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I finally started to read Fundamentals of Piano Practice that I had downloaded a while ago, and though I find the layout a bit confusing it looks like there are many pearls of wisdom in it. I'm trying to integrate some of these (HS practice, slowing down from 'infinite speed', thumb over, etc.) in my practice and I think I'm ready for the last 2 songs in the Alfred book. Then I intend to go back and browse through it from the beginning to have another look at some songs that I didn't practice thoroughly.

Oh, and happy 4th of July to all Americans!

So... where is everybody, have you all moved to book 2?

Right now I'm working on The Entertainer (HS done, HT... not so much) and Amazing Grace (RH only so far).

I can play Scarborough Fair now, but more often than not I find myself messing up the LH, even after playing it like 100 times. Weird, because I have no problems with Raisins and Almonds, which I like a lot. Oh, and since I couldn't sing it for the life of me, I transposed Scarborough Fair from D minor down to A minor, that was great fun!

I'm planning two little recitals - one of slow songs, one of faster pieces - to review it all and then I hope I'll be ready to start book 3 in 2-3 weeks.

Congratulations on your progress, sinophilia.

Thank you

I just had my piano tuned last week... it does sound better to my untrained ears I'm in the middle of re-recording Amazing Grace...

It'll be fun if we all go to book 2 together

I've been doing a juice fast recently and so I've been spending most of my free time juicing, exercising instead of practicing. Amazing Grace is coming along, but I still make the odd mistake almost every time I play it, and there is the issue of dynamics to work on. Anyhow, last week I did start on Over the Rainbow.


You are really moving through the book quickly. Do you have past experience playing piano or other instruments?


Scarborough Fair took me quite a bit of time, and like you I kept messing up the left hand until after I while I finally got it.

That D minor version doesn't suit my voice either. I think Simon & Garfunkel play it in E minor.


Congratulations on your progress. Will you have much of an audience for your recitals?

Hi guys. This questions has probably been asked quite a few times, but does the "All-in-One" book cover everything that is in the "Lesson book" and the "Theory book" (sold separately). I am wondering which one to get, either the AiO or the two books separately, and getting the AiO is significantly cheaper than getting the two separate ones, so I was thinking that maybe there are some info left out.

Also, is the CD an important one to get as well?

Oops sorry for the late reply, I seem to have a hard time seeing active threads on this forum.



I tried to play the guitar when I was a teenager without much success, but at least I got some theory and a bit of sight-reading from that experience.
I really enjoyed Alfred 1 so that I simply started practicing more and more and things moved quicker. Just started book 2 today! (Even if I'm still polishing those last two songs...)



Nope, just my partner, and it will be more than enough for me to mess up everything
Anyway, even though I'm definitely a shy person I can see myself playing for friends sooner or later, that's something I would really love to do.

I can only reply on this one... I think you can do without it, since you can find all songs on YouTube.

This guy played all three books, sometimes too fast, but he's good!
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL49D9E0B0D3A35FF4&feature=plcp

amirall, I believe that the separate Theory book will give you more theory than the All-In-One, but the All-In-One does pretty much give you everything that the separate Lesson book has. Not sure where I picked up this idea about the theory book though; I haven't actually seen it.

You could compare the page counts to see if Lesson and Theory combined have a lot more pages than All-In-One.

There are lots of sources for theory, though, and most people seem to do the All-In-One -- or now, the newer Self-Teaching with the yellow cover.

can you give me the (Amazon) link to the Self-Teaching one? thanks

Alfred's Self-Teaching Adult Piano Course at Amazon

I just started using this book and I'm so impressed by how helpful it is. What a great book.

I am new to this forum; I thought this would be a good place to get advice on my practice.

I am really struggling with getting through book one. I am starting over from Good People since I don't feel I ever perfected any songs since that one. Do you practice the whole song through or take one or two measures at a time and perfect that before moving on?

I do practice Tumbalalaika from book two without many problems, perhaps this is an easier song.

Welcome to the forum, Troubledclef.

It is perfectly normal, and effective, to break your piece up into smaller "chunks" for practicing. If you are doing one or two measures at a time, just remember to always play the first beat of the next measure as the last note you practice. This way, when you go to stitch together your segments at a later time you won't have any hesitations at the bar lines.

As the music you take on gets more complex this chunking will part of every piece you play. Also, remember that your brain needs time to assimilate what you are learning. So don't try to race ahead.... you will literally learn while you sleep if you stay focused on smaller segements each day. I sometimes work for weeks at a time on a piece without ever trying to play it start to finish.

Enjoy the process.

Jim

You will find lots of answers for your questions here at ABF.

Hello and welcome, Troubledclef.

What I found really useful is to "deconstruct" each song and gradually add levels of difficulties, i.e. practice the right hand alone, then the left hand alone, then both together but without paying attention to dynamics or pedal (first slowly, then up to tempo), and then finally put it all together. Maybe it's just me, but as an absolute beginner I really need to take care of each aspect of a song separately at first. Plus, these songs are meant to teach you basic techniques and how to overcome specific difficulties, so it makes sense to take one's time.

Thanks JimF and sinophilia for your replies. Very good advise. I never thought to add the next note of the following measure but that makes a lot of sense.

I practiced only the first two measures of Good People yesterday, I do not have it perfected yet, but I hope to today. I have been inclined to skip over something that proved too difficult - I see this was a mistake.

I have finally gotten the notes down on Good People. I must have practiced the first two measures a couple hundred times. (My husband said it was more like a thousand, so I am not sure.) Anyway, I still play it very very slowly - so now to work on the speed.

I just bought this book. My jazz/rock course goes hand in hand with it, so I'm swtiching from Fabers to this. I have to back pedal a bit because Fabers didn't teach any cords other than the C major. So I will be doing all the chord pages but skipping the pages in between since I covered that information already. I guess I'm going to start with a review of the C chord on page 32 then skip to page 38 for the G7 Chord. It looks like once I hit page 78, then I'll be starting new stuff to me. So here I am!

BeccaBb, since the G7 chord will be new to you, you may want to learn all the pieces from page 38 on, even if they're on material you know already. They'll include the new chords, and give you practice with them.