I think "Adult Beginner" is a bit of a misnomer. perhaps it should be Adult Amateur forum. Anyway... i haven't posted in the recital, but I did post in the piano bar. People are really nice--they take into account how long you've been playing. I'm not sure BeccaBb is in this thread, but I think she's posting in the recital and she has definitely posted in the piano bar.

I went to listen to yours:) it was pretty! If you only played for 5 months, that's quite an achievement! congratulations!

May I ask which repertoire book you use for that particular piece?

It sounds like BeccaBb is using the Faber's book...

I'd love to listen to more recordings from this thread!

Nope I'm not in this thread but I do read it! I've only been playing for 2 months so do not be afraid to post your own recital piece. Everyone is very supportive.

bravo!

Thanks! I got that piece for free from here: http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/Intermediate1.html

Excellent! I've been looking for free resource like this... Thank you, MaryAnn! Keep up the good work! Hope to hear more recordings from you!

I would like to be part of the recital, but I want to finish Alfred 1 before to do it. I have some recitals in my HD to listen times to times.



Nice recording! As I was in trouble to find it here is the link
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1826227/Re:%20January%20Piano%20Bar.html#Post1826227

Thanks, fliper! If there're enough interests, I can host a recital just for this thread:) Here is the sample page . Please let me know what you think... if you don't like it, I can quickly remove it:)

nice Swan Lake, Wish4thing!

I also liked Swan Lake, Wish4thing.
I saw the host you have created for the recital. It is a nice work, but IMO, I would prefer to post the "Swan Lake" in "Piano Bar" instead create a new recital place. It is just my thought.

I finish "Chiapanecas" and started "Auld Lang Syne" - page 123.
Chiapanecas took me a long time to learn it. At the beginning did not seem too difficult.

Hi all. Absolute beginner here with new privia px130. No time for formal lessons right now and wanting to do this for fun and just to enjoy a new skill. Correct me if I am wrong but for my situation it seems the self teach version would be better than the all in one? Also would you recommend a separate music theory book like alfreds or mt for idiots or is the self teach book all I will need for now? Thanks!

Welcome to this thread WSMReloaded.
Self teaching version is right for you. I would purchase the version with DVD.You a have information about the Alfred books in page 157 of this thread.

That self teaching book also cover the theory. From page 156, quoted from Lin in AZ post:
"I'm using Alfreds Adult Basic Lesson and Theory Level 1 they are individual books. I think they go into a little more detail than the All in One."

You can also see this nice workbooks for theory:
http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Fundamentals/workbooks.html

Also here
http://www.piano-play-it.com/piano-lesson.html

fliper
Thanks for the music theory link. I've been trying to get my head wrapped around the circle of fifths - printed out the worksheets and it should help.

I've gotten O Sole Mio as good as it's going to get! I'm hoping to get a few songs recorded in the near future.
Lyn

Fliper, thanks for the excellent answer. After posting here I had the brilliant idea of emailing Alfred's directly. They suggested exactly the same thing you did. Books are ordered and on the way. Thanks for the links as well.

I wonder if it might be nice to have a separate space for early beginners so we don't feel intimidated posting in the regular recital and piano bar threads. It might be a nice place to collect all the pieces from Alfred's posted directly here.

Thank you both for the feedback!

I listened to the recital and piano bar, some of them are so good but I can't seem to relate to my own level... I'd really love to see how far the Alfred's course can take us so I can look up and forward to the future:) I took a peek at the level 2 book thread today, wow, I'm sure the course is going to get harder and harder...:)

Another thing is that, I had hard time to find the information I need digging through 158 pages of this thread... Thanks to fliper who always saved those useful links for us:) I'll try to collect his/her links and put in my resource page to share with everyone who is on the same journey.

I really love to hear some of you (MaryAnn, for one:) start to play classical pieces that sound more musical to me than just the chords from the Alfred's book!

cheers!

PS: I'm on page 129, The Stranger.

Mary Ann, it is a nice suggestion.
Wish4Things, I feel the same way about "I can't seem to relate to my own level". Well done with the "Collections from Piano World for Adult Beginners". A compilation of the information of all these pages will be a hard work but it will be useful.

