Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Question about Alfred's books

Hi, everyone!

I'm a lazy violinist who's always wanted to learn the piano. I should have quite a bit of free time this summer so I decided it'd be a great time to start. Loving it so far!

Anyway, my question: has anyone had experience with both vol. 1 of the Alfred's adult piano course and the Alfred's "Teach Yourself to Play Piano" book? I picked up the latter at the recommendation of a local music store, but I'm nearing the end of it and I'm wondering if I'm ready to jump right into vol. 2 of the Alfred's adult course. From the threads here it seems there are some pieces included in vol. 1 of the adult course that I can't find in the Teach Yourself book.

I use the Adult All in One books, I've got all 3 and am going through book 1 right now, it's pretty good, but I use other material to help me learn as well, like Piano For All, and then easy piano and big note piano sheet music so I can play pop/country piano songs, that seems to re-inforce what they teach you in the book, rather than row row row your boat.

From looking at the contents I doubt that the pieces in the original course that are not included in the book you have will make much difference or be worth the extra investment. If you want extra pieces to practice at the level of the Book 1 look for an alternative. Book 2 reviews the theory covered in Book 1, if you've enjoyed Alfred so far I would suggest you move on to Book 2.

You can move to Book 2 and get some other books, just to make things more interesting.
For example, according to your taste, you could choose among these other Alfred's Books Level 2:
All-Time Favorites
Christmas Book
Sacred Book
Pop Song Book
Jazz/Rock Course
I have all these books Level 1 and I do like them.