Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Faber Graduates

Hi Ralph. I think the bottom line is that if you are motivated with good practice habits and at some point professional instruction, any decision as to what books to proceed with will work for you.

I've done a lot of research on this, and spoken to my teacher at length. We both feel that the basic structure of the Piano Adventures series works better overall for both kids and adults. Why? Because the structure of the series with each level having a set of "core" books works really well. You have the Lesson, Theory, Performance, Technique, and Sight-Reading books working together to teach skills.

At least for me and my wife, this structure (along with our fabulous teacher) has worked extremely well.

Now, here is the slight problem with the PA series:
The look and feel of the early PA levels (Prep, 1, 2A, 2B) definitely has a "kids" feel to it. However, Levels 3A and up feel more adult oriented (albeit with nifty graphics and other things).

This is where the Accelerated PA for Older Beginners comes into play. It replaces all of the PA books through 2B, and has a more adult feel to it. This is the series our teacher starts adults using.

If someday Faber published a "Level 3" and "Level 4" Accelerated PA series, our teacher would probably go with that. But they don't, so at 3A kids and adults merge together.

Having said that, Levels 3A, 3B, and 4 have recently had second editions published, and these books are pretty amazing IMHO.

Regardless of your decision, best of luck, and as always, keep us up to date!

Had my first meeting with my teacher today. I was super nervous that I was pretty much doing everything wrong when learning on my own!

He asked me to bring along what I was working on so I brought along the 2B Lesson book and played "Deck the Keys". He gave me a few pointers, complimented me on my position and quizzed me on some of the notes and chords as I played.

He then skipped me ahead to Unit 9's Lazy Chord Blues and spent maybe half an hour working on this short piece, giving me pointers on timing, counting, where I should emphasise, encouraging more confident playing, playing one hand where I played the other on problem bars, making me sing (!) the piece to get a better feel of the music. Then, when I had the piece down, working it further by adding a bit of a swing and trying different stuff out, like adding a bit of pedal to a bar that wasn't marked, but had harmony (I definitely wouldn't have recognised this).

So, yes, having a teacher is definitely recommended!

I'm continuing to work on Lazy Chord Blues for now, and maybe trying the New World Symphony on the following page if I have time. In a regular lesson he'd set proper homework and challenges, and my first real lesson may be less than a week away, depending on where I can fit into his lesson schedule.

I think we're going to continue with PA, for now at least, because I'm happy working through it. He said he doesn't normally work with method books because he usually works with grades 6-8 on their own repertoire. I said that I like the variety of it, and mentioned my fondness for ragtime. He's classically trained, but said he enjoys playing that ragtime too, so that's good news!

He'd also just moved in and hadn't had the piano tuned yet. It was pretty hilarious going from my perfectly tuned digital keyboard to a slightly wonky-sounding acoustic.

Anyway, all good so far, and I've got a great deal out of it already. Onwards!

Great news Trevor! Weekly updates please...

Well on Wednesday night we finished our duet at the end of level 3B, so that finishes that series. Took 11 months to complete.

So far the first couple pieces and exercises in Level 4 are really interesting, and yes, kinda hard. But after a week or so working with The Maple Leaf Rag things are starting to click.

Another example where Faber understands what a student at this level can really handle. Now I can't play at 144 bpm yet, and may not for quite some time. Having said that, the piece sounds great at 120 bpm, and that's probably good enough to pass this within a week or two.

Great news on Book 4, Brian. I've had a listen to some of the pieces in Book 4, and the accompanying books (Take the A Train, in Bigtime Popular I think, sounds great) and there are some really nice pieces in there.

Looks like my regular lesson day will be a Tuesday now from next week. Wish me luck!

Congrats Brian.

I am still in the third last unit of 3A. I decided that I will try to play The Fly's Adventure semi-decently and at the lowest tempo of the recommended range before moving on. The toughest part for me is getting the timing right for the part where it goes down with a series of triplet-quarter combos. I am getting the timing right sometimes.

