Right there with you bud
Wait, there's theory for this week too? I'm only working on the 1st for this week trying to ensure I get it down so I can move on to the next.... It's going to be good to have a sud o study partner for #3
SC

TTigg – you may have a jump on the theory part. I remember you writing that you were reviewing the circle of fifths at the end of your “Not-All-In-One” Book 2. Well, the All-In-One version did’nt have that at the end, but it’s here in Book 3, right after the Calypso Rhumba.

Undone

Gotcha,
Well for this week (lesson is today) I'm hoping to get my pass on "special sorta song". Then for next week I will work on Calypso Rhumba and the "review of the circle of 5ths".

You're right the first one can be going great and then a quick lapse of concentration (I guess same with any piece) and it turns quickly. So how's Calypso going? I'm hoping easy'sh since we're just getting started with #3..

SC

Yep, I think “Special Sorta Song” is definitely the more difficult of the two. Calypso seemed a little strange the first couple of times through, but quickly started to make sense and has fallen into place nicely.

Undone

Good to know since I did indeed get a "pass" from teach for "Special Sorta Song". Now this week I'm going to be working on Calypso and the first 2 pages of theory..

TTigg & Undone - here's a brief list of what I consider the more interesting and enjoyable pieces in the early part of Book 3:

"Fandango" - not hard at all and a lot of fun to play (I have a recording of this in the June Piano bar).

"Serenade (from String Quartet)" - a little challenging to consistently bring out the melody; tricky left hand pattern change in the middle section.

"A Very Special Day" - good solid piece; nice LH arppeggio workout throughout; interesting tempo change at finishing measures.

"A Classy Rag" - good ragtime piece; lots of hand movements; easy piece to play badly and tough piece to play consistently well; I'm still tring to get a satisfactory recording of this one (something different always goes wrong each time!).

"Prelude in D Minor" - good study piece for arpeggios and hand movements.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" - not everyone here has liked playing this , but I think it's a good arrangement; new technique introduced: the tremolo!

"Swan Lake" - very nice arrangement of a beautiful melody (I recorded this and it can be found in the May Piano Bar (I think?).

"Scheherazade" - another unique arrangement; lovely melody; totally satisfying study piece; you will like this one!

"Come back to Sorrento" - my current piece - absolutely beautiful Italian love song; excellent arrangement; challenging hand movements around the keyboard; wonderful piece!


Have fun!

Regards, JF

Thanks JF,
Very much looking forward to it, working on Calypso this week

Thanks JF,

I've just started working on Fandango and have been enjoying it too.

Undone

See, you've already overtaken me . This week for me is some of the additional (refresh) theory and Calypso...

I came to say hi, but I'm from the Book 1 thread

I've got a question for my seniors. I see that Book 3 has Fur Elise as one of the pieces at the end. Is it the original and complete version or is it a simplified arrangement?

I'll let you know when I get to the end JK I don't know if it's the real proper version but it's 4 1/2 pages long if that helps...
- SC

It's the original and complete version.

Oh wow! Playing the whole of Fur Elise is one of my goals in piano. I'm so glad I can learn to play it with the Alfred Series. Now I've got to work so I can reach Book 3 faster!

Thanks a lot for the info

Update: finished up study of "Come Back to Sorrento" today - a recording of this can be found at the top of the July Piano Bar thread.

Beginning study of "Magic Carpet Ride" piece - looks to be fairly easy - can't see it taking more than a week (or less), then onto the "Mountain King" piece.

Also continuing studies out of the "Essential Keyboard Repertoire" book with a piece by Robert Schuman named simply "Melody".

Regards, JF

Nicely done JF....

Well my update this week is that I'm almost done with Fandango (love it!) and will for sure add this to my daily routine. I may also try to pick up the books separate as I believe they are available now (wasn't before) we'll see..

Undone,
How's it going bud?

SC

I’ve made it through Fandango and Modern Sounds and am now working on Jazz Sequences. This book started off somewhat like Book 2 for me. I was able to move through the first few pieces quite rapidly (two at a time) and started thinking “Hey, I must be getting pretty good at this stuff”. Then I got to Jazz Sequences which is a little trickier and I started looking at Serenade. Well Serenade certainly put me back in my place! That one is going to take some work. I think I’ll concentrate solely on Jazz Sequences until I’m finished with that and can then put my full attention toward Serenade.

