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Starting to get Greensleeves under control. The "parsely sage" part is tough and then the part where you change directions with the left hand ("...to the one who..."). It's coming though.

I bought All-In-One Book 2 in preparation for finishing the Basic Book 1 I've been working through. Looks like some tough ones in there!

Cranking along here. Got Greensleeves, Raisins and Almonds and He's Got the Whole World pretty much down, but will continue to practice them. Worked on the right hand of The Entertainer tonight.

Sounds like you're doing pretty well! I enjoyed Greensleeves and Raisins and Almonds a lot.

I struggled with The Entertainer...it seemed to take me forever to get the rhythm correct HS, then once I finally got that down and did HT it fell apart again. I had been looking forward to Entertainer, as I really like the song....then after struggling with it for what seemed like forever, once I finally got it to where I could play it, it was kind of a letdown, as the Alfred's arrangement didn't even sound that good to me.

I played Moonlight Sonata in Dm in our recital yesterday. Boy was I nervous!! I think I did ok, though. My teacher says we're gonna start on Pachabel's canon as my next supplementary "hard" piece. Should be fun!

I'm still working on Amazing Grace, along with a piece from Alfred's book 2. Hopefully, I'll get Amazing Grace finished up this week.

I've just started on The Entertainer myself this week. So far it's going well, i can play it but occasionally get stuck and it's not up to speed yet in some parts. All the previous pieces in the book I've been able to play without looking at my hands or at least very occasionally. Not so with The Entertainer, i'm having to look a lot. I'm hoping to improve that before my lesson on Friday.

Congratulations! Playing in a recital seem to me a large step ahead in learning process

I am working HT in "Lullaby"

It looks as if we're all pretty much in the same spot. I just started "The Entertainer" two nights ago, and already I can tell it's going to be a lot of fun to play.
The syncopated rhythm is a "little" tricky, but then we've come through "Blow the Man Down," "Can Can," "Scarborough Fair," and "He's Got the Whole World . . ." so that shouldn't be anything new.
I'm also working my way through Alfred's All Time Favorites #1 along with the last sections of All in One #1, and I must say that's a GREAT supplement. The songs are arranged roughly in order of difficulty, and they're super practice for sight reading.

Yeah, the rhythm looks to be the tough part of The Entertainer. Playing each hand seperately isn't all that bad, just a few jumps here and there. I have found it better, at least for me, to just go HT from the start (VERY slowly of course). "He's Got the Whole World..." seemed like an impossible rhythm to get, but after going super-slow HT and counting a few times I got the hang of it and it became somewhat natural. But I find it hard to count properly with all the syncopation, like when notes start on the "and".

Working on Why am I blue?. I'm a little unsure about accidentals. Could someone clarify the exact rules, or link to them. I've searched on the web but haven't found anything complete. As I understand it, an accidental at the beginning of a measure lasts for the whole measure on that line (pitch). A natural cancels this. Does that apply for the rest of the measure?
Does the accidental have to be at the beginning to effect the whole measure or anywhere?

In the first measure of the third staff in the why am I blue there's a natural at the beginning of the bar. Isn't this redundant seeing as the accidental in the previous measure only lasts for that measure?

If a natural is canceling a sharp/flat from a given key signature it only lasts for that note, right? Or does it also last the entire measure?

Sorry for all the questions. I Don't have a teacher at the moment.

Here is a link to a website that will help you with theory. Half way down this page Accidentals are covered.

http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory9.htm

thanks, I think that covers it!

I like this book too. I am in third piece "Symphony Pathetique". For me it is the book with "advanced pieces".



Nice theory lesson. Thanks for share.

Correct.



Notes BEFORE an accidental are not affected by it. Any note in the same measure AFTER the accidental is affected by it. I hope that makes sense.



You are correct. The previous measure has a Bb accidental. But it ends at the end of that measure. In the 1st measure of the 3rd line, the B whole note is a B natural. The natural sign is redundant. I've noticed that Alfred's (and some other pieces i've played) will sometimes toss out redundant accidentals like that, just as a reminder to the musician. I've seen in some music that these redundant reminder accidentals will be in parentheses. It's not exactly incorrect to put it in the music, though they technically are not necessary.



A natural sign works just like a sharp/flat in that regard. It lasts until the end of the measure.

Hope that helps!

Starting to get the hang of the rhythm of The Entertainer. But the part with the D chord in the LH, still doesn't feel natural to me. I'll keep plugging away at it.

I'm to the point where I can play most of The Entertainer at temp without mistakes, except for the D chord part, where I can play correctly but much slower. But I think in a day or so I'll get that together.

I did do a slow RH only run through of Amazing Grace. Seems pretty tricky.

I've been taking a lot longer on lullaby than I expected. Some of it has been mental laziness on my part though. I've been pretty tired by the time I practice at night and I haven't had the very much mental fortitude.

I've at least gotten it to the point where I can play it through, somewhat sloppy and with minimal mistakes. I'm still continuing to play BTMD and the Waltz that comes after that, and those are continuing to improve.

Slow and steady wins the race I guess.

Well, I have The Entertainer and Amazing Grace passable, but not to the point where I feel I can stick the "Alfred 1 Graduate" thing in my signature. But I have begun working on Book 2. I'll continue to practice those last 2 Book 1 songs until I'm really satisfied that I have them down pat. I have to say, the progress through this book felt slow at times, but playing these last few songs really makes you feel like a piano player. So I'll continue with this series.

@Luke3026, nice to hear that...
I'm giving myself one week time to finish this book so I can start with no2, maybe a repertoire book and Hanon's exercises book.

I'm currently at 'Joy to the world'.

You're at "Joy to the World" and you're giving yourself one week to finish the book??? You must be 1) a genius 2) planning to practice 6 hours a day or 3) misinformed.
The pieces coming up are complex in lots of different ways. Don't punish yourself if the plans don't work exactly as you foresee.

Ok, I may have jumped ahead a little with my somehow unrealistic deadline for completing book 1 .
Its just that I feel like I should have taken piano lessons a long long time ago and I'm so jealous on those who started when they were pretty young and by my age they were already concert pianists.

I'm no genius, but I do plan to practice up to 3 hours a day (can't afford 6 yet) and if I do 2 pieces a day I'll be done with this book in 11 days (I counted 22 pieces left).