Hi OldFingers, sounds like all the hard Alfred work has paid off. I know many of us sometimes didn't care for some of the pieces in Alfred, but they are an end to a means. I feel its paying your dues.

Although, I still am working some of the Ambitious stuff in Alfred 3, my teacher has moved me into some late beginner/early intermediate stuff. Some of it for some reason comes easier than the Alfred pieces.

If you like Blues and Jazz, Willian Gillock has some wonderful stuff just right for our level. Check them out on U-tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbb3I6lR2nY


Mark

Hey, I didn't know about this thread. I felt kind of silly posting my supp. pieces in the A3 thread and in the piano bar (since they're not that great), but this is the perfect place for them. Heck yea,

I was gifted a stack of beginner to intermediate level piano books, and was pleased to discover Jane Bastien's Intermediate Technic 1, 2, and 3 inside. Level 1 looks like a good place to start, as it has some good finger-builders as well as proper fingerings for two octave scales (Alfred only does one, I think). I should be able to find some nice stuff to assign myself here... plenty to keep me occupied until I get a teacher or switch to Snell or whatever I decide to do.

Burgmüller's Ballade is coming along, but still needs work. I can play through it now, though. It seems weird that I'd have more trouble with the 2nd page than the first, since it's in the key of C and has fairly simple chords in the LH. It'll come with practice.

Submitted my Clementi Sonatina (Opus 36 Number 1, part 1) as my ABF recital piece. That was a real stretch for me, and to get it presentable, and I had sort of set aside my Alfred's Book 2 work during the last couple of weeks.

Seeing some Satie recommendations... anyone gone that route?

Just got a good new recording of my Recital piece "Leaves on the Seine" by David Lanz - currently working on an excellent arrangement of the beautiful piece "Ashokan Farewell" by Jay Unger (this is the theme from the PBS series "The Civil War").

JF

John,

I can't wait to hear you play Ashokan Farewell. I have a favorite recording of it as a piano solo by Chuck Leavell. (just fired it up on itunes while typing this). What would you say is the difficulty level for this piece?

Jim - it's the Dan Coates arrangement and is probably "early intermediate" or maybe "intermediate intermediate" level I would guess - it's 4 pages long, has a very active left hand accompaniment part and has consumed more of my study time (a month and a half) than any other piece I've worked on in my 4 years at this great instrument - and i still don't have it down yet! But it's a beautiful piece and a very nice arrangement and well worth the extra effort!

JF

AWTPP:



Yep. I did. I have spent summer 2008 working on Gnossiennes 1,2,3,4,5 (6 is still on the list of things to do). I was by that time somewhere in Alfreds book 2 I think. I loved the music, and am still playing them very regularly. Currently I am doing quite a bit of Yann Tiersen next to my alfreds 3 book. Atmosphere wise the music is a bit similar to Satie (listen to the intro of La Valse d'Amelie for example, very Satie-esque), though often a lot faster.

Satie is wonderful to play in the evenings. It makes me feel very relaxed, almost meditative. And it sounds so good, while not being terribly complicated. It's also very satisfying to play certain pieces for a longer period of time. They grow on you. They keep sounding better. With the 'normal' Alfreds oieces it's often learning them, playing them, and then move on to the next. But it's good to see what happens if you allow a piece of music to really become 'yours' (hmm. Does that make sense??)

Ingrid

The Wild Rider by Schumann:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU9ReVb5R4s

This is a fun one!

W

It appears this forum is gone quiet for a while too. I just posted a similar thread over in Alfred's Book 1 forum. For supplemental I picked up Alfred's Jazz, Rags & Blues, Book 1 (so far). I am wondering if anyone cares to comment on that series? I don't think I would have ever even look twice at a Rag if I had not found this book. Now I find I do have some interest there. Book 1 is elementary level - but I have to start someplace. I now have some competency (or at least comfort) with the first three pieces in the book and look forward to continuing.

I am using Alfred's "All Time Favorites #1" as supplement of "Alfred All-In-One #1". It is a nice book with harder pieces (at lest for me). I am in "Lullaby" in Alfred AIO #1

Here are two recordings I made from this book. I am working in the third piece "Symphony Pathetique"

003 - Ach Du Lieber Augustine
http://www.box.net/shared/79dp9ad7c2

004 - Finlandia - Theme
http://www.box.net/shared/f1psvehy2q


I am using also the Gil DeBenedetti web page
http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/

I also made some recordings from it. They are from Primer Level but they are no so easy to play as I expect. Clearly, "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" and "Ode to Joy" need more practice.

I purchased more 2 books but I did not start them yet, "Piano Handbook" by Carl Humphries and Bergerac "My First Book of Classical Music"

Here's an attempt to bring this thread back from the quiet

My rendition of Ach, Du Lieber Augustine, from Alfred's All-Time Favorites Level 1:
https://www.box.com/s/mf0g75ldx2b2xxr2a2fv

Very nice, Scorpio! I like the All Time Favorites. Finlandia is beating me up a bit, but its slowly coming together.

I like the other Alfred's books too: Sacred Hymns is nice, and while I'm not a huge fan of country, the Basic Piano Country book is fun. I've gotten to the point where I can play The Yellow Rose of Texas and recognize what I'm playing!

newest student, thank you so much!

I have not tackled Finlandia quite yet. I have too much I am trying to do now. I am currently working on the Blues unit in Book 1; not crazy about it. I also have some repertoire pieces I am working on. Please share you Yellow Rose of Texas; I enjoy listening to the works of others.

I've just recorded "Love me tender" in Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Greatest Hits, Book 1. Because I am setf-studying, I hope to receive comments from all of you to correct my unnoticed mistakes ^^!

http://youtu.be/jm7otFLmmDU

You played it very well...timing and dynamics sounded very good...great job!

Thank you very much. Can you comment about position of my hand? I feel that my wrists move to much. Is there any problem with this?

I'm not the person to comment on this, maybe one of the teachers here could comment. Your fingers are nicely curved though and my teacher taught this position.

I am not qualified to comment either although I thought the piece was played well with the melody flowing nicely. As to the movement of your hands I don't see a problem. I would be more worried if your hands were stiff. When you are playing more difficult pieces in the future your hands will be expected to move to give expression to the music.

Hi Mattroilanh_tt,
Great job! It seems from the video you are using arm weight to play notes and not finger dexterity (especially for the RH). To "loosen" your fingers and practice gaining individual finger independence, try going through the piece at half tempo, hands separate. Before playing each individual note, lift the finger up as high as possible. It is important to keep other fingers on the keys when doing this. They will all want to fly haphazardly into the air when you lift one as high as possible (I promise!). It is great and necessary to maintain looseness of the wrist and arm. However, it is important to not just play with your arm. I hope this helps some.

Thanks earlofmar and RachelEDNC for your comment. I hope that the forum has a "thanks" button.

From Alfred's All Time Favorites Level 1:

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

I had this finished in April for start of the baseball season. But I have been sidetracked, so trying to catch up on my recordings. Go Red Sox!

There used to be a "rate the poster" feature, where you could give a poster a rating from 1-5 stars and the average would appear on their homepage. They removed the feature soon after adding it, many years ago.

First class scorpio, very nicely played

Well done ^^ Waiting to hear My will Irish rose, Finlandia, Love Story from you ^^

Very nicely played scorpio, quite jaunty and smooth.

Thank you all for the kind words.

mattroilanh_tt, I am almost done with My Wild Irish Rose. I just need to get it up to speed. I got this one down pretty quick.

I have so many things I want to try and play, especially tunes far more advanced than my fingers will allow.