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I played the first few bars of "Entertainer" this morning. The second half looks a little more complicated. The hard part, I think, will be all hand moving, but it's a piece that will sound good slow, so that's an advantage, since I will be playing it VERY slow. LOL

bold, hope you feel better soon and resume regular practice. Any song playing at designated tempo is difficult to read and count. You may want to read and count at a pace you’re comfortable with. After many repetitions, our hands automatically memorize their moves and play the song our brain knows how it should go. At this point, you want to increase tempo gradually to polish it. To my limited experience, fast polished pieces like the few Blue songs in this book are a bit fast for our eyes and count to keep up with. For slower, simpler pieces, I push myself to count and read (not always successful) all the way. That’s how I think the Method is trying to teach us. Hopefully we have more advanced, experienced players here chiming in on this.

I read a brilliant post the other day about this subject and thought I would share it. I can’t remember details for it’s technically and medically compiled, but the general message is something like this. Part of our brain is responsible for certain functions of activities by memorization etc... For instance, walking; we learnt how to walk when we were little. Once we master it, we walk from one point to the next automatically when our brain and eyes want to, without thinking. It goes on and states that Music practices are the same. We practice a piece many times, then when we rest, our brain processes all that and eventually have our hands memorized. When we go back and practice later, it’s smoother and more refined than before without us even thinking etc… That’s why, it’s strange sometimes we struggle with a piece mightily, but when we go to bed and come back the next day or a few days later, it suddenly clicks. Is this credible enough to believe? I don’t know because I’m not an expert on these subjects. But it’s very convincing because I had these experiences with “BtMD, Why Am I Blue, and now He’s Got etc…”

Or I can make copies of the pieces you want to go along with us and email them to you when I'm in the office tomorrow (I'm working from home today) with one condition, you promise to post here regularly, or least once a week.

gintarec, you always have something cute to say. I always smile reading your progresses and these cute, silly, little remarks.

Yikes... Yesterday was messy here too, snowing and sleeting. Glad you're ok.

Knights, I have heard Bastien is very good too. The one you have on Amazon is right but without CD. If you like a CD to go along with it, search for one with CD. Getting CD seperately is also an option but cost a bit more than combo. If you can't find it on Amazon, visit Alfred directly and order from one of their dealers.
http://alfred.com/Products/ProductL...0in%20one%20course&v=TitleForSorting

Best.

mom3gram, very glad you like it, no matter how slow. I love this piece. We will have a blast learning it together.

Thanks mom3gram and Nguyen. I'll look into the one with the CD and order it.

I am sorry to hear about your accident!!! Good thing you are ok, though!!!! I hope insurance and police will sort out everything soon.

There are several conversations going this week that I find very interesting to me personally.
Bolt started a Nyguen discussion on sight reading versus memory was some of the same conflicts I am struggling with. Am I watching the page or going from memory? Do I concentrate on reading or playing? Is this practice or playing? Is that a # sign or a knock at the door? Ha! It is so easy to lose focus. That discussion was a thought provoking point.

Another discussion, regarding one week per song…. or words to that effect. I am hitting a brick wall with Beautiful Brown Eyes. It is the broken chords in the left hand. I am two weeks into that same point in progress and not getting to a polish. It is frustrating to have my progress slowed down, but I think it is vital to not skip learning points. I took in counting and pedaling like a duck takes to water. But left hand integrating with right hand is currently a nightmare. So one week per song is out the window for me. Some of the other stuff is still on a fast pace. But a same steady pace is not a universal for me.
That is pretty much where I am at this week. I am trying to polish several songs using both hands in a coordinated manner. I am on the pages between Beautiful Brown Eyes and Hanon. I am just short of starting Hanon. My teacher asked me to not work ahead because she wants me to start Hanon correctly. She wants us to do that together. So I hope to commence that Hanon over the Christmas break – when I can increase my practice time.

Another forum discussion went right over my head. So gintarec was talking about exams and grades. But I don’t even know what those are. I have maybe heard the terms before, not sure. It sounded special, but what is it? Sorry for my ignorance.

Lastly, there are several persons attempting Alfred’s without teacher, self learned. I do think this can be a highly successful venture. I have done similar journeys on other instruments. But I have found the teacher lead learning experience to be surprisingly instructive. I have made several conceptual and/or technical errors in my learning that my teacher has been able to unmask and help me correct. That is very reassuring to me. Validation is quite under rated I think. Plus I think I am getting more music theory than I ever did alone. Still, I won’t naysay self directed learning. I do think self driected learning does work with great reward. I offer my encouragement to those persons learning in that mode.

Yes, I am going to take exam in spring time. There are few different board in UK that you can take piano exams (which include playing scales, some selected pieces, some sight reading and an aural test, which I have no idea about at this time). My teacher uses London college of Music for exams, and I think these are the ones I am going to take. It doesn't have to be done, I just want to set myself a bit of a challenge and test myself. I think it will be good for me. So, LCM (London college of Music) does Step 1, Step 2 exams/tests which are easier ones, sort of introduction in all the examinations of music, as I understand, and then go grade 1 to grade 8. I don't think I will ever reach grade 8, but I want to see how far I can get! And at the same time I get some certificates to hang on the walls of my 'music room'. That is, if I pass the exams!

As far as Beautiful Brown Eyes go, I didn't like that song. I did it at the time, but I did go back to it today (just playing a bit through the book) and I couldn't play at once, and couldn't be bothered to put any effort to get it right. I think we all gets some songs in the book that we are not keen on, and this was one of mine. I agree with not skipping songs, but I know I haven't got it to the perfect polished state - it was ok, but I couldn't stand it anymore.

