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I've been browsing various books of sheet music and see a lot of "easy piano" level books available. Right now I'm doing Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course level 1. Assuming I get through that book, would that be enough to start trying some "Easy piano" level music, or would it be better to wait until after level 2?

Shponglefan,

At the end of Alfred's Level 1, you would probably be between big-note and easy piano. Five finger pieces would most likely be easy, big note would be right what you are working on, and easy piano would be a stretch, but not an unreasonable one. (Five finger and big note are generally Hal Leonard terms, see below.)

I'd say that the majority of easy piano arrangements are probably closer to the middle to end of Alfred's Adult level 2, but if you are motivated enough, they should be something you could start working on.

Here are a couple of links that compare some of the different terms that are used by the publishers.

First is SheetMusicPlus's guidelines for their levels.
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/help/level-guidelines
This puts easy piano as about their level 4 (Intermediate). Alfred's Adult Level 1 puts you at about level 2. Some posters on the forums don't care for their standards because level 10 encompasses pieces over such a large range of difficulty, but to be honest the majority of pieces that the publishers sell are for lower levels. Also note that their levels are based more on a younger student instead of an adult.

Here are Hal Leonard's Music Notation links:
http://www.halleonard.com/musicNotationGuide.jsp
This is probably not as useful as the above chart.

Rich

I am at the end of Alfred's book 1 and have begun to play pieces from "Easy Classics to Moderns piano solos" book (available at Amazon). A benefit of this book is that the pieces are original compositions (not written in a different key or arranged to be "easy"), unlike other collections of "easy" piano pieces. I have a large book of easy piano classics but I don't enjoy playing from it as much because the pieces weren't originally written to be easy, but rather have been arranged to be easier. If you love and are very familiar with the piece you try to play, the changes might be disappointing (for example, I started to learn a Bach minuet from that book but the arrangement wasn't at all satisfying. I decided to stop and wait until I could play the piece as originally written).

Try "Classics to Moderns Book 1" and "More Classics to Moderns Book 1" Ditto for "Book 2", "More Book 2" etc.