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Well, I am slowly getting on with the book. The cancan is sounding like a cancan finally, and I am getting on with 'Why am I blue'. I did try 'The little jug' as well, but decided to stop and just keep playing all the other pieces in the book starting with G position as that is where we left at my last lesson.

Also, I am trying to learn one of Bach pieces from another book, and it going very slowly. But I am really enjoying it!

I have got my practice book (Dozen a day) on Saturday and I hope I can keep doing these pre-practice exercises before I actually start playing other pieces every time. Will see how long it will last. I do notice, that if I try to play faster, I just mix-up all the fingers, so exercises are a must!!!!

Quint, I'm almost where you are: I first found Got the Blues odd and ugly until II caught on to the rhythm and now is my favourite piece. Also doing Bach's Minuet (song one) of an easy classicals book. Also on the second piece of Dozen a Day.

The one other book I'm using is Burgmuller, Czerny & Hanon 32 piano studies. What amazed me is that these exercises, or some of them, were used by Beethoven to teach his students.

I don't learn every piece fully before moving on. If I "get it" and can play it with few errors and the piece doesn't inspire me I move on. Not sure if that's best, but it keeps me motivated.

One of these days I'll try to post some of these pieces.

Gabe

Hi Karen, it's good to know that this is a common thing to struggle with!

Just yesterday I had a big breakthrough with that chord... for some reason it just clicked and I am now hitting it properly maybe 75% of the time (whereas before it was like... 10% of the time).

One thing that I did that helped was to go one page past Alpine Melody and work on the unnamed song on page 71 of the All-In-One book. That song uses broken D7 chords which I found a little easier to start with. I worked on that song for a few days until I mastered it (including the pedaling and playing the repeat an octave higher).

I also did what Nguyen suggested and practiced just chord progressions going from G to C to G to D7 to G, etc, etc...

Doing both of those for a few days (and playing around with Middle C position a bit when I got frustrated and wanted to try something new) seemed to really help.

Good luck!!! The D7 chord is definitely the hardest thing I've dealt with up to this point in my very short piano learning!

I started "Scarborough Fair" this morning. I'm all thumbs like usual when starting something new, but I can tell that this one is going to be relatively easy and will sound really pretty. I love those broken chords!!! :-) The calm before the storm - because the last four pieces look really, really hard. I'm not going to stress over them until I get there though, as I have my hands full now polishing up the ones I'm working on now. I've retired "O Sole Mio" to the "review once or twice a week" category.

I ordered Book 2 yesterday, and can't wait to look through it. I'm getting excited!

After five or six days of practising I think I have a pretty good handle on Blow the Man Down now. It could still use a bit of polishing, but I'm happy with the way I can play it now. Thankfully the next few songs are a lot easier again, I'm at Cafe Vienna now and after just an hour or two of playing, that one is going very well too.

Also, I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps I should get a teacher. Right now no one is telling what I might be doing wrong. I would want one that helps me learn from Alfred tough, this book is really working well for me.

Mooshinator, I'm glad to hear you're doing better with the D7. I did the same thing you did -- I moved on to the Waltz Time exercise a couple of pages after it. I also made a couple of minor adjustments, and I'm feeling more comfortable. It still needs practice, though, so I'll keep working on it.

Meanwhile, this morning I got up to the middle C position and "Good Morning To You." That position's going to take some getting used to. I hope I'm wrong, but the next few pages of the book, up to the Hanon introduction, look like they might be kind of tedious. I don't mind struggling through something if it'll sound interesting when it's done -- but I'm not all that interested in learning how to play "Skip To My Lou." So of course I'm sure it'll be more complicated than it looks, take forever to get right, and I'll be stuck practicing it for days.

I also skipped ahead and took a whack at Blow The Man Down, just for fun. Surprisingly, I didn't have too much trouble with the rhythm -- so now I'm chomping at the bit to get to that page in the book so I can work on it properly.

It's strange -- this impatience has only just kicked in within the last couple of days. I'm not giving in to it, though. I'll take my time and learn this stuff properly. I will. I swear.

