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Thank you for your encouragement, mom3gram! I took a sneak peek at your watercolor paintings, they are beautiful!

I never had a teacher... so I'm sure there're things that I'm not doing correctly... feel free to give me some pointers if you hear something wrong in my recording!

Here is another one: On Top Of Old Smoky

It sounds like everybody is progressing onto Level 2 now... I'll try to catch up:)

Have a great week!

Welcome to this thread wish4thing.
I am in Hanon exercises, before Alouette. I have a long way to Alfred 2.
I think that reading this thread from the beginning we learn a lot and do not need to ask so many questions as thread started from now.

Mom3gram, I just noticed that you add one more book to your collection, the "Masterwork Classics 1-2"

Hi Everyone i wanted to ask for help.

My Daughter and myself are working through book one and are currently on Mary Ann, but my 2 year old snapped the CD

If any of you would be willing to zip up the midi files for me it would be great, We are playing along ok, its just i need to know how it sounds.

I will buy a new one if i have to but it was just a cry for help

thanks

tobamory@gmail.com
P.S all files would be good but if not 19 is Mary Ann

Nice job, wish4thing!

Rest assured, not *all* of us are progressing on to Level 2, just yet. I'm starting with a new teacher this week, so hopefully I won't have to completely rewind and start Level 1 from the beginning

Take care, and thanks to all for the support and encouragement -- it really helps to have some companions on this journey!

Nice recordings wish4thing it sounds great.

How do you like the Masterworks classics books Mom3gram?


My teacher passed me on The Entertainer and Somewhere Over the Rainbow but recommend I spend another week working on Singing in the Rain and Amazing Grace. Also, she gave me Beethoven's Ecossaise WoO 23 to work on. So far it is a nice change from the standard Alfred Pieces.

See this, PianoNoobAlexMan recorded all pieces Alfred Adult Basic 1
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PianoNoobAlexMan

Thanks Fliper

Littleted: check this out: Track 23.wma

Here are all pieces
http://www.wjchorus.com/shared/piano/ALFRED/

Hey guys I'm at the end of Alfred's 1, kind of stuck on the syncopation for "The Entertainer". Thanks fliper for the links to the mp3s that's very helpful to hear how they're supposed to sound. And Thanks to PianoNoobAlexMan for recording the videos, those are very helpful.

I recently started a thread about repertoire books. I'm not sure if everyone here saw it, if not you may be interested to have a look:

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1610121/1.html

I'm curious what you all plan to do once you finish book 1? I already bought book 2 and I plan to do half book 2 and half repertoire pieces. I don't have teacher.

nipo, as far as the Masterwork Classics Book - it's a good change from Alfred. Short pieces that look simple, but aren't necessarily. But they sound much more interesting than the beginner Alfred pieces, and there are a few of them that are downright pretty. There is a lot more hands together note playing instead of just chords in the left hand.

cunparis - a lot of us who are doing Book 2 are alternating between the book and repertoire, or the book and other method books. It's slower, but much more interesting that way.

Thanks everybody for the great thread and the many useful tips. I started Book 1 last year and finished it last night. I used the edition with the added Teacher guide sections for self-study, and enjoyed the experience. I was invited to NAMM this year. So I went to the Alfred Publishing booth to let them know what a neat edition it was. Then I asked what about levels 2 & 3? They said that the self-study guide edition of book 1 was so successful for them that they are planning on publishing books 2 and 3 in the future with the added teachers guides as well. But they wouldn't commit when that would happen. Just thought I'd let you know, though, in case you were curious as I was. 'Couldn't come soon enough!

Evening all ! Anyone remember me ? lol I feel like a stranger in here again. I started the Alred course about 6 months ago but then started a univeristy course and learning piano kinda got lost along the way. I hate that and am going to start the whole thing over again at the start of book 1 !

Anyone else had any similar issues with keeping their motivation up ?

Hi SmokestackLightnin', I have often wondered what happened to you. It is nice to hear that you are back at the piano again.
Since you are starting from the beginning, make sure you grumble a lot about Blow the Man Down (even though you are likely to have less trouble the second time around).
Welcome Back!!!!

Welcome back, SmokestackLightnin! I've restarted with level 1 book close to 10 times now:) I hope this time this thread can motivate me to get through it!:) Thanks to the very supportive group of people here!

Here is my recording of the week...: Good People! (pretty difficult one for me...)

cunparis, thanks for the "repertoire books" thread! lots of informative insights in that thread!

I finished book one yesterday! My teacher and I decided to skip 2 pieces, At Last and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas so I'm all done with book one. My favorite pieces were Somewhere Over the Rainbow and The Entertainer(i hope to learn the original version some day). I've picked up book two and am planning to work through it in conjunction with a few other pieces.

Congratulations, nipo!

would you mind posting your recording of the Entertainer if any? I'd like to see how far off I am without a teacher...:)

Have a great weekend!

I'm still plugging away at Book 1. For whatever reason, I decided to pull out the CD and listen to the backing tracks today. What a gas. The band on that rocking melody song just after Brahm's Lullaby needs to learn how to swing the beat a little. Trying to play along with a rock solid 4/4 is b.o.r.i.n.g. HAHAHA.

The CD that comes with the book has horrible backing on one of the channels.

If you have an ipod / mp3 player or can change the balance of L&R, you can silence the backing so you can just listen to the piano.

That helps a lot when you don't know the piece and need to hear it without all that other noise in the CD tracks.

Hi, I'm a long time lurker (trying to get caught up with the thread, but 142 pages is a long slog, I'm on 42 now) and I've been working through Alfred's All-In-One.

I've got a question about 'When the Saints Go Marching In' Up until now, I've been playing all the songs in a legato kind of way with notes running right up to the next one, but now that the book has introduced slur notation (i.e. Legato) I'm not sure what to do with songs like Saints that don't include it. Does that mean that for notes with no slur that I should be playing very distinctly?

I've tried playing it both ways (one with the notes running into each other, and another with the notes distinct) and I think I like the latter approach, but I want to be learning the correct way, not necessarily the way that I like it.

Can anyone share the correct way to play notes that are written cleanly with no slur or stuccato notation?

How does the CD do it (My book didn't come with one so I don't have the 'official' version to compare with.)