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

Thanks mom3, that makes it just a bit easier. Just need to manage the third line 2nd page up to speed and to put the pieces a bit better together and it should be down, just the transitions to some of the lines isn't sitting a 100%. Think ill start an early attempt on O sole mio soon as well, but it looks hard from videos, and not sure if ill be able to read the sheet music. but we'll see!

@Kanadka: One of the reasons why I want to continue with Alfred 2 as well is because of the support in this forum. My teacher says we can continue with it, but we have to work on the other assigned pieces first :gulp: The ABF forum really makes you feel less lonely being an adult beginner, doesn't it? I also don't know of anyone else learning piano as an adult.

I got a pass on Scarborough Fair and Raisins and Almonds during my lesson yesterday. Unfortunately, I still have trouble repositioning my hands during transposition changes in 'He's Got A Whole World.." so I'll have to polish that again and show my teacher next week. We started working on The Entertainer, hooray! Now that is one piece I'm really excited to learn We also studied a few more measures of my recital piece so now I have a page and 4 measures to study. I can hobble around pressing the right notes, but unfortunately the result is 180 degrees right of 'musical.' And then there's the Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5 duet to work on too.

@LVP: I find that I learn best when I don't work on a single piece for an extended period of time. There's like a boiling point wherein I don't get any better playing a single piece past a number of repetitions. I either take a break and come back to the piece later, or start working on another one (I like simultaneously working on supplementary pieces for this purpose). Later when I come back to it, my playing somewhat magically improves. So if it's not coming to you after way too many times trying, don't stress too much over it and find something else to do (or play) for the meantime

@Quagles: I don't remember O Sole Mio being particularly difficult except for the last line with the arpeggio, which I'm sure you can nail down with practice. And always be on the lookout for tied notes. Good luck!

Hey starbug,

Me too... BTMD was the first real challenge of the book. But then something just clicks. It's kind of amazing. You'll be grunting and heaving and sweating, and then the next time you sit down it just feels a lot easier.

Good luck! I'm up to O Sole Mio, and also doing some shorter beginner pieces recommended by my new teacher. Her opinion in that the Alfred AIO moves beginners along at a very rapid pace, which is fine if you've got nerves of steel, but she has chosen to supplement my AIO with the shorter kids pieces.

And I must admit, I love the simple little melodies that are easy to master and nice to listen to.

Good luck!

I am working on Scarborough Fair. Everything is fine until I add the pedaling, I mess up.

I am teaching myself using the Alfred book so I have no teacher to ask.

Any hints on using the pedal ?

@Marimorimo: I'm not actually sure how to play that arpeggiated note my English isn't always the best. Do I simply play them as a broken chord starting from the lowest note? Both the treble and the bass has arpeggiated chords on that last line. So do I play them both at the same time, or do I first play the left hand chord, then the right hand chord?

My theory is from what I get is that you play them both at the same time, somewhat like a broken chord playing one note by one on both hands at the same time from lowest to highest note just like a broken chord while continuing holding in each note after pressing. I haven't got to that place yet in the piece I learned up to first page, then half of 2nd page with each hand separate. But I know how terrible it is when I make mistakes, cause unlearning them is harder than learning them so everytime ill play it ill do the same mistake over and over cause i tried something wrong from the start :p

Anyways at least I finally managed to get chiapanecas perfectly down it took a while, but at the same time I've had less time each day to practice but its good to finally get it down. So then its on to finish O Sole Mio, then when I'm nearing the end of that ill start up Jericho as well maybe try Auld Lang Syne one more time and try to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

@Pianobeginner1: I am not sure what the 'standard' way of pedaling is, but my teacher makes me press the pedal immediately after the playing the first note. Trying to add the pedaling is tricky enough, but learning to pedal immediately after the first note, instead of at the same time I press the note, was the hardest for me. I also find myself having a lot of tension on my foot. The tension and proper positioning is still something I'm working on. As with everything about the piano, it is all mastered with practice.

@Quagles: From my understanding of your 'theory,' it seems your idea on how to do the arpeggio is correct. Check the posts a page back. Someone asked the same question before and a few people gave their opinions.

Marimorimo: Thanks for your reply. Pieces before Scarborough Fair seldom use the pedal at all. It seems that I need more practice to improve my hand and foot coordination.

I'm also struggling with the pedal. I've played on a cheap digital without pedals until 2 weeks ago and now I mess up pretty badly when I try to add pedaling.

I've tried the Entertainer hands together yesterday. It's so difficult it made me laugh. I'm not ready for that yet. But like with the Blow The Man Down, I'm sure it will come, with lots and lots of practice.

I had a little breakthrough with Hanon's Aerobic Sixth. For the longest time I just couldn't get it hands together at any decent tempo and then suddenly I realised that I'm playing it effortlessly, without thinking, fast... and correct. My hands just knew what to do. It was fun. I couldn't even believe I'm playing it this fast.