Karen, I love your signature line. :-)

You will get it, and wonder what was so difficult. And you are the first person I've seen here who wasn't intimidated by "Blow the Man Down". You are going to do fine.

Hi Everyone!

Well, I've just finished reading all 96 pages of this thread over the past week and have been so inspired by all of you. I thought I must be the only person on the planet doing Alfred's Basic Adult #1. So I figured I'd join the "Third Wave" of people on this thread. Thanks, Mark for coming up with these Alfred threads! Someone at Alfred's publishing ought to reward him with a "Steinway Model D" for selling so many of their books!!

I bought the Alfred books 1, 2, and 3 (I'm an optimist!) about a month ago. I've played (or played with) guitar for 35 years so at least I had some music knowledge and theory, but getting a piano to sound "good" vs. guitar is a whole "other" matter. I have a nearly 20 y.o. Yamaha YPP-50 which has only 8 note polyphony, so I may be buying something new in the very near future.

Right now, I doing everyone's nemesis BTMD. It's not easy, needless to say! I've been on it for three or four days and it's not coming together for me. The arrangement of it isn't as musical as say "Standing in the Need of Prayer" was, but I certainly realize the importance of learning to play it correctly. It has those notes that have different time values in the left hand than the right and is a kind of foundation piece in teaching the left and right hands to behave more independently. Plus, the fact that you have your right thumb on the D rather than the C further complicates things.

mom3gram - I'm glad you're still here! You are my inspiration! When Bravo does the "Real Talented Housewives of NJ", I know I'll be seeing you! I'm a former Jersey boy, now in NC. Miss the pizza and Taylor Ham!

Wow... It's nice to see the thread lively again. Isn't it motivating or what? I'm sure everyone will practice twice as hard today/night. Yeah, that competitiveness hidden somewhere... where are you? Come out here... Come out... LOL...

mom, that's not small accomplishments. The ones you struggle with, we all do. Little Brown Jug has been so far my most difficult. But it feels really good after I overcome it. For O Sol Mio, do you have the CD? I think in the CD, when it gets to the Arpeggiaged chord, which is within the "ritardando" section, it goes really slow. It doesn't have to be at full count. Maybe you can do it slow the way the song is meant to play, not 1,2,3,4 at full count/tempo? Scarborough Fair, One of my fav. I can't wait to get there. I like your retire idea. Maybe I'll do it when I face a tough one; haven't yet but I'm sure it'll happen LOL... I think it'll be the Entertainer.

Physics,
Isn't it nice getting it under your hands? I think the song took me about a week. You're doing much better. A teacher always help. If you can afford one, you definitely should.

Karen,
I also really like your Signature & Glad you decided to join. I find it very motivating to read and lurk around. Now that I have joined in the conv., I kind of feel some pressure that I have to practice more just to keep up with everyone LOL. I agree with mom3gram, you're the first not intimidated by BTMD. That one gives everyone else issues. Now the D7, the bright side of after mastering the D7 chord is, the next time you come across chords or Notes with a #, it's easier since you're familiar with it already. Is your impatience kicking because of this thread? LOL... It's cute the way you're saying it though.

gintarec,
Great progress! The songs after that one will sound much better. You'll enjoy them. They are tougher to nail though.

Gabe,
Great, I like those Blue songs too. I didn't like them at first cuz they sound weird, but after I got them down, they sound better. It's strange. Looking forward to your posts. My PC doens't have speakers so I can't promise I'll get to hear them but I'll try my Brother's.

Wow, I spent so much time writing to all of you, now I don't have time to write about me. It feels great seeing everyone enjoying. Wish me luck with “O Sol Mio!” tonight. I'm almost there.

Good day.

Emissary,
I missed your post. When I started mine, yours hasn't popped up yet. You must have tons of patience going through all that 96 pages. I went through them too, on the bus & subway on my way to and from work. I skipped a lot somewhere in the middle though. Too many to squeeze in between work, home & piano. My patience also fails me.

