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One caveat to be added to progression through Alfred's is this: quick progress through the book does not necessarily equate to quick progression in piano skills. Individuals spending more time with pieces will gain benefit for there time as will individuals deciding to "move on" with a certain basic ability less than perfect. If you listen to Undone's performances you will hear my point clearly. They are all exceptional and to me signify that when we both "passed" certain pieces,Undone was clearly at a more advanced stage of playing the piano than was I.

dat99,

Whoa! 8 years ago? That's a long time! Did you start from the beginning or from where you left off eight years ago?

(House of the Rising Sun and Sakura were both very nice to play btw)

Hi Everyone, including our new and future book 2 posters. And a special greeting to mom3gram. I hope you are doing well.

Wow, so many wonderful recordings to listen to. Great job, Waltz, Undone, and AWTPP! I enjoyed listening to them.

Undone, I love your version of Hava Nagila, yet another beautiful song that I'm looking forward to learning.

As for me, after a couple of weeks of busier than usual schedules and being out of town, I've returned and continued working on Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 last night, and managed to get an okay recording. It's definitely not perfect but what to do but to continued to aim towards making improvements.

It's both wonderfully inspiring and deeply depressing to hear Horowitz and the likes demonstrated their full-length version of this song. All I can say is Wow, I sure have a very, very long way to go. I can't image playing 9-10 minutes of any song at this point, that beautifully and that flawlessly.


Angelojf, I haven't yet encountered any "major hurdles" so far, but have found that I've been enjoying learning most of the songs in book 2 up to this point. While they've been challenging, I also enjoyed the increased levels of technical difficulties that they each had to offer.

Looking forward to having you and the others joining us here in book 2.


And just as an aside but somewhat related fun thing: I've seen another posting of this toy/instrument on this forum somewhere before, and I wanted one badly. Just think, we can get both of our exercises as well as our piano practice time in at the same time. Talk about effeciencies. Perhaps after I finished book 3?



Enjoy and take care everyone,

Key Notes

Wow, busy night last night!

I agree with everything that has been said so far about the differences between book #1 and book #2, except for me it looks like I’ll be spending closer to three times as long on book #2 (if not longer). I started at the beginning of book #1, but the piano was not new to me at the time. I had taken some lessons as a child and continued to “tinker” with the piano from time to time all my life (I’ve also played other instruments and had a good handle on reading music). When I decided to get serious about the piano again I went back to square one. So I was able to complete book #1 in about four months. Once I went beyond the point of “having done this once before (even if it was long ago)”, things slowed down quite a bit.

Another thing to consider when discussing “how long” these things take is what else people are working on. Somewhere in book #2 (if not before) a number of people start adding some “supplementary pieces” to their studies, some start taking a serious look at all the scales, and some may even add a little Hannon to the mix.

In the long run, I think it’s important to keep in mind that completing any of these lesson books doesn’t really mean anything. What’s more important is how you feel about the playing you are doing now and the progress you are making. Don’t just rush through thinking that completing some book will automatically mean that you can now play at some given level. Instead (to paraphrase Walt Whitman) live deep and suck all the marrow out of each piece you play. You get better at the piano by playing, not by getting past some page number. Of course this last part is just my opinion; your mileage may vary.

Undone

Hi everyone. I'm in Alfred Basic book two and have been for a little less than a year on and off. I'm learning "You're In My Heart" right now and will pass it this week I think.

I must say this thread is very encouraging. You all are very accomplished. It's inspiring.

I can't add much to the Book 2 vs. Book 1 discussion, other than to say this: Book 2 does NOT start where Book 1 left off. The last two pieces in Book 1 (The Entertainer and Amazing Grace) are significantly more difficult than anything I have seen so far in Book 2 (and I am at Morning Has Broken, prolly the 5th or 6th piece... but don't hold me to that). One or two pieces have taken more than a week to "polish" (a relative term, proficiency is different for each of us), but it seems like it took a month to be able to play the last two pieces in book one.

And of course this makes sense. In introducing new concepts, like thumb under 2, thumb under 3, Alfred's is also reviewing old concepts (like the key C major).

