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

Uh dunno if this is overkill or not, but I'm already on pg80 and its my first day of playing piano. I've played electric guitar for 3 years and I know about grade 1 theory. Should I slow down, cause everything seems pretty easy, maybe its a really well set out book?

I'm a little upset though since I just spent $25 on this book and looks like I'll be done with it before the end of the week. I have no more money to buy more books, since I just blew it all on the piano.

Anybody know any free lessons I can practice for about 2 weeks, till I can afford the next volume. Does the next volume have more classical pieces in it? Folk music isn't really my bag, but guess you have to start somewhere.

Love this forum (free advice)
Cheers

Speedstar - I'd check out the local library for more music material. Also, if you have a college or university nearby, that might be another possibility. Some web sites have limited selections of classical music too! What are your musical interests?

You sure live up to your name, eh?

Anyway, check the sticky here in the ABF. Lot's of free sheet music collected there.

Speedstar, if you haven't ever played the piano before, I highly doubt you'll make it to the end of the book as quick as you think. I use to play a woodwind instrument, and will agree that the basic theory in Alfred's #1 is basic/simple. (However chords were strange to me as I could only play one note at a time before.) Many who have played other instruments will fly through the first 3rd of the book.

I think the challenge comes with putting both hands together when they start doing something more than a blocked chord in the left, while watching the dynamics, using good fingering and introducing the pedal at the same time. Maybe playing the guitar taught you the hand independence you need.

I do agree that I don't really like the music in Alfred's. It's not my type of stuff, but each song is teaching a certain aspect of playing. The book progresses pretty steadily and is giving us a good foundation that we'll need to progress to harder music of our own choosing. I'd recommend finding some supplemental music that you do like to work through as you go. I have some links to free sheet music on-line that is separated by level. Let me know what you like and I'll look through my links.

I wouldn't recommend flying through the book. You'll know most if not all the theory, but it's the practice you put in that will help you as the music gets harder. For me the hardest part is using the correct fingering and having the song flow nicely.

I know you'll do great. You wouldn't be up to page 80 if you didn't have a handle on what you're doing. Glad you're joining us!

Here you go Speedstar. Hopefully you'll find something in there you'd like.

Link #1

Link #2

Link #3

Link #4

Link #5

Link to preview showing what's in Alfred's All In One book #2 Scroll down on the right side and you can see most of the book.

I'm up to "The Entertainer" now. Very pleased to reach this point.

When I bought the book, it was one of the pieces I most looked forward to. Several months later, I'm now starting it.

It's a great number. I have it built into my P155 to, and although the full version is much more detailed, the Alfred AIO version sounds great!

Book 2 is almost in sight whoo-hoo!!

Oh my gosh, GracieCat. You are conjuring up some old, old memories now. I was born in Cabell County, down old Highway 60 from Milton, outside of Huntington. I don't imagine a lot of people outside of West Virgina could point to that. The most played instruments in my community were mandolin, autoharp and accordian. But that was long ago and far away.


I did Amazing Grace in session and got through it. But I didn't get a lot of appreciation for my use of triplets. Ha. Teachers says I play them too fast. She played it for me and I understand the difference now. I realy punch them - I do the same thing with sixteenths. I clip them out really fast. Once again my inate urge to play too fast. I am less critical of the arrangement now, I just have to play it correctly. Slow down! Nothing new with me.

My teacher played Amazing Grace for me and I thought it was really lovely. Just like you, Captain Zero, I was playing the triplets too fast. It should lulling, not punchy. I think triplets are strange anyway. When I first encountered them, I couldn't wrap my head around them in the least. I actually thought that their note value was a typo in my theory book (=1/4 note). How could 3 1/8 notes equal 1/4? It just wasn't logical.

I have had a major breakthrough in the past couple days. In my last post I said I was going to inform my teacher that I wanted to put What A Wonderful World on the back burner for a while because I was struggling too much with it. Well I kept working on it and I have finally overcome the part I was having difficulty with. I can now get through the first 3 pages of it with few if any mistakes. It's not up to tempo or completely smooth but it is showing signs of life. Instead of telling my teacher I want to take a break from it I will be playing it for him instead. The learning process in this journey continues to amaze me.

On a side note, I have to take my digital piano in for service today. The right speaker is buzzing on a couple notes and is annoying me like crazy. It's under warranty but my only options to get it repaired are to ship it to Yamaha ($$$ in shipping charges) or take it to the nearest authorized repair center. The nearest repair center to me is about 60 miles away in beautiful Ithaca, NY, the home of Cornell University. It will be a nice drive and they are going to look at it while I wait but better yet is they are a very large music store with a sizable online presence. They have been in business for 116 years and stock over 20,000 items. I will be spending my wait time in a HUGE MUSIC STORE. I probably should leave my charge card at home (but I wont). I hope I can control myself!

Doug, good to hear you're making progress. For me, learning to play the piano is like sitting in the car with someone learning to drive using a clutch. jerk...jerk...stall...jerk...jerk...stall...stall...jerk start moving...shift into second...grind the clutch some...grind the clutch some more...pretty soon you're going down the street. Then you end up getting stopped on a hill and it starts all over again...jerk...jerk...stall etc.

Hate that you have to spend your time in that HUGE music store. It would be terrible to have to look through all that sheet music!

