Does anyone have Chasing the Blues Away or Blues for Wynton Marsalis from the all-in-one book recorded or know where to find it online? If so can you upload it or point me to where it is? I can't find either of those to listen to, and I like to hear how one is supposed to sound before trying and finding out I've learned it wrong.

PianoNewbAlex's You tubes have been great, but he must not have done the All-in-One as he has neither of those songs posted.

I'm still working on Chiapanecas, dukeofhesse, but I haven't put that much into it yet so I don't know if it will prove to be a stone wall for me. I almost have the first section, up to the repreat, ALMOST being the key word. I've stumbled through the next few bars but each time it's like I'm reading them for the first time. I'm also still working on perfecting Little Brown Jug. If you've gotten a recording of Chiapanecas (a good one or not) you are that far ahead of me. It's a tough one, but all of them have been lately.

Didn't you skip a few to get to Scarborough? I've heard that one played by a few people here, and it's a nice one. Good luck with it.

No recording that I know of. I struggled with both of these until I got as good as I thought I was going to get and left them both behind thankfully. I did have my CD to refer to which helped a little. I seem to recall a link that someone here gave a while back that had recordings of the Alfred Book 1 CD. I don't know how easy it would be to find it with a search.

Walter Johnson chorus website has the Afretd level one CD stored there. Its at http://www.wjchorus.com/mp3player/index.cgi?action=Playlist&sortby=TITLE&flip=-T Its there along with alot of the chorus recordings.

That's it! Thanks, wj3.

I have been pretty faithful to staying with the sequence of the pieces on the AIO Book 1, but for some reason I let myself off the hook with both of the blues pieces.

For some reason I just wasn't in the mood for the blues, and I gave myself a pass on both Chasing the Blues away and Blues for Wynton Marsalis.

Right now I'm working through Can Can and Marines Hymn, polishing Lullabye and Old Smoky. Looking forward to the challenge of Why Am I Blue and Good People!

My son's piano teacher offered to take me on with lessons, 20 minutes tacked on to the end of his lessons each Wednesday evening. I might just do it... how many of you Alfred's folks are taking lessons versus working on your own?

I let myself off the hook with the dreaded Little Brown Jug. I vowed never to play it again!
I take a half hour lesson every week. I find it helps me as I have a tendency to get overwhelmed when I look ahead in the book. The piano teacher explains and simplifies.
I'm still on Ole Sole Mio and Jericho. But I am also learning Somewhere over the Rainbow - I got that sheet music from musicnotes.com and it's simple enough for me to do but complex enough to sound beautiful.

I forgot to ask this - anybody going to the piano party on Cape Cod in the fall? The info was in an email from Piano World that I got this a.m.

BarbVA
Here is "Blues For Wynton Marsalis" from my Alfred's file.
I don't have a recording of the other one.

When I played this one, for measures 1-4 and throughout-I would let my left hand 3rd finger slip off of the Eb onto the E. This is in the base line. It seem to smooth that out for me.

http://www.box.net/shared/c01cp6o19d

I noticed I pretty much ignored the Crescendo and Diminuendo notations.
I should watch that more closely... but, I am not much better at doing so.

