Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1

Good to hear Ron. Fill us in how lessons go.

Yup, I agree too. Song selections look identical with a few extra at the end. One question though, it’s not named Book 1 so there might not be any Book 2? Still, when you’re done with this, I think you’re at the same place of Book 1 completion and can go on to the regular AIO Book 2.

The one GracieCat suggests is the one most follow here. If you decide to get that one, try to get the combo with CD just in case you want to listen to the songs from its CD. Or you can get a CD later if you need to. Most find “youtube” more helpful than CD though.

I agree with everyone else. The Self-Teaching book looks to be very similar and it does has more explanation in it. I viewed some of the pages on Amazon. I wonder if the Self-Teaching Piano Course book also has theory in it or will you have to buy other books to go along with it?

The AIO book I posted the link to doesn't have a study guide in it. You did see the "work book" pages. That's where you practice learning the names of notes, chords and intervals.

You can't go wrong with either one.

I actually have both books. I bought the All in One first from Amazon and got the one without the CD. I was in Borders a while later and saw the Self-Teaching version and it had a CD with it so I bought it figuring I would leave the All in One at the piano and carry the Self-Teaching version around with me to work etc.. and I got the cd as a bonus. You are correct that the All in One has places to write the notes and do some excersizes while the Self-Teaching one does not. What the S-T one does have are study guides that are supposed to represent a teacher sitting next to you explaining things as you go along. It includes all of the theory that the AIO has. The AIO version is 143 pages and the S-T one is 192 pages. The S-T is newer and it states that when you complete it you are ready to continue on to Book 2 "with a teacher". There is no Self-Teaching book 2. The content is practically identical with the exception of a few songs. The S-T version has 5 bonus songs after Amazing Grace; Over the Rainbow, At Last, Singing in the Rain, Laura, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. The quality of the Self-Teaching CD seems to be better than the AIO version's but I am comparing it to MP3 files available on the web. One advantage the AIO version has is it is spiral bound where the S-T version is not so the AIO sits on the piano better.

Way to go Doug. If I'm starting out and can afford it, I'd get both too.

Thank you everyone for the help. Thanks Doug for filling me in on the differences.

Hello all, its been a while. lol

It's been pretty busy on my end as far as social and work life goes. A good friend of mine had moved pretty damn far away from here, a friends cousin from australia had been visiting over the winter break, and work as always is a nonstop grind, all of which explains my absence. I can only imagine a life of a family of my own. hahaha

Well as far as the piano journey goes, the teacher search is still up in the air. She comes back from a vacation during the mid month and at that same time she arrives, I leave for a 3 week work trip. Hard times. lol. I did purchase the "First Lessons In Bach" book 1&2 and I've been trying to get the first minuet down. Pretty much got it just need to smooth it out. Also down to starting The Entertainer.

mom3gram if you're reading this, I'd like to point out that the versions of this "Minuet in G" I've seen on free websites has different dynamics and fingerings than the one I've seen in the book and it also extends a little longer to about 30 bars in total. I thought it was weird because I remember I picked up that piece from your suggestion and it was weird to see staccato labels on different notes and different fingerings and I'd trust the book more than a free website. Slight differences but still made quite a difference.

Lastly, thanks for the worrying curiosity Nguyen. lol. Just shows the type of support this forum extends.



Happy practicing all.

Thank you all for your advice. Sorry it took me a while to post back, my work just started up again. I have looked at the youtube videos and they are really helpful. (Sadly, I can't find how to order the Alfred's CDs here, so the videos will have to do.) I've been breaking my practices into small chunks of at least 10 minutes or so each. My first practice for the day, I go through all the songs I've already learned as a sort of warm up. After that, I focus on the one or two I'm learning. (Though, this schedule will have to change since work started.) I haven't been rereading all the pages per se, so the advice to go through the entire book, word for word, every few weeks is really good. As is the advice go as slow as I need. I tend to be impatient with myself, so it's good to be reminded. Thanks all.

Hi Nguyen!

I lurk in this thread occasionally, but when I started lessons a few weeks ago, my teacher took me off the Alfred's book. I'm using the John Thompson children's book and some supplementary stuff. I had a lesson from heck the other night -- I was a deer in headlights -- but then had a couple of nice practice sessions afterwards, so I think I may be making some progress.

