Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and All in One Adult Piano Course Book #2

mom3gram, My teacher really stressed the dynamics in Overture, too - she suggested I add a bit of a crescendo/decrescendo (if that's the right term for it) in the 3rd & 4th bars, as well as the one further on that's marked in the book. I love this piece.

Hi everyone,
I started Alfred Adult Book 1 last April and have just graduated (it takes me 10 months). I’ve just started the first piece of Book 2 “Down in the Valley” this week. Sooner or later, I’m going to have to introduce myself here, so here I am, hope to get to know all of you in Book 2. It was a wonderful experience through Book 1 thread the last few months since I joined PW. I have lurked around this thread quite often too, and it will be just as great I’m sure. Hope everyone is doing well.

Best,
Nguyen

Welcome!

Hi, Nguyen! Glad to see you made it here. :-)

Welcome Nguyen. Glad you can join us....

jrcallan, mom3gram and wj3, thank you. I'm glad to be as well.

Congrats Nguyen, nice to see you here!

Thanks BazC. Nice to finally be able to follow you here too.

I'm working on Hava Nagila. It's a fun piece, though I don't know what to do about the page turn. I've also been having trouble finding time and energy to practice, as I just moved into a new apartment and have been unpacking boxes and installing shelves and what-not. It should get better soon, though. I'm looking forward to the next few songs!

I started "Light and Blue" today - RH only.

It's snowing again, after a bit of sleeting earlier. It's coming down pretty hard. I had an appointment with H&R Block to do my taxes. I'm a real weenie about driving in snow, even more so after my accident in December, so I cancelled. Today was also supposed to be my first day of the new session of aquajogging at the YMCA. So now I have nowhere to go and lots of time for practicing. :-)

Working on the Divertimento. Had to set Alfred's aside for a few weeks while I get my recital piece done.

Hey, AW2PP, great job on your recital piece! I really like that Sonatina, and have put it on my list of things to do in the future. I hope when that time comes that I can play it as well as you.

I also am a new comer to this book 2. So it will be interesting to see how we all progress. I have a tendency to move faster than I should (no teacher), so maybe this environment will keep me under control a little.

Looking forward to the journey.

Welcome dmd. I also tend to move to fast but I've finally decided that its not a race and to enjoy the journey.

Thanks, mom3gram! I may have mentioned this on the blog, but of the three movements, I found the first most difficult, third easiest. Not sure if if that's because I improved during the three months it took to learn them all, or if that's really the intent. A couple of the comments on the Recital 17 thread suggest that it sounded fun to play... it was! Moreso than perhaps anything else I have learned since... The Entertainer?

Unfortunately, I am on the road this week, meaning I am making no progress on Alfred's... or anything else, for that matter. How come no hotels have pianos anymore?

Hi all, I just started in book 2 and I'm up to Guantanamera now. What an abonimable piece of monkey doodoo. I'm really dissapointed with the song selection in book 2, I don't think I'll be doing all of the songs. I have Carol Barratt's: The Classic Piano Course book 2 to go along with it and I think I'll find myself spending more time in that book. Still, I always hate the idea of skipping songs, so I will probably just grind my teeth a bit every now and then.

I consider the Alfred's coursework as just a means of gaining skills. The pieces I play in there may never be played again by me. I am trying to bite-the-bullet and just keep working on them until I can play them. I used to do a lot of skipping around and I find that I then "avoid" the pieces that probably are the ones I should be working on because they are the ones that will help me gain the skills I need.
I have to keep telling myself ... This is not a race, just keep going, steady as she goes. That is how you get better.

I used the same thought process. I call it paying your dues. Each book does have a few keepers.

Hang in there...

Haha I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates Guantanamera! Thankfully I nearly have it beaten, in a week or so I should be able to kiss it goodbye forever!

I don't try to polish the tunes I don't like (and there aren't actually that many I hate!) but I do try to get them to a state where they flow reasonably well. The ones I like I'll take a little further, then there's the gems like the Entertainer that I try and play really well.

When I come to a stinker like Guantanamera I'll work on supplementary tunes that I like from other sources and maybe move on in Alfred to more enjoyable tunes but keep nibbling away at the tricky one.

For instance when working on Guantanamera I also worked on Theme from the Overture, Light and Blue and Hungarian Rhapsody. All of which I quite enjoy playing. I should finish all four at about the same time.

Next will come Morning has Broken and Alexander's Ragtime Band neither of which I'm bothered about playing but they're followed by Solace which I'm REALLY looking forward to.

Looking at it that way I try to keep my interest going through the duller tunes!

That is a very good strategy. I think most of us employ similar strategies. You have to in order to deal with this mentally (LOL).

The payoff comes when you can move on with the satisfaction that you have conquered a tune you thought was "too hard". Now you know that perseverance actually works.