Our purchase of a labrador puppy has slowed my practicing a bit as she's that age where she wants constant attention and we love giving her that.

Hey, puppies need attention to. Our family was blessed with a Labrador for many years when our kids were young.

Maybe your dog will start to sing along with your pieces at some point...

Good luck with The Fly. You're a better man than I....

Congrats on the new puppy, Mario. We got a Whippet a couple of months ago. I usually play with headphones, but when I play without he usually sits wide-eyed as if to say "what the heck is that noise and where is it coming from."

He's pretty hilarious.

Congrats Brian on moving to Book 4. Trevor, do keep us posted on how your lessons. For those of us without a teacher, these insights are helpful. Looks like everyone else is making progress too.

I too practice every morning for the pets. Our old dog seems to simply tolerate it, the cats ignore it but the bird occasionally sings along. Or perhaps he is just trying to tell me to play the right notes.

Getting ready to tackle Greensleeves in AAiO1 after finishing up Half-time Band.

Greensleeves is great. You can pretend that you're Vince Guaraldi!

In teacher news, my regular lesson will now be every Tuesday from next week. It seems like ages away, but then I haven't nailed New World Symphony yet.

The arranged version of the New World Symphony is a wonderful piece, where the essence of Dvorak really comes through.

It was a pleasure to learn, and I kept it in my repertoire for over a year.

It's fun to play, and I love the dramatic chords at the beginning (and/or end).

I didn't play for a day, though, and completely forgot how to play it! Took me 10 minutes to figure out where my fingers should be again. I must make sure I practice the day before my lesson!

That's pretty funny.

The first time I played without the headphones she politely sat and listened but after a few seconds gave a big yawn, went straight back to her crate, put her paws over her ears and went to sleep.

She is a lot of fun. But needs constant attention in the few hours she is not sleeping.

I think I have finally got my timing right after playing with a metronome. Now I just need to up the tempo from 140 to 150 and I think I'll be ready to record. May take me a week or so. Another reason I am persevering with this piece is because it is an easy piece to keep in memory and sounds wonderful.

I was quite hoping that Rexie (our pup) would sing along as some pups in YouTube, but obviously she is not an admirer of my work. Don't blame her though.

Hello, this is my first post on this thread. I recently changed teachers for a number of reasons. After two weeks I know I made the right decision. I don't want to say anything bad about my previous teacher but felt something was missing.

Anyways, I am now having to take a step back. We are changing from Alfred'a All In One to Faber. I had looked at the Faber series but my previous teacher preferred Alfred's. So now I am working on Faber 2A.

I think this will be a good part of the Journey. Working on The Merry Widow Waltz this week.

Welcome aboard! I never played that piece because I jumped in at 2B, but it sounds like fun. Enjoy!

As for me, my first proper piano lesson this evening. Wish me luck!

First proper lesson, and I definitely had a bout of "I played this better at home". I just kept messing up and the hour flew past. Very frustrating.

Anyway, still on New World Symphony but with some new fingering, pedalling, and intonations to work on.

I'm a bit worried, now I'm home, that I only have one piece to play for a whole week. I'll ask of I can work on a couple of pieces at a time next week, to save my sanity.

Sounds like one of my typical lessons, TrevorM

I generally like to have a couple of different pieces to work on during the week, in addition to an exercise or two. Faber has many different exercises to learn in conjunction with the lesson book, and I find many of them challenging and a kind of change of pace during a practice session.

Welcome aboard our thread Bsw! Lots of good stuff going on here (I think?). Keep us informed as to your progress.

Lesson two done. Played terribly again (although I loosened up towards the end)… hopefully I'll start to relax over time!

Still with Piano Adventures and moving onto Duke of York's Strut while polishing New World Symphony a bit more. Teacher seems impressed by PA and is happy to continue using them. I'm also practicing scales for, I think, the first time ever: A major and Bb major. Next week he's also going to introduce a longer piece to work on as well, which I'm looking forward to. He's going to email me a couple of options to choose from.