Hey all,

I am new to this thread. I am currently playing
"Blow The Man Down", "Lone Star Waltz", and trying to
perfect "Cafe Vienna". I have all three "All In One"
books and plan to complete them all. I've been watching
AlexPianoNoob's you tube recordings of the songs for
correctness and motivation. I kinda wished he finished
posting videos for all of level #3. As far as book #1
goes I want to learn how to play everything up to
"Over The Rainbow". I have no teacher and I am playing
on a old 61-key yamaha PSR-180 keyboard with no sustain pedal.

@SmellsLikeABeer - Welcome to the forum and to the Alfred's Level 1 thread in particular.

Don't worry if you're learning on a keyboard or if you don't have a teacher. I think most of us on here are learning by ourselves, so just try to enjoy yourself while you learn.

It's been six months since I've joined the Piano World community and about one year since I have been learning piano by myself using the Alfred's Self Teaching book.

As requested by Wish4 Thing I am submitting my first recording, that of Greensleeves

Greensleeves was easier for me than some of the pieces that preceded it, though there were still things to watch out for.

I had a little trouble at first allotting the correct time for measures beginning with a dotted quarter notes as opposed to measures beginning with a half notes. The metronome helped with that, though I still think my eighth notes are still a bit uneven.

Then the dynamics also came into play. The first half is supposed to be mezzo-piano and the 2nd half is supposed to be mezzo-forte. I think that the dynamics is one of the main things that we miss out on by not having a teacher: like how to stroke the piano keys... differentiating between pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, etc.

Well, anyhow here is Greensleeves:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gncqc4k2uog22dc

Comments and criticisms welcome.

That's great progress!

I went back to listen to my first recording of Greensleeves from many years ago, comparing with the recording from last year I definitely can tell the difference... I'd like to hear your comments too!

The timing on some of the notes in your playing is a little different than mine, for example, the dotted quarter note followed by the eighth note in the 3rd measure... I was playing along with the CD instead of metronome, I guess that's why? I know my dynamics is never good... working on it:)

Thanks for sharing! I added you to the recital page keep up the good work!

Wish4 Thing - Thanks for the encouragement. However, I think my eighth notes are still a little off. You can also hear the pedal too in the recording.

When I was trying to learn it at 104bpm and having a little trouble with the timing, then I lowered the tempo of the metronome down to around 96 and it seemed so much easier to find my timing.

Then I started getting preoccupied with the dynamics and I think I lost a bit of concentration on the timing.

I listened to your recordings and I think you're timing is right in the third measure. I think mine is off, and actually before you made your post, I opened up my recording in Nero wave editor and I could see my eighth notes looked uneven, at least I think so.

Anyhow, later tonight, I will put the song into Musescore and record the playback. That will give us a computer version of the song.

By the way, Wish4 Thing, are you using a digital piano or acoustic piano? Your 2012 sounds a lot different from your 2011. It almost sounds like you have a hint of violin on some notes on your most recent version.

Johnny D, sounds fine to me, including your dotted quarter and eighth note pattern in the third measure.

Count me in as someone new to this.

I suspect there's a fair few people with experiences like mine. 47 years old. Piano lessons as a kid, took up to grade 2.

Got bored as a kid and detested the lessons, although if I'm honest, in hindsight I wish I was forced to carry them on although honestly, I'm not that sure it would have worked as I had zero interest in practising.

While studying for grade 3 (uk) brought the music for Scott Joplin's entertainer and learned the first part fluently, loved playing that sort of music but both my music teacher had zero interest, and my parents also had zero interest.

My sister (now a music teacher by profession) could play for hours, no matter how loud she played, as it was classical, it was fine. Me learning things like the entertainer, my parents constantly put it down, was constantly told not to keep banging on the piano, told to play properly etc hence I lost all interest.

At the time I was very interested in rock and then punk music, so going for classical lessons had zero appeal to me.