Undone

Undone - good plan - I found "Jazz Sequences" a little tricky also, and didn't really get a good handle on it until I went back and reviewed it 4 months later - the same thing was true with "Serenade", which I spent extra time initially working on (it sort of "demands" it) and which I recorded and submitted to one of the recent ABF Recitals, but which I wasn't completely happy with until I went back some time later and reviewed it - not an easy piece to play well.

As you would expect I almost always play pieces better after letting them rest awhile and then reviwing them - which is why I continually do it for most of the pieces.

Regards, JF

Hi all! I have completely finished Toccata" I will post this on line when my "temporary roommate" leaves in nine days! Actually, it's been good. But it will be better when she leaves:-)
I am working on "Moonlight Sonata" and my instructor wants me to start on "Fur Elise", both of these just the first page.

Take care all!!

Oh the question about "Fur Elise", my instructor thought that it was the original but that there should be a few more pages. Just a thought... I'll find out definitely later this week!

Thanks JF – I worked on “Jazz Sequences” by itself since the 1st of the month (after having started it earlier in combination with Modern Sounds) and just managed to “put it to bed” last night. Now it’s on to Serenade. I really like this piece and know it will take some time to do it justice.

Piano4 – Looking forward to hearing your recording of Toccata!

Undone

Time to bring this thread back to the first page.

I’m still plugging away at Serenade from Strings. I’m having a tuff time getting the section at the bottom of page one down, but I’m really enjoying working on this piece. My practice sessions have been encroached on a bit this week, and I may not get any in over the weekend: I’ll be walking down the aisle on Sunday. This time it’s as father of the bride.

Undone

I'm back for a while, but must report that I have been a little bad, not having practiced a lot while I was away. After spending the day, felling and limbing trees, then cutting and splitting logs, I'm not inclined to sit at my piano. Therefore I officially remain a member of the Book 3 club as I have been unable to produce a satisfactory version of Fur Elise; the 1/32nd notes continue to give me problems. Piano4, I hope your teacher is correct, as I wouldn't want a version that was any more difficult than the one in Book 3 as it is pushing the limits of my ability.

John Frank, if on your visit to Acadia you are interested in doing "touristy" things, you might be interested in a visit to Rockland where the Farnsworth has a fine Wyeth collection. It gives a nice feeling for the Maine coast. To get to my camp I take the ferry from Rockland to an island in the Penobscot Bay that is the lobster capital of the world, although right now the lobstermen are quite unhappy as the catch and the price are down dramatically. I first visited Acadia 40 years ago and camped on the shore of a river just over the bridge. When I got up in the morning I was startled to find that there was no water in the river and the boats were just sitting on mud. The locals must have had a good laugh when they told me the tide was out. I had to confess I did not realize that the tidal flow was so dramatic that an entire river would drain and fill twice a day. Have a nice trip. I think you will enjoy it. Maine is like no other place. (Sorry everyone for the OT, but JT touched a nerve)

Undone - congratulations on being FOTB!

Also - keep hammering away at "Serenade" - you'll get it down - that middle section was (is) tough.

OldFingers - welcome back - good to hear from you again - my wife & I are looking forward to the Maine trip - the more I look into it and plan it the more excited I get! I'm not sure if the 8-10 days we've set aside will be enough - from what I can see one could easily spend 4-5 days in each of the regions (Southern Beaches, Midcoast & Acadia)- there seems to be so much to see & do - Is that island Vinylhaven?

Regards, JF

John Frank, you have done your research well. Yes, my camp is on Vinalhaven, not to be confused with North Haven which is nearby. The beautiful people summer on North Haven, but the real people live on Vinalhaven, if you know what I mean. You have picked a good time to visit Mid-coast Maine as the traffic is quite reasonable. Usually Route 1 is so busy it can take all of the fun out of a visit, but not this summer.

Now that I'm back I'm practicing again and struggling to work through the 1/32nd notes in Fur Elise. It's so bad that I've had to get out the metronome to keep my pace. It seems that as I anticipate the 1/32nd notes, I speed everything up.

Well, I guess I'll just have to visit North Haven instead of Vinalhaven since I'm definitely one of the "beautiful people"...

Actually, Rockland is on our definite itinerary list and Vinalhaven is on our "possible" itinerary list (time permitting), to see the lobster fleet in action, check out the abandoned granite quarries and visit the Historical Museum. The AAA Tour Book says it was incorporated in 1789 (about the time when good, old George was becoming our 1st President) and describes it as the "home of one of the most productive lobster-fishing fleets in the world". We might be checking out other islands during our trip including Monhegan, Isle au Haut, and the Cranberries off Acadia.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled thread...