I'm wondering if anyone got a tip of on some supplemental material on being better at reading sheet music? Dynamics are, the different notes, intervals etc are understandable but first of all it goes too slow. Still the biggest problem is I have a hard time to actually recognize where I'm supposed to start on the keyboard, the initial position of both hands, and I still cannot recognize which octaves I'm supposed to play at. With also being changes in octaves (unless it does say for instance 8va.

I think at this point I should be able to read other music sheets outside of the book, even above my level and have a fairly good understanding how it is supposed to be played. Should be able to read and understand, but not to play it, that is too early. But still most materials outside the book which I've looked at, you have the same notes, familiar dynamics. I'm not gonna attempt to play them until I improve but I have to get much better at understanding sheet music, cause there's obviously even some basics I'm missing.

So any alright book or even a site that could be of help of me understanding it a bit better?

Kandka I envy you for taking time to actually do the Hanon's :p I should probably devote more time to them but I don't give them much attention even if I should and only learned the very first one in the book. Playing without a pedal, then starting with pedal is pure nightmare. I'm still playing on a rather bad piano (only semi-weighted ) cause I couldn't wait to play. But decided as I bought it if I would enjoy the piano and kept playing I'd buy myself one as a christmas present from myself. So that's what I plan to do, it'll take some time to get used to it, but I don't regret it. So about..3months and ill invest in a bit improved one at least

Quagles that will be quite a Christmas present. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I'm still getting used to weighted keys, especailly on fast songs I notice that I'can't paly them as faat as I could on my old keyboard, but I'm sure it will come. And the pedal is really nice, but again on faster songs I either forget to pedal or mess up the dynamics while concentrating too hard on pedaling.

I really suck at sightreading. Leave alone pieces from different books, even Alfred's pieces that I haven't palyed for a while - if it's not in a key of C or G, I have major troube reading them. it's rally bad. I usually memorize pieces very quickly and then I play from memeroy, even if I have the music in front of me. I also try to play almost all of the songs regularly. Now that I'm working with a teacher I have some supplemental work, so I don't have as much time to spend on Alfred's. So I'm horrified that with some of the songs I worked so hard to get, if I forget some note - I can't read it. I have to stare at it for quite a while before I realize what key I am suppose to play. I was hoping it will get a little bit better by now, but it's not yet. I think I should be patient with myself. My teacher doesn't seem to be concerned by this, saying it's pretty typical and I need to give it more time before working on sight reading. And it has to be below my current level. Hard to be patient but I am. I'm sure it will come.

One of my long-term goals is to become a proficient sight-reader, so I read through each and every post here on PW regarding that subject. You can search around, but the consensus is this: you need to practice sight-reading a lot of sheet music that is a couple levels below your current level. I noticed my note reading (but not playing HT at first sight) improved a lot recently, probably around the time I started working on 'Greensleeves,' but I've been working on a lot of non-Alfred pieces. And this is just my personal experience, but I notice that when I tackle pieces above my current level, my note recognition skills significantly improve for my lower level pieces.

Understanding where to start on the keyboard? It's as simple as reading the first notes on both staves and positioning the appropriate finger number there. But I do remember in my earlier months I drew a blank and made silly mistakes when placing my hands on the keyboard during lessons...I guess it just gets better with time. As for recognizing which octaves you're supposed to play at, I'm not sure I understand. Each line and space on the staff corresponds to a single note only, unless 8va or such is indicated. In that case it just means playing the same note but an octave up. Just remember that G clef is from middle C up, while the F clef is from middle C down. The octaves just don't randomly change!

I'm excited for you buying yourself a good DP I'm thinking of getting another one for Christmas too, so I can practice at our house during the weekends and the holidays (I live in an apartment).

@Kanadka: Well I envy you for actually being able to memorize - I'm really bad at that XD My teacher sometimes points to random measure in a piece for me to play so she knows if I can read it or I'm just playing from memory. I think it'd be great if I can sight-read and memorize at the same time!

As for me, I'm polishing The Entertainer right now. Still missing some dynamics and has a few hiccups here and there, but this piece so much fun!

I was able to get a little practice in today, but just on my daughter's keyboard, it is still more comfortable on my neck, back and shoulder than the actual piano. I'm pretty much pain free after 2 visits to the chiropractor and one for a deep tissue massage. But my hand still gets pins and needles and that electrical shock like sensation if I try to push it, so I'm taking it easy.

I'm working on The Stranger and Greensleeves and played around with a few further back in the book, nothing seems too challenging. If I can only get some solid practice time in, I think I could wrap up this book in a few short weeks.

I go back to see the chiropractor on Thursday, maybe this time he can make the pins and needles go away for good (it goes away for a day or so and then comes back after each visit).

