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

Mom3gram. Try the Walter Johnson Chorus website.
They have the Alfreds level 1 Cheesy Cd in mp3 format. Here is the link. http://www.wjchorus.com/mp3player/i.../ALFRED/Chasing%20the%20Blues%20Away.mp3

your are not the only one who has had that problem.

Ah! Thanks, wj3.

The CD doesn't sound a whole heck of a lot better than me. I guess I won't be sticking with this piece for long. :-(

mom3gram3 I didn't either. Some of the other blues songs are much better like "Why am I blue".

oops I mean mom3gran... unless there are 3 little grans

Actually, there were three kids, and as of last count, 10 little "grans". I went with the 3 because the other number keeps changing. :-)

I just finished level one and am going on to level two. The first song in the level two book is easy but then they get hard real quick. It looks like it is going to take a while to complete.

Congratulations Johndyoug. That a big accomplishment. I am hovering around the end of book one also. My teacher has me off on Bach now. I don't know if I'll ever finish.

Well done Johndyoung

Might see you there in a few months

Congratulations on your promotion to Book 2, Johndyoung. It's going to take me a while to catch up to you, but I lurk in the Book 2 thread once in a while to see what it's all about, and everyone seeems to really like the pieces in that book.

I just got a new digital today (see separate thread), so I will be reviewing for a while as I get used to the weighted and slightly wider keys. I was a little disoriented playing my current Alfred pieces, so I went back to some earlier ones and some easy Christmas music. I have a pedal now too. :-) Will have to learn how to use that.

Congratulations johndyoung upon completing your book one. What a fabulous milestone. Good luck on level two.

Key Notes

Am I normal?

Well if you knew me, "obviously not", you'd chorus

In respect of my total inability to memorize a score.

A friend of mine only has to play a piece have a dozen times and he no longer needs the sheet music.

Now me, I'm pleased with my progress through the book and for the past week in addition to the book work I have been learning "Puff the Magic Dragon" from the greatest hits book.

I must of played this piece over a 100 times easy. I can play it 9/10 times without mistake now and it's almost as if I don't read the individual notes any more I just see the pattern (does that make sense?) on the page.

BUT take the music away and nothing, can't play more than the first bar.

Is this normal, should I specifically practice memorizing or will it just one day click into place.

My reading of the music seems to be coming on leaps and bounds but I have the memory of a mouse it appears.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Blackbird

That part is normal. That's how I play pieces that I've practiced a lot. As far as being able to play without the sheet music - I can't. It's funny that I'm not actually reading it, but I can't play if it isn't there. I have attempted to memorize things purposely, but without success. Maybe I haven't tried hard enough. Or maybe there are tricks to it. When I was a kid, I could memorize schoolwork so easily. That part of my brain seems to be missing now.

Two of my grandkids play piano. The older one is a good reader, but does not memorize his pieces. The younger one is a very poor reader, but memorizes a piece after only two or three playings. They did a duet in their recital last year, and the difference in their playing methods almost did them in.

I suppose that it's the best of both worlds if you can be a good reader, as well as a good memorizer. Right now, I'm neither. But I'm finding it easier to improve my reading than it is to improve my memory.

Thanks for that mom3gram, it set my mind at rest that I'm not alone with it.

Regards

Hi Everyone,

I received my Alfreds All In One on Saturday and have been working with it. So far this instruction method is GREAT! I had been using L&M. Thank you to everyone of your posts that suggest Alfred's.

Hi Ted, and welcome. This IS a good method, and the proof is that there are a lot of people on Piano World ABF who are sticking with it through Book 2 also. I'm hoping to get there eventually, but enjoying the ride here for now. Good luck, and have fun.

Hello all,

It's nice to have a place to go to where beginners can share experiences. Although I am truly a beginner I did play an organ several years ago and at that time I could ready the right hand and mastered many cords. Learning the piano has been on my bucket list so I figured it was time to get started.

I have the Alfred's Adult All-in-one Level book and I'm finding it very easy to follow. I've been working on it for about 4 to 5 weeks and have gotten to page 62 Beautiful Brown Eyes. As I have progressed through the book I have covered things I am already familiar with and of course some things are new. I have moved on to new material after I felt I understood the material and could play the piece fairly well (not to many mistakes).

My basic question is how well should I master a song before moving on to the next thing?
Should I be playing the piece without any errors before moving on? I have gone back and reviewed earlier pieces and found I could play them without many problems.

Thanks for the help.
Jim

welcome Jim,

You will probably get varied responses to your question. I guess a teacher would know best, but I don't look for perfection in my pieces before moving on, but do review older pieces for quite a while before I let them go. Pieces that I call keepers (ones I really like), I play to prefect.

As I stated in another thread, my teacher says "You wont master your current level until you move up a level". And this seems to be pretty much true for me.

So keep us posted and enjoy the journey...

Mark...

welcome to the thread, I don't have a difinitive answer though, but through the school of music I attend once a week I have had 2 teachers the first one was progressive and went at breakneck speed with the thoughts similar to Marks teacher. My new teacher pays attention to everything and won't progress pass that point until everything is in place. Both teachers I felt was good, just different, and both styles having their pro's and cons. My thoughts are when you are comfortable with the piece move on, most of us routinely go back and practice what we have learned and hence improve the piece