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

Hi wj3,

Ahh, thank you so much for the clarifications, I thought that you were referring to our books being different instead of the video for some reason. Yes, I recognized that it was a different version of Lullaby, but I didn't know that it was from book 2. I did scanned through book 2 TOCs quickly that evening to see if there was another version of it in there because I remembered listening to one of our other member's, John Frank, recording of it once, but couldn't see it. I thought that it would still give Dilbert a general idea of how it should sound as well as direct him/her to the first page of this thread where there would be even more linked samples.

Please accept my apologies for any misunderstandings, and thank you so much once again for the additional informations and clarifications.

BTW, congrats on your submission of "It's a Small World" submissions to the PW's recital.

Dilbert, My apologies to you as well if I've added any confusions for you at all.

Best Regards,

Key Notes

Fabulous! Glad to know that you've made such great progress.

Key Notes

I have a question regarding fingering. In the beginning of Albert's, you start with a home base of C position and it's pretty easy to find notes for the ten fingers because there is a frame of reference, kind of like typing.

It seems now like it's heading more and more to having no particular starting point. So my question is this, how does an experienced piano player navigate and know which fingers to use, where and when? I know sight readers can just automatically position their fingers but what about those who don't sight read? Does anybody know how this works, maybe had a teacher explain it? Is this a dumb question and I should just wait to see how it is done?

Hello all! It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted here. Been very busy lately and I want to share with you all that.......

One. My wife and I are preparing for a new addition we will be having in our home come April 3rd. She, (girl), will be our first in the household, so needless to say, I am VERY excited about that.

And two. I finally received my Alfred course yesterday. I ended up getting the Self Teaching Adult Course that was released in 2008. I did a lot of homework on it and I know some people on here have been asking if there is any differences or similarities of this course and the All-in-One. My findings show that the Self Teaching Adult Piano Course and the Basic Adult All-in-One Course Level One, are completely identical.
The similarities are: everything.
The differences are: 1) for each piece you are about to practice/play, there is a study guide on that piece. and 2) 5 additional pieces are added to the end of the book; Over The Rainbow, At Last, Singin' in the Rain, Laura, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Other than that, this self teaching course is the All-in-One in a new package with a tad bit more sugar. The 5 new pieces and the study guide for every piece in the course is all that differentiates the two courses.
I hope this helps anyone who's thinking about which one to get. Enjoy all!

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations! We had our little girl on Dec 1, though she is not our first. We have a boy that is 17 months older than she is.

Needless to say I am not getting the practice in that I want/need, especially now that the wife is back to work.

Thanks for the info regarding the book. I'll have to check it out.

I think a "study guide" for each piece is a wonderful idea. I wish that the Self Teaching version was available when I started.

The self teaching guide does sound cool, and maybe if I had found that first I would have forgone the teacher. But I'm thoroughly enjoying my lessons as well, so no regrets there. In fact I have my 3rd lesson in just a little over an hour. I'm excited, I feel totally prepared, hope I don't blow it when I get there. I actually went 14 pages beyond what she assigned, hope she doesn't mind. I'll post a follow up as to how it went when I return.

Oh, and Congrats on the baby girl Luvrofkeys!

Hello All:

I'm wondering.... just how important do you think it is for us self-learners to supplement Book 1 (and the other two books for that matter) with other material?

Thanks,
Angelo

Thank you all, I appreciate it!

I forgot to mention one more thing about the Self Teaching Course, it also comes with the cd....so that definitely helps.

I think it is important to supplement.

For those who learn quickly, they should be supplementing with actual pieces so that they can begin to acquire a "repertoire" of pieces that they love.

For those who learn slowly (like myself) supplemental pieces at the same or lower level can re-inforce the material being worked on in the lesson book, build confidence, and keep one from getting bored.

Of course, there is the danger of spreading oneself too thin with too many pieces at one time, which might slow progress in the method book. (Been there/done that!)

Thanks, mom3gram!

I agree with mom3gram that supplements are important. I have both the Greatest hits book and the Basic Adult Pop Song Book. I also bought The Beatles Best arranged by Dan Fox. It has most of the Beatles tunes arranged for easy piano. I've just started working out of this book. Its fun, if you are a Beatles fan.

I agree with supplementing. I wouldn't be nearly as thrilled with my progress to date if I was simply playing the songs in the AIO.

I so far have down 4 individual pieces that just needs some polishing of the dynamics. Two that I just got tonight and was able to sight read through decently so shouldn't take long to polish up. One that is coming along pretty well, but needs a little more practice. And one that I want to analyze a little further and maybe make some notes on it before going back to it as it has some tricky movements up and down the key board that I want to study closer.

It will definately excite and motivate you when you are able to take what you are learning in the book and play a real two or three page piece of sheet music with it.

Just my .02

Did anyone purchase the Greatest Hits level 1 that the AIO says you are ready for after completing page 54?

If so, can you tell me how you liked it? Do the pieces progress from there or is it all made up of stuff you would have already learned at that point? Meaning will the Greatest Hits book keep pace with the rest of the AIO level one course, or would one surpass the level of the book in a short time making it a waste of money?

If you bought it, what were some of your favorite or most memorable songs from it?

Hi BarbVA,

To let you know where I'm at, I just finished the "Marine's Hymn" in the AIO book. Anyway, i do have the Greatest Hits Book, and I haven't really used it a lot, yet. I generally think that the songs are more difficult than where I'm at in the AIO book. The Hits Book, I think, takes what we have learned in the Method Book, and rather than just mimic where we should be at, it forces us to apply the skills by adding some along the way.

If you look up the book on Amazon.com, you can look inside the book too, to see what you think of it.

Angelo

Thanks Angelo, your answer was what I was hoping to hear. I didn't want to buy the book and be bored with it in a few weeks time. Thanks! Off to Amazon to read the reviews.

Hi BarbVA: Let me know what you think of it.

I got the book for Christmas and have only managed to stumble through the first song. I think I could work my way through them the way I do with the lesson book, but right now I have my hands full with the lesson book and the two songs in the Alfred Adult Pop Songbook that I'm working on. So yes, I think it will keep you busy for a long time.

I'm up to Beautiful Brown Eyes and I have to say it has a tricky move in it. On the third staff down, where the chord changes to C (third measure). They have on the treble, quarter note c followed by a half note tied to the next measure, on the bass they have quarter note g followed by two quarter note c/d combos.

For the life of me, I can't get that rythm right. Its like when you first learn how to pat your head and rub your belly and your hands get confused as to which one is doing what. I've tried slowing it way down, and its still a challenge over the silliest little thing.

Any advice on that measure, that seems to be the only one that is holding me back on that song.