Everybody is moving so fast now, I hope you don't leave me too far behind.

@Marimorimo: For some reason its a bit of a complex issue to me! With Little Brown Jug triggering this problem you see, reading from the sheet it looks like the right hand plays Middle C and F to me, but instead its played an octave lower. Which I somehow..well don't always get, but after reflecting on it a bit today I think I might understand why. Got this answered earlier by Romolo but still was a bit confused but I think I might understand it today after playing Jericho.

Its painfully obvious (At least I think it is!) that I'm playing that song an octave lower than where minor A scale goes, and of course the bass line can't be playing the same line so it has to below that. (common sense!) Greensleeves is another song in A minor, and the notes are much higher up, so obviously that one is the normative one. So I think I might understand it now, might. But ill understand it better once I get to harder song if I've done so.

Anyways on that I'm still working on O Sole Mio, but I actually finished Jericho. Tried it yesterday and got most of it down then, and finished it down today. It was surprisingly easy and sounds kinda cool as well, I'm liking it. O Sole Mio is progressing as well but still not really at a place where I can say its near completion. Putting hands together but its going a bit slowly and unaccurate. I'm gonna start on Greensleeves tomorrow I think now that I finished Jericho, even if I seem to a bit on the slow side understanding chords. One of the reasons I learn this one is cause I've been anticipating to learn cause I love the sounds and The Stranger actually seems harder so I won't devote any time to it before O Sole Mio is finished at least.

I'm still struggling with O Sole Mio too, Quagles, and keeping LBJ, Chiapanecas, and Auld Lang Syne on the list too - not ready to call them done, so I was afraid to start Jericho yet. Maybe I will take it for a spin tonight. You are moving right along, and will be leaving me behind shortly.

Jericho seems actually to be a lot easier than o sole mio.. I think the hardest thing to master out of this book is the timing. I can play all the song correctly but mainly because I know what they are supposed to sound like. I went ahead and ordered book 2 and 3 and will be moving on. I guess the timing will improve on its own after many years of experience or what? I try to keep a count but i end up getting totally distracted trying to keep the count and read the notes which actually ends up throwing off the timing even more. any advice ?

Quagles and bobjr, you are both right. Jericho IS a lot easier than O Sole Mio. :-) I've dropped Little Brown Jug from my daily practice list, and added Jericho after working on it yesterday and today. So my practice list songs are now:

Chiapanecas (not bad but not ready to pass)
Auld Lang Syne (which I'm ready to pass on also)
O Sole Mio (needs a lot of work)
Jericho (new but promising)

Auld Lang Syne, I've pretty much given up for now. Even though it seems easy I'm doing something wrong which I don't know what is so its on hold.

Jericho - Like said earlier down, and fun song to play so I repeat this LBJ, Chiapanecas and sometimes a few others each time to warm up.

O Sole Mio is almost down - I actually don't like this song at all in fact its one of the songs I hate the most in the book (tied with Little Brown Jug.), last line doesn't sit at all though but the rest is rather smooth most of the time.

Greensleeves - Looking promising, I can play both hands separately, and together but at a very slow tempo but it getting together slowly. Though I think I'm probably another 4-5 days away from "perfection" to lay it off.

Go Down Moses - A song I just started, a bit on the short side. RH is easy, haven't tried LH yet. Its a song I remember from childhood as a song I couldn't stand, so I'm hoping to progress fast through it and forget it :p though for now its a last priority I work on if I feel like I'm getting tired.

Overall progress doing good, I think the rest I'm working on should be good in about a week or so before the even harder challenges comes. I haven't tried The Stranger yet, does anyone have a recorded version of it? I don't think I've ever heard it before.

I think wj3 (forgive me if I'm wrong) poted The Stranger a couple of weeks ago for me when I asked, look back maybe about 5 pages.

I'm moving along slowly. Not liking The Stranger at all, it just doesn't sound like music to me when I play it, though I liked the recording that was posted.

Greensleaves is going pretty well, Jericho is good and I like that one. Going to polish O' Sole Mio, The Stranger and Greensleaves a little more before jumping into Go Down Moses. The end of the book is so close, I can taste that sweet success, but still a few hurldes to get over.

Keep up the good work all!

Where are all the book oners? Our page had slipped down to like page 6, co basically I'm just bumping it. Did you all leave me for thread 2?

I'm working on Scarborough Fair, its going pretty good, but I skipped Go Down Moses, so still have to go back to that one. Everything is going pretty good up to that point, except I'm still not liking the Stranger and its got some holes in it that aren't smooth. I ordered the Alfred's Christmas Greatest hits book off of Amazon and its supposed to be here by Saturday, so looking forward to starting to work on my holiday repetoire.

Still on Joy to the World