your welcome How are the books? I should be getting my Alfred's book 1 soon. I can't wait to start.

They are great. You should enjoy the Alfred's book a lot and the great community and support provided by this forum and the Alfred's threads.

Hello everyone,

Have been lurking for quite some time now, and decided finally to pop up a post and get involved. I purchased Alfred's Book 1 several years ago but commitments with violin and guitar always kept getting in the way.

I sat down with the book and worked through it over the last week, and am now eagerly awaiting the workday's end so I can go home and learn Little Brown Jug.

I've found the most interesting pieces in the book so far for me have been the blues-style ones, they present a differing bass-line from the other pieces and have kept me on my toes.

Thanks to advice from this thread and others on this forum, I've devised a practice plan where I review the last 5 or so songs before I tackle current songs and any new lesson material. Haven't gotten into much scale or arpeggio material yet, but I'm sure the theory is all the same as it was for violin, so all those minor scales don't look as daunting as they did the first time round

Eventually, I'm hoping to play some of the more well known pieces from Chopin and Mozart, but am also looking forward to exploring the great depths of the classical realm's other composer and less famous compositions.

As for the quality of the book so far, I must say I'm impressed. As far as requiring a teacher goes, I have taught myself guitar for four years, and had an absolutely fantastic violin teacher for over a year, and I learned much more from the teacher regarding musicality and theory in that short time than I ever did from self-learning. I think it's beneficial to have a teacher for at least one instrument you learn, to get not only theory, but to also appreciate the atmosphere of musicianship.

I'm going to be self-teaching piano for a while, I look forward to hearing of your successes and getting to know you all.

Cheers.

I just got the Alfred book yesterday. I read up to page 54 and was able to soak up most of the things. I absolutely love it! Even my mom is taking a peek and trying out stuff on the keyboard.

I don't know what to do when I reach the pedaling parts though... I guess I'll have to buy one for my keyboard. The last time I used a pedal it was 10 yrs ago... and I was just starting to do so when I quit. Can't wait to get to the songs near the end of the book though!

I found the pedal quickly became second nature when playing. But, just like everything else may take some time to get used to at first. Of course, it helps when most of what you play sounds horrid without the use of pedals (lots of broken chords). I love my pedal!

*waves*

Starting today. Book 1 Page 1. A bit frightened but ready to go!!

Welcome Mr.T and timeturner. We're always glad to have new classmates.

Mr.T, It appears that your previous musical experiences have helped you quite a bit in breezing through book 1. That's truly fantastic!

mydnyt, I was quite nervous at the beginning in anticipations of those pedaling lessons as well, but it's quite fun and all is well, so far anyway. I'm currently learning a new feature called "Overlapping Pedal" in the song call "Greensleeves". As I'm sure with many, I also love this classic song and so it has helped me quite a bit with the learning process. You are already doing fabulously well so I'm sure that you'll pick it up in no time. Keep up the great work.

timeturner, Congratulations on your new beginning. I can still remember quite vividly of those "frighten" feelings, mixed with the feelings of joy, excitement and anticipations of all of the new and unkown challenges that I'm going to be facing and will be learning. Although I did not have any previous musical instrument experiences, I was planning to teach myself anyway, and so I had to tell myself, one note at a time and one page at a time, and see where it'll take me. But most of all, remember to enjoy and appreciate the fact that I even gave myself the chance to start it at all. I'm on page 130 at the moment.

You'll do just fine.

Cheers,

Key Notes

Thank you keynotes! I was actually considering of skipping on to book 2 instead but the main reason why I got book 1 was because even though I've had previous lessons before, I'm still lacking in theory and I also thought it would give me a great review on some of the things I've learned before. I love the way the book presents things. Especially when I come across something new it easy to understand.

This may sound silly, but for now I'm making believe I have a pedal until I get one for my keyboard. :p

Hi Keynotes, thanks a lot for your warm introduction. What wonderful things are you looking to achieve on your keys in sunny CA?

Cheers.

Well things are getting busy here. discovered that the Alfred's book 1 does a good job of teaching chords. My paws find the notes for the bass clef stuff for the simple stuff in book 1. the bad news is that I still can not really read bass clef.
My teacher is making me work in pedal board for real. This requires reading bass clef as well as playing it!

EEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey All,

Just an update...I'm on page 25! Yippee!

