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, DougF! Good luck with your lessons and your 2 Alfred books. I think you are going to like this course.

Although I took lessons, I also did so in a bit of a haphazard way. I had an unrealistic goal of being a church organist in a short time frame (I thought 6 months), coming from a background of being a good singer -- but not playing any instruments and not being able to sight read. I started at age 44.

I started out with the book "Adult Piano Beginners Course" from Hal Leonard, which was available from Borders. I think there are a lot of good things in this book, but I think it also caused me issues that it took me a while to break. It shows the letter of the note on the note and things like that. I had real trouble moving to other music, and not knowing what the notes were immediately.

I went back later and picked up Alfred's Self-Teaching Adult Piano Course. Which I think is likely very much like the AIO that you are talking about. I spent several many working on it ... and I think it really helped me a lot. In fact, I still play from it. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is probably the song I have played the most of any song (very pretty arrangement). The arrangement of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" is also very nice and not overly brutal to learn (in my opinion).

I think the approach taken in the Alfred book was more realistic. I think the Hal Leonard book got quite challenging very early. It's maybe a good book for someone who played as a child and then dropped piano. But I think coming in cold as an adult ... Alfred's was a better way to go.

Having said all that, my advice is to just keep playing, as close to daily as you can. Things started coming together for me after four years, in which I played somewhat spottily (not every day). I think just keeping go with it, regardless of whether you see the light at the end of the tunnel, is what will result in success. Perhaps by osmosis.

Things just stop being so mysterious and frustrating eventually, you get to the point where you see the note -- you know what it is, you know where to put your finger, you know how to move to the next note and what the interval is, etc.

At least, that was my experience.

-Jay

PS: I am still not a Church organist. I am much closer to it than I was when I started though.

The other advice I would give is to work on your rhythm independent of playing the piano. Just looking at a piece and counting it (without playing it). One, two and a three, four. One and, two, three, four and ... (whatever it is).

It is truly amazing to struggle with something one day and think I'll never get this right and the next day sit down and play right through it like you've played it for weeks. That's one of the most interesting and motivating aspects of this adventure. I was impatient in previous attempts and gave up too early when something got difficult but now that I am older and wiser I can see that if I persevere and practice daily I will make progress. Progress is progress, no matter how small.

On another note (pun intended), what's everyone's plans for the holidays? Will you have a chance to torture your family or friends? I have been perfecting a version of Silent Night with (built in) accompaniment that I hope to be able to wow my family with. I also have a less impressive version of Jingle Bells that I may attempt if I can get enough Eggnog down first :-)

Right now I am trying to cram in some practice time before my son and his girlfriend arrive from Connecticut and my other son and his dog arrive later.

Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for the warm welcome.

Hi Doug, glad you are joining us too. I don't have any advice or bits of wisdom to share.

I also liked reading back to see how people progressed through the book. I'm only on page 59, as I've been working through some other books at the same time.

I'm 40 and really enjoying learning the piano now. I'll be without a piano for a week while we go back home to visit. I'm taking some piano flash cards to keep me learning something while I'm gone.

Doug, Welcome. If you have the patience to read this entire thread, you have what it takes to complete the course. Best wishes.

Jay, Thanks for all the tips. I’m sure some or all will find it helpful.

Gracie, have a safe and enjoyable trip visiting family.

Mom3gram, how’s your car?

Happy Holiday all.

Forgot to mention that my son's girlfriend is a VERY GOOD piano player. They will be staying with us until Tuesday. It will be like having a live in teacher for 5 days. I plan on taking advantage of it. I'm hoping she can give me some tips on overcoming some of my current difficulties.

Hi Doug, and welcome to the Alfred Threads. I'm making it plural to encourage you to follow and participate in the #2 and #3 threads too, as you will not have to "catch up on your reading" when your playing catches up to those threads.

One other tip I might offer, and you should consider this comes from a wizzened veteran of a whopping 7 months, has to do with practicing. This relates to how you find it amazing when suddenly the impossible is revealed as doable. When I am up against a hard spot in a piece, or just getting frustrated from making mistakes I know I shouldn't make, I find that slowing down and playing some part, even a small portion of it perfectly, followed by completely stopping right there for the night, works wonders. Time after time when I do this the next day the pieces begin to come together. This works even better if you try to play it in your head once or twice before bedtime.

Welcome to the forums and Happy Holidays to everyone.

Edited to add P.S> I too will be looking for my first teacher after the Holidays.

Wow! Our thread got pushed all the way down to page 2. LOL
Did you notice how many new players started this week, and that many of them were advised to buy the Alfred Adult All-in-One series?

I haven't played much in the last few days, spending Christmas with my single son, and the day after with another son and his family. We had a little "sing along" with my granddaughter playing - mostly by ear - any Christmas song we could think of. I don't know how she does that! I played for them at Thanksgiving, but I let her be the star yesterday.

I can now play "Entertainer" and "Amazing Grace" note perfect at least most of the time, but still very slow and not so musical. They are getting there. And yesterday I began reviewing my Book 1. Yes, I'm still able to play BTMD. :-) I'm sure that there will be a few pieces in the later pages that will trip me up, and I will bring them up to speed as best I can. I've already found things that I didn't understand in prior pages that are clear as a bell now. All those chords that confused the heck out of me are so simple now. I'm going to pick out about 5 or 6 pieces from Book 1 to keep in my "repertoire", and sometime in the first week or two of January I will move on to Book 2.

