Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1

When you listen to a song on the radio and you tap your foot to the beat, that is the tempo. For the most part it is steady throughout the song.

You know a Minim (half note) gets 2 beats, so you hold the key down for two beats.

I wouldn't recommend anchoring yourself down with any one "method". My teacher has me working out of Alfred's All In One book, but we also pull in material from other books for additional work.

If you can, I would recommend you getting a teacher to get you started on the right path at least. It was easy for me to start off on my own as I've played other instruments and can read music easily. It would have been a lot tougher had I had to learn how to read music.

Good luck to you!

Many of us started with 61-key keyboards. In my case I went about 6 months on it before realizing or admitting there were several problems the keyboard presented.

First, sooner or later you will run into pieces of music that required keys that you don't have. OK, so maybe that can be avoided for a while, but not for very long.

More importantly, the feel and action of the unweighted keyboard is very different from that of a weighted 88-key digital piano, and very, very different from that of an acoustic piano. For me that meant having to go back and relearn certain skills I thought I had already mastered, only because the feel of playing was so completely different.

Also, the range of expressiveness you can add with a keyboard is very limited.

If you plan on upgrading eventually, my opinion is that the sooner you take this step the less painful is the transition. Of course, your individual goals or budget may lead to a different conclusion.

good luck

Jim

Alfred's Book 1 seems to have gone quiet for awhile. Hope every one is doing well.

After Easter I am up to Jericho. A Minor scales and such. Seems pretty easy. Maybe the calm before the storm? I seem to breeze through some and then get hammmered with the next page. Everything is coming easy right now. No struggles.

For supplemental I chose Alfred's Jazz, Blues and Rags by Martha Meir. Most people go with the Allred's Greatest Hits. I have not heard anyone mention the JBR Series? Anyone tried that series out? I am doing all the first 3 pieces in Book 1 and enjoy them all. It is set up to present one piece with a Jazz theme or influence, then next is Blues and the next is a Rag. So there is some variety and interest turning every page.

I only took on Jericho from AIO this week so that I could spend more time with the supplemental book. I am doing well with those side pieces and it does not seem to affect my progress with AIO. Except of course finding the time.

I will get focused back on the main Afred's next week. I plan to intensify my studies over the next weeks and months - I have set a goal to complete Book 1 in next two months. I started in Novemeber, I am in my sixth month now. I have kept a steady, even effort so far. This will be the first time I try to really get focused. Two months more seemed a reasonable goal. But I won't be crushed if it runs longer (or shorter).

Been playing through Alfred's book one for a few weeks on and off and I'm up to "Blow the Man Down" and man that one is mopping the floor with me. Every other song I could get it to a decent speed with very few mistakes within a day or two of practice, but so far after being able to do the right hand and left hand fine separately I just can't seem to put it together. It's only been 2 days but it feels like I'm trying to get my brain to learn something completely different for this song and can't make any progress for hands together.

I'll get it in the end though, no Alfred song will beat me for long. (Until closer to the end of the book it looks like )

Too funny, Yomtom. BTMD is like a rite of passage for Book 1. You either love it or hate it. Mostly I think people just want it to be over! Enjoy the struggle. It is most worthy.

I quite liked it once I learned to play it. But it took quite a long time.

Ditto for me on BTMD. I go back to it quite frequently and most people recognize it when I play it so I enjoy it. It is very satisfying when it finally clicks and you can play it hands together.

I was noticing that we were quite quiet too. It was over a week since the last post.

My lesson that should have been this past Wednesday was postponed until tomorrow on behalf of my teacher who had a conflict. I will play The Can Can and the Marine's Hymn in hopes of passing both of them. The Can Can has come along nicely and I can play it pretty well at speed. The Marine's Hymn is hit or miss for some reason. It's not that difficult and if I slow it way down I can do it with no mistakes. But when I try to speed it up I make a mess out of it. My little finger slips off the F# and I bungle up the notes. After a few times through I can get it pretty good so we'll see what happens tomorrow. I also started Why Am I Blue? a couple days ago and I think I will end up liking that one as much as I did Blues For Wynton Marsalis. I like the Blues so that helps.

I have given up on the version of What A Wonderful World in the Greatest hits book. In fact I am greatly discouraged by just about everything I have played from that book. I just don't like the arrangements and will start looking for another source of supplemental material. I did manage to find a version of What A Wonderful World that I do like and is at my level so if my teacher approves I will switch to that one instead. I really do want to learn that one. I have also been working on a Fake Book version of Hey Jude. My keyboard has accompaniments built in and Hey Jude seems manageable for me and will sound good with the backup that my keyboard can provide.

