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

I have to chime in about the CD, man it is horrible. I have started just looking for you tube videos instead of the disk. It's bad enough to have an electric piano sound instead of a normal grad sound, but to have the accompaniment is horrible. I love the book but I give Alfred's a thumbs down on that one. Does anybody know if the Book #2 CD is any better? Just my .02, lol.

Well done nipo.


Welcome back. It is great you decided to finish the book.



See this
http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/freebies.html
Nice youtube videos and midis for each piece. Also have a nice theory in
http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Fundamentals/workbooks.html

and this
http://www.piano-play-it.com/piano-lesson.html


In page 142 you also have a link to PianoNoobAlexMan recordings in YouTube and another link to the pieces of Alfred 1 cd


I am in Hanon exercises yet. I played the pieces before that and trying to play "Finlandia" from "All-Times Favorite 1" book. It is very hard to me, with fingering changes in left and right hand. It is the second piece of the book. May be it is too early to play that.

I am also playing the pieces from "Teach Yourself to play piano" (96 pages). It has a funny version of "Skip to my Lou" with broken cords in left hand - page 43.

I agree, the CDs that comes with Vol 1 and 2 of Alfred's Adult books are nearly useless. What were they thinking? While you can kill one channel and just have the piano sounds, relatively few stereo systems or MP3 players have a convenient "Balance" control anymore, where you can turn the volume of the left or right channel to zero. One of these days, I hope Alfred's gets it act together and re-records these CD's with just a piano. That would be a lot more useful to beginners!

Oh God, BTMD !! Id forgotten all about that. I think my mind had mentally removed the scars that bloody song left on my psyche. Nice to see you again Glass xx

Have to agree with Spitfire and Emissary. The CD's with this series are absymal. It would have been much cheaper, easier and a better educational tool if they had just recorded someone playing the pieces solo.

See this nice thread to keep motivation
https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb.../1/One%20small%20step%20for%20piano-kind

I second, third and fourth that! 'Wish too that the recordings were as nice and real as that with the Humphries' Piano Handbook. Vol.2 might be a titch better, but probably only because the tune arrangements may be a little more interesting

Greensleeves

have a great weekend to all!

Hi everyone,
Which Alfred Books should I choose? There is Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course and Alfred's Basic "All-in-on" Adult Piano course, plus a few others! What is the difference, and which series of books should I work with if I want to learn how to read music in addition to playing by ear? I don't want to order the books and end up receiving the wrong ones!
Thanks.

You can't go wrong with either one. That said, I think most of the people here use the All-in-One. Both series have basically the same music, give or take a few pieces, but the basic is meant to be used along with a theory book and a finger exercise book. The All-in-One includes some pages from the theory book, and a few pages of Hanon. The All-in-One is also spiral bound which makes it easier to stay open on the piano.

All in one is great. As the poster above says, the spiral bound book is perfect for laying out on the rest

Does anybody have any tips for Lullaby. I can play right hand flawless, left hand flawless. But put them together and it goes to heck in a handbasket. The thing that is getting me is the left hand part being a bit off time from the right. Any tips on how you guys and gals overcame this.

Hey all, thought I would stop by and say hello. I just joined a couple of days ago. I to am new to piano, in fact I'm new to playing any sort of instrument, at least over the past 20 or so years.
I toyed with the trumpet in middle school, the drums in high school, and the bass guitar, acoustic guitar and harmonica in my 30's. Now I'm pushing 60 and have decided to attempt to learn to play the piano/keyboard.
Other than the initial music course for the trumpet in middle school, I have had no lessons.
Heck, the last time I even played around on a piano I messed up "chopsticks" LOL, so this ought to be interesting.
I've recently ordered the complete "Piano System" by Nate Bosch, it was a toss up between that and the "Learn and Master Piano" course, both home study courses. I work 12 hour night shifts and have to sleep during the day, thus the nickname, NightWalker, so taking lessons right now is out of the question. But I also wanted to get the Alfred's All in one Adult Piano course that everyone here seems to be talking about.
Sorry if I got a little off topic, just wanted to say hello and maybe get some feedback on my decisions.
Great site BTW. Looking forward to gabbing with everyone and getting all of your great insight and suggestions.

...Just thought I would add that I have Donald Fagan playing in the background, man I love his music, not sure what style you would call it, Jazz/Rock fusion? not sure, tough to figure out and follow though, at least for me at my uber beginners level, LOL. Having a ton of fun though, and ain't that what it's all about?

Hmmm...I remember struggling through Lullaby, but I don't remember how I resolved it other than practicing the hard parts separately many times over before playing all the way through. I remember going back to review after getting to the end of the book, and being tripped up again by the same sections, and playing it for several days before I was satisfied. Just determine the parts that you have trouble with, and practice those by themselves until they become trouble free.

Lullaby is a tricky one, isn't it! For me, it's the unfamiliarity of moving my hands around to "so many" different notes. (The right hand, in particular.) And towards the end, they don't specifically tell you what fingers to use on some of the notes. Reviewing the information on the prior 2 or 3 pages helped me there. (Turns out I was using some wrong fingers.) Since you say you've got the fingering down when you play each hand independently, it sounds like you need to just slow way WAY down when you play with the two hands together. At least for me, I often just plain go too fast. I know how the piece should sound so I try to play it up to tempo too quickly.

Right! Slow it way down. And write in your fingering where it's needed. Sometimes when a phrase is repeated, the book only has fingering the first time. I will write it in if I need to on the repeat.

I only know Alfred's All in one Adult Piano course and I recommend it. If you decide to follow it you are in the right thread Everybody here choosed Alfred as main method and then choosed other books to play something different.


I am now playing "Alouete". It is funny with all those dynamic changes. I still play Hanon. It is not easy for me to travel all the keyboard without any mistake, even at slow speed.

Here is a link to Alouete lyrics
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/alouette.htm

"Finlandia" from "All-Times Favorite 1" book is a hard test to my motivation. Progression is really slow to me in this piece.

Thanks for the tips. I will try to slow it way down tonight and see if I can get through it better than before, I think you guys hit the nail in the head though. I know how it sounds so I think I try to play it up to speed, when obviously I'm not ready for that yet, well not with both hands, lol.

Thank you! Does this book mostly focus on the classics, or is it a bit of everything?