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You always make me laugh or smile reading your posts.

Mom3gram & gintarec, how's your "He's Got..." going?

Mom3gram, this past week, when I get tired of practicing “The Entertainer” and “Amazing Grace”, I went back and read all the posts of this thread from about page 50 up until the time I joined. I must say, you're one of the most consistent and nicest posters here. It moved me going through all your posts (I skip some other posters but I read every word you posted). Anyway, I think I’m going to wrap up Book 1 in a few weeks but I don’t think I’ll join Book 2 anytime soon. I'd like to go back and review stuff I have learned up to this point. And I’d really and honestly like to wait for you to move to Book 2 together. You’re a role model we should all look up to.

LOL, Nguyen, maybe if I weren't such a consistent poster, I would have had more time to practice, and I would have finished the book by now. :-)

My "He's Got the Whole World" is coming along pretty well - it's still rough, but definitely sounding a lot better. So are "Scarborough" and "Raisins and Almonds". So my challenge is mostly to get through "Entertainer" and "Amazing Grace". I'm only halfway through each of them so far.

I think that "Greensleeves", "Scarborough Fair", "Entertainer" and "Amazing Grace" are going to be keepers that I will continue to play after I move on to Book 2.

I'm flattered that you look to me as a role model, but you are going to pass me sooner or later, even if you wait for me to move to Book 2 together. If it took me almost 2 years to get through Book 1, I can only imagine how long Book 2 will take. It's been a fun journey so far though, and there's lots more to come. :-)

I woke up singing "Mary Ann" this morning. I'm up to page 45 and just starting on "When the Saints go Marching in", but I'm in the habit of working several smaller songs at the same time, working 5-10 pages of the book at any one session. I'm hoping this will help me keep from working one song so long I end up memorizing it and not reading or recognizing intervals, etc. If I'm always reading more than one song, I'm actually reading and playing more, instead of playing from memory, if that makes sense.
I've also come upon a few things in the book I was anticapating problems with. Both are related to chord fingering. the first is which fingers to use when chording for LH. With RH I use 1-2-4 fingers, and have not been chording with LH, instead using bass patterns centered around playing the 1st and 5th notes of whatever chords I happen to be playing in the RH. this works well for the gospel style I play.
the second is the actual chord shapes themselves. the F chord used in the book is a different inversion than the one I'm used to using.
Since I learned everything I know by ear without instuction I was afraid when I got into Alfred's I'd be uncomfortable having to "change my ways". But I've learned a couple of things. Fingering is not written in stone, and learning a different chord fingering (inversion)is pretty simple and straightforward when you already know that chord in one inversion. You're playing the same 3 notes, just in a different pattern. Not really a problem, at least for me.
the more I work with this book, the more I realize it was definately the right choice for me.

Well, today I passed my Lavender's Blue and Kum-Ba-Ya "recital"! I am self-teaching so I don't have actual recitals... but my wife and daughter approve songs for me so I at least have someone keeping me honest and making sure I get each song right before moving on.

So that means that I am diving full bore into Blow the Man Down! I actually played around with it a bit yesterday so this is my second day.

I'm glad that I read so much bad stuff about that song on this forum, because it mentally prepared me for how hard the song is. Now that I am actually playing it, I am finding it not quite as bad as I expected. Don't get me wrong - it's very tricky to play because of the differing rhythms in each hand but I went into the song thinking that it was going to be impossible and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's actually possible, just very hard.

So I'll be working on this one for a while, but so far I am at least able to play each measure in isolation, albeit very slowly. I just need to combine them all and speed it up! Easier said than done...

I will wait for you. I think it'll take a awhile to review and do all the songs again. You maybe even finish the book before I finish my review. I'll wait for you nevertheless.

Well, 'Raisins and Almonds' are done!!!!! 'He's got..' is coming along slowly, I am just off to youtube to check how it should sound really.. I am starting to put the left hand to 'The Entertainer': my husband the other days suddenly said - "but you could play this song already", that is when I had to point out to him that I could play RH, and I haven't added LH yet... I am practising RH of 'Amazing Grace' as well - it doesn't sound to bad, but I need to smooth out the triplets.

You’re progressing very nicely. This style seems to work best for you. Good to hear.

Awesome. Congratulations!


It’s not impossible. We’ve done it and so will you. To borrow Mom3gram’s words “It’s the rite of passage” for this Book. Have fun.

Congrats to you too gintarec.

pianonewb - I had a similar experience with "Mary Ann". When I first saw that song I knew it immediately, because when I was 5, (circa 1958) my mother had the "45" of it and played it often. I even tried to do the little riff at the end of the song from memory! I had it on the brain for 2 days after-wards!!

