Hello all,

I was just wondering what student's who finish the Alfred's All In One Course Books 2 or 3 consider themselves, e.g., advanced beginnner, beginning intermediate or advanced intermediate? I've read on this forum that people have finished book 1 in 3-6 months, book 2 seems to take approximately 1 year, and book three about 1 year. So I was wondering what the level of skill is upon completion of either book?

Thanks

It has taken me about a year for each book. I've been taking lessons for about four years. I am in the middle of Alfred's Book 3 and my instructor considers me as an intermediate. I think I am somewhere past beginner intermediate but not quite to advanced, not by a long shot.

Ok. That is good to know!! I was beginning to think that once you complete the Alfred's series you are still at the beginner level. So did you take lessons for a couple years before starting Alfred's?

I'm in the back of book 3 and will be there for an extended time doing some ambitious pieces as well as cleaning up others earlier in the book. I still go back to some stuff in books 1 and 2. I've been at it over two years but practice 2-3 hours a day, everyday. I feel like I am a late beginner. My teacher just recently had me get a book of intermediate pieces though...

Also note, I'm very much a hack and probably have to work twice as hard as the average person...

Hi Princeton3,

First we would have to agree on what levels we are using. And what intermediate means. That's not as easy as it sounds. One person's intermediate may be another person's beginners level.

Second, there is a pretty big increase in difficulty between the main part of Alfred's book 3 and the challenge pieces.

If by levels you mean the early elementary, elementary, late elementary, early intermediate, etc markings that publishers put on books, then I would tend to say that finishing all of Alfred's except the challenge section puts you somewhere around early intermediate. The challenge pieces are roughly intermediate, but they may take more experience to play them musically.

If, however, you are planing to eventually play something like Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, then you are probably still taking baby steps.

Hope this helps.

Rich

What ever do you mean?

Just pop in the CD and hit 'play'--you are now playing Liszt's Transcendental Etudes

Comparing the books to one of the 'graded lists' that someone wrote on this website, by the time you finish the books, you are around late level 3/early level 4 (according to the ABRSM test, methinks).

Hi Princeton,

I think it all depends on your ability once you reach the end of book 3. Also your teacher has a major role in helping you develop.

I think adding supplemental pieces other than arrangements might help or speed up the process a little.

I got half way through Alfreds Adult all in one before we abandoned it completely. My teacher prefers original pieces and we've been doing this for a year now. My teacher just doesn't like method books and arrangements and although I wanted to continue with Alfred's I'm glad I trusted her and let it go. It's a different world going from arrangements with tons of chords to original pieces.

I'll hit my 3 year mark in a couple months due to the 2 months I went without a teacher when I was between teachers.

I'm by no means talented or gifted and I have a long way to go but I'm playing Intermediate pieces ranging from level 3 to level 6. The level 5's and 6's are classified as such and I'm not sure why because they seem more like level 3-4 pieces. One example is Chopins Waltz in A minor and Brahms Waltz 39. no 15.

There are some people with above average talent and I would say even gifted who achieve far greater levels in 1 or 2 years. Two who come to mind are Z32 and Theowne both members of this forum.

I think levels are a good guide line but I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket as Dragonplayer was explaining being particular to each person.

Good luck!

Hmmm. I'm near completion of Book 1, probably about 6 weeks to go. It will have taken me about 13 months. So I must really be slow. However, about 6 weeks ago my teacher told me (unsolicited) "you don't sound like a beginner anymore." That was highly encouraging. I guess she was referring to the musicality of the piece, "Why am I Blue," I was playing at the time.

Actually we just mostly consider or think of ourselves as "piano students", which is an on-going, perhaps never-ending, pursuit of mostly satisfying joy - and seldom think about what skill level we're at (too busy practicing and struggling to sound somewhat musical).

And when we finish each successive Book in the instructional series we consider ourselves to be (1) very proud of ourselves, (2) extremely happy about our accomplishment, (3) mostly satisfied with our progress so far, (4) eager to move on to more challenging and musically entertaining works and (5) looking forward to sharing our playing skills and the trials and tribulations and joys and conquests of our journey with those who care.

While it's sometimes tempting and somewhat interesting to speculate on your pianistic "level" at any given point, it's only of limited value and essentially of little use because it's (1) always changing little by little and hopefully for the better, (2) ambiguous even as a relative measure because no two people who reach the same level or stage such as finishing a certain Book will be equal in skill or musicality, and (3) no matter how many skill levels you break the whole piano learning process into (e.g., 9 - beginning beginner, intermediate beginner, advanced beginner, beginning intermediate, . . .) there are many more actual gradations than that, so who can really say where you are at any given time or when you move from one level toi the next (or whether or not some people actually regress or move backwards at certain times).

My advice - don't bother thinking to much about what level you're at - just do the best you can at each stage and enjoy the music!

Regards, JF

If you went through all three books, you'd
be at about intermediate level. However,
the first book in any adult course, it
seems, is deliberately designed to provide
a student with enough of the basics
so that he could go in any direction
from then on. This is because many students
will become impatient with what they see as
the only slightly more difficult pieces
that the second book continues with and
will want to go in their own direction
from then on, whatever that might be.

So a student might skip books 2 and 3
and get the same experience in material
that interests him, learned on the job,
so to speak. That is, a student is
not going to be forever damaged because
he didn't play every single piece in the
second and third books.

Hi Princeton 3. I actually started taking piano lessons using another book,the name escapes me and saw the Alfred books in a music store. I purchased the first one, then the other two on line, showed them to my instructor and that's what I've been using.

I really like to think that I am " a work in progress" and am just elated that I am able to play just about anything:-)

wats the diff between Alferd All-in-One and Alferd Course Book?

I've never used this series, but from
what I gather, the Alfred's Adult All-in-One
Course has more theory and technical
studies in it than the Alfred's Basic
Adult Piano Course. And it's also
almost twice as expensive, which is why
most people simply go with the basic
course. If you bought the basic course
and are worried that you're missing out
on something because you didn't get the
all-in-one course, don't bother worrying
about it. By the end of even the basic course's
book 1, you'd have enough to go in any
direction on your own if you wanted to.

The Alfred Adult Piano Course is actually three books, a lesson book, a theory book and a technique book. The Alfred Adult All-in-One book is the lesson book with some (not all) of the theory and technique stuff added in. That's the book I'm using, and I think most of the people in this thread.

John Frank

"(4) eager to move on to more challenging and musically entertaining works"

That applied before I was half through Alfred Book 1. Particularly the musically entertaining part. I dip into Book 2 from time to time, but not often.