Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and All in One Adult Piano Course Book #2

Nancy Mae, no on would ever accuse me of having a clean house either. LOL I'm either sketching and painting, playing piano, or hanging out on the computer, and the dust and clutter just pile up until I expect company and then I hope I can get it to look decent.

Carol - Ah, teacher has you doing that classical stuff. Most of the people here who have done that end up finding the Alfred pieces easy. I've got one of the Snell beginner classical books, and I work on one of the pieces in there from time to time, but I haven't noticed any improvement in my HT yet.

I love listening to the tin whistle. :-)

I started on La Raspa today. I hope it goes better than La Bamba did. I've only worked out the first line so far, and it definitely seems easier to keep the rhythm.

my current favourite excuse for not cleaning is I need to practice my HT...:)

I usually feel compelled to dust the piano when the tuner's coming, & that sometimes leads to other cleaning. Happens a couple of times a year. Right now I can't wash floors till the scarlet runner beans are finished - they're on my back balcony & they've twined around the mop that's hanging there. I see no reason to disturb the arrangement.

A clean house is a sign of an empty mind! Music, on the other hand, is known to do all kinds of good things for your brain.

joyoussong - Well at least you did your gardening. When I got my new piano my gardening plans went to heck in a handbag, in short order. My once pristine flowerbeds are overgrown with weeds. Now I can sing "The Crabgrass' is high as an elephant's eye" and actually play a couple of measures of it!

I've been slacking off on Alfred's 2 having spent a week on musical "candy" ...more Christmas Carols and "Welcome to Jurassic Park" easy piano. I've had a good time too, with the Masterpiece Classics Book 1-2. I got up to piece 5 in the book and was so proud of myself for doing such a good job in sight-reading the pieces and playing them, before I listened to the book's CD. I checked Youtube for Kohler pieces and of course I found several ....all of the ones I was working on, played by a 6 year old girl, who looked like she was anxiously awaiting a good piece of candy for her bravura performance! So much for my delusions of grandeur!!! Hey, I'll go back to Alfred's next week! Do I get a week in Costa Rica if I play "Guantanamera" perfectly? I need to be bribed!

Well, I don't know what I was worried about. La Raspa is MUCH easier than La Bamba. I can already play the whole thing HT with minimal mistakes. There are a few spots where the fingering get's a little crowded and awkward, but that will get easier with practice. I can have fun with this one. {Big Grin!!!}

La Bamba is hard

That's why I dropped it for now, but I will get back to it and conquer it eventually.

Well it appears that I'm in one of those Alfred's ruts. I had a lesson yesterday and did not move on to a new piece. I am not getting a smooth rhythm out of Guantanamera and it's mainly because I don't really like this arrangement of it very much so I have to force myself to practice it. I told my teacher that it sounds like they just grabbed parts of the original and threw them in a bowl and pulled them back out and stuck them on the page in whatever order they came out. I do like the original but this version stinks! On the positive side my teacher said to stick with it until the next lesson and then we'd let it go. He said it has some important rhythm techniques in it to learn so I should concentrate on that.

Overture is easy for me but I wasn't playing it staccato enough so I have to improve on that. Memory (Greatest Hits) is to the point of playing 3/4ths of it great and flubbing one small section so I have been relegated to practicing only that part in hopes of being able to prove to him that I really can do it. I have spent WAY to much time on it. My next supplemental piece will not be from any Alfred's book. I don't know where it'll come from but I need a change. I'll probably start Light and Blue on my own.

I did get a new scale to start practicing. It's the A Major scale and should be pretty easy to remember the fingering. The black keys fall under the fingers nicely. This will bring me up to 6 (C, F, G, D, Bb, A) down and 6 to go for the major scales.

I am continuing to work on Christmas pieces. It will be here before we know it and I would like to have at least a half dozen that I can play for company and not send them looking for earplugs.

My next lesson interferes with a planned vacation. We are heading for Cape May, NJ the week after next. It will be the first time I will miss practicing since last December. It will feel strange. I am already planning on extra practice time before and after our trip.

Nancy & GracieCat - I'm a Tin Whistle fan too! I have one I bought on a trip to Colorado a few years ago and have dabbled around with it a few times. Never got very good at it but every once in a while I pick it back up and chase away the neighborhood dogs with it. I was looking for a decent instructional book on Amazon a few weeks ago. Do you have any recommendations?

Hello fellow Pianists!

I had my lesson last night and was not passed on two of my pieces (nor did I expect to be). I have been working on both Romance and Light and Blue...I'm about 75% there...but way too much hesitation and incorrect rhythms. But, I thought these would be a two week process. Did get passed on the Good Old Summertime..which was easy.

She is having me work in a Hanon book about the way I attack the keys. I need to learn more curved fingers and the drop and lift. So, I've got extra practice to do. I'm on the flat side of the Circle of 5ths now...but I need to go back and review my scales...I haven't memorized them all yet..just for the week and then move on. Bad me.

