacations. If I'm away for any length of time I pop into music stores and test drive what's on display. When asked by a sales assistant I just tell them I'm thinking of upgrading and seeing what's out there. They're happy with that and I get my practice time in on different instruments..

Hello Friends, Back from a wonderful beach vacation. Yup, my play got a little rusty while away. Working on Space Shuttle Blues (love that one!); Olympic Procession (some parts hard to play without looking); and Farewell to Thee. Happy Easter and thank you Jesus.

Hi all,

Birdgolf, I really liked that Space shuttle blues too. I had a fun time trying to master that mix between triplets and regular 8th notes. Fun song.

I'm still working to polish that Chopin Etude for a summer recital.

My teacher also want me to try taking Bourlesq WAY faster. We were doing it around 120 for an 8th note but it could be almost twice as fast. I'll enjoy trying, but I find I can't work at it too long before my left forearm gets tired trying to play those repeated octaves.

I'm also working on the theme from Musetta's Waltz, for some reason I really find it hard to hit the right notes on those arpeggio's without looking at my hands.

I'm starting on The Magic Piper and "He's go the whole world..." That last one seems really tough to put HT.

Anyways, I've got tons to work on, and it's always fun. Hope you're all doing well.

Alux nice to see an update from you, looks like you're working through some really nice pieces I enjoyed Night Songs that was one of my favorites

Birdgolf Welcome back from vacation!

JasonR nice to see some new members posting in here. I'm right behind you working on Dark Eyes. Good luck with working Bourlesq up to speed.

I had my lesson today and it went pretty well, I really enjoyed it. I passed my Pomp and Circumstance piece from Alfred' s and also my technique piece from Dozen a Day. I will start working on Dark Eyes this week which I really enjoyed the sound of when my teacher played it.

I'm sooooo close to passing my Beethoven Sonatina but I will need one more week on it. A little disappointed I couldn't pass today but it is what it is...

The Bach prelude is still pretty rough I think a couple weeks out. I need to work on some rhythm issues and start putting the dynamics into it.

Overall though I'm slowly making progress....

Hope you all have a nice weekend and post some updates soon.

I'm back from 6 days at my son's home over Easter. No access to a piano, so I too am a bit rusty. Still working on Brahms' Lullaby and Lonesome Road Glad to see several people posting in this thread while I was gone.

mom3gram welcome back from your Easter vacation.

Short update, for me this weekend I worked on Dark Eyes and I almost have hands together. It's a nice little Russian folk tune.

Well today I was singed off on "Circus March", "Hokey Pokey" & "Night Song". Need to continue with "Hava Nagila". Anyone else have issues with fingering from measures 47 onwards until it reaches the repeat or is it just me?

Asides from that I've been assigned "Space Shuttle Blues", "Olympic Procession" & "Aloha Oe" to keep me busy for a while.

It's my first time over here. I went through Alfred's AIO level 1 and then stared level 2. I wasn't thrilled with the songs so I also purchased Faber's Level 2. Well, it looks like that series goes at a bit of a slower pace, but I like some of the songs better. Actually I like some in each book. Any opinions on Faber's series compared to Alfred's?

I took Faber through Piano Adventures 3B and their Adult course 1 & 2. In PA they have core books that sync with the Lesson Book. It is a dilemma for me whether to go back to level 4 after finishing Alfred's AIO BOOK 2 or go on to book 3. Problem is that I like both Faber & Alfred. IMO they are both excellent.

I did both Alfred and PA (Fabler) books 1. I was more than halfway through Alfred Book 1 and was finding the pieces I was working on quite difficult, and someone mentioned that the PA books were easier, so I bought book 1. I think that for a self learner, the Alfred books themselves are easier to follow, although the music in the PA books is more musical, and in the later pages much easier than the Alfred book. As I said, I liked the instructions in the Alfred books better, so I am doing Alfred Book 2, although I think from time to time about buying Book 2 of the PA series also. They are both good - in different ways.

Alux nice to see your latest updates, congrats on passing "Circus March", "Hokey Pokey" & "Night Song". And good luck on the new pieces it looks like you have plenty to work on!

My update - I had my lesson today and I passed "Dark Eyes" and also the second movement of the Beethoven Sonatina! So I am officially finished with that piece.

It was super fun and I recorded it. I think it's one of my favorite pieces that I've learned because it was within my capability, it wasn't a stretch piece, it sounds fancy and it's just a nice happy little piece. I placed a recording of it here:

Beethoven - Sonatina in G Major (Anh. 5 No. 1)

I'm starting work on Swinging Sevenths in Alfred's which is a really cool piece. I think its the first jazz style piece I've played. I love the sound of the 7th chords.

I'm also working on finish a Bach little prelude which is probably still a couple weeks out. I'm struggling a bit with it right now.

I also did a bit of sight reading in my lesson today which was nice.

Hope everyone is well and progressing nicely. Enjoy the weekend.