Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #3

A few, I'm only 20pages in. I was just checking on what to add to my Xmas list - I'll be here by or just after Xmas..

Bob-

I hope my notes help you with "Mountain King." There have been more pieces in this book that have given me trouble, I have to admit. But my teacher says not to be discouraged by that. She says the third book really does take a bigger leap up in difficulty than the others do. And that they tend to introduce multiple new things in one piece. Too much for my poor brain to handle some days! LOL

Finishing up study of "Calypso Rhumba" (not a particularly hard or exciting piece) in Book 3 and review of the "Theme from Symphony No. 6 (nice melodic arrangement) from Book 2 today.

Moving on to "Fandango" in 3 (after theory review) and to "Fascination" review in 2.

Also, continuing work on Bach's Minuet in G (from the Anna Magdalena Notebooks) and a beautiful, but seldom heard, Christmas Carol called "See Amid The Winter's Snow" from a collection entitled "The Big Book of Christmas Carols" (really nice intermediate level arrangements).

Regards, JF

Hi Ingrid! Another welcome to the group!
I am still struggling through the "Star Spangled Banner with the tremelos, but it's coming. And guess what I finally did... Got to the first page of Toccata in D minor... just the first page mind you!
Still haven't had the chance to hook up my web cam to get on a youtube site yet... maybe I will get the chance over the holiday! Work and grad course intervenes! I found a copy of Sheet Music Magazine i think dated ( Ill have to check) any how that has some real nice Christmas arrangements. I'm attempting "Oh Holy Night". So maybe I'll have together

Take care everybody!

"Fandango" is a cool piece that I enjoyed very much. YMMV

I've been assigned the next two pieces "Modern Sounds" and something to do with Alberti Bass. Sorry I don't have my book in front of me now. I'm working a couple of other Christmas pieces as well.

The Alberti base is critical for the piece right after it. (Serenade) I'm still working on cleaning this piece. It was a major hurdle for me. Especially in the hand independence area.

Yes, I can already see where it will be a pretty cool piece - nice exotic latin sounds you can really grab ahold of and make dance!

YMMV?

Regards, JF

Finishing up work on Fandango - relatively easy, but good piece with a solid "Spanish" feel -

I hit upon an alternate ending for it - the Book's ending is good, but I think it can be enhanced slightly with a little extension.

What you can do is (after the D.C al Fine) play thru to the end as written - then repeat the last 3 measures , and in the last 2 measures play both hands one octave lower than written (which means, in effect, the RH is played 8vb on the repeat and the LH is played where actually written, or "loco") - observe all rests as indicated.

Here is a demo - played 1st as written, then a brief silence, then played as enhanced or extended:

Fandango (alternate endings)

Hope you find this useful, JF

I have a question for you more advanced folks about how long you work on a learning piece before moving on. I listen to recorded pieces at the start of the Alfred's strings and rarely stay with one long enough to reach that level of polish. Should those recordings be viewed as the typical point to move on or are they a bit better because people liked them? I am currently on about page 50 in book 2 and want to make sure I am not hurting my learning by moving too fast.

BobH - "stay with" a piece until you are happy with it - although it's easy to say but hard to do, try not to compare your playing of a piece with how others play it. There will always be someone somewhere who can and will play a piece better than you and I.

Continue working on it until you can reasonably play it as written, that is, as the composer or arranger intended - this doesn't have to happen the first time you study a piece - work on it for awhile - maybe you'll like your results and maybe not - when you get tired of beating on it, move on to another piece for awhile, and then come back to it and work on it some more - maybe you'll get it to where you're happy with it this second time - if not, repeat the process.

You don't have to "master" a given piece at any given time - do the best you can and then move on - often when you come back to a piece after being away from it working on several other pieces and for several months you will do better on it just simply because of your increased skill level and the confidence that only developes over time with additional hard study on a number of pieces.

And don't struggle with the compulsion to play "error-free" - it just is not going to happen - try to minimize them or yes, eliminate them, but don't expect it or be too disappointed if you just can't achieve this - even the great concert pianists make mistakes all the time, but most of us don't recognize them simply because of the complexity of the music and the pianist's otherwise remarkable technical skills.

The "polish" or musicality of a piece is important, but right now concentrate on getting most of the notes right and the tempo corrrect and consistent. The rest will come with lots of time and dedicated practice.

