Me too .

I am in the group of "need weeks to learn a piece", but I have fun with the learning process. Play chords, RH and LH together, play the BTMD (LH RH independent) was fun because I never thought to do that before decide to learn piano.

Had my second lesson last night (1hr lesson every two weeks). So far the lessons have been more like an hour and quarter (perhaps the benefit of being his last lesson of the day).

Only reinforced that I selected the right teacher! He's an experienced teacher (including adults), technically proficient and has a practical side as he's been gigging locally for years.

The main plus is that although he's been doing music for 40+ years, he's not in the least burned out. He likes doing music and likes teaching. Although I'm already pretty pumped about learning the piano, after a lesson I'm even more pumped. He certainly has me convinced I just might be able to do this thing.

This ole dog is learnin new tricks!

Jim

BTW what does BTMD mean?

Thanks,

Jim

Jim, BTMD is the song "Blow the Man Down". It is a milestone in Alfreds book one. Its the first song that has broken chords in the left hand and takes a bit to get co-ordinated.

Yesterday I bought all in one level 2, today I bought level 1 too. End of book one is more difficult that end of book 3 of Thomson. The nice thing about the Alfred method is that you are force to start very early with chords. Because I know already a lot of things from level 1 I try to finisch level 1 mid next moth. Then I can start with level 2. Why do I tell the world this... I dont know but I love to play my piano :-)

Chris

wj3,

Thanks

ChrisGerrist,

Don't know about you but I have nobody to talk to (other than my teacher every two weeks) about learning the piano. None of my friends or family plays any instruments. My wife will listen politely and is hopeful I'll learn some Christmas carols by this season but......

so this forum is where I get to hear what people are up to in their learning and playing. Sort of the support group........


Hello,

I'm Jim and I'm a pianoaholic.

Jim,

my wife plays French horn and all her brothers and sisters are playing a instrument. None plays the piano. But when some of them are here and try to play a piece that I am learning they play it in 10 minutes. Thats frustrating but also fun. I go to the piano teatcher every week for 30 minutes.

Chris

Chris,

How long have you been playing?

Jim

Got through Lone Star Waltz and working on Cafe Vienna now. That one's trickier than it looks. Seems no matter how slow I go, I make the same mistakes. I'll get it though.

I've been using this book for a few weeks now and I really like it. At least I can say that I am really enjoying learning piano.

I play guitar and for whatever reason, I haven't gotten very far with music theory with the guitar. I think that in a large part that has to do with not memorizing the fret board. I had thought that it would be much easier to learn theory by learning the piano since notes are much more visible.

I didn't have expectations that I'd make fast progress, but the way the book is designed, I've felt like I have. I had honestly thought it would be much tougher to play with both hands, but I feel like I play a lot of things now without even thinking about it.

Right now I'm on When The Saints Go Marching In, and I've spent about an hour on it. I'm close to playing it cleanly and in time. Do I like the song? No.. but It's still fun to play right now because of the challenge.

Jim, 10 years ago I had lessons for 3 months. Then I stopped because I was frustrated. I didnt touch the piano anymore, Three months ago I started with lessons again and playing took me again. In the three months I did 2 Thomson books. But a lot I learned 10 years ago was still hanging around in my mind. So, it was quiet easy. The teacher want to start with all kind of styles maybe I start with Alfreds books. Level 1 is more difficult then the three books from Thomson. Today I bought level 1 and started with it. I could handle till page 38. This because Alfreds is starting very quicly with chords. I like that because the sound is more full.

Chris

Chris,

Although you have more background, it sounds like we're close on the Alfred book. My first assignment was to page forty something. My lesson last night is the next batch of 40 pages or so (my lessons are every two weeks).

It'll be fun to compare notes (pun intended )on how we do on the various songs etc. For instance in that first section, I'll be going back to revisit the Saints go Marching In as when I would play the left handed version followed by the right handed version (or vise versa) I was having trouble with one the hands forgetting which version and either both play chords or both try to play melody......

I'm sure there will be more fun stuff to overcome!

Jim

I've been lurking for a few weeks now, and thought I'd say hello. I started with Alfred's (not the all in one) about six weeks ago, my first venture into learning to play piano (although I admittedly only have a Yamaha digital keyboard).

I've been playing guitar for over 20 years, including some relatively extensive music theory training (although it's been years). Completely self taught on guitar, I never learned to read music, which has been my biggest hurdle. I really want to learn to sight read. It became difficult to learn on guitar because playing 'Row Your Boat' to learn to learn to read was a bit too painful when I could already play Van Halen without it. Trying to not make the same 'mistake' on piano. My other hurdle is the same that everyone falls into, L-R hand separation. BTMD was a snap...with one hand at a time..put them together, and a catastrophe at first!