My new song for this week will be Roman Holiday which looks easy.

Doug--I'm working on Memory too...just for fun. Yes, there are a couple of parts there that stop me every time. It's my hubby's favorite play..and he loves the song, so I wanted to do it for him.

I haven't begun my Christmas pieces yet..but am going to start. I'm going to bring my book to the lesson next week and we can pick out a couple. I have both Alfred book one and two. I think Book one is a little too simple...but that's ok. I will teach my grandchildren them when the time is right.

I miss my piano too when I can't play. We have been gone three weekends in a row, so I haven't gotten good weekend practice in...and I miss it.

As far as tin whistles go...check out the Clark Tin Whistle book by Bill Ochs. You can get it fast through www.thewhistleshop.com They are in Illinois, and ship very fast and are reasonable. They also have tons of information on beginning whistling (free). Also check out their slow sessions (free) I have worked through all those songs. They give you the sheet music, plus a slow and fast version you can download to your computer and play along. They are good people. I don't have any affiliation with them other than customer. But that is the book I would recommend..and I have many!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful piano (or whistle) day!!!

Nancy

Nancy, thanks for the book recommendation. I have looked at that one and thought it looked good. That looks like a great site.
By the way, what Alfred's book are you using? Mine doesn't have Romance, Good Old Summertime or Roman Holiday in it.

For some reason I had no trouble with this one at all!
Here is what I recorded last year:
http://www.box.net/shared/897uu7aqv4#/shared/897uu7aqv4/2/29827998/309705048/1

I have been working on the dreaded La Bamba... I am going to get it if it kills me... Maybe you better start watching the obits....

Good luck with it.

It feels SO good when you get it! The best thing was when I played it & a friend who was busy in another room called out "Hey! That's La Bamba!" Made me feel a bit like a "real" piano player.

Hi Doug--glad you enjoyed the tin whistle site. It's sure a favorite of mine!

The Alfred books that I have are the Basic #2 (Roman Holiday, Light and Blue) and the All Time Favorites one with Good Old Summertime and Romance. This book is excellent with a lot of classical and older pieces that have beautiful arrangements that are at a level 2. The book says Level 1, but I think they mean you need to finish level one. It's a great supplement. I also have the movies one too..which I'm learning Memory--a beautiful song.

The thing that I'm see having a problem with..is when I leave Alfred, other types of music have such small font!!! How do you transition?????--besides re-writing everything. Oy....to have young eyes again! Hopefully when I leave the Alfred system, I will have learned enough to be able to recognize chords and really low notes (those blasted ledger lines)...and I will be able to play them without getting out a magnifying glass!!!

Played my prescribed Hanon today..the 2 times required...hopefully it will help my right hand get stronger. I never eat lunch anymore...I play.... :-) But my little half hour is just perfect for all my exercises. I'm working in the Hanon and the Alfred Finger Aerobics books--for my heavy left hand problem. Did a little bit today on Roman Holiday too..it's harder than it looks...I have my own fingering technique (the willy nilly technique) that I'm trying to re-learn the correct fingerings on things.

It's sunny and 63 up here..and I feel like going outside!! Hope everyone has a great afternoon!

Happy Piano Playing!

Nancy

Nancy, I was whining to my teacher last week about the exact same thing - with the Beyer Etudes he's got me working on, the DENSITY of information on the page has been giving me problems. I think I'm getting a bit used to it, after 4 weeks, but it's been really hard to follow.

Hi Carol!

I guess we need the LARGE PRINT Reader's Digest Versions!!!! HA!!!

Has anyone else made the move to the small print side....and still can play music??????

Nancy

Me too! The few times that I've played from something with smaller print, I find that I sometimes can't tell if a note is on a line or on a space. Especially when I'm tired.

An option you might enjoy checking out are the various "big note" piano collections out there. Not only is the music font large, but "big note" is apparently a code name for piano arrangements which are easier than "easy piano". I think they should be quite accessible to anyone in Alfred book 2, since I play around that level myself.

Edited to add:
Amazon's big note selection
Sheet Music Plus' selection

Let me know (pm might be best) if you'd like me to scan some samples so you could see what this stuff looks like on the page.

Thanks for the links Tangleweeds. I am worried that I won't be able to read the scores after I leave Alfred's music. I do have many books that are too small for me to read right now--except the Alfreds and the easy piano works. I just hope when I get up to speed and graduate Alfred, I will be able to play the real works and be able to see them!! But THAT will be a long time coming!

I worked this weekend and got up to speed on all three of my pieces..and working in Hanon. I spent about 2 hours on Friday night, so that set the stage for this weekend. I played all pieces with barely a hesitation or mistake (still have to work on a couple of measures)...I hope to be able to work in my Xmas songs soon too...I don't want to start too soon...and get sick of them, but I want to be able to play for my grandchildren!

What did everyone else work on this weekend?

Nancy