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

Oy....I posted pictures (or at least I think I did) over at the piano forum under the thread "Piano Gift". How do you put your photos on your message????

Anyway, hope you can see my photos.

I practiced for 3 hours yesterday...dividing time between my piano and keyboard! Next is doing my recordings...have my little music room all set up now!

Happy 4th!!

Nancy

That's a great idea GracieCat! How do you keep it from moving when you play?

I don't think it would work for us because the floors are hardwood and there still wouldn't be enough room for both the pool table and a piano but the room would be perfect for a baby grand someday......

I can picture it there already but it will be a long time since the pool table was my idea and I don't play it very often any more.

Nancy, I just took a peek at the photos of your new piano. It is gorgeous! It looks immaculate, somebody took good care of it and you are very luck to be the recipient of it. Happy playing!!

Happy Fourth to everyone in the USA.

Nancy I'm drooling over that piano! You're probably playing it right now.

Doug, it's on carpet and take a good bit of might to move the thing. You can easily lean against it and it won't move. One day you just might want to sell it and use the money toward a piano. I'm only keeping mine because I'm sure my boys will enjoy playing when they get a bit older.

I've got Greensleeves down with the 1-3-5-3-5-3 pattern on the left hand. (I play the bass notes down one octave.) I couldn't hardly do it at first, but I just kept plugging along. Now I don't really have to think about the left hand. The first beat of every measure starts with your pinky. I'll record it in a day or two. It won't be error free though. Thanks for the idea. It was a learning experience.

I'm still working on it. Practice has been a little broken up over the past few days. Lots of things going on right now. We helped our son move back to NY from Connecticut and have our grand daughter here from Colorado.

I had to write it out with notation software so I could see it. I'm looking forward to hearing your recording of it. That will be a great skill to have mastered because it will be used often. I think there are a lot of pieces you could use that with that have simple melodies. You might be able to try it with Silent Night (the chords are probably different).

Doug - Speaking of notation software, it wouldn't be by any chance, PrintMusic? I've been thinking of getting something along those lines where I could input,scan and transpose stuff. Trying to transpose by hand, with blank sheet music takes too much time!

Nancy - Congrats on that new piano! Since you live in such a rural area, if I were you, I'd check my shoes, since you definitely must have "stepped in something!" LOL! I'm so J!!!

Gracie - This week, I bought a Fender Passport 150 PA system and some microphones to set up my "Concert for 1" series. Since I can't currently play and sing at the same time, I'm looking into recorder-mixers, so I can play piano on one track (carefully edit the mistakes out!) and then lay down a vocal track! Playing piano leaves me with very little brainpower leftover to devote to singing at this point, so it might be a reasonable solution! Thank God for technology! LOL! I'm sure by the time I can do both, Alzheimer's will be kicking in, with my luck! Now, all I have to do is come up with a winning Powerball or MegaMillions ticket to buy that Steinway and build that recording studio addition. Greensleeves with that flattened first F# (or the "Gracie version" as it's known to astute music critics) will be on the first album! Well, it's nice to dream ...or hallucinate, as the case may be!

To all the new folks that have joined in the last few days, a big welcome!!!

-Craig

The software is MuseScore. It's open source so it's free and is pretty good. You can't scan into it yet but it's great for writing out scores.

Thanks Doug! You've just given me something to "play with" until the wee hours!

Nancymae, that piano is gorgeous! They've kept it in great condition, too! Congratulations!

Aimee

I recorded Greensleeves breaking the lefthand chords up like Doug suggested (1-3-5-3-5) and not sharping the F as Emissary liked. I also played the bass notes down one octave as someone else suggested. My version isn't error free but I'm moving on. I wasn't able to play the bass notes any softer as it took too much concentration as it was. Variation of Greensleeves (The popping you hear in the background is my husband and the boys firing off rockets.)

Good job Graciecat. When I was in this book last year, I experimented with a 1-3-5 & 135-3-5 as well. Changed the ending up a bit also. Giving the left hand more independence will prove useful in the future.
Here was my version.
CarlMc

Greensleeves

Very nice Strings & Wood. Thanks for sharing! That's much more musical. Now I'm interested again. I'll practice it with a mixture of my left hand and yours to see what I can come up with. Then I'll spruce up my ending too. I'll end up with a song that combines 5 peoples ideas. Too cool. Thanks for the idea!

(When I was playing my version I felt like I was running a race in the left hand and falling asleep with the right. )

I'll repost my recording as soon as it's done.

Nice job GracieCat! I'm still working on it but almost have it down. The rockets in the background suggest that you need to work on The Star Spangled Banner too!

I like your version too Carl. It has a very nice rolling feel to it. I kind of wish my teacher had suggested that style vs the way he has me playing it. It sounds better matched.

I've been playing the bonus materials in the AIO book and believe for "At Last," the last chord on the treble cleff should be a C-E-G, not B-E-G as printed (whatever that horrid sounding combo is).

Can anyone verify?

Which song beasleylou?

"At Last" Sorry, I wasn't clear, I have edited the post.

That piece is in the self teaching AIO Book for those who are wondering.

I don't have my book with me right now but I'll check it when I get home.

(p185) Self teaching book.

That last chord in the right does sound awful. B-E-G in the right and octave C's in the left. (With a fermata over both hands as well.) I haven't ever played that song though. Anyone else?

I gather there are different versions of this series? I've tinkered with it some more and am positive the last chord should be a C.

It's worth the time to learn "At Last" and "Somewhere over the Rainbow" if you have them. These two are my favorites in the book thus far.

GracieCat and Strings & Wood - Both of your versions sound better than the book and you've gotten a "free Christmas Carol" out of the process as well!

beasleylou - I have the plain-jane Alfred's Adult book and don't have that song, but it seems rather odd that they would be employing what would appear to be a Cmaj7 chord in any piece at this stage of the game.

Does it sound like this?

http://www.8notes.com/piano_chord_chart/cmaj7.asp

I wonder if it's a misprint and you should be doing C-E-G instead?