Seems like several of us are at about the same point in Alfred's, I'm past BTMD (admittedly a feeling of accomplishment!) and working on Cafe Vienna. No immediate intentions of seeking out an instructor, perhaps when I feel like I can't make any additional progress on my own. But I think that will be a good while.

I've also read some comments on here about whether or not to 'listen' to the piece prior to playing it. I know there are arguments on here (as well as from some of my piano playing friends) that there is no reason to NOT listen to the music played prior to learning it, but I'm still of the mindset that it's 'cheating' to hear it first. I think that's partly my strong desire to learn to SIGHT READ properly. I have a somewhat good ear, and tend to 'memorize' melody's relatively quickly. Not hearing it first tends to force me to read it, at least until I can play it correctly myself.

Sorry for the long post!

Just wanted to add a comment to a previous discussion....that although the music is not at all my cup of tea (I'm strictly a rock guitarist), I'm not finding it boring at all at this point. I'd eventually like to learn to play classical music, but as a stepping stone, I feel the selection in Alfred's is serving it's purpose.

What I've also noticed being a guitarist as well is that my left hand is better at chords and better at chord changes without having to think about them. I'm guessing that's because of the finger strength developed by playing guitar and the skill developed in that hand to be able to mindlessly change chords on a guitar. Funny enough, playing melodies isn't as easy. My right had is pretty weak in comparison and it really doesn't want to cooperate with chord changes. I've been taking time to go through the 3 chords that have been presented so far and practice changes between them. With the left hand, I can carry on a conversation while I do them. With the right, I still struggle to make the changes correctly when I'm focusing on them.

I'll just keep doing that until my right hand is as good as my left.

I'd expect the same thing Chev, but surprisingly I'm not having any problem with my right hand. (Maybe 20 years of typing has helped!) Mine is strictly coordination, my right hand wants to follow my left rhythmically, obviously from strumming with the right.

I think that if your goal is PURE SIGHT READING--that is reading an unfamiliar piece and playing it right off without practice--then listening to it first is kind of cheating. Though you have to work out the notes and chords at sight, the tempo and rhythm are in your head and you don't have to work them out at the keyboard.
But if your goal is just to play the pieces nicely and to practice them to "musicality," then I see nothing wrong with listening ahead of time. After all, unless you're a savant, you'll never be able to exactly reproduce anything you hear. you'll always be putting your own spin on it. Therefore listening ahead of time just saves you some work and makes practice so much more enjoyable.
After all, if one day your goal is to play "Moonlight Sonata," how can you imagine NOT hearing it ahead of time?

I'd like to say my goal is both. I want to be able to play musically, but I also want to (eventually) be able to be handed an unfamiliar, complex piece, and play it without hearing it.

I'm still plugging away. Working on "Got Those Blues" now. My tech will finish up the work on my upright tomorrow, so once it's done, I'll go through the book again from the beginning. I'm sure I'll have to relearn some things after getting used to playing everything on an unweighted Casio.

I see my new assignment takes me just past BTMD. I'm out of town for a couple of days (my younger son is graduating from college). So only messed with it for a few minutes last night to get a feel for it. I believe with some practice I'll be able to smooth it up but can tell it will certainly feel like an accomplishment when I can play it properly.

Glad to hear several of us are are in the same general area of the book.

I'm making some progress with the sight reading but a long way to go. Wouldn't it be something to sit down to a new piece and be able to flesh it out with both hands at near tempo first time through......not sure how long it will take to get to that point (or even if that's reasonable....at this stage, I don't know what I don't know )

The other aspect I'm not sure about is progress. At this point, progress is rapid which is partly due to the excellent book, good teacher and that I like to practice. I figure that probably in the next few months, it will get hard enough that I'll be in a slogging through it mode with minor improvement between lessons........just trying to prepare myself for that so I don't loose steam when I hit that point.

Jim

Can-Can just about drove me nuts, but I managed to get it fairly passable. I moved on, but will keep practicing this one a lot. Being a Marine myself, the Marine's Hymn is pretty close to my heart and I found that one pretty easy. Working through Why am I Blue now. That one has sort of a strange rhythm to it, but doesn't seem all that difficult overall.

