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

Starbug,

Everyone has problems with Blow the Man Down...I know I did but you'll get it.

Just go really really really slow at first, making sure you hit the right notes and the right time even if it doesn't sound like a song, just make sure you hit the right notes and then the next day, when you go back to it, you'll be able to play it faster and faster.

But trust me, everyone I know in this forum had problems with that song. Just keep at it

I having trouble with this song too. Not only it's hard but it also sounds like crap too. Very discouraging piece!

Blow the Man Down is a rite of passage here on this forum. Everyone has trouble with it, even those who sailed through the preceeding pieces easily. It's the first piece where you really have to coordinate your two hands.

I made a photocopy of the page, and divided each measure into individual beats so I could see exactly which RH and LH notes had to be played together on each beat. That was the only way I could get it to make sense. It worked for me. If you are really stumped, try it.

Good luck! Everyone does get it eventually. I still play it from time to time just so I don't forget how to do it.

Yea, it's the first piece that seems to have differently new type spacing LH and RH parts.. It's very odd compared to what has come before. I agree with the poster a few comments up. I don't think its a very pleasant tune. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I am struggling.

Thanks for all the tips!.. I'll keep plugging away

I'm working on putting RH and LH together for "O Sole Mio". This one seems to be easier than "Auld Lang Syne", but harder than the previous two. I'm slowly creeping along - no more learning a song in a day or two.

I also have a short list of my favorites that I review from time to time, and I've started renewing my aquaintance with some Christmas carols. I've got enough to keep my busy, and just when I start getting bored, it's time to turn the page to a new challenge.

Stopped in for what may be my last, or close to last post in the level one thread. I'm working on Amazing Grace which is the last piece in the Adult Self Teaching version of level one. It's getting there but the pedaling is making me mess up the notes, so slow and steady she goes.

I did want to comment on Blow the Man Down. I am doing a review of the whole book along with my wrapping up the last piece and I came to BtMD. It was easier to play, and whoever said it, it still sounds like (epithet deleted) to me! That is one of the reasons, I think, that people have so much trouble with it. Even when done reasonably well, it still sounds awful.

My sugggestion, if it is really bothering you, is to get it to the OK stage and do a little more work on it after you are further into the book.

Hope to see you all soon in Level Two.

Blow the man down is a tough piece, it took me close to a week I believe to get it smoothly down. Replay the same parts over and over that you have trouble with and eventually it starts getting automatic. I still play it from time to time actually :p once you learn that Cafe Vienna, which is just a bit after that feels a bit similar as well, but easier to learn. Everyone has problems with that piece usually and I see it as one of the more challenging pieces at least for its level.

Nice to see you progress do, hopefully I can come in the book two in some months as well, can't wait at least.

Still working on chiapanecas,and I guess Auld Lang Syne I guess..feels like I'm not making any progress at all for weeks now. For Chiapanecas I can do the first page, and the half of second page rather smooth but the last 2 lines is giving me trouble, it just sounds awkward like something is wrong, maybe I'm playing something wrong. It's giving me a headache but I'm getting somewhere at least. Auld Lang Syne well its not going anywhere, its not sounding anything like it despite that I'm pretty sure I'm hitting the right keys but its hard to check that for sure, so its something like a lost case.

Oh yeah I need something cleared up, in Chiapanecas you repeat on the first page, and once in the second page. So the second time you play it, do you repeat the line with the 1, or do you jump to the second part? As in do you still repeat everything you played up to now (within the bars, not whole piece.), or do you jump over where it says 1 and right up 2. On second page it seems like play all of it again on that page, but on first page it seems a bit unclear for me.

You play the first page twice, once with ending 1 and once with ending two. Then you go to the second page and do the same, that is, once with ending 1 and then go to the top of the page again and play with ending 2. Got that? :-)

I'm still working on "Little Brown Jug", "Chiapanecas", "Auld Lang Syne", and "O Sole Mio". The first three are mostly error free, but definitely not musical or polished. "O Sole Mio" is still under construction.