I do have a funny Alfred's story, though: My husband's not musical. I don't think he gets why I'm learning the piano at all, or why I'll practice something insanely slowly, or play two-note slurs over and over to perfect the technique. He's encouraging, but sometimes I felt like he was just tolerating it.

Anyway, I had stopped Alfred's around page 90, but just for fun I took a whack at The Entertainer last week. I'm sure I don't play it properly, but I can hit the right notes at the right times. The hubby doesn't know or care about dynamics, phrasing or anything like that -- but he knows his Paul Newman movies.

As you can imagine, my "tolerable" hobby suddenly became very cool.

I really need to change my sig line/footer thingy. I haven't really done chords since I started the lessons, so my D7 has been put on the back burner.

Glad to see you again Fanatik. How’s your new DP? Like it? Enjoying it? I forget what you got. Casio something...?

That is very cool. What wonders Piano can do right. Best wishes with your non-Alfred journey. You’re very welcome to jump in anytime you’re around. Even better, use Alfred on the side, as a supplement?

Very nice to have a mention in your post.

I'm still on Little Brown Jug. Starting to get it now

Took about 2-3 weeks off this book to work on some other classical sheet scores for beginners I printed out from the internet. I found a really nice and not too hard opening to the titan that is "Moonlight Sonata". One day I'll be able to play the real version, but the one I found sounds quite nice!

Back on Alfred now though! LBJ has to be finished.

My sister got me the Book 2 for Xmas, so I'll have that to look forward to (still a few months off!)

Good luck to everyone still on this book. I'll be here in this thread for a good few months more

Hi Everyone and Happy, if belated, New Year's! I'm back in the saddle again. My new YDP-160 came last night and I spent the evening assembling it and playing Blow the Man Down to death!!! What a difference, having a graded-hammer anything to play on, compared with my 19 year old YPP-50. It's like going from Hot Wheels to a Harley. I went to a Guitar Center last week and as soon as I touched a YDP-140 keyboard, it felt so strange compared to my old clunker. These keys push back! I also checked out the YDP-223, but the store didn't have a 160. Things to remember if you need to go piano shopping - Bring music ...even if it's Alfred's. After hearing a guy playing the 223, pretty well, you can feel very intimidated about playing ...but persevere anyway! No one hit me with spitballs...LOL! But mostly I only played a few chords to get the feel of a keyboard. I ended up getting the YDP-160 for $1079 with the coupon from Music123 with free shipping. So I'm going to spend the next few days back-tracking a bit. New toys are inspirational to say the least. "Standing in the Need of Prayer" could stand a little more practice.

Hmmm… so you’ve been lurking all these time and not even bother to say “hi” huh? Should be punished LOL. I’m just joking. Welcome back to Alfred, very glad to see you again. Yes, finish that LBJ and Book 2 shouldn’t be that far off.


Yay, congrats on your new DP Emissary. You didn’t say which one you like better, YDP223 or YDP160?

Hi Nguyen! I guess you can say I "cheaped out" a bit! While in Guitar Center, I thought the YDP-223 sounded a lot better than the YDP-140, but of course the 223 has 40 watts as compared with the 140's 12 watts. The keyboard on the 223 felt a little nicer, the 160 has the same keyboard as the 223 as well as having 40 watts. I wish they also had a 160 so I could have done an A-B comparison. I kind of gave up on the Clavinova idea after I was so startled by the feel of the 223 and 140 vs. my old piano. I hate making decisions quickly, but desperate times call for desperate measures! Using the coupon for the 160 seemed like a good idea! The funny thing is, that after I got home and ordered the 160, the dead G keys on my old Yamaha started working again. Do you think it knew something? LOL! I guess I'll be in Book 1 until late spring or early summer. I also read in the Digital forum that new Arius models...141,161,181 will be arriving soon. That might be the end of the 223 anyway! Maybe their feature set will be improved and you can save some money on these, over a Clavinova! Keep playing Buddy... you and mom3gram are my role models!

I guess I’ll take that as a compliment? Mom3gram & I take a lot longer than most folks to complete this Book Emissary. She’s done but not me. It’s been 10 months for me, onto 11th now. LOL… Taking up after us will sure get you to the rear end of the Journey heck, who cares right, we sure have fun.

