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 I did the can can I also transposed it and did it in two other keys. I think it is in C major, and I transposed it to G major and F major - it was a good exercise.

Find your new start position - play the same fingering but be aware of the sharp or flat according to the new key.

I have not gotten a lot of practice in the last two weeks, due to pain in my hips. Cause - being overweight, being 64, starting a routine of walking every day, tap, senior basketball, arthritis, etc. Sitting on the darn piano bench, or sitting in one place on anything makes the pain worse. So instead of practicing for an hour or so, I have just played the troublesome spots in "Chiapanecas" once or twice, and then played the song through and stopped. I've done this a few times a day, and it's coming along well. I'm trying not to sit too long at one time, or stand too long at one time. Luckily it's summer, so I can do some pool therapy. Next up is "Auld Lang Syne" which I will be starting in a day or so.

Been trying to learn Standing in the need of prayer, and its actually rather hard. I can do the first 2 lines, but once i get to the eight notes on 3rd line it just doesn't come of right and sounds unnatural. I was thinking I have been pushing the wrong keys, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. Still doesn't seem to fit, so either I'm playing it horribly wrong or maybe I'm just doing it too fast.

Almost got the first 2 lines down at least so there's some progress, but its pretty hard compared to earlier songs.

mom3gram : I hope you get better soon!

Quagles: Are you counting properly? "One-and-two-and-three-and-four." Make sure the D is sharped and stays sharped at the 1st bar of the 3rd measure all the way to the end of the 2nd bar (up to "but it's."

Sorry you're hurting Mom3gram, hopefully you'll get some relief soon switching up your routine.

Quagles, SITNOP is a little tricky at first. But in addition to what marimorimo suggested, try singing the words (even in your head) and it kind of guides the rythm a little bit, until you get a better feel for it.

Hi Romolo - I am now just polishing up Greensleeves too. I love the piece and so it motivates me to practice. The pedaling took a little work but I think I've got it!

Mom3Gram - I hope you feel better!!!!!!

"Standing in the Need of Prayer" was one of my favorites. I don't remember if I had any problems with it in the beginning - I probably did, since I seem to have problems with everything in the beginning. LOL. It helps to hear what it is supposed to sound like. Do you have the CD with your book? I usually check PianoNoobAlexMan's Youtube videos (they are really good), but in this case he plays it so fast that it's hard to get anything out of it.

Hello everybody. New player here - just bought a keyboard about two weeks ago and decided to use Alfred's ( in part due to the popularity / success I've seen here ) I'll be self-teaching this time around. 6 or so years ago I attempted to play with a teacher for ~6 months, but did not enjoy it at all and had given up. I've got 5 classes left to graduate with a Computer Science bachelors degree from RIT now, and was looking for a new hobby.

I've restarted from the beginning as I've forgotten pretty much everything, but I breezed through the beginning of the first book ( probably much too quickly ) and am working on Scarborough Fair. I've tried to go back and play some of the previous pieces and found that it doesn't go so well, so I'm slowing it down and plan on going back and relearning / polishing all the previous songs as well as recording them all with my new MIDI/usb cable I picked up yesterday.

I would play a song until I could get the notes / rhythm 95% correct and then move on, but I've recently noticed I've been basically ignoring dynamics and pedal. I was just anxious to get by the beginning "boring" songs and move on to something a bit more exciting, which I realize will only hurt me as I move on.

Anyways, sorry for the long post - just thought I'd introduce myself as I'll be around and posting now!

Thanks for tips I think I've tried 100s of times but its just not working out. Whatever tempo I try the sound just doesn't sound natural like it belongs to the song. Am I even pushing the right keys? E and Sharped D. Rest of song is not a problem at all, it just doesn't sound anything like it should. This and Mary Ann is the only songs I just haven't liked at all right now, Alpine Melody was quite enjoyable.

Hanons kind of confuse me at the moment, maybe I'm just too tired to understanding so gonna give Alouette a try.

Quagles,

I had a hard time with Standing...I would play the 8th notes as I have heard that song sung many times..long short long short sort of like a dotted eighth-sixteenth note. also called "swing notes". I just could not do the exact one & 2 &...

Mom3gram,

I hope your muscles are doing better. I wonder why benches are not padded...its not like all of our behinds are!(snerk)I stuck a pillow on mine!!!!!!
I'm in Ohio now. 2 tasty toys to play here but have not had the time to do so.

Here is my "The Entertainer" The book says "not fast" Overall I think it is OK ... I am going to work on evening the tempo and maybe bump it up a notch. Moving on to the last song in the book- "Amazing Grace" This one may take a few weeks, so I will be here awhile longer


http://www.box.net/shared/b2t0gjhi43

Awesome job Carl Mc...Sounded really good. Im almost there. But I have to get through Scarborough Fair first. Its taking longer than I thought lol. But Im getting better and better at it each day. Won't be long now. Measure 9 was really giving me problems but I just worked on that measure over and over again and now it's fine.

Sounded good CarlMc, although I think "not fast" could have been a tad bit faster, you hit all the notes and that's what counts, congrats. I'm looking forward to that one, I've loved that song since I was a kid and the movie (was it The Sting?) came out and I first heard it at the movie theatre.

Quagles : Maybe it's just that the Alfred arrangement for Standing in the Need of Prayer isn't entirely accurate. It's dummied down for beginners like us, after all. Fortunately(?) for me, I'm not familiar with the song, so nothing really felt 'wrong.'


Carl mc: Congrats on The Entertainer! Certainly one of the pieces I'm looking forward to I am also of the opinion you could bump up the speed a bit, though.


I had my lesson a while ago. An amazing thing happened! I played the dreaded "Little Brown Jug" for my teacher, and for the first time ever, my teacher gave me a pass on my first try!! I almost couldn't believe it when she said I played it well and perfectly. I guess that after reading here how notorious LBJ was, I practiced it like crazy XD So now I'm in 'Chiapanecas.' I'm also working on another beginner piece in the Frances Clarke book by Tcherepnin (how do you pronounce these names!?). The technique needed for that book is definitely more complicated than Alfred, but I think it's great for more variety.

Your "Entertainer" was excellent, Carl! Could be a little faster, but that will come. Really nice!

Thanks to all for the comments. Since we all agree to bumping the tempo a notch I will work that out.

marimorimo
Congrats on your LBJ performance. That is a good one to get a passing grade. Performing that one well will set you up for the next three or four songs.

Romolo
Scarborough Fair took me awhile also. That measure 9 is a tricky one- your fingers just want to do something different than what is on the page. I really enjoy this one and committed it to memory.

Quagles,
I posted SITNOP for someone else several pages back if you want to hear another version. Sometimes hearing it is the best fix. Be sure and say the words when you play this part and note the word the left hand cord falls on. Such as (broth)-(sis)- (me) (oh) (lord) Good luck.

Couldn't find it Carl, but its alright I decided to put it on hold and try to pick it up again once I'm at blow the man down, I'm guessing I might be stuck a while with that with quite the frustration.

Anyways at Kum-ba-yah it says 2nd time both hands 8va? What does it mean? Play both hands 1 octave lower/higher?

Quagles. Both hands one octave higher...... 8vb means one octave lower.....

I started Auld Lang Syne today. Wow! It's so much easier than the previous three songs. I shouldn't have too much trouble getting this one up to speed.

Some of the songs I've learned recently I feel have really been over my head, and it was like beating a dead horse. I just had to move on, but I plan to come back to them again. In the meantime, it's great to have something that goes a little more easily.