I've been bad! The first week of November, I started the notorious "Blow the Man Down". After a week of trying to tackle it, with limited success, I gave up on it for a month. It "blew me down!" I didn't want to go near the piano. But, disgusted with myself, I started back up on it and finally got it perfected! What Nguyen said a few pages back is so true! Something must have been "consolidating" in my brain during that time off. I think I must have "dreamed" about it a few times during that month! When I took it up that second time, some of the mistakes I had always made had "disappeared" and I was able to play those problematic measures with relative ease. (Someone ....queue up the Twilight Zone Theme!) Lone Star Waltz seemed like a "gift" after getting through BTMD!!

It's a wonderful feeling isn't it? I can see the excitement and fire in your eyes. LOL. Congratulations. Don't let the rest of the songs "blow you down" again though. They aren't tougher but definitely not easier. Just like this one, if you do enough reps, they will eventually come together.

I've narrowed my focus for this week to only "Entertainer" and "Amazing Grace", with an occasional break to play a few easy Christmas pieces. I can't say that they are sounding good yet, but I've worked out a practice routine for each of them and I'm determined to master them. I was actually doing better with "Amazing Grace" than "Entertainer" until I came to that arpeggiated chord. Darn, those are awkward for me. I had problems with a similar one in "O Sole Mio", and never really got it up to speed. So I'm practicing that chord by itself over and over again before playing the whole bar.

Ok, how do you record your performance? I have recorded a couple of songs on my Clavinova, but can't find how to transfer them to the computer to share with you (and hear your criticism to improve)? I am hopeless in this... I don't have any microphone I could use (well, apart from the one on my laptop).

Well, I can record one song on my digital piano, but I have no way to transfer it to my computer since they are on different floors.

But, if you can record on your Clavinova, here is a link to instructions for the rest:

http://www.pianoclues.com/how-to-record-piano/

Good luck.

I am delighted. This is it. I’ll be with you until this Book is done. Yes, “The Entertainer” is harder than Amazing Grace to me too. Do you find that fast RH / LH D Major (maybe D7, I'm not sure) passage on the 5th Grand Staff very very difficult to get through? But I’m through now. My “Entertainer” has been polished, at CD tempo, for about a week already. I have only been working on AG, but slowly and casually. I’m taking this piece very easy. I’d really like to wait for you and Gintarec to be done and move to Book 2 with me.

YES. How exciting! Normally I’m very patient, but right, I’m a bit short in that department. I can’t wait. Take your time gintarec, but you have to find a way to post them. I don’t own a Clavinova but I have downloaded a CLP-340 Manual and study it a little bit. I think there’s a whole section in that book talking about recording and transferring data to PC. Do you have the manual? I can download a copy for you if you like. Maybe mom3gram’s instruction is better. Let us know.

Yes, I have recorded the songs on the piano, but I can't manage to transfer them to computer (if I connect computer, the option of saving the songs is not available!!!). I think I need to use a USB storage device, but I only have one in it is in the other computer bag, which is at work! (and I am not driving 25 miles to collect it over Christmas). Oh well, might buy another USB pen and hope it works. I will work out something! Thanks everyone.

Hello everyone, I am another newbie jumping into this thread.

I am 51 years old and like so many others playing the piano has been something I have wanted to do for a long time. I played the Coronet in grade school for a short time and gave it up because I didn't like to practice. I have always regretted it as an adult.

I have been reading all the posts since the beginning and have picked up a lot of good tips, links, and motivation from it. In fact it is the reason I am joining you now. I have been self-teaching from a couple other resources (not method books but an online teacher with her own material and the eMedia Piano software course) since September. After reading a few pages at the beginning of this thread I decided to give Alfred's AIO a try and am glad I did. It is giving me a more structured plan and I am enjoying the pace and pieces it uses. I am up to Beautiful Brown Eyes and Alpine Melody right now and have been working on BBE for a few days and AM I just started tonight.

I am also planning on looking for a teacher after the holidays. I contacted one potential teacher and he uses Alfred's so he has a leg up already.

It took me about 2 weeks to read all of the previous posts but I am glad I did. It gave me a chance to watch several people progress through the book and watch many come in and tell their tales of woe in getting through some of the harder pieces.

I am looking forward to being a part of this great group and receiving some of the great support it provides and hopefully helping out a fellow student as I too make my way through Alfred's AIO.

By the way I have both the AIO with the spiral binding and the newer Self-Teaching Piano Course. I am using both of them simultaneously because there are pieces in one that are not in the other and vice versa.

Welcome Doug... You have come to the right place. You will get alot of help and inspiration here. Its a fine group.....

Welcome to the party, DougF! I just started Alfred's not too long ago. So far I think it was a good choice.