Well, I just returned from my lesson. All in all it went very well. I got passed on The Can-Can and The Marine's Hymn.

We moved on to Why Am I Blue which I have been working on for a few days. I have that down fairly good except for a bit of rhythm difficulty. I also started Good People this morning before I went to the lesson and we continued to work through it there but I need to put a lot of effort into this one yet. I will have to concentrate on counting out the beats as I play, something I continue to struggle with but I was not getting the rhythm correct and he insists on that.

We also worked on scales as we have been for several lessons. I am doing the C, F & G major scales, C in 3 octaves and F & G in 2. I continue to have a lot of trouble with them. One would think it would be easy but it's a lot harder for me than I think it should be. I can go through the first time fine and then either going back down or starting to go up again I can't get the fingering right. I can do the hands separate fine but not hands together. He wants me to do a lot of hands separate and then hands together slowly. And on top of this he wants to add another scale AND arpeggios next time. Oh boy, can't wait!

Well, the sun's shining and the grass is growing so I have to go get the lawn mower and tractor out and tune them up.

DougF, you might consider Jazz, Rags & Blues by Alfred Publishing. I am using that for supplemental, Book 1 so far. I seem to have an affinity for that genre. I knew going in I liked the Jazz and Blues. But I never thought I would take to Rags - but once I got one under my fingers I changed my mind. Book 1 has really easy arrangements. Late Beginner level I would guess. Don't know about Books 2 and 3... yet.

I am perplexed in my attempt to intensify my study. I find that I don't get much better in a single sitting. If I spend 20 minutes on a piece and maintain concentration I get X amount better. But if I spend additional time, say 30 minutes - I still only get X amount better. It is very difficult to maintain true focus for the additional time as well. I don not see apparent progress by spending more time on a piece each practice. On the other hand, I can discern notable improvement over time. I play a piece much better after two weeks than I do after one week. And if I continue, the third week is markedly better than the second. I get to a point where I need to move on and discontinue daily practice and take on new material. So what perplexes me is how improvement occurs over longer time scale, when all my effort is focused into 20 minutes sessions.
I find myself much more approving of my progress if I spend the extra week – but not the extra 10 minutes per session. That seems counter intuitive to me.

Hi Captain Zero,
I share your frustration. I have been playing Scarborough Fair for two weeks now (didn't have a lesson last week because of spring break but certainly wouldn't have passed the song if I had one) and I cannot believe how little I have improved. Since we seem in the same boat, I am hardly the one to give advice, but one thing that I did notice is that I improve more (even in 10 minutes) if I focus on a single measure that is giving me difficulty (for example I always mess up the 9th measure in this song!) If I play that, lets say 10-15 times in a 10 minute period, walk away for a bit and then return to it later, it does sound improved....of course, not perfectly improved, but it does feel more "automatic." I am always tempted to play a piece through over and over, but this never really amounts to much in terms of progress.
I agree, It is really hard to imagine progress over the long haul though. I guess one way to appreciate it is to go back to the earliest part of your Alfred book and recall how you struggled to play a few of those pieces.

I do that too, GlassLove. Like the second ending of O Sole Mio. There is that arppegiated chord, that only appears once ion the whole piece. So rather than play the whole thing through, I just do the measure or two with the arpeggio. Like a hundred times! It is always an adventure when I go back to playing that in context with the entire piece. The anticipation as reach that second ending, and the growing wonder of which of those one hundred ways to do it wrong will come out.

I think I have about the same study pattern. I play like 20 minutes, then my concentration drifts. So I walk away for a brief respite and then return. Two minuutes, five minutes, twenty... whatever. I do have the patience to sit for an extended period - but it is my concentration that lags and limits the usefulness of that time. That is what I think anyway. Maybe I should just stay put and plug away?

That post made me smile, I did exactly that with O Sole Mio. There was about a 50/50 chance that I would play that chord properly within the context of the whole piece by the end of MUCH practice. Fortunately, luck was on my side and when I played it in lesson......IT WORKED. Quite frankly, I don't think I could have taken that piece for another week. You must be a fast learner, I bet I played it 1,000 to get those dismal odds

I also play in short intervals. Usually around 20 minutes. I do that probably 6 times a day. I sit and sight read once a day, and that usually holds my attention and I'll go for 45 minutes.

I passed Go Down Moses and Scarbourough Fair last night at my lesson. Now it is on to Raisins and Almonds. I was also assigned a beautiful piece by Henry Purcell-Minuet in A minor. I now have just three songs to play in Alfred Book 1!!! I am very excited to move out of it and on to other things. Raisins and Almonds is a pretty nice song, but I LOVE the minuet. I came home from lesson and learned to play the first 5 measures in under an hour. It was really gratifying!!