I figure on spending this entire year in the book.

Black Forest Polka (and some sad news. . .)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iI2qGbtqTk

I made that recording late last night and went to bed. It had errors so I had planned to make another this morning. I started recording and my camera completely stopped working . It was a cheap sony webcam or whatever, so I'll hopefully buy another in a few days. I would have rerecorded this but I'll let this piece go with this rendition.

Where is Undone's recording of Nagila? I'd love to hear it if I could find it.

Nice playing Waltz of Black Forest Polka. Sorry to hear about your recorder's malfunctioning.

And I'm sorry for the confusions regarding my mentioning of Undone's Nagila, I actually meant to refer to Undone's Walts in G minor. I was listening to too many recordings last night, and had just gotten through listening to your version of Hava Nagila, which I thought was also great.

Good luck with your search for a new recorder.

Key Notes

Waltz - Nice job on Black Forest Polka! I always thought this was a fun one to play.

Key Notes – Thanks for the nice words on Walts in G minor. I’m glad you and Waltz sorted out which piece it was because I was trying hard to remember if I had ever submitted a recording of my Hava Nagila (I didn’t think so as it was one I wasn’t all that happy with).

Undone

Nice playing Waltz!

Finished off Deep River this week and will be studying Loch Lomand today. This week's schedule (work) got a little crazy and I normally prefer to be "polishing" the weeks songs on the final day (lesson day) as oppose to learning one.

Oh well, better get an early start on it

Can't believe I'm almost at the end of #2 (well once I get past Canon in D)

TTig...

we're all ready for your arrival at the book 3 thread. I'll post an update (nothing spectacular, but we dropped all the way to page 2 or 3 I'm afraid) later today, but it's too quiet...we are eagerly awaiting some new participants!!

Ingrid

Thanks

Will be looking forward to joining you guys over there. Something tells me #3 is going to be insane, but fun of course

Key Notes, Undone, TTigg: thanks y'all

Pomp and Circumstance is great thus far (not easy though).

I'd still love to hear recordings from everyone. Key Notes: I listened to your rendition of Scarborough Fair from Book 1 and thought it was superb (late, I know, but I've only been on this forum since Jan.). If you make any Book 2 recordings I'd love to give them a listen.

TTigg: how do you like the pieces as Book 2 comes to an end? Any surprises (good or bad)?

So, today I was going to buy another cheap webcam type thing but instead bought a really nice camcorder and a tripod! Ha! It really does a much better job capturing both sound and video. Anyway, I decided to rerecord Black Forest Polka. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29PeGwguqWw

Well, I must say that your video quality is far above average.
May I make a couple of suggestions?

1. The lighting could be a bit brighter, and the camera ought to shoot lower and to the left to better show you and your handiwork.

2. The sound is not bad for a miked situation, but it would be better if you recorded from the DP's auxiliary output.

Now if we all had decent equipment like yours, it would be a pleasure to listen to all of these amateur online concerts.

whadija get, whadidja get?

Also wondering if that book isn't covering the speaker? Sounds maybe a bit muffled?

There are some nice pieces for sure, a lot more "technical" in places too (which is always fun). Haven't really come across anything bad but they are throwing some hand/chord changes/accidentals all at once in the last couple of pieces..

Horwinkle,

I have a clp320: do I have the ability to record audio directly from the piano to the camcorder while still capturing video? If so, that would be ideal.
When you say the camera should be to the left, do you mean more to the left or on my left side? Thanks for the suggestions

Kenny,

It's a sony camcorder. I'm not at home so I can't find the model number but it was not HD (I didn't want to spend THAT much lol). This model was around 350 $ and the tripod was around 35 $. So probably not the best but a huge step up from my crappy webcam

TTigg:

That's a relief to know that there isn't anything too outrageous. Generally Alfred's does a great job at transitions with respect to technique and difficulty. My exception was obviously La Bamba and I always fear something like that will pop up again.

I also decided to take Undone's suggestions on the Olympic Procession and rerecord it using the new equipment. Here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA17nuSC3SM

Thanks everyone, Happy Friday