Was in various bands from the age of 17 until around 25 although while some of the tracks I still think are quite good, knowing what I know now, my keyboard playing was embarrassing to put it mildly.

On the plus side, I can do arpeggios up and down the keyboard at 100 miles an hour and I know all my major scales off by heart, but I have also leant loads and loads of bad habits that I need to undo.

Now, I love classical music although my overall aim is to be able to play blues style music.

So I have my synthesizer up for sale, I've got a Korg SP250 and I'm determined to learn to play properly.

I've brought the kindle version of Alfreds basic all in one and having a large monitor means I can have this displayed nicely in front of my DP. My past history also means I can read basic music (cant sight read but can slowly work my way through most music) so am happily working my way through the book.

So far the hardest things have been the exercise where I have to practice raising the 4th finger on my right hand (can do it a lot better on my left hand) and getting the music to sound human. Or to put it another way, I can turn on the metronome and learn the notes fairly quickly, but there's very little human type feeling in my playing.

Have just been practising the Beautiful Brown Eyes and for the first few times I had the notes pinned down it sounded very mechanical, but as I added the pedal etc, for the first time ever, it sounded human if you know what I mean and I really feel that I past a sticking point. It's given me a real encouragement.

Only downside is that the kindle version doesn't have any of the audio tracks but thankfully they are available on Youtube.

Speak to you all soon

Joe

Thank you for the kind words.

@Ojustaboo - Welcome!

That exercise you were talking about is the Leschetizky Solution. It's included in the All In One version but not in the Self-Teaching version.

For those of you who have the Self-Teaching version, it is a good exercise to do and you might want to check it out.
Leschetizky Solution - Alfred's All in One


As to Beautiful Brown Eyes, that was one of the first songs in Alfred's that I didn't know before and which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's says to play it moderately fast, but I like to play it a little slower.

I used to get criticism from my friends that my recordings sounds choppy between "sentences" because I didn't do pedal right... that was the biggest difference I'm trying to make between the 2 recordings, I would like to think I improved but not sure without a teacher...:) Your pedaling sounds better than mine!


I'm the opposite... I paid too much attention to timing on CD, couldn't hear my own playing... I like your dynamics on the last note:)


Please let us know what you find out... maybe I'm the one off beat and I'll never know without this conversation with you, so thank you!:) I'll also see if I can upload the original CD later tonight when I have more time...


You have keen ears! I have an acoustic piano... I couldn't tell the violin hint from my recording... it could be from my headphone when I was playing along with CD... or the way I use pedal? oh, I used 2 different recording softwares, the first one was plain O sound recorder that comes with windows install. The second one was CoolEdit, I added concert hall reverb effect on top of the original recording...:)

Not sure about that, but thanks


I tried to record this once while listening to the CD, but that was the problem. I was afraid I would just play along and hammer it out. I finally ended up playing along to my metronome though I had it set kind of low so as not to be picked up by the microphone which was placed inside my piano.

About that last note, I guess I played it softer that time. I was trying to put a little emotion into the song.



Here is a recording of the MuseScore computer software playing the song:

http://www.mediafire.com/?y41kwhk39276ftt


I also put all three recordings into Nero Wave Editor and put a composite of the three wave images into one photo:

Wave image composite photo
(I cropped out the last measure on all so as to synch them up)


Concerning the 3rd measure, my 8th note doesn't last quite long enough, it probably sounds more like a dotted 16th). I think that happened more than once for me.

I think you might have played the quarter note in the 3rd measure just a tad too long because it looks like you're a little late playing the half note in the next (4th) measure.

This isn't something that I noticed while listening to your recording, but looking at the wave image, it does look like you might be coming in a tiny bit late on several first measures.


That must have been what I was hearing. It sounded nice. I thought maybe you had an expensive digital piano that had some fancy settings.

@Wish4 Thing - I added the wave image from the CD version into the mix:
http://i.imgur.com/HyB2R.jpg

Ha:) I like to sing, so I use CoolEdit to edit my vocal songs all the time... then I thought I can use it for my piano recordings too:)



I love this scientific analysis!:) thank you!!! (I'll try to redo my recording...:)