Regards, JF

Hello, Book 3 Folk! Yes, I'm still around, just not posting much since there hasn't been much progress. It's been a rough month and a half or so for me.

Anyway, I've gotten thru the Bach Prelude in C, and we put it aside last week, after discussing it and agreeing that, while it is far from perfect, I have pretty much done what I can at my present level. We will pick it up again in a year or so, and see what happens. Kind of stuck on the Trumpet Tune- cannot seem to get it up to speed! Played thru the beginning of the Toccata in Dm, but just the intro. Speed will be an issue here, as well, I think. Not much progress in the Meir book, either.

Mak, I have been waiting for someone to take on Trumpet Tune. It took me several weeks to get it right, particularly the tricky rhythm to get the "martial" feeling to it. For me it was the hardest piece in Book 3. I found that if I sat up really straight, assumed a military-like posture, and flexed my arms in a military-like way, it put me in a mood to play "military-like". I demonstrated this to my teacher, sort of jokingly, but he agreed that it is important to assume the correct frame of mind for playing particular types of music.

I must confess that I didn't like Toccota as a piece of music and couldn't see working at it for weeks and not having a desirable product at the end, so I refused to learn it. My teacher's attitude is not to work at a piece of music if I didn't like it. I guess that's one of the benefits of being a very senior citizen.

Bob

Yeah, getting the right "feel" to Trumpet Tune is tough. Maybe I will try your military posture idea!

I like Toccata- always have. I hope to get it going well enough that when I get the Kawai set up again, I can pull up the organ voice and scare the neighbors! LOL

My teacher is much like yours. If I really, really don't like a piece, she does not insist I learn it anyway. Even with the pieces in Alfred's that are there to teach you a particular thing, she feels there are so many other pieces that will teach you the same thing, it's easy enough to find something I will enjoy. If I don't like it, I won't devote a lot of practice time to it, and if I don't do that, well...

Hi all!

Yep, still alive. I feel a bit guilty having been absent for weeks, so here's a quick sign of life before I disappear for a 2 weeks summer holiday to Switzerland and France....

I am in the middle of a long piano-summer-break, and to be honest I haven't been moving forward a lot. Alfreds has'nt been open, except to replay some old favourites (prelude in C!!) and Satie is still there. The only new thing I've been working on is my Yann Tiersen summer-project. After playing around a bit in the book I settled on the Valse d'Amelie as a first piece to work on, and I LOVE it!! It's beautifull, and it has a nice way of increased difficulty throughout the piece. Starting with a fairly simple melody in the right hand with left hand chords, then these up-and-down moving waves with the left hand with right something fairly simple, then some octave like things to add some 'depth' and then in the end combining the difficult left and right hand things together..difficult, but in a primitive way I did manage to play it through all the way to the end , which really made me feel proud of myself. Ha!!...love it!!

Even funnier is that althought it is a waltz (3/4 beat) there is an 'intro' and a 'closing sentence' that are written in 2/4. And the weird thing is that it doesn't clash, and even that the 2/4 piece sounds waltz-like. Very strange.

anyway, for those interested here's a youtube link to a version that sounds quite ok to me... (no way there yet though. hahaha!I'll spend the rest of the summer getting it smoother and faster))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFY1m3OD0jY


Good luck to all of you...if the new arrivals keep the speed up a bit you'll have passed me by the time I'll restart lessons in september.......(but we'll see, i remember the for me the first few pieces in book 3 seemed to be mastered fairly easy, but somewhere things did change a bit......)

Ingrid

PS...oh, and I love that idea of sitting up straight when playing something military like. You do have to get in the right mood for a piece of music. I cannot play satie when I am all stressed. It does work the other way around too though. When my adrenaline level is way up playing a soothing piece of music can actually calm me down very quickly! (you guys don't get agressive by playing to much Toccata i hope?? LOL. It's not my favourite piece either buy the way. My teacher played it for me, but I think I'll pass.

Hello there,

Been a little "absent" from this current topic for a couple of weeks. Lots of "crap" going on at work so we'll see where that all ends up..

Currently working on finishing up Jazz Sequences and will then move onto the Serenade from String Quartet. Also have to put in some serious time with "Falling Slowly" which is another side project (study group thread)

I'm also going to get hold of the #3 theory & lesson separately. Originally when I ordered from Amazon they were only available in the "all-in-one" but I've seen them at my local Music store so I'm going to get them, I much prefer having the 2 books separate following on from #2 and #1..

Woah, and now I see it's online Recital time coming up in a month (arrrrggh) lol

SC