Nguyen, I don't count when I read or play. I am not finding that any of the rhythms in this book require me to do that. It could maybe be because I have been a musician for so long although not on piano. There was a piece I worked on from the other book in my sig that requried me to count, I think that is the only one. But even on that other piece I could not really go 1 2 3 4 in my head as I played it. I had to do stuff like tap my foot and think about notes on the upbeat of my foot-tapping.

For this blues piece I really think my problem is just that every time I go through it some of the changes are a surprise. I just need to do it more times I think.

Captain Zero, I have been thinking more about that reading versus memory thing too. I am starting to think that as we work on a piece we start by memorizing short patterns. Then when we become more experienced with the piece we are doing a combination of sight-cuing the short memorized patterns combined with actual real-time sight reading. Because we have memorized the short little bits and can now cue them that lets us be able to sight read at speed even before we have memorized the entire piece. As I get better at a piece sometimes my eyes dart ahead to cue up the next little pattern.

A couple of people mentioned Beautiful Brown Eyes. If I go back in my book I can see that I wrote "hard" in my book in pencil on that piece. What threw me off was the repeated C note in the third meaure right hand combined with the broken chords of the LH. Doing hands separate work really helped me on this one.

YES! Although *overall* I didn't find BBE to be as hard as some others, that repeated C note drives me nuts even to this day.

My brain wants me to hit that C once and just hold it for 6 beats. Having to hit once for 1 beat and then a second time for 5 beats just bends my brain in funny directions for some reason.

Captain, you have a couple of excellent points. I forget to mention that I’ve also read a few discussions in the Teacher Forum and every teacher stresses that, whether playing by memory or sight reading, one should never look at his/her hands. To make long discussions short, it’s ok, they say, to glance when we have to change hand positions but looking at hands when play by memory is a big NO. Our eyes should always follow along the score as we play. An advanced pianist always read ahead of what he/she is playing. Now, please don’t quote me on this. These are others’ advises I’d like to share with all of us.


I hear you. My goal used to be one piece per week early on, but it’s a lousy goal. I’ve learnt as long as we learn something and most importantly have fun practicing, how long it clicks is really irrelevant. I definitely think Hanon is very beneficial. “Amazing Grace”, I think, will test our 4th and 5th fingers to their limits.


In my opinion, and please correct me if I’m wrong, you can take exams at universities or musical institutions offering these. These exams are like school exams, to test and certify students of their music knowledge/skills etc… at various skill levels (Beginner/Elementary, Intermediate, Advance etc…). We can call ourselves a Level 6 or 7 Pianist, but without these exams and a certificate in hand, it’s not official; not to mention who’s going to believe us.


I do agree with you. Learning with a teacher is best. I’m sure some of us, with beyond belief commitment, can learn how to read and write on our own; but who can say that’s better than attending schools. I’m glad my parents put me through schools because I wouldn’t want to take that chance. For the time being though, I treat my piano journey as a hobby rather than a serious skill I want to extensively invest in. When I had my son last year, I thought my world has stopped and it has become his. So I started researching and studying children stuff to get myself ready for when he starts school. Then I started self-learning piano and music and naïve enough to think that I’ll teach him when he’s aged. Well, the more I do it, the more it’s become for me now, not him anymore. Also, the more I get into it, the more apparent it has become that home music teaching isn’t an option for him anymore. Am I crazy thinking my son will grow up interested in learning music? LOL. No. I just like to be ready. If he likes it, he’ll get a teacher. Hopefully by then, if I am still in it, I’m able to oversee his early stages.

Cheers.

Wow, we have a lot of enthused regulars here. I love this as much as practicing LOL… Anyway, bolt, I don’t think everyone counts. I think some of us can figure it out without counting, like you, tapping or clapping. Some teachers, I have learnt through these discussions, are ok for students not to count if we can keep a steady pace and play a song the way it suppose to goes.

As for me, because I don’t have a teacher, I do everything the Book suggests. On page 20, on the right of “PLAYING ON THE GRAND STAFF”, it states: “The following practice procedure is recommended for the rest of the pieces in this book: Clap (tap) & count. Play & count. Play & sing the words, if any.” This same recommendation is on page 12 of the Basic Book. Without a teacher, I can’t take any chances because there will be no one correcting me if I mess up. That’s not to say I haven’t messed up a lot already. LOL…

that would be great and very nice of you!! I'll promise to keep posting here as I think I it's a good motivator as well! I paid twice the price for the Hal Leonard books when compared to the amazon prices, so I don't feel like buying anymore books for a while heh. you can see my email in my profile

Hey guys, haven't posted here in a few weeks, but I'm still going strong, with the help of my teacher. Taking lessons is great fun, but it's such a downer coming back to my own piano. I have a Yamaha Arius YDP140, which while not horrible, is a long way from the Grand Piano that I use during lessons. The key action just isn't the same, I can't do dynamics nearly as well as on the grand and the sound is a bit muffled. I'm looking into upgrading already and if I can get a decent price for my current piano, I'll probably do it. Just not sure what to upgrade to so that I don't face the same concerns again in a few months.

I'll scan and send it to you later when I have some down time.

In the meantime, I have a quick question about "Scarborough Fair". “2nd time 8va” is written above the Treble clef but not the Bass clef. I have been treating it as 8va for the entire Grand Staff and play both hands 8va. But recently, I am starting to have doubts. Does 8va apply only to the Clef that it’s written on top of? For example, “Scarborough Fair”, do we play 2nd time only RH 8va? I have been playing 2nd time both hands 8va.

I believe it applies to the staff below only (2nd time only RH 8va on staff below) , unless it states that you should move both hands.

You've got mail. I forget. The higher the file name numbers the later the songs are in the Book.


Thanks. Without a teacher, guidance like this is very much appreciated.