CaptainZero, my father-in-law plays the banjo like it's nobody's business. They have a little bluegrass band. That's not really my type of music, but I can appreciate it and really enjoy hearing that type of music when I go back home.

Starbug, you'll be to the end of the book so soon!

I'll be gone a week with no piano. I'm dreading it. My digital recorder came so I'm taking that with me to play with along with my theory book. Taking that DVD piano course with me too, to see how it is. Planning on starting that when I get home.

Oh boy, did that make me laugh!

I'll remember that every time I start something new.

I have a few that I can't get right now..that Moses song plus...it's sooo weird..the place on the Chiapenocas song..the second part--I just can't transition between the right hand notes. It's frustrating, because it should be easy for me.

So, from what I'm gathering, the people that have music teachers--they make you stay on a song until you get it right???? Maybe I am glossing over stuff...I should go back and polish my songs maybe. Something isn't right. I have Greensleeves down though...and working on Scarborough Fair. Beautiful songs both. I don't care for the Moses song or the Jericho song...so I haven't polished those...do you think I should make myself do it????? What are your opinions????

Thank you in advance!!!

Nancy

Hi Nancy,
Someone just said this in a different post, but I think that my teacher is able to detect something I CAN'T do yet, but might with more practice, and something that I CAN do, but haven't (due to nerves/chance) done for her in my lessons. She made me play some of the pieces for more than one week in the case of the former. I could play all of the pieces without mistakes fairly reliably ( ;))at home prior to each lesson. I was never surprised to not be "passed" on a piece.
I do think that there is considerable value to be found in polishing songs. Pick a few you love and work on those. I actually liked Go Down Moses. I learned a bit about dynamics and control with that piece.

Congrats, Doug! Doesn't it feel great?

Nancymae, Jericho was a tough one for me, too. In Jericho, I struggled with the syncopated notes, especially in measures 4 and 6. I remember some sort of struggle with Moses. I didn't really have a specific problem, but I would just play it wrong in odd places. For a while there, every time I played it, I messed it up differently. I think I was just bored with the song.

As far as polishing pieces in Alfred's, I think it's a good idea. Think about what your errors are in the piece. For instance, in my case with Jericho, I was having trouble with the syncopated notes, which was the whole point of the lesson. It made sense to especially polish that. So far, in my month and a half of lessons, I only had to stay on a piece an extra week once. That was Scarborough Fair, and the second week was mainly because I was ignoring the dynamic signs. That was part on the reason I went to a teacher - I knew I was ignoring my dynamic signs and needed someone to call me out on it. I was more interested in pummeling through the book. Now I'm finding myself looking over a piece before I play it to see where it gets louder and softer so I can get used to that while I'm learning the piece. As far as making sure I play it "right", I think she is mostly looking at my fingering, tempo, and if I'm utilizing the dynamic signs. If I make a tiny flub, and she knows it's not something I normally screw up, she hasn't kept me on a piece. But like I said, it's only been a month and a half

Got passed on Scarborough Fair. Now I'm on Raisins and Almonds. It's not too bad - just have to polish it up a bit.

So many of you are moving on to Amazing Grace! Triplets sound scary. But I bet it feels good to have progressed to the end of the book. What was the song you never thought you'd get past?

Aimee

Thank you GlassLove and Aimee! I live out in the boonies, so there isn't any teachers close, so I have to rely on Alfred's and everyone here...so thank you so much! Aimee--I have to admit, coming to the end of book...I guess I am trying to plummet my way through..just to get into Book 2. Not learning anything that way. I'm going to go back and pick the ones that I had problems on and really try and work through them--at least get what I was supposed to get out of them..like the syncopated song Jericho, then just really polish the ones that I love until they are perfect. I really only have a couple of them that are like that..except at the very beginning. It's funny, but the one song that I never thought I could get through was Can Can..and now it is my favorite..I can really rip through that one!!! (with no mistakes either!!) So, I should stop plummeting, and go back and reflect and re-learn..and give Moses and Little Brown Jung and Jericho another chance!!!

Thank you again!

Ok, I'm leaving town in a few minutes but I wanted to try out my recorder. Here is my try at O Sole Mio. Don't use it for reference because I changed some of the pedaling and changed one of the chords into an arpeggiated chord with a 4th note. I'm going to rerecord this when I get home next week. I don't have time to right now.

http://www.box.net/shared/7pcdi78h6c

I'm happy with how far I've come since I started 6 months ago.

Nancymae, yes, I would polish each piece till it's smooth and up to tempo at least. When you think the piece sounds good, then spend a few more days on it and it'll sound great. In my opinion that's hard to do on the songs you can't stand.

I'm *totally* stuck at the moment on "Good People" - for whatever reason, I just can't get the hang of it. Been about a week now, and I still can't get past the first 4 bars.

The few pieces before that - Can Can in particular, I found really easy and enjoyable and very rewarding. But, although it looks like it should be really simple, I just can't get past it.

I'm seriously considering just skipping it, but I've not done that yet in the book and I think I'd be cheating myself if I did.

I haven't read of anyone else having problems with this one - must just be me

I really liked Good People. It took a little bit to get really going with it, but once it clicks it's fun. Practice hands separate first.

Here's my quick attempt at Good People. I'll redo it next week. I'm loving my recorder!

http://www.box.net/shared/euafrpb8ev

You can skip it, and then come back later... if it is really getting you down.