My new-to-me acoustic piano is up and running after the tech brought the action back on Friday. Trouble is, everyone in the house is annoyed when I practice on it. We have sort of a small house and the piano is in the main living area. I'll give the old "stuff a big blanket in the back" trick to see if that tones the volume down a bit. I don't want to have to go back to playing my crappy Casio again.

I have a question for those who got past the middle of the book:
Have you already memorized the position of the notes on the staffs?
Cause I didn't, so far, and I find it hard to count the notes in order to identify them every time I learn a new piece.

You really have to work at knowing the notes - you will find your progress impossibly slow if you can't recognize them.

There are a lot of internet games you can play to help you develop the ability to read the notes, for example this one:
http://www.novelgames.com/flashgames/game.php?id=42

I'm not past the middle of the book and one of the things that I'm working on is memorizing the notes on the staff. With the treble clef, at worst it takes me a second or two to know the note. The bass clef is a different story. I know a few of them by sight and have to count to find the others. If they're single notes though, I have been doing a pretty good job of recognizing the intervals and my fingers seem to play the right thing without consciously knowing the note name. The feeling is kind of creepy and if I recognize that it's happening, I get all messed up. I'm guessing that if I keep practicing it, it will come more naturally though.

This is exactly what you want to happen. You actually SHOULDN'T be recognizing the notes as you play, any more than you recognize letters when you read. You can name them if asked, but you don't tell yourself what they are. And you are right; with practice it will come very naturally. And you won't get messed up anymore!

Hi, also new and working my way through alfred's book one. I was quite surprised to find this thread and lots of helpful information. I actually picked the book out at random from a huge wall of books mainly because it had the cd, which is ironically the worst thing about the book. I agree with previous comments in this thread, some solo piano would have been infinitely more useful, rather than the midi fanfare. I actually don't have a piano at the moment and relying on the synthesizers in my setup. They have decent actions, but no pedals and nothing quite like a decent piano sound. Enjoying it nonetheless and plan on finding a teacher to smooth out the rough spots.

I'm on page 55 and working on the infamous blow the man down piece - exactly half way if you count the contents pages. :P

I'm just about half way, and find I still have to 'count up' on most of the notes. A few I recognize by sight, but for the most part, I'm counting to get a 'starting point' From there, I'm relying on intervals. I questioned whether that would impede my progress later, but for now, I'm not worrying about it. I figure the immediate note recognition will come in time. I'm trying to not go the flash card route, although I will if I have to.

I like Michael's reply about not thinking about them. But that may be because I can't recognize them on sight yet

I have an app for my Android phone that will quiz you on the notes. You have to press the corresponding piano key on the screen when the note is shown. There's a practice mode and a 60 second timed mode. It makes for great time killing.

@casinitaly

Thanks for the link, it should come in handy.

@Lefty Chev

I know what you mean; it's just amazing how your fingers will sometimes 'know' exactly what notes to play and I'm sure that with constant practicing it will get better and better.

Thanks to others who also answered to my question, going back to practice now, still got a whole hour ahead of me

I always do this, based on Alfred advices

1) Clap (or tap) the rhythm & count
2) Play & count
3) Play & sing (or say) the notes names
4) Play & sing the words, if any

This will help to memorize the position of the notes




Welcome to this thread Peace-Piece.



I am still working on "Cafe Vienna". I decided to have a recording session this weekend. Here are some pieces I have recorded:


From Alfred All-In-One 1 Book

030 - Waltzing Chords
http://www.box.net/shared/0l8e928gbb

031 - Love Somebody
http://www.box.net/shared/sx8pl9lccr

032 - A Friend Like You
http://www.box.net/shared/ilbtnt1mjo

033 - The Bandleader
http://www.box.net/shared/qexv9usnvo

034 - Money Can't Buy Everything
http://www.box.net/shared/ijtx8ah9io

035 - The Cuckoo
http://www.box.net/shared/dah37u2cfv

054 - London Bridge
http://www.box.net/shared/0hie1aknz8

055 - Michael Row the Boat Ashore
http://www.box.net/shared/8g3s6vsnk8

056 - Blow the Man Down (BTMD)
http://www.box.net/shared/1ip7fiaf6u

057 - Lone Star Waltz
http://www.box.net/shared/4tj9pu76l5



From Alfred Teach Yourself Book

034 - Skip to My Lou v1 - 2011-04-30 v02
http://www.box.net/shared/5keiovetjs

035 - Skip to My Lou v2 - 2011-04-30 v02 (Broken Chords)
http://www.box.net/shared/i2fp2la5zi


Any comment is welcome