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Working on "Raisons and Almonds"

Raisins and Almonds is a pretty song. Have fun with it!

Hi mom3gram:

Yes, it is a cool one!

Congratulations Angelojf. You are getting there. Only a few more songs and you will be moving on to book two. I am finally getting to where I am happy with Amazing Grace. It still needs a little polishing but its pretty good. I am working hard right now on my recital piece but when thats over I think I will move on.

I started the book one.
I found several videos on you tube with the parts of the book.
I do not speak / write in English. Only in Spanish and Portuguese, but I'm using http://translate.google.com.br/?sl=en&tl=pt

In my country we have many users of this book, but after having found the book one, I like its simple and intuitive.

I am still without a teacher.
2 to get the book here in my country, we import, and with this it is very expensive. I tried to buy at Amazon, but could not. While I have the book 2, I'm working the book 1. I am in the beginning, but I looked the song "Jericho" and play it after a day of training, rsrs Now I'm trying to start the book.

Anything that can help me will be very welcome. Accepted suggestions, tips etc..
Thanks!

Welcome Lil Honey. It is a good gtoup of people here, I am sure you will get a lot of help. Keep us informed as to your porgress.

Thank you for the suggestion Carl Mc. I will check out the AAIO Book Two Thread. I apologize for my very late reply. I must admit, despite my progress, my reading skills are quite poor. I may want to check out AAIO Book One just so I can have some extra pieces to work on and (hopefully) improve my reading skills. During my studies, the only way I have been able to learn how to play anything is to start very slowly, making many note-reading errors as I proceed. When I've finally learned the notes and fingering of a piece I'm working on, it then takes me a long time to bring the piece up to tempo, improve the dynamics, etc. My teacher hasn't yet addressed the issue of sight-reading, and it is a skill that I'd like to work on. I may start working on developing sight-reading skill on my own, perhaps following the advice from this website, which I think seems quite practical.

I'm typically working on three or four pieces at any given time, and it usually takes me about two or three weeks to finish a piece to my teacher's satisfaction. I typically spend a couple of days learning the notes and fingering of new pieces, and the rest of my time is devoted to bringing up the tempo and so on. So, the majority of the time I'm practicing at the piano, I'm working on pieces that I've already read, since looking at the same sheet music day after day doesn't really qualify as reading. No wonder I'm such a poor reader!

Thanks, Ejay. It is reassuring to know that the challenges involved in learning to play the piano seem to be fairly universal.

I guess this intrigues me a bit, clearly you are able to read music, right? I'm not sure why the distinction between reading music and sight reading. To me the ability to pick up a new unfamiliar piece of music and "sight read" it is not a different skill than being able to read music, it is just something that comes with experience. Maybe you could inform me as to what you see as the difference.

I made some nice progress the last few practices.

Chiapanecas:
Played it through a few times with just 1-2 minor mistakes so I'm almost happy to tick of this piece. I discovered at one point my fingering was different to what was recommended but when trying to change it I just became more confused so I'm just staying with my slightly different fingering. I guess you need to work out the proper fingering as you learn the piece or going back to new fingering later is tricky.

O Sole Mio:
I played this twice without any errors at all so I'm ticking this one off. I did find one problem I was having with it. The chord on the second page with the D flat in it is hard to
play and I found I was curling my little finger right in and hitting the F with the nail of the pinkie finger (as well as twisting the wrist a lot) in order to reach the two flat keys
with the other fingers. I have changed my technique here so the pinkie hits the F near the middle of the black keys and its a lot more comfortable and easier to play. I guess thats something a teacher would be able to assist with if I was able to get to lessons.

I'm ticking off Jericho, Greensleeves and Go Down Moses as well as I can play them all fairly well the first time. I did discover while listening to a version of Jericho on youtube that its a bluesy type piece and the eighth notes were played with the short-long type rhythm like other pieces in the book. Is there any way to tell when a piece should be played like this?

Still need more work on Scarborough Fair. I'm not very good at Legato so I might go back to the start of the book and just work on legato. I think it will be helpful seeing as I don't have a sustain pedal on my keyboard. Also as I have a small keyboard and dodgy chair/desk I haven't been doing most of the 8va stuff through the book so need a little work there. My fingering seems weird when I tried it here but wasn't too bad.

Few more pieces to finish off then the infamous Entertainer/Amazing Grace combo to tidy up and I'm finished mastering the piano! Until book 2 . . .

I think your right, but as a beginner there is the temptation to assume that you can just learn sight reading by practicing it a lot, and you assume that stopping to memorize or study the music in detail works against this. This is what I found. I started out hoping I could learn every piece just by sight reading but as a beginner your constantly coming across new things you haven't seen before, new notes, key signatures, rhythms, chords, syncopation etc so it makes sense that you have to start with small steps. Learn all these things first the slow and methodical way, and practice sight reading on music that you already know all the details off.