Hello all,

the Blues for Wynton is an older song. Its on some blues cds. Its a neat piece. One of the few ones in the book I like. I looked at it and for one of the 1st times in my life made a sightread song sound like music. this has happened 3 times so far. I still can not sightread worth a darn...Its hard to get your left hand to wrk with the right on on that one. ( yes I have looked ahead in the book)"Little Brown Jug is another one that is easy in the right hand but hard to play with both hands. All of this is making me admire the keyboard players like Dr John a lot more.
Maybe I will mess with this one on the carillon.....so far I have just stuck with the stuff from the carillon music book or the tasty medievel music book I have. When I started piano I bought a TON of sheet music but its all over my head.
I put the piano aside for a while but am messing with it some,. It is going oh soooo very slow. I have not posted or read this great group for a while.
Still busting my butt on carillon though. Man thats hard. I show up usually a half hour before my lesson to practice and so some cleaning up of my work. Its really disconcerting when your teacher walks into the room and starts making comments on what you played 5MINUTES ago....the guy sits in the parking lot at the base of the tower and listens. (very disconcerting). My pedal work sucks and Larry made me play some pieces on pedal today...I somethings think that someone who invented that keyboard said ok this isnt hard enough I am gonna stick keys on the bottom to make it harder.!"I have put 2 months on a piece and still can not do the hands and pedal together. Hands alone is not an issue,dynamics are getting better,but the foot part even with I only play a pedal note on beat 1 and 3 is still sucking.... Got stuck having to sight read 3 pieces today. My sight reading is a "just shoot me now and get it over with kind of experiance.
time for kitties to curl up for the night.

Hey, 1silkyferret, I was just thinking about you the other day and wondering if you are still playing the carillon. I had to laugh at your teacher sitting in the parking lot listening to you play. :-)

A lot of people moved on to Book 2 since you were here last. I'm still hanging around in Bk.1 but getting nearer to the end.

Good to hear from you.

Thanks wj3 & CarlMc!!!!!!!!!

When I played this one, for measures 1-4 and throughout-I would let my left hand 3rd finger slip off of the Eb onto the E. This is in the base line. It seem to smooth that out for me.





I wasn't sure what you meant until I tried it. I tried it both ways, but for me it seemed more natural to go ahead and let the next finger take the E. But I also have pretty small fingers, so they didn't get too crowded side by side, I could see that technique benefitting someone with larger hands however, as there isn't much room there for two fingers if you have larger fingers to begin with. Thanks for the hint, I always like to try different fingering positions. My teacher believes in finding the fingering that is most natural, so she doesn't hold me to whats noted on each song, so I experiment a lot.

BarbVa

You are exactly right... it was the crowded fingers that was was creating the issue for me. But, I also liked the slur it created.

Hi everyone, I'm new here! I want to say hello. I took piano lessons as a child (from 9 to 11). Recently, when my daughter started taking lessons, I caught the bug. My wife took a semester of piano from the local community college 9 years ago, and they used Alfred All in One Book 1. She decided she wasn't all that interested after one semester, so didn't continue. I opened up her copy of Alfred last month and started learning from the beginning. I quickly discovered this book is a lot of fun!

I'm working on Greensleves, Scarborough Fair, Raisins & Almonds, and the Entertainer at the moment. I am really enjoying the Alfred Book. I've already ordered book 2!

btw, I could get into the blues songs either. Just couldn't find the right feel for them.

Hi Mom3gram.
Trust me when your teacher is sitting in the parking lot hearing you mess up..that means OTHERS can to...I consider this one of the "things that suck,"
I am not doing as much on the digi keyboard as I would like to.

Oh, I didn't mean to make light of it. I realize that all your practices are in actuality a "recital" and that every note you play can be heard for quite a distance. I know I wouldn't want to do it. But the enjoyment must outweigh the "sucks" part or you wouldn't be doing it, right? Hang in there, I'm sure that your audience is no where near as critical as you are of yourself.

Welcome to the forum! Sounds as if you have made good progress.
I am also working on Rasins & Almonds. I enjoy it a lot. It calls for a moderate speed, but I seem to like it better when played slowly. It is one of those that will stay in your head...it was there when I opened my eyes this morning

1silkyferret
I had to google carillon to even know what it is... how you decide you wanted to play the carillon?

