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Hi All, Blackjack To a Wild Rose is a nice piece, thanks for post. I am still grinding away, currently working on The Magic Piper in the key of Bb Major. Do you guys mark your flats on your music sheets when you see e.g. a B or E in the key of Bb Major? It would be nice to just automatically play them as flats. Well, that's all for now. Happy Piano to you all !

Birdgolf thanks!

If there are 2 or 3 sharps/flats in the signature I will usually go through with a highlighter and mark up the music to help remind me which ones need to go no the black keys.

Although, I have noticed that on Danny Boy which has 3 flats in the key signature that I didn't do that this time so I think I'm slowly getting better at hitting those black keys

Birdgolf,
There are no rules about what you're allowed to do with your sheet music. If you want to highlight sharps and flats of the key signature then go ahead (I used to do that myself, eventually you won't need to). If you want to change the fingering to something that fits better with your hand, go for it. If you want to write chord symbols above the staff to help you learn to recognize chord patterns, that can be quite a useful thing to do. Do whatever will help you.

With that said, I like to photocopy my scores before I mark them up (I mark up the copies and leave the original in pristine condition). That's worthwhile as well.

Warm Regards,
Fizikisto

I had my lesson this morning and I'm still polishing up Danny Boy, but it is really starting to sound good.

I'm also working on a little Bach Polonaise which is quite challenging and a little modern piece.

The best part of my lesson though, was at the end my teacher gave me 3 sight reading excerpts to play through and I did really well on all 3 of them. Normally, I completely bomb on sight reading so it was really a nice change from how I was doing over the last few weeks. Hopefully I can keep it up!

It's been way too long since I last posted so I just wanted to give a quick update.

I finished Danny Boy a couple weeks back and my teacher passed me on it and she was really impressed with what I had done with the piece. I'm hoping ot record it this weekend and post it. I've been a bit lazy lately with doing some of the things I normally do like recording so I'll try to work up the energy and motivation and do it this weekend.

I'm definitely going out of order in Alfred's and I think I will pick Loch Lomond next which is another song that I used to sing in school when I was a kid so that one should be fun.

I also passed Ivan Sings which is a little Level 4 piece for my exam and I will also record it this weekend.... hopefully. If you enjoy minor keys and a bit of sad melody this is a really nice piece to learn so I recommend it for any of the folks on this thread looking for something outside of Alfred's.

And I'm continuing to work on a Bach Polonaise which I basically have memorized but is not at all comfortable or flowing so I have a bunch of work to do there. I have been lazy with it and my teacher knows it so I need to try harder on it this week.

I hope everyone is doing well and progressing!

It’s good to hear from Blackjack and his progress. I wanted to complete Alfreds book 2 before
Christmas but doesn’t look like it with 16 songs to go. I have really slowed down. I often wonder how
Many people are working in the second book since we have very few respondents. Cheers, Birdgolf

I did the first book and am working on the second. I struggle but keep trying. For a couple of weeks now I have been forcing myself to keep my eyes on the music and feel for where the notes are. Of course it is slow but I learning the keyboard that way without depending on looking down. I think in the long run it will be much better because by keeping my eye on the music, I don't lose my place.

birdgolf nice to see your post in here, which piece are you working on right now?

sue_deutscher I too struggle with lots of piano related things so keep up the good work and eventually we all will improve. Which piece are you working on?


OK I finally got ambitious this morning and recorded a couple of pieces that my teacher passed me on. The first is Danny Boy which is towards the back of the Alfred's book and the second is Ivan Sings which is a nice little outside piece my teacher found for me.

Hope you enjoy them.

Danny Boy --> Danny Boy

Ivan Sings -->Ivan Sings

Hey Blackjack...I listened to D.B. and I.S. and liked them. Thanks for posting. I am on page 110 in Alfred's, 'He's Got the Whole World In His Hands.' Hey look mom ! I can play chords with my right hand now ! Do you post a soundcloud for HGTWWIHHs ? Sometimes I play an eighth note as a quarter and it throws off the rhythm. But I'm learning this song. It's different to play in Bb major after playing in C, F, & G for so long. I can't decide whether to move on to Faber Piano Adventures Level 4, or continue on with Alfred's Book 3 when I do finish Alfred's Book 2. About two years ago (after I graduated from Level 3A) I purchased all of the level 4 books i.e. Lesson, Performance, Technique, Theory, Sight reading, Popular Repertoire, even Christmas. But then I stumbled on Alfred's and the rest is history. Hope everyone is doing well. Regards, Birdgolf

Hi Birdgolf thanks for listening and glad to see your update in here!

I didn't post HGTWWIHHs yet because I haven't gotten to that song - you're still several songs ahead of me. I'm at p 104 Battle Hymn of the republic. But I've started skipping around because I really wanted to play Danny Boy. And will probably do Loch Lomond next since that is a song I remember singing as a kid in school.

I think a lot of people struggle with whether to continue with Alfred's or change to a different method or skip the method books altogether. I have Alfred's 3 and will probably stick with it although I'm not sure I'll play every song in Alfred's 2 or 3 since I've been working on a lot of outside and pieces it's really slowed my Alfred's work down a lot! At the current rate I will finish Alfred's 2 in about 5 years

Good luck and hope to see some more post soon!

Working on The House of the Rising Sun this week. Book 2 is going more slowly than Book 1, I think in part because I am also working in the Jennifer Linn book (see signature), which I find much more difficult.

To those who celebrate Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving.

I added Ballin’g the Jack to my learning songs in the Bb Major section
of the book. Can only play around a 20bpm tempo right now. I admire those
of you that also work on outside pieces.

Hi,
I have been working on Blow the Man Down for like 6 weeks and no matter what, I can't get it down.
It just completely eludes me for some reason.
I have just started using my metronome at like 60 to help learn it.
The piece just sounds wrong to me somehow.
I am ready to move on to the next piece as spending as much time as I have with this seems counterproductive at this point.
Any suggestions are more than welcome.
Thanks
Joe

Sometimes it is good to move on and then come back in a couple of months. You might even need to go slower than 60 until you get the timing down. It will eventually come to you.

I’ve just done “Money Can’t Buy Everything” and the D7 chord study. I’m doing “Ode To Joy” from my video lessons. It feels like slow going but I notice progress on a weekly basis.

Joe302, I’ve heard others talk of that piece and seen it advised to maybe back up a couple of lessons and step away from that it for a bit. I haven’t got to it yet so I’m no authority. I’m actually a bit nervous about it. Keep us posted please as you tackle it. Happy playing.

I knew something was off. We are in the book 2 thread.

Keep posting in book 2 thread, we need the activity !!!

I will ask since I’m here. Does anybody have a tip on “Blow The Man Down” from book 1? Thanks and I hope to be in this thread soon.

In my opinion there are a fair number of pieces in the Alfred's books (both Book 1 and Book 2) that don't sound like they "should." In other words, they have names indicating that they are pieces you are familiar with, but then when you play them, they do indeed sound "wrong" even though you are playing them the way they are written. I have found that it helps just to play them the way they are written even though they do not sound right. If you know someone who plays piano well, have that person play the piece for you. I bet you are playing it correctly.

I just keep running into posts where people seem to find it difficult and I guess I’m looking to settle my anxiety over it. I’ve got a few lessons to go before I get to it anyway. I plan to treat it as I do others just working at it slowly, doing it in bits and so on. It’s all fun.