Merry Christmas everyone!!! (Ok, I am a bit late with the greetings) And a happy, wonderful, musical New Year!

Welcome to new members!

mom3gram - great news on your progress! It sounds great to start New Year with the new book!

My 'He's got...' is coming along ok, I can play it without mistakes time from time now and keep up the time. 'Entertainer' is very slow if I play both hands, and I haven't even tried to add left hand. So, I will be struggling with this for a while. I have some guests coming on Wednesday for a week, and I guess I will have no time to play piano then apart from a few stolen minutes...

I've started my exam preparation material, which involves playing some scales, doing some exercises and then choosing 4 pieces from 2 lists (2 from each) to play. I have chosen one of them (Clementine), and possible second one, bot still 2 to choose!

I've reached the end of Book 1, and while I continue to "perfect" "Entertainer" and "Amazing Grace", I've started reviewing the rest of the book. I was cruising along quite well, only hitting a slight snag where I had to play a song two or three times to get it right. Then I hit "Good People" and "Little Brown Jug". It was like I had never seen them before. Okay, I knew that I had not left "Good People" on good terms, but I had gotten pretty good at LBJ. So my task for today is to keep practicing "Entertainer" and "Amazing" and to work "Good People" and LBJ back up into decent shape. I am really hoping to start Book 2 on January 1 without any significant holes in my Book 1 knowledge.

Congrats mom3gram, sounds like you are ready for book 2...this thread is sure going to miss you!

Mark...

Ordered the Alfred's Adult All-in-one Level 1 book today. Should be here next week!
I took a Group Piano class about 2 years ago that used another Alfred book designed for Group instruction. So I imagine some of book 1 will be review, but I'm due for a refresher course anyway.

I think it will be a lot of fun to have a community of people who are working on the same material as me. I really look forward to it.

Well done mom3gram. Look forward to seeing you in the Book 2 thread.

Jim

Congratulations Mom3gram. You did it.

Welcome PJG. You've made the right choice. Best wishes with this Book.

Yes, at long last, I did it! I wouldn't have made it through without this thread. A little more reviewing and I will be ready for Book 2. I thought New Years day would be a great time to start it.

How is your review going?

I am very happy for you.

I haven’t been good lately. I didn’t begin my Review yet. Amazing Grace isn’t going anywhere. I practice it just a few times this past week or so. I don’t think I’ll practice much for the rest of the year. It’s a short work week. We’ll ring in the New Year at my sisters. Then I figure I’ll spend New Year weekend with my folks. I guess I won’t be able to refocus until next year, starting next Monday. Maybe around end of January I'll wrap up this book and my Review. Hope I won’t slack off anymore than I already have. LOL.

Nice to see everyone's progress here. I'm working on Little Brown Jug and Chiapanecas myself. The first one is going okay, but Chiapanecas needs some work still.

On an unrelated note, I just found out that my school offers a minor in Classic Western Music which includes a course in Music Theory. I'm extremely tempted, though I will have to read up on it some more first to see if I can fit it into my schedule and if the other courses are interesting.

I'm not working Alfred's as much as I'd planned, but there is good reason. Firstly, our pianist at church is marrying and moving away in Feb., so I'm trying to get ready to either replace him or fill in until someone with greater skills steps up. i have him on cd(copies of services we record), about a dozen+ songs that I'm listening to and learning. I also, thanks to what I've learned in Alfred's about reading music, worked out "The Lily of the Valley", from the hymnal, which I played Sunday morning along with "Keep on the Fiing Line", to fill in since he is gone to visit his parents in W.Va. until after the holidays. I am going to have to work up a couple more before Wednesday evening.s service, so I'm keeping quite busy with music, a lot of which I could not have done without Alfred's. I had to transpose "Lily of the Valley" from F to G, since we have guitar players who are uncomfortable playing in anything but G, C, or D. I am working on "Trust and Obey", but I doubt I'll have it ready by wednesday. It will be nescessary to transpose that as well.

Hi all, I had a cool thing happen on Christmas Day. I'd had Silent Night stuck in my head for a few hours and then after dinner and after a beer I went and sat down at my keyboard to see if I could figure it out by ear.

And guess what, the Alfred's Book 1 three chord method worked like a charm and there it was, Silent Night by ear, not much trouble at all, same I, V7 and 2nd inversion IV chords as the book has drummed into us, and waltz time too.

So I am really impressed by the applicability of the Alfred's method to teach that ability so well in a short time.

Congratulations mom3gram, reading about your journey through Book 1 has been a great inspiration for me. Don't forget to come back here and tell us how you are doing in Book 2!

Welcome PJG.

I didn't get much practice in while our company was here. I had to keep sneaking away to get any time in at all so now that they are gone I can get back to work. We have more company coming on Thursday but they will only be here until Friday.

My wonderful wife made an inquiry at a local music store and ended up giving me 4 lessons for a Christmas gift. I don't know if she is throwing her full support behind me or trying to tell me something!

I am still working on Alpine Melody. I can do it pretty good at a real sloooowwww tempo. I have Beautiful Brown Eyes down good enough to move forward a bit but will still need to go back to polish it up a bit.

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!!