HI Mom3gram,

I know you did'nt mean to make light of it. This whole thing is just so insane and I still can not believe I am crazy enough to be doing this stuff. Man its an addiction. A very bad one. I drive 20 miles each way to practice. (bad bad bad gas is now 250 a gal and I have a big van)
I love to go on sundays. empty parking lot. No one to bother. spent 3 hours up there today. My elbows HURT...Spent 90 minutes on one piece alone and can not get the last 8 bars at all. its about 40 bars all told. No pedal!!!!!huzzah..should get the last 8 done by Wen if lucky
took a month to get La Romasca. its about 80 bars and have all but the last few down ok. again no pedal!
Still working on Poor Wayfaring Stranger. If I have to mess with pedal it should be called "poor warfaring stranger." its a big mess. I have the hands part down just fine.
Working on these Scandanavian folk tunes its pretty but the 1st part requires far to much work with feet. I have it playable kind of... Got the middle part great. Can not do the last part at all. Its a long piece.

I make a point to go after the church services for the church across the street are over.

If they can hear me they are dumb enough to be walking across the street from the Kroger parking lot. On the other hand when Larry plays he can be heard from there. He wacks the heck out of the keyboard. He is a lot louder of a player.
.
I think most folk are tone deaf. Darn good thing for me..Cool thing about the towers... no one knows it YOU....hey me no I am just the cleaning lady....
You can PM me if you want. the others on this thread are gonna get bored with my happy tail.
Back to Afred's... I am thinking of messing around with some blues pieces on bells that I have learned on piano. With me its all bells....piano is a door to the big toys....mew mew mew...who me...(grins) we chose a living place in Kansas by how close it is to the tower there,any new shows,no towers no me.

1silkyferret
I had to google carillon to even know what it is... how you decide you wanted to play the carillon
Go to the "CAst in Bronze"website. I met Frank years ago...he caught me in a weak moment.

Zing...now your an addict. You asked.

Does anyone recall O sole mio and the sound of the left hand chords? The RH melody is nice but boy that C7 in particular sounds like fingernails on a blackboard. In fact almost the whole arrangement for the left hand sounds just crappy to me, even when I do it reasonably well. Anybody feel the same?

Hey everyone, its been a while but still here and still practicing. I just finished with O Sole Mio. I can't stop playing it, I love it. I think it's cuz I'm italian lol. Its so weird though cuz I remember when I first got this book, I looked through the pages and I remember looking at O Sole Mio and thinking...I'm never gonna be able to play this and now I can't stop lol. Anyways, working on Jericho now, it's pretty easy and fun to play. I still need a little practice though. I hope everyone is doing well and keeping up with the practicing. I really can't wait till I'm done this book lol.

Yes, and not just O Sole Mio but many others have this "problem". I am guessing it's a compromised by Alfred for beginner's music because the book is sticking to basic I, IV, V7 cords for the left hand and these cords don't harmonize with all the notes all the time. But this is why I like Alfred so much. It makes sure that we are playing what is taught so the music is 100% in sync with the theory and the book does not attempt to make us play anything our level of theory and technique cannot handle. It makes complete sense to me even if it doesn't always sound good. If you look at Book 2 and 3, the "problem" eventually goes away as we learn more technique and theory. At the end of book 3, all the music are presented in the original un-altered form (difficult). So stick with it.

Thanks Carl Mc. It's funny I actually didn't like Rasins & Almonds at first, but my wife says it sounds good, so I kept playing it, now I like it too! I play it moderately fast, around 120 on the metronome.

Never woke up with a tune from Alfred in my head. Sounds like you practice a lot. It's a nice problem; makes you want to play some more!



I was visiting my dad last week and he was watching Pavarotti singing O Sole Mio! I thought it was amazing, and then I thought wow, I could play that! Well, I could play a little part of that amazing aria.

Wow, 1silkyferret, I had to google the carrilon(sp) myself and it looks quite neat, do you really play it with your fists and how does that affect your piano playing? I think it looks fun, but agree I wouldn't like practicing with something so loud, lol.

Welcome 4evrBeginR, sounds like you are making great progress and will need to change your user name soon, lol.

