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

I'm sort of stuck on the Can-Can. I honestly just cannot seem to play it smoothly or at speed. As for reasons - not enough time to sit down for a long session I think.

I got stuck on it a little too, until, of course the breakthrough. I don't know what you mean by a long enough sessions, but that might be irrelevant in any case. Long enough is when you find yourself frustrated and making little discernable progress. Time to go watch "CSI." Amazingly, when you come back you'll find that the insurmountable has become merely challenging. And then the challenging becomes irritating, etc. Soon everything will resolve.

I find that the key to these pieces with (for us beginners) complicated rhythms is to break it down into small chunks of a measure or two. Initially, you might not even want to try to play it as music; just play the notes very very slowly and carefully, making sure to come in with the right hand exactly where you're supposed to in relation to the chords.

Once you've got that down, you're ready to speed it up a little and make it sound like "Can Can."

Of course, it goes without saying that hands separate is essential until you've got the timing and fingering pretty well worked out.

I just had a similar problem with "Why Am I Blue?" and "Good People," and it helped tremendously to follow my own advice (above).

Good luck in this adventure. And, remember, this too shall pass. Soon you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Some people here started with a keyboard, myself included. For me, as a beginner, the greatest difference is in dynamics. With a DP with "weighted keys" you can control dynamics easier. Sound quality is other issue. You can improve the sound quality of your keyboard using headphones or using external loudspeakers. IMO it is better to start with a keyboard than not start




Good point. Check our playing with the others.

Moving right along! I'm glad to be out of those "swingy" "jazzy" pieces for a while, and I'm really enjoying the slow minor key pieces. Finished up "Greensleeves" and "Go Down Moses" last week, and now working on "Scarborough Fair" and "Raisins and Almonds."

Wow! It is so encouraging to see so many adult learners. I am brand new to this, so I am not sure how it all works, but for starters, I am up to page 40 in Alfred Adults book 1. My right hand gets quite tight on teh chords but with practice it is getting easier. I was so inspired by my kids' progress that I decided to take up piano at 45, i part for my own pleasure, but also as a means to help them along; so far so good. My only issue is that the Alfred book has boring songs. I also feel that I should be learning more, i.e. technique. I looked around the local music store for a intro book of simple pieces, but alas, no luck, so I started to play my kids' book 1 Suzuki pieces: "Long, Long Ago" & "Cuckoo" & "Go Tell Aunt Rhody". I like them, but was wondering if there are books more apporpriate for adults?

Well, the Can-Can just clicked yesterday. Now I can run through it at high speed and it sounds great! On to the Marine's Hymn. The book has gotten so much more fun since around BTMD since I pretty much seem to like every piece of music I play...

Welcome to this thread SuzukiDad. See page 144 of this thread regarding alfred songs.

Yeah, some of them are pretty bad, but I actually like some of them. On the songs I don't like, I just think of it less as "music" and more of an exercise to learn a specific concept, and make myself trudge through it.

Are you working on your own or using a teacher? My teacher has been assigning me a harder "recital" piece in addition to the Alfred's stuff...it definitely helps keep things interesting.

Don't give up on the Alfred songs quite yet. There's a lot of good stuff to come. And while it might not be Chopin or the Beatles, a lot of people here are having a great time getting good at "Blow the Man Down," "Can Can," "Why am I Blue?" and "Good People."
Leaf through your Alfred book and see what's coming for you in the future. You'll be pleased. But remember, the material in the Alfred book is not there to become part of your repertoire; it's there to teach you HOW TO PLAY THE PIANO. As such, it's chosen and arranged to teach you new skills in a comfortable and progressive manner. So play it as well as you can, even if you're not fond of it.
As to the children's books you mention--go for it! I have long been an advocate of adults working their way through a series of children's books as they learn. Children know that they don't know anything, and they're often content to move very slowly as they devlop their skills. Adults, on the other hand, have this obsessive need to get there quickly, and so they often skip over the endless repetition of elementary fundamentals in their desire to start playing "adult" stuff right away.

Just would like to say I enjoy reading the blogs I pick up alot of information from them. I am on Alfreds book level 1 for the second time because I went through it to fast (month and a half) first time So now I go at a slower pace as to try and play the music correctley.

Donnie

That's real helpful, and encouraging to think of Alfred as more of a skill-aquiring exercise, than anything else. I am making my way through on my own, but hope to take an intro piano class at the local university in the Fall. Thanks so much for the info Michaels Steen & gahdzila. I'll check out pg 144 for more help.

I am up to the Little Brown Jug now. My teacher wants me to do that and Greensleeves this week. As an aside, I am still working on Hey Jude, and am really struggling with the chords, it just does not sound nice.

Anyway, I am finding that going back to repeat the songs I have learned has been hugely beneficial. You sort of slowly become more proficient at playing them. My instructor always tells me to spend one third of my practice time reviewing. Does anyone else do this?

Yes, I take some time reviewing older pieces. Sometimes i have to spend more time than I expect in some pieces because I can not play them so smooth as I expect, but always much less time than the first time I learned them.

Here is a nice comment made by mom3gram, in page 141 (01/10/11)
"Unless you play all the pieces you have learned frequently, you WILL forget them and have to re-learn them. This goes for most,if not all of us. But the good news is that they come back a lot faster the second time. Review is good, but don't beat yourself up if you can't play old pieces on the first try."

As mentioned a little earlier, I just picked up the full versions of the books. I started again from the beginning. The Alpine tune is giving me fits for some reason. I can't wrap my head around it yet. Only been playing it since yesterday so will continue to slug it out.

New on the forums.

New to the piano (electric piano in my case).

Had my first lesson this week and was given the Alfred's All in One book. Where does this fit in? Is this the Book 1 referenced in this thread?

In other words, am I in the right place?

Jim

Welcome, Jim

You're in the right place

Thanks for the welcome.

Let the fun begin!

I totally agree. Within the last few weeks I've gotten through (to the point of playing them pretty well) "Blow the Man Down," "Can Can," "Why Am I Blue?" "Good People," "Little Brown Jug," and "Chiapenecas." Now I've finally gotten to "Auld Lang Syne."

But every practice session is two steps backward, one step forward. Even as I practice the new piece, I begin each session with two or three runs though two or three older pieces. I never feel I can say, "Been there, done that." Every run through these older pieces gives me a little more confidence, a little more competence than the last one. So I say, do as your teacher says. It works.

This is exactelly what I feel!



Welcome to this thread Jim.
Check the first page of this thread, you will find some links that can help you.

Me again, I wondered if anybody could recommend a good book that has just finger exercises and teaches scales? I seem to have very mischievous fingers that have a life of their own and they need a good boot camp for fingers..lol.