Hi Alfred Folks:

Do you have a sense of on what page one can start with what specific supplemental material?

Thanks

Just as an example the level 1 greatest hits book starts at page 54 for 'Love me tender'
Then the next ones jump to pages in the seventies
The Alfred's all time favorites are cross referenced with the basic course but there are quite a few around page 75 that is around page 120 in the all in one course

Thanks Dave!

After the two "blues" pieces, I gave my Alfred's All-in-one a rest while I worked on Christmas music and two pieces from my "In Recital" book. Yesterday I got back to Alfred with "On Top of Old Smokey". I'm taking it slow and repeating only about 4 measures at a time until I get it down. Luckily, this one sounds good slow. :-) Occasionally I listen to PianoNoob's version on Youtube.com to see what it should sound like.

I've asked Santa for the greatest hits book as well as the pop book, and if he doesn't deliver I will purchase one or both of them myself after Christmas. I had held off buying them because most of the pieces seemed to be more difficult than the lesson ones, but I have more or less outgrown the supplemental books I was working out of and am ready to move up. Out of the three (or four, counting the Sacred) which one do you all like best: greatest hits, pop, or all time favorites?

Hi all. I return after a few weeks without a computer, akin to missing my left arm. Other impediments to consistent practice have arisen though I have managed some snatched practice most days.

I'm almost ready to move on from 'Got those Blues' on page 107. Outside of Alfred I've nearly got 'Solitude' by David Neavue as good as I'm going to achieve with my ham fisted bashing. I intend to keep practising as it's the first piece I've truly enjoyed.

Now the exciting choice of what to learn next, I'm inclined to Einaudi's Le Onde Canzone Popolare (1500 ca.) and will start this evening.

It's good to be back

great choices blackbird!

Sorry, pushed the button once too many times.

Hmm, my short term goal would be to finish up with Alfred level 1, then treat myself to some new sheet music books that I'm dying to get my hands on.

Then in the near future, as supplimentary materials, along with level 2 book, I would like to also work on some of the easier pieces from the romantic era composers, such as Paul De Senneville and Olivier Toussaint, and perhaps some easier Bach or Chopin's preludes, C or A majors for example.

And of course, my long term goals would be anything that my brain, hands and foot can process. I especially love Chopin's work, but I'm not too sure how many of those I can handle.

Anyway, onward and upward. Thanks for asking and enjoy your sunny summer there in Australia while we are feeling the winter's chills here at the moment.

Hi 1silkyferret,

It's nice hearing from you again. I've been thinking about how you've been doing as well, and hope that your instrument moving process worked out smoothly for you.

I agree, I love Alfred's progressive and easy-to-follow instructions on teaching us chords. And don't worry, you'll tame those reading bass clef notes as well in no time. Keep up the great work!

Key Notes

:) Yes, I do think that you are silly, for thinking that you are silly. It's quite obvious that you are keen and smart enough to give yourself an accurate assessment of what you need to learn at this point. And even without the benefit of hearing the results, going through the motions of pedaling is a wonderful idea. So, more power to you!

As for me, I can hear and feel every single mistakes that I've been making in certain sections of Greensleeves. I kept wanting to add in extra overlapping pedalings to certain sections, and it's driving me a bit batty. I just have to remind myself to take a deep breath and focus extra hard on those particular measures when I come up to them.

Yeah! pg. 25!

Good news, and it's great that you are working on so many beautiful pieces.

What is Alfred's Book 1?

I have a beautiful piano here and I can't do a thing with it....I am starting lessons but not till after Xmas.

Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Course is designed for the beginner looking for a truly complete piano course that includes lesson, theory, technic and popular repertoire in one convenient, all-in-one book. This course has a number of features that make it particularly successful in achieving this goal, among them are smooth progression between concepts, the thorough explanation of chords and outstanding song material. At the completion of this course, the student will have learned to play some of the most popular music ever written and will have gained a thorough understanding of the basic concepts of music.

Alfred Book one at Amazon

Hello!

can someone tell me where can I buy or download the CD's for book one and book two?

Tanks
Henrique

HI all,

The TOY has arrived. I am gonna have to put in some sweat work on it but you should have seen the mover's face when he unloaded this puppy.
Now I will hopefully make some real progress on this;.

By the way do any of you have sore elbows??My left one is killing me...