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

Hey everyone!

Sorry to hear so many are leaving the Piano Adventures train… but it's great that we've all progressed this far and that the folks that are leaving are doing so because the Faber books have taught them so much!

I've talked to my teacher about following the ABRSM syllabus and, maybe, later down the line, doing the grade 5 exam for real. I don't feel any need to prove myself (at 40 you really start to not care what other people think!), but it's nice to have a goal. I suggested that I was about a grade 2-3 level and he agreed and suggested maybe a 4, but I think that's pushing it… or maybe I don't have enough confidence. Either way, I'm behind on quite a lot of things like scales and all that other stuff, they can't be too hard to learn, right?

Anyway, I feel like I've got about as far as I can in the Piano Adventures books. I'm currently studying "The Spy" in Book 4, which is actually a lot of fun (even if I can't get my left and right hands to play nicely yet!). And I'll definitely be coming back to play the arrangement of the Jurassic Park theme in the Book 4 Popular Repertoire book.

I think I mentioned before that I was trying out some Scott Joplin? I think I got ahead of myself there. It was great fun to get to play some, but I was making such slow progress that it became a chore. I'll come back to those again in a few months.

Mario, I didn't do 3B, but if you're really struggling with a piece it's sometimes just worth moving on, and coming back later. Often your brain and fingers will just figure it out while you're not working on it. That's the case for me, anyway! Also, I often found that I struggled on particular styles of music, and that the next piece would be really easy in comparison. Finally, always the oldest and most obvious bit of advice that I forget, too: slow down and take it one bar at a time. You'll get over that hurdle soon enough, just keep at it.

For speed, what I've been doing is playing with the metronome at a speed that I can accomplish pretty easily. Then bump the speed up by a notch, stay there till I have it, then go up another notch. Really, it's that easy, it's a very gentle way to get to where you want to be, speed-wise. I'm doing this with the Bach piece I'm playing, you get used to it.

I guess speed will come with time. Right now I am concentrating on getting the timing right as for example triplets sound horrible when the timing is off and it usually goes off when I try to play too fast.

Hi Mario;

My wife is currently learning the Malaguena in Level 3A and she is having the same issue. My advise to her: determine a comfortable speed that she can play each triplet sequence; then go back and play that tempo on the quarter note for the entire piece. That way, it doesn't sound like she is slowing down when she gets to the triplets.

The first link appears to have the new 2016 cover. 2002 was apparently its original publication date.

It's worth getting the newer edition if you can as it has free accompanying videos and audio via their website https://pianoadventures.com/online-support-for-adult-piano-adventures/

The second one comes with a CD, but that's available on their website for free anyway so not worth the bother.

For example in the older version, once in a while you would come to a piece which in part or whole was relatively difficult to play and slowed your progress.

Has anyone else played The Spy in Book 4? I'm currently working on it but I just can't get my hands to relax while playing, particularly the right hand. And because my hand is automatically tensing up it's becoming painful to play.

This hasn't happened before and I assume it's because the right hand is a series of fast-ish chords? The frustrating thing about it is that I'm aware of the tension but fixing it seems completely out of my control. I'm really starting to hate it and I've only got the first 10 bars or so down.

Good luck Trevor!

So far (mid-way through Level 4) this is my favorite Nancy Faber piece. It is hard to play correctly, but such fun to learn and listen to, that it is worth the effort to get it down correctly.

I have to say I love that piece. Just heard it from TinyMozart on YouTube. Nice jazzy little piece. Can't wait to get to it.

I have to say I am a bit tempted to still try the Level 5 Lesson and Performance books (there are no Technique or Sight-reading books), but my teacher seems to be against the idea.