Perhaps that is what molto is talking about. If he has already progressed his playing ability to book two, then he already knows all the things required to play book 1 pieces so it would be good to practice sight reading on those.

Hey Wrenn, sounds like you are making great progress and also in self-observance/analysis which is crucial in getting better. I appreciate your detailed postings which certainly help me to observe myself. Learning or mislearning seems particular an issue in music and when you learn one way then it is difficult to correct. I think this is perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to have a teacher who can catch these things early.

Kenny said: "I think this is perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to have a teacher who can catch these things early."

I would say, "...a good teacher is going to help you avoid things that prove to be ineffective and inefficient in your learning. Errors will never start much less be habits to later overcome. Good teaching is all about empowerment of the student.

One cannot share experiences and talk about them from having picked up the "buzz words" or reiterating what someone in the know has expounded upon. You can have the words right, but still have little to no clue what you are saying. You have to earn the right to talk with authority by passing through the school of cognitive learning and gained experience in being knowledgable and self-actualizing. Parrots can repeat words, but parrots don't have any concept of what they are saying, do they?

I think you are saying a lot of things that you, yourself, don't have any or very much experience with, Kenny. How can that be you try to post at an authority level when you are a new beginner? I'm all for enthusiasm and encouragement, but, it is a huge responsibility to "teach" someone or to take a stand on something in music that is a faulty piece of information. You need to know (walk the walk/talk the talk/be greatly experienced and accurate to be a mentor.

I am pleased to see this deliniation being made in Keystrings posting today. I see maturity and respect toward music making in her comments today. I'm sure that the progress she will be making in the near future is going to reflect even more ambitions and accomplishments for her because of this important change in attitude.

I am the first to compliment when a compliment or praise is earned. I am among the first to comment when something in music is a totally "off" concept or the path is becoming unnecessarily and destructively littered with irrelevance and misconstrued comments. It does happen here, it has happened, it needs to be cautioned, or "cited". Citation works both ways, for praise, and for remand.

When we remove enough of the impediments blocking us by changing our approach, we should also find that we have removed the odds against us. Music is full of pure concepts in theory, it is the people who run them amuck, unfortunately.

In pursuit of excellence, that day is coming!

Respectfully intended,

Betty Patnude

Betty as I've told you elsewhere, I'm not going to respond to your personal attacks. You are only exposing yourself when you post these sorts of things.

What I will say is that I am as knowledgeable about many things including music as anyone else, including yourself.

If I said something incorrect please let me know, I don't believe I did. I think you have only repeated what I said (maybe you didn't understand it) and taken the opportunity to make yet another personal attack. I suggest you refrain from that behavior as it only reflects negatively on you.

If you have issues with me personally, which you clearly do you are welcome to PM.

Certainly I am a beginning piano player with much to learn about playing piano, but I have been studying music and music theory for almost half a century.

Thanks

Wrenn,
I am currently also working on Chiapenacas, O sole mio, jericho, scarborough,etc. I have been thoroughly depressed that I am having so much trouble with Chiapenacas, in particular, that I have not practiced in four days. This coming on the heels of Blow the man down.

It concerns me that I have so much trouble putting both hands together on some of these pieces, like maybe I'm not cut out for this sort of thing. I can play hands separately like a champ, but when I put them together I have to almost play each note individually, one, then the next one and so on.

Yet I have extraordinary eye-hand cooridination in other things. I just don't understand it.

It's a weird piece somehow. Maybe it's one of those pieces thats harder than it looks, because it looks pretty easy. My method of practicing it is to identify the parts that I have trouble with and just practice those, ignorning the parts that I could play through easily. So I mainly practice the two endings and the transition during the repeats.

I wonder if its also tricky as its one of the longer pieces in the book with lots of repeat sections and two different endings which are often the harder parts to learn.



I'm the same, another hobby of mine is juggling which requires good rhythm, timing and eye/hand coordination. I can juggle 7 balls and 5 clubs but Blow the Man Down stopped me cold! But at the same time, I know I've spent thousands of hours learning juggling skills, so piano shouldnt be any different, I just need to put in the practice time ;-)

I am also having problems with Chiapenacas. It works best when I slow it down to the speed I am able to read but it wants to be played more up tempo. It will soon come together... I know it will...I know it will.

I have had to practice the second ending a lot!

Well I finally gave myself a pass on "Amazing Grace" so its off the Book two thread for me. I am sure a lot of you will be following me soon. I will stick around on the Book one thread to offer my cheers and condolences. Wish me luck

Hello guys, i am new here as you can tell. I am wondering if this book teaches theory from the very beginning for someone who has no knowledge. Is this book good for absolute beginners?