As for me, I’ve been polishing up Amazing Grace and at Lullaby, P.95 into my review. Reviewing is painful literally. My right thumb is very sore now after banging C & G majors f & mf so many times. I think I’m going to have to back off and take a break for a week or so.

One of the recurring issues for this forum is the concern for beginning piano on a self training basis. I am very encouraging of that endeavor. I do speak with some experience in self directed learning on other musical instrument, other than piano. I found that to be revelatory and enjoyable learning experience. But it comes at a cost – self doubt. I think that is at the heart of every beginners concern about self training. How can I train myself and fairly judge my development? Well, you cannot. You will always have some degree of self doubt. But that does not mean you cannot learn and enjoy and make a real accomplishment of it all. In the end, you might just satisfy your harshest critic too. That critic being… yourself of course. You know what I mean.

It actually came as a surprise to myself when I decided to begin piano with commitment to teacher lead development. It was never my norm in the past. But I wanted the other experience. If no other reason than to answer the self doubt questions, I was going to surrender myself to the student in training role. Previous years of music experience aside, I knew not the piano.

So I began the course and found the experience, unexceptional. At first it was rather slow. I would say that self directed and teacher lead training at the beginning has no great difference. Then the day came when I stumbled through a lesson and did everything wrong. Hanon to be specific. I did things wrong all over. The things I had assumed and practiced and thought perfect, they were packed with misunderstandings on my part. As a self direct learner, it would have been a painful realization over an extended time. I would have embedded errant learning into my routine that would be a drag over the course of time. After thirty minutes from heck with a teacher, I was back on track and confident in making progress. Progress is a positive direction. So I finally had a teacher lead experience that I felt marked a significant difference from my previous self direct experiences.

Now I am not saying there is additional risk of failure going the self directed route. In fact, most times it is pretty much the same experience. Self directed actually feels more liberating since you set your own direction in all aspects. As long as you are making progress, you are probably on the right track. But if you do get off track, get stuck or just doubt yourself, it is sure nice to have that experienced teacher put you right.

Now there is another issue that recurs that I have a strong opinion about. The question gets asked, ‘Do I need to learn theory to do piano?’ I am not on one side or the other of that question. My point is I think the question itself is all wrong. Learning music theory is a prize and treasure of great value on its own merits. It is equal or greater to learn music theory as it is to learn to play a musical instrument. Music theory opens doors in your musical life experience, open eyes in you musical mind, puts joy in your musical soul. Music theory is the thing that lets you stand up and shout, “I get it!’

Almost everything I am currently working on in ¾ time. Lucky me, I have never been happier. I am still in love with ¾ time.

I'm back from holidays (4 weeks).. seem to have lost the way to play a little have to get the feeling back

I have been practising daily and going through Alfred’s Book 1 for about three weeks now.

I am learning a lot daily, and can see improvements in my fingering and the way I play. I find that when playing pieces that have fingering illustrated, I do not look at the notes, but mainly at the fingering (numbers) and play. I think this will be an issue later on or when playing from sheet music that does not show fingering and that I am developing a bad habit. Am I worrying about a non-issue? Will this change over time?

Feedback and comments will be appreciated.

Regards

Howser, I don’t know if it will change over time, but it’s not a non-issue. During my search for a piano method months ago, I googled piano methods and came across a PW Teacher Forum thread and one of the teachers said that he/she would never use Alfred because students transferring over to him/her from Alfred can’t even read basic Notes.

Please do yourself a favor, find a teacher to guide you. If that’s not an option, find a way to practice that prevents you from seeing those finger numbers. Practice by reading those numbers will hinder your reading skill. The numbers are there to help guide you what fingers play what notes, not replace the notes. I hope you will find a way to break this habit, urgently.

Welcome to the Thread by the way. I’m glad you joined and brought up this concern. Best wishes.

Hello. I am new to posting to this thread. I started this book in June 2008 and in June 2009, my piano teacher declared I had completed it. However, when I switched to a new piano teacher last week, she moved me back into it (Ugh!). So, here's hoping this time around it will "stick"!

My husband advised me that piano is one of those things where you really have to learn to enjoy the journey as much as you desire the destination. Despite this set back, piano lessons and the instant feedback of it all, really is a treat.

Anyway, hello to all!