Anway, WELCOME! Have fun with that BTMD

Thanks Nguyen for the encouragement! I like your philosophy about not rushing through everything. I have a tendency to do just that. I'm slowly getting better at Blow the Man Down. I'm sure by the end of the week, I'll be a happier BTMD person. I don't have a teacher at the moment, but I may get one after I finish Book 1.

Do all of you out there have a piece you were just dying to play when you began Alfred 1? BTMD, with it's nautical theme, led me to this... which I'd love to play as well as the guy in the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxpvDjDOgsQ

I'd be happy to have Celine Dion lend some vocals too!

Hmmm, just curious how many are spending as much time here as on the piano? I would say that I may be one.

I've spent a good amount of time here on the forums since I've first discovered it. This site has become one of the routine sites to check if I'm ever on the internet, which is quite often. lol.


I just got to Blow The Man Down and I have to say the difficulty jumped a bit from the other pieces before it, but I managed to play it up to speed with PianoNoobAlex's video. Just have to give me a couple tries before I do though. lol. Will be looking forward to The Entertainer when I get there.


By chance anyone learning any other pieces external from the book on the side?

Oh and welcome newcomers. It was the same for me. Casually read all if not most of the posts and here I am, contributing to the cause. lol

I think I'm not intimidated by BTMD because I haven't tried to play it properly yet -- I probably just have no idea what I'm really in for. You know, "ignorance is bliss" and all that.

In fact, I may never even get to it. I still have to get used to the middle C position and work out "Good Morning to You" without using the wrong thumb at the wrong time. At the rate I'm going, I might be stuck on this for the rest of my life.

gabeh98, I may be two.

Well, I had my second lesson last night. It was great!!!! I played the pieces from G position to 'Why am I blue', which I am still working on, and I got pass on all of them, apart that my legato in lullaby wasn't perfect, so I am to work on this one for a bit longer. I don't mind, as I really love it. (I think there was something else I am supposed to keep working on, but I can't remember!!!! I have a mark in the book though, so will check tonight)

We started off the lesson at an acoustic piano, and I couldn't play it!!!! It was sounding so weird! It was a Kemble, and I really didn't like the sound of it. Good thing she also had Yamaha digital one, so we moved to that one after few minutes and from there it all went very well. Also, the digitla piano is set to quite loud volume level, and it is throwing me off a bit, as I am not a 'loud music type person', but I will get used to that. At least it sounds more like my piano... (which is... Yamaha digital!)

I asked for some Christmas tunes, so I should be getting them in my next lesson.

Well, I have just ordered book No2. I know, I won't need it for a long while, but as I need to place and order online for some manuscript (for the lessons), adding the book as well meant free delivery!

fanatik, I've pretty much learned the first piece," Bach's Minuet", from "My First Book of Classical Music". Simplified arrangements, but quite challenging if you are in Alfred 1. Inexpensive book, only $6.00 in Canada.

Yeah, Good Morning to You is slightly deceiving because it *looks* trivial but I found two tricky bits... using the correct thumb is one, and the other is the last few measures where you play a series of notes legato connected from left hand to right hand and back to left and the hand that isn't playing the legato has to play normally. Overall it's not a terrible song but it tricks you because it looks so simple. I had to just play SLOW and speed it up over time...

Yes, aswell as this book one, I ordered up a few from Amazon.

My first book of Classical music
My first book of Beethoven
Alfred Show Tunes (the one they suggest in Book 1, when you get to a certain page).

Having a few others books is a good idea. Sometimes you hit a wall in one, and you can take a break by picking a piece from one of the other books.

I'm still on the Can Can.. but I've moved to the classical book for the last couple of days. I've almost perfected Handel - Sarabande from the other book

Is this Alfred series highly recommended? I am about 3/4 of the way through Book One. I must say that there are many other songs and pieces I'd rather be learning but I'm afraid I might get off-track by learning totally on my own without some kind of structure. Are there other books that are recommended other than Alfred? Is Alfred the best series out there?

Thank you.

Rob