Relax and enjoy what you can do at each level and stage of you progress.

Regards, JF

JF,

I just listened to your versions of Fandango. I really like the deeper base ending you added. I have my lesson today and I have to ask my teacher about the Alfred series, simply because I want to be able to learn along with all of you. Perhaps she can help know which level. I'm using Faber and Faber all-in-one book two. Actually, I just want to hear her opinion at large. It would be so nice to have other people to share with.

Debbie57 - thanks for your kind comments on the Fandango endings & glad you liked the alternate.

The Alfred series has a lot of really nice pieces from many genres of music - some people here in the Forums use it together with the Faber series, which I'm not familiar with but have heard some good things about (with their own threads here in the ABF as you probably already know).

How the Faber & Alfred series compare & contrast is somewhat interesting, I guess, but more important is the totality of enjoyable pieces and instructional value found in each separately or especially when combined together (I'll have to check out Faber at the local music store).

We'd love to have you join with us here in the Alfred thread and share your experiences - whether or not you actually start using one of the Alfred books . Even if you decide to stick strictly with Faber come here often & keep us updated on your progress. We want to hear how you're doing, and help and encourage you as much as we can, and certainly want and need the same thing in return!

Regards, JF

Thank you John!

The Faber thread is dead as far as I know. Please advise if I'm missing something. I'll get to look at the Alfred's books this morning. The Faber book is in sections and always one of pieces is a lead sheet. It's fun and it's difficult at the same time. However I am learning to roll cords deeper in the base to create richer sound. Thank you for welcoming me here, no matter which way I go.

Debbie

A follow up: I had my lesson today and had an opportunity to look at the Alfred all-in-one book 2, which is probably where I need to be since timing and rhythm are my biggest challenges. My teacher has taught out of both and is willing to teach me in any method book format I want. She did say she opts for Faber because she feels the lessons, the pieces and the lead sheet style opportunities are more contempory.

So, I'm going to do both. Not stop Faber to start Alfred's, try to work a little out of both books. I probably need to move myself to the Alfred's book two thread??? Probably I need to read all 25 pages to see what percentage of folks are using the all-in-one. I just want an opportunity to be on the same page with others to learn and hopefully someday be able to be of some help myself.

Debbie57 - thanks for the update - glad to hear your teacher is flexible - there are some really nice melodic pieces in Alfred 2 that you can enjoy a lot, and if you would like I could recommend a short list of my favorites - others here in this thread and some folks over in the 2 thread will also be more than happy to guide you to some good pieces (assuming you weren't going to work your way thru piece by piece).

The Alfred 1 thread seems to be the most active of the 3 Alfred threads, with this one (Level 3) being a distant 2nd and the Level 2 thread probably the least used (that could, of course, change at any time). If you started posting in 2 and didn't get much feedback over time then you could, of course, post about your Book 2 activity here in the 3 thread - most of the people here worked thru Book 2 and we'd be more than glad to talk to you about your experiences with the Book 2 pieces - some of us "float' back and forth anyway from time to time just to see what's going on and if someone has a question or problem.

FYI - many of the pieces in the 3 Alfred levels have been recorded by various people in the Opening Post (back on page 1) of each thread in case you wanted to hear them.

Regards, JF

Okay guys! I'm on board from tomorrow on!

My piano teacher has been on vacation for 3 weeks, but tomorrow I am going to blow her off her feet with my version of the Canon in D, (and Gnossienne nr 5 of Stie, that I've been working on for the last month or so, and YES!!!!I'm happy!!)

After that...it's off to book 3 (and the final Gnossienne 6 I guess, I want to do them all, I am in love with Satie) so I will finally be able to really join in this thread.

Looking forward to it!

Ingrid

Congrats, but in which bloody book is this Canon in D? I'm on the Alfred book #2 at the moment (the ones with separate theory and lesson) Then for book #3 I guess it's all-in-one only option. Still I don't see this Canon in D (unless it's in the supplements)

Thanks in advance

TTig,

The canon in D (Pachelbel) is the past piece in my Alfred #2. There seem to be 2 versions of that book? I believe I've got the on that is NOT called the 'all in one' version. Maybe some of the other Alfredians can help me clarify??

Ingrid

Ahum, The past piece? I mean the LAST piece.

My typing is getting sloppy. off to bed! (its after midnight here)

Ingrid

wOoT it's in both (just checked the TOC)