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I can give you my two cents as far as difficulty levels of the various Faber Piano Adventure books. Using the Piano Teacher's Guild levels as a guide, here is what I see:

Level 1 Early Elementary
Levels 2A/B: Elementary
Level 3A: Late Elementary
Level 3B: Late Elementary / Early Intermediate
Level 4: Early Intermediate
Level 5: Intermediate

I would say that if you can get the harder pieces at the end of Level 5 up to the higher suggested speeds you would be bumping into Late Intermediate.

Everything builds up your technique if you follow the books exactly. Try not to skip too many pieces in each level, even though some of the pieces are not all that interesting.

There are even earlier books just made for young students. The final arbiter of course is the teacher.

Hello Brian, could you please just once again explain the difference between A and B at Levels 2 and 3. I have seen you mention this before but I wasn't really clear.
I am actually an intermediate player around Grade 3 ABRSM (never did exams or theory) and am buying the books to fill in theory/application of theory gaps in my knowledge (scales/chords) in order to progress in a more "intelligent" fashion. I took up piano seriously again recently after a gap of many years. I am not working with a teacher at this stage. Once I reach the point of feeling I am at where I left off and have filled in those gaps and that I need more practical, personal guidance, that may change. But not right now.
Would I be best going With A or B in your opinion? (Really, what is the difference). It was reading your thread that decided me to go with Faber and having seen the book contents on their website and the Fabers on YouTube. I could also email them but 'd like to have your opinion first.
Thank you.

Also wonder where you are at now you have finished the series, what is your next step? Massive achievement well done.

Yes. I got a piece from my teacher who asked me to figure out the fingering myself as a first step. But I found the going tough. So for now I've shelved it for a time when I am technically fit to play it with a bit more ease.

Hi Bach_ingMaddie. Love the name.

Nice to see another Sydneyite in this forum. Welcome.

I'd like to throw my two-pence bit into this tongue-in-cheek debate about whether having a good piano makes you play better. I think having a good piano (one you could afford off-course) does help as it makes you feel a bit more committed and slightly more confident. It is a bit like how putting on a suit makes you feel a bit more serious and confident whereas wearing jeans and a tee-shirt makes you feel more relaxed.

Hi Mario, thanks. Yes I am barking mad you'll be pleased to know. Did you get across to Crows Nest for the Fine FM music score, CD and book sale in the last few weeks by any chance? Many bargains to be had. There'll be another one in June if you missed it.

Struggling a bit -> I gave up.

Hi Barking-Mad,
No unfortunately I did not. Did not know about it.
Will keep the June one in my calendar.
Thanks for letting me know.

I will try again. Maybe when I finish Level 5 in a couple of years and progressed a bit in my jazz playing. Supposed to great for improvisation and hand separation.

OK Mario, dates are: Opening night Thurs 7 June 6pm-10pm then daily 9am - 6pm until 17 June. Address: Crows Nest Centre Ernest Street. It's like a community centre. Check out the Fine Music 102.5 FM website. They hold them in Five Dock as well, don't know dates though.

To your first question, the only real difference between A and B is that Levels 2 and 3 require a large number of skills that require them to be broken into two series of books to keep them manageable. In reality you can just consider these different levels because that's the way I approached them.

To your second question, quite frankly I have been struggling a bit since late last year to find a new purpose and specific goals. This past week I decided to concentrate on finishing Faber Developing Artist Book 3 which will take a year or more to complete. In some ways this is the ultimate "graduation" book from Faber, as everything beyond that (including DA Book 4) starts at later Intermediate. For example, DA Book 4 has Chopin pieces in original form, which I am clearly not quite ready to tackle yet.

Thanks Bach_ingMaddie.

I'm popping in to say hi! It's been a long while since I posted anything to this thread. I spent 2017 working through 3A and finished today. I'm going to try to be a little more regimented in 2018 and work through 3B between now and December 1, leaving the month of December to work on fun holiday songs (Charlie Brown Christmas, Nutcracker, etc).

BRIAN - congratulations on a massive accomplishment. PLEASE continue to post here so that everyone who is following this path can think about what comes after (even though for some of us, we won't get there until . . . 2021? Assuming that they even have pianos in space). But seriously congratulations. I read a lot of your posts from the 31 pages and you really worked hard on this for a long time.

EVERYONE ELSE - I'm interested to hear exactly what you are working on. Are you working with just the core four? Core four plus some Faber genre books (classics, blues & jazz, etc)? Books not published by Faber?

I like to have different things to play but also want to stay at a level where things are challenging but learnable, so I am aiming to work through the core four plus six other faber books that are around the 3B level:

Jazz & Blues
Ragtimes & Marches
Classics
Developing Artist Piano Literature Book 1
Developing Artist Piano Sonatinas Book 1
Discover Blues Improvisation

I'm going to try to work through two pages a day if I can manage, while hanging on to a rolling repertoire of 20 or so songs that I could play more or less on demand for friends and family. I've really enjoyed developing through the Faber books and am glad to have (a little belatedly) turned the page to a new set of books. Nice to see everyone here and I hope we can keep this thread alive!

Best,

Steve

Hi Steve,

Welcome back.

I am in the 2nd last unit of Level 4. I use the four core book mostly: Lessons, T&A, Theory, Performance and sometimes pieces from the jazz and blues 3B book. BTW for the specialized books always get a one which is one level below what you are as the books seem to be structured that way i.e. you need to finish a level before being able to play the piece from the specialized books.

My teacher is a jazz piano teacher so I am also learning jazz piano which at the moment means learning 2-5-1 chord progressions and how to improvise when you are just given the bare bones tune and chords in the jazz fake books. It is quite interesting.

Yes the going is tough and not all the pieces in the Faber series are interesting but I think working at it regardless will make one get the required skills to play more interesting pieces.

Hi Steve!

Developing Artist Literature Book 1 is a perfect compliment to Level 3B. I learned about half of the pieces and it was an enjoyable experience. The Sonatinas book was a bit more challenging so I skipped that.

As I went through Level 4 my and I teacher and I bumped things up a bit. I learned every single piece in Developing Artist Literature Book 2, and some of them were very challenging (e.g. Schumann's Happy Farmer). However, that really helped with the challenges ahead in Level 5.

Best of luck!

Hi Mario! It looks like you are getting nearer the real masterpiece of The Faber series, Prelude in C by Bach in original form. Of all the classical music I listen to on Pandora, this is the only piece I've actually learned and played in front of an audience. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the encouragement Brian.

Yes I am too looking forward to playing Prelude in C. I could not resist and so did have a go at it a few weeks ago. But I think I will now leave it for the end.

Good evening fellow Faber enthusiasts. I hope everyone is doing well.

I guess this thread is the best place to announce my retirement from this forum, at least for quite a while. Its been a great 4 years with over 2,000 posts, however a few new things have started to take up more of my time (not illness thank goodness!) and I feel it is time to take a break.

It's really a hard thing to drive yourself so hard for 4+ years to accomplish something which at the beginning I thought was impossible, that is, finish six distinct levels of the Faber series in under 5 years. Well now that it is done, I need to find something to further motivate me to continue on with this marvelous pastime. I'm still looking unfortunately. Wish me luck, hopefully I'll be back sometime in the future.

Brian

Good luck! I have enjoyed reading your posts. Stop by once in a while to let us know what you are doing...

Hi Brian,

That is quite an achievement. You obviously drove yourself pretty hard to accomplish all that in under 5 years. You are a true motivation to all of us.

Best of luck with your future endevours. Please keep this forum open for us and please post occasionally to keep us updated.