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I've been concentrating on the counting. At this stage I'm getting comfortable with counting 1,2,3 on the measures that don't have off beat notes. I then switch to 1 uh, 2 uh etc on the measures that need it.

I think what was happening, is that I was concentrating to play the measure that didn't have the offbeat notes while counting off beats that when I got to the measure that needed them, I'd get off beat! (hope that makes sense..... )

Now that I'm getting BTMD up so speed, but not memorized, I think I can play and end up playing notes from other measures in the measure I'm supposed to be playing?! It's always something.....

In this current batch, I like "standing in need of prayer" song. I like the action in the consecutive eighth notes. It makes me feel like I'm really playing!

I'm going to break out the manual on my DP and learn how to record. I'll record BTMD and the standing song later this week and see how I'm really doing.

Jim

I've got the timing to BTMD down now. I just need to clean it up.

Chiapenecas gave me fits but I got it passable. O Sole Mio and Jericho were pretty easy. I'm going to review both of them for another day then move on to Greensleeves. So glad to have my acoustic piano back in working order. It's just so much more fun to play than the Casio.

Jim, Lefty, well done with BTMD.


I liked "Standing in the Need of Prayer" too.

I am working with book 1 and I have maybe a silly question.
Why is the the chord name G7, What does it stands for?
It is not described in the book, They describe how to play it but why does it have the name G7

Chris

Don't congratulate me yet! It's still too sloppy and I'm making to many mistakes to move on yet.

In this site, you can see a G7 chord, but it is G B D F (4 keys) instead of B F G (3 keys, no D, as in Alfred Book)
http://www.piano-play-it.com/7th-chords.html
You can learn more about chords here (same site):
http://www.piano-play-it.com/free-online-piano-lessons.html


Peace-Piece has asked this also in page 148:

May be it is a good idea to ask this outside this thread.

Practice question:

In a given practice session, do you think it's better to play one of the songs 5-8 times and move to the next song (repeat daily playing all the assigned songs (a dozen or so right now)) or play the song 20-30 times and only play a couple of songs per session (again repeat daily until the songs are being played well then move to the next couple of songs)?

thanks,

Jim

For me, at least, I go crazy playing the same song over-and-over-and-over. So when I'm working on a new song, I'll play it 10 or so times. Then go back and flip through the book and play some of the previous songs (maybe 2 or 3 times each, or until I do it passably again), then go back to the original song, play it a few more times. Then maybe take a brake from the book and play some accompaniment style (like "Imagine" or whatever), or work on a song I'm writing. Then go back, etc., etc. I'm pretty unstructured when it comes to practice, but it works for me.

I kind of combine this. Play the song(s) you want 5-8 times, but play the tough parts 20-30 times or more. That's where you need the work.
Actually, though, it's not necessary or even profitable to repeat all the songs you're playing every day. When your repertoire grows to over a hundred songs, you're going to be there for 24 hours for a single practice session.

Research has shown that you need to practice a piece or memorize lines a great deal when you are initially learning something. Afte that, though, taking a break for a few days detween repetitions allows you to discover what was truly learned and what was only partially understood. Then another practice session with that piece--concentrating on the difficult or poorly learned parts--will more solidly implant the concepts. Do this over a period of a few weeks, and you'll probably only need to go back to your earlier pieces once a month or so. Then you can move on and keep up at a much more efficient pace.

Hey Michael, I found your post interesting. Do you have a source for the research you mentioned? Regardless I will try it out.

Now I play each piece I've learned 2 or 3 times each practice session (and sometimes I have 2 or 3 sessions in a day). It's getting quite time consuming and I think it might also interfere with learning the new pieces.

I'm thinking I'll divide my learned songs into 3 groups and practice one group every 3rd day so I can spend more time on new pieces. I'll see how that works out and modify it if necessary. I guess as I accumulate more pieces I might have to go to 4 or 5 groups. And increase my practice time :-) I don't know if it's common but as I kind of improve I feel the need to practice more and more. Seems kind of backwards.

Anyway, thanks for the idea.

I can give you some links:

http://brenthugh.com/piano/piano-practice.html

Fundamentals of Piano Practice (Free E-Book)
http://www.pianopractice.org/


I never repeat the same piece many times over and over. If I have any problem I repeat only the measure where is the problem. I also play other pieces (older pieces or pieces from other sources).

I try to have about 1 hour to practice every day. It is more or less:
- Play an exercise from Alfred Book (Hanon, currentelly) to warm-up
- Play 2 or 3 older pieces
- Work on the new piece from Alfred All-In_one book
- Play some exercises from "Basic Timing for Pianists"
- Work on the new piece from "Alfred All Time Favorites". Currentelly I am in third piece "Symphony Pathetique"
- Play a piece or 2 from other sources (mainly from Gil DeBenedetti web page)

There are days that there is no time to do all those things. It is a flexible shedule.

Greensleeves is a bit easier than I expected. I memorized it pretty quickly and can play it slowly, but probably need to speed it up a tad to get it to "moderately slow." Trouble is, now that I memorized it, if I try to follow along reading the music, I get all fouled up. I also don't like a few of the recommended fingerings in the book, so I made a couple changes there.

Did you notice that "Greensleeves" is the same melody as the wonderful Christmas carol "What Child is This"?

I did. I also remember Alvin and The Chipmunks doing another Christmas carol to this tune. I heard it when I was a kid....early-mid 1980's?

Got Greensleeves down. On to Go Down Moses. This one sounds familiar. I think I've heard the same tune used for "St. James Infirmary Blues."

OK I'm moving on now. It's not perfect and I think I'm going to keep going back to it every day to work on, but I've played it through correctly a few times now and I need to do something else. At some point I expect to be able to play it clean every time. For now I'll settle for sometimes.

I can't believe I nailed it; BTMD is now history
This should boost my confidence and keep me going through the rest of the book.
I gotta say I'm pretty happy right now.

Ha! I think Scarborough Fair will be the song to stop my progress in its tracks. This is a tough one. Even going at a snail's pace, I hit spots where I have total brain-lock and just stop. And forget about the second time through an octave higher. Still, I'm having fun and that's what counts!

Well done with BTMD, Lefty (again!), Chris84.

Luke3026, you are doing very well.

I am practising HS (Hands Separated) in "Lullaby". For me this is not an easy pice, due to changes in both the right and the left hands. I think I have to practice intervals identification.