I'm pretty slow, Quagles, and many people have passed me by. You probably will also, but I'm closing in on the end of the book and can't wait to be promoted to Book 2.

Nice to see many people still active on this thread, although it looks as though you're all close to leaving for Book 2 thread

Where are all the newbies starting on Ode to Joy!?. I'll be lonely here soon lol

I've almost got Blow the Man down now!

I am on the last couple songs, but i think Its going to be a while before i start book 2, because the songs have gotten a bit hard in my opinion. I just work a little each day on it, Singing in the Rain gave me a confidence boost... a week ago I thought I would never get it and now i can play it easily. I think when you get stuck the best thing to do is to take a break for a couple hours and then come back and try it again.. I have to agree with one of the previous posters, Blow the Man Down is not one of my favorite tunes in the book... I would say Greensleaves, Scarbourgh Fair, Almonds and Raisons are much more fun to play. You will be happy when you get to better songs. Blow the Man Down is a grind but once you get it, it will make things a lot easier for the songs comming up.

Yep... this represented an "over the hump" type challenge for me also.

Don't worry, you'll get it eventually and wonder why you ever sweated it...

Have fun,
AC

Ok, this is my second week of lessons and of general piano ownership. I have some musical background, so the first steps are coming along nicely, maybe too nicely! I brought my Alfred to lessons and the teacher (who I LOVE) figured we would just use that since I have it.

Here's the thing....just the other day I was murdering Jingle Bells (we call it the 'Jingle Dirge' around here), and today my piano teacher flips forward to When the Saints Go Marching In and announces that I am ready for that. Gulp....that's ten pages I just missed! I feel scared.

I don't want to go to fast!

Thoughts? Should I be scared and go back and 'work my way up to it?'

Or just go with it?

Anyone else do this and regret it????

BTW, he's a great teacher, I am just afraid that all my practice before lessons started have given him a false sense of my ability!

Thanks for sharing thoughts....

It's good to see everyone progressing! Funny, I seem to be the only one who actually likes the tune of Blow the Man Down I remember that piece being a challenge, but I was so proud of myself when I got it down that I memorized it and played it all the time (but have since forgotten, though. I'm a bad memorizer). As AC26XP put it, you'll get it eventually and wonder why you ever sweated it

LVP: I say go for When the Saints Go Marching In! I don't have my book right now so I can't check, but I don't remember any of the songs between Jingles Bells and When the Saints, so I'm sure the pieces in between aren't that big of a deal. If you're worried, try them a bit before tackling 'Saints' but I think you'd be better off concentrating on 'Saints.' And I do think it's good to challenge yourself, especially if you've got a good teacher to guide you

About me, I've reached He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. This piece has gotten me really excited since it's very near the end, and it's transposed in 3 keys. I've got it down, except that I'm terribly slow at repositioning my hands for the next key transposition - something I have to work on. I hope to get a pass on 'Scarborough Fair,' 'Raisins and Almonds,' and maybe even 'He's Got the Whole World...' from my teacher during tomorrow's lesson.

I find I'm learning pieces much faster now. I think it's due to some of the more challenging pieces my teacher assigned me. I dreaded working on them because I find them so difficult and it takes me weeks to get them sounding even halfway decent, but I think the effort paid off. Now the method book pieces seem like peanuts compared to some of my other pieces and it takes me only a couple of days to get them to a decent level (3rd day is for polishing). If only I could say the same for my recital piece that I'm working on! I'm pretty sure I'm leaping through several levels with that one but I'm determined to work on it (the pieces in Book 2 actually look much easier than my recital piece). Anyway, the recital isn't until March so I still have a lot of time.

marimorimo, it looks like we started to play at about the same time (Mid May for me) and are going at a similar pace. I really couldn't get excited about "He's Got the Whole World". That piece just doesn't do it for me. So I skipped for now and went right for the Entertainer. Learning right hand only and having a lot of fun with it. Still working on the Raisins and Almonds wich I liked a lot. Scarborough Fair also need a lot more work. I just can't believe I'm so near the end of the book. I'm curious, what is your recital piece? Are you going to continue with Alfred 2?