Just got Alfred Book 1 the other day and have been playing around with pieces from the first 20 pages. I imagine it's probably best to do them in order, so I'll probably settle down and take them one at a time.

Out of curiosty, how do other people decide to finish one and move on to the next? When you've successfully played it without error? Have it memorized? Etc?

Hi Shponglefan,
I usually play a piece for one week and then play it at my lesson. Unless I fail to pass the piece (which happened on Blow the Man Down), I move on to the next one. At each lesson my teacher assigns two or three pieces (depending upon difficulty level of each piece).
My teacher's standard for "passing" a piece is not to play it perfectly (if it were I would still be playing the first piece in the book ) Rather, I think she looks for an understanding of the notation and the "intent" to play it perfectly, if that makes sense. If you don't have a teacher, perhaps you could play each piece until you simply cannot stand to hear yourself play it one more time (which is usually how I feel about all of my assigned material by the time lesson day rolls around!)
I almost always have the piece memorized by the time I get to my lesson. I hope that this helps.
Welcome to Alfred book 1, I think that you will really like it. Some of the music is sort of corny, but you definitely get the sense that progress is being made as you move through the book!

shponglefan, before I had a teacher, I would work on 3-4 pages at a time. I'd continue on once I had a full understanding of the piece. That didn't mean I had to play it without a mistake. Every so often I still go back and play all the old songs. They are noticeably easier and more polished as I do so.

I will say that I can already have experience reading music. If you do not, be sure to learn every step as you go. The basics are very important and without a good foundation, it will be twice as hard later.

Now that I have a teacher, she expects perfection. No mistakes, including proper use of the pedal, correct dynamics, rests and notes right, and any other notations executed correctly. To be honest, to me that is total over kill. The last thing I want to do is repractice a song for another week because I missed a note or forgot to press the sustain pedal at some point when I played for her. I told her today that I'm finished with lessons at the end of May. I'll find a new teacher to start with in September.

I agree with GlassLove. I feel progress as I make my way to the end of the book.

Anyway, had my lesson today. She gave me a 100% on 3 songs which is nothing short of amazing considering she doesn't do that unless they're perfect. I still have to get passed on page 107 (Got Those Blues). I played it just fine, but she wants me to work on the ritard noted on the last measure. Not passed on page 110 (On Top of Old Smoky), and rightfully so. Assigned page 112, G Major scale.

Am working on several classical pieces and several sacred songs. She did sign off on one of my sacred songs. I've been playing most of these pieces for 2 months, and I'm tired of all of them. I'm ready to MOVE ON ALREADY!

I purposely left my Hanon book at home. Ooops. I already do two of the exercises already and don't want to learn any others at this point. I'm trying to spend time on 2 octave scales, hand separate.

I don't have a teacher, so my standard for "passing" a piece is when I can play it without *consistent* errors. What I mean by that is that if you are playing a song and making the same mistake most of the time you play, then I think you need to work on that portion of the song.

On the other hand, let's say you play a song 10 times and maybe 2 or 3 times you don't make a serious mistake, and the other 7 or 8 times you might make a mistake or two but not always in the same spot. Each time you make a mistake, you are thinking to yourself "Bah, that was dumb, I totally can do that section most of the time!!"

Well, in the 2nd case, I'd probably pass myself on that song because I'd feel that I'd mastered all the individual elements and just need to keep repeating it to smooth it out. I will still come back and play this song either every day or every other day, but I might spend less time on it than I'd spend on the new stuff.

Does that make sense?

I am sorry you are unhappy with your teacher, GracieCat. Just so you know, after reading several of your posts I have thought "Is my teacher too lenient?" But today, after reading your post above I thought "That is one rigid teacher!" And, congratulations on getting passed on three pieces....I would feel extremely proud given your teacher's standards. Out of curiosity, does she have many adult students? I only ask because my 8 year old son takes lessons from my teacher too. She passes him on far fewer songs. While it is hard for me to compare our skill levels in any relative way, I have a sense that she uses a "does this person understand the piece rule." For example, my son will frequently play an eighth note and a quarter note as though they are the same. He can be quite oblivious to it and will repeatedly in practice do the same thing (despite my feedback). The mistakes I make are more in terms of fingers hitting the wrong note or nerves taking over and losing my place. When I didn't pass BTMD, it was because I admittedly could not coordinate my left and right hand to get the rhythm correct. I would say that would be analogous to my son not knowing that the song should go "long long short long long" instead of long long long long long (to use the teacher's terminology). Does that make sense?

GlassLove, she has 3 beginner students that are adults, the rest of children.

It was hard to coordinate the hands on BTMD. To me, working on that was real practice.