[quote=BarbVA]Wow, 1silkyferret, I had to google the carrilon(sp) myself and it looks quite neat, do you really play it with your fists and how does that affect your piano playing? I think it looks fun, but agree I wouldn't like practicing with something so loud, lol.

HI BarbVA,
yes you really do play with your fists. Dynamics are controlled with how hard you hit the key. Well its more like you hit the keys with your hands balled up and you hit the keys with your pinkies. Its a downward motion and flick. I also do some hand spreads for hitting 2 keys at once, thumb on one key, 1st or middle finger on the other. I can do a 3rd easily and a 4th,my hands are small enough the 5 is a forget it. For some reason the 3rds are in the left hand a lot. I have spend most of the time learning how to deal with more than one note on the keyboard at a time. On piano its a case of oh thats the ?chord so there is no thought involved. the bad news is you also have a 2 octave pedal board so you have to use your hind paws too..In my case that is very bad news! I kind of wonder when I see complaints about having to deal with 3 pedals!!!I tend to stick with 2 myself one on right foot one on left but my teacher is letting me know that is not ok....Just trying for beat one and 3. Not even bothering much now with the others. Most of my stuff has beat one on D and beat 3 on C. As long as a foot doesnt have to move,I'm mostly ok. I have to wonder what "genius"came up with pedal board.
it is fun but LOUD so I have a place that lets me use thier practice keyboard. Its only 2 octaves and the keys are closer together than at the tower's set up. A practice keyboard is not a "live "keyboard so you can do endless scales and not drive the others crazy.
A lot of the music players use is piano stuff. Piano is useful for a few reasons...one you have to learn how to read 2 staffs of music at once,and the other is having to have independence of the hands. I can now read bass clef without having to stare endlesslly. I would rather not. I play slow jigs and period stuff. I call them "one liners"treble clef only.
personally I think everyone should try playing one of these tasty instruments at least once in their lives...Players do seem to be cool about sharing their toys!

All done with Jericho...it was fun and easy. Can't stop playing O Sole Mio though lol. I'm almost done this book yay!

Well, I finished Amazing Grace. The only thing is to polish up the pedaling, which is giving me some trouble. I suppose it's time to move onward to book 2.

One question about pedaling. I let up on the sustain pedal and press back down as I play the next measure, and I feel this rubbing feeling in the keyboard as I am pressing on the keys. If I let up on the sustain pedal slightly before or after I press down on the keys I don't feel the rubbing, only when I let up and step back down and press down on the keys all at the same time, I feel the rubbing. Is this normal? Should I try to avoid this rubbing feeling?

Congrats 4evrBeginR, hopefully I'll see you in thread 2 soon!

I passed on everything at my lesson last night, so its up to On Top of Old Smokey for me. As the end of the book gets thinner, I'm getting really anxious to be done with book 1, but know that I still have some big pieces to come, I hope they don't slow me down too much, I'd like to be on to book 2 by fall.

She also, added Hannons exercise 2, and Its a Small World from the Greatest Hits book.

I'm still working on Desperado, I have the inroduction down pretty good, the next page and a half is there but still lots of hesitations. I'm finding my fingers go to the right keys, its my brain causing the hesitation as it tries to catch up with my fingers, lol. I haven't turned the page yet for pages 3 & 4, so she suggested that I start at the end of the piece and start working backwards a couple of measures at a time, she said it was a technique that she learned in college and helps your piece to come together and get stronger towards the end of the song, so I'm going to give that a try.

And finally still doing lots of scales, arpeggios, chords and cadences, but I'm finding the names of what I'm doing isn't sticking even if the technique is, I need to work on remembering what it is I'm doing, so I'm not lost later on,lol.

Just started this a few days ago, as an all fresh beginner at playing any musical instruments, and all musical theory. Almost got down Jingle bells now at page 30 or something hehe, so a long way to go but I'm really enjoying playing the piano already, even if I'm not very good at it so I can imagine it just being a lot more enjoyable as time passes.