I'm still here, but just reading, not playing. Having pain again, so I started seeing a chiropractor. He thinks its my C5 disk from a car accident I was in years ago. He's asked me to lay off the piano since that seems to be my trigger, until he can get me some day to day pain relief. But he promises if I give him time, he'll have me back at the keyboard. So we'll see.

Meanwhile, I have a lesson tomorrow, that I am totally unprepared for, as I didn't want to take another break from lessons like I had to during the spring. I'm afraid my teacher will get tired of this on and off lessons, so I've skipped practice and hopefully we can work through a few things tomorrow evening.

@Kanadka: Yup we started about the same time (beginning of May for me). Actually I'm not excited about 'He's Got the Whole World..." itself, I'm excited that it's one of the last 3 pieces in the book (I never really liked that song much). 'The Entertainer' is the piece I'm looking the most forward to, but I've still got to polish some of the previous pieces so I'll probably start working on it later this week. My recital piece isn't something well-known internationally. It's a folk (children's) song from my country but the arrangement I'm working on adds a lot of oomph and pizazz so it's so much better than the original. When my teacher played it for me a couple of months ago and said it would be my recital piece, I immediately liked it because it sounded so pretty and I said I'd be so happy if I could learn to play it someday...only I didn't realize that 'someday' would come so soon!

In my initial overzealousness in learning piano, I ended up buying the whole Alfred AIO series so I'm planning to move on to Book 2. But my teacher is already assigning me pieces that are slightly more advanced, so I think Book 2 would be more for making sure I didn't miss important points. Nowadays, I think Alfred moves a tad too slow - 16th notes don't appear until Page 99 of Book 2, I wonder why that is.

@BarbVA: I'm hope you get better and get back to playing the piano soon! Do you think the pain could partly be due to tension as well? The first couple of months I was playing, I read about being relaxed and releasing tension but never put conscious effort into it (I thought I was relaxed enough). Then one day I really tried relaxing and it made a huge difference. Before, my hands would feel tingly or slightly tired after every practice session, but nowadays, they don't feel tired at all even after practicing for nearly 2 hours. It amazes me, because I can never write with a pen for more than 30 minutes without my hand getting tired. My hand also moves faster around the keyboard when relaxed. I certainly haven't lost all tension (far from it), but I think it's a step in the right direction. I also bought the book What Every Pianist Needs to Know about the Body because the relation of the body to piano playing thing fascinates me.

Another question:

I have a lot of time to practice, but wonder best way to spend it. Right now, I work through all the pages in Alfreds up to where I am, work on scales and the latest 'problem' until I feel like I am just making thing worse. I don't know when to stop playing a piece that isn't coming together. Like, there are two bars in Jingle bells that keep eluding me. Do I play them until I get them right and then STOP there to let it sink into the brain? B/C often if I keep going after that I just mess it up.

But if I stop there, I don't have enough other stuff to keep me busy! I don't want to move forward until I master things (more or less) but my teacher has me doing that a bit.

I could do some sight reading, but I don't know how busy that will keep me, since most the music I have is over my head and I won't be able to play it up to tempo for a long, long time.

I would love to know what you think! Just spend an hour on that last bar of Jingle bells and beat it into submission?

Thanks!

marimorimo : thank you for your reply. I've started learning on my own on May 15th and I've just started working with a teacher. So until late August I didn't have any supplemental pieces and only played from Alfred. We haven't decided yet what to do next. I really like this forum and I'd like to continue with Alfred 2 beacuse of the people here, but we'll see. My teacher wants to wait and work with me for a while before deciding on a course of action. I don't know anyone else who's learning to play piano as an adult, so finding this forum was really great for me.

LVP, spending an hour on the last bar of Jingle Bells will drive you insane.

If you need "sight reading" material that's at or below your level, try http://gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/freebies.html#Primer%20Level

The "first pieces", "primer", and "Level 1" should keep you busy without frustrating you.

Have fun!

Mom3gram, thank you!