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I made it through my first lesson last night! I rented a piano last week and was working through the Alfred adult piano book on my own. It seemed weird to invest the money and time in this without getting advise and feedback from a teacher, so I signed up for lessons Wednesday at the local music store and had my first lesson last night.

She switched me to the Faber Adult Piano Adventures book. She feels the music in the Alfred book gets too boring quickly. Is anyone else working from this book? What is the average time it takes to get through a book like this? I don't want to get overly eager and rush through it at the risk of missing out on important fundamentals. On the other hand I don't want to play "Bell Chimes" and "Row Your Boat" for months!

When I took lessons about nine years ago (for about one year), I worked in Alfred's books one and two. When I resumed this past September, I started in Faber. Because of my previous experience, I skipped book one and started about 1/2way through book two, which took about a month. Now I'm in 3A. I work in the lesson book, the performance book, and the technique book. I take one hour lessons every other week. Actually, lately, scheduling has been spotty, so I'm probably averaging about 1 lesson every three weeks, but hopefully we'll get back to our regular schedule.

crikkit,
could you tell me the isbn of the book your teacher suggested to u? i am currently using the alfred and bastien books. could u tell any differences between alfred and faber? thanks.

I think the ISBN for the Faber book she's having me use now is 1569392382. I've only been through about the first 25 pages, so I don't know all of the differences between that and Faber.

So far the Faber book places more early emphasis on style, like the volume, slurred, staccatto notes, that sort of thing. Also, the Alfred book has you playing only from C position for a long time. The Faber book has you playing different hand positions very early and doesn't use as many numbers above the notes to tell you what note to play. They seem to want you to be able to play by recognizing intervals early on. So it's a little more difficult for me, but I'm glad.

I had my first lesson yesterday and my teacher has me using Faber as well (yes, that is the right ISBN). I like the fact it gets you into intervals early. Before my lesson, I had started to work through The Piano Handbook by Humphries. It's a good book for learning notes but the problem was I was concentrating too much on reading the notes as I played. Intervals help me not do that and the piece flows better.

Congratulations on starting piano lessons! I remember being so excited to start lessons a year ago after a long break. I still enjoy my lessons - I've decided I'm not ever going to stop this time. I wish I had never taken such a long break, but college and work got in the way of enjoyment for a long time!

Have fun!

Congratulations!

How long was the lesson, and how frequently will you go?

Congrats on starting your lessons. I am scheduled for my first lesson next Friday. Can't wait. Been playing (or at least trying to play...) for about a week and a half. Learned a lot on my own and thru this forum and having fun, but I need direction and some verbal answers to questions I have.
Good luck with the lessons.

I'm taking 1/2 hour lessons once a week. At first I considered taking lessons from someone who teaches our of their home, but I ended up stopping by the music store and met the piano teacher there and felt really comfortable with her. I was absolutely giddy that I was able to play a couple of simple lines from "Matchmaker" tonight. I can't even imagine how excited I'll be when I actually play a complete piece!

I like your style Surely you told your teacher about the new piano. They must have been impressed. Great way to get into it for sure.

When I told my teacher, she gasp and was speechless for a bit. I will visit it today after work for practice.