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

Great job, Ed! That really didn't sound easy, but you did it really well!

And thanks for your sightreading suggestion Carol, I'll check if I can find it somewhere, it sounds nice!

Thanks for the comments! Piano on your own is kind of a lonely thing so being able to talk to others with a similiar interest is really nice.

I'm going to try another piece in Jazz/Rock. It's "Rainbows Are For Dreamers". It's an AABA form where A is kinda new agey and B is jazzy. It sounds nice on the CD. I hope 2 or 3 weeks of constant practice will get it in shape.

Playing regular piano pieces is sure a lot different from playing fake book pieces. For a fake bk song you don't ever have to think about the left hand (once you've learned chords, just have to learn the melody. Takes about 20 minutes to learn a new song :-)

But piano pieces are much more satisfying to play, a lot is lost when you don't do the written bass lines and just depend on the auto accomp.

OTOH, I don't think I'll ever get gigs playing piano pieces. Hard to keep the people dancing to four or five one minutes pieces :-) I'll stick to Real Book selections for gigs with my sax partner.

Luckily the fake bk stuff doesn't interfere with the piano stuff since I don't really have to practice it. We have about 50 standards in our rep and that's more than enough for a 3 hr gig.

Hmm, haven't ever read a fake book before.
From your description it sounds like it's similar to basso continuo notation.
Never tried playing from BC sheets myself, but I've seen them and I know how they work, it looks really complicated to me!

But to get back on topic, I'm spending about 20% of my practise time on Alfred's now, and I really like it! Working my way through "Mary Ann" now, which is actually trickier than it looks. I can't figure out what it is that makes this piece difficult, as it looks very easy. I'm sure I've played more challenging material with ease.

Ah, well, I already made decent progress on this piece and I think I can have it under control by the end of the evening if I try my best.

Rex> I think with Mary Ann its maybe the rhythm of it which makes it a wee bit tricky. It sounds slightly offbeat to me. I just went back to it there and it took me a minute to get the rhytmn right again before it made sense.
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What everyone is saying about supplementary books is interesting. When I started the AIO course I sort of swore to myself I was going to strictly see the course through to the end without ever once being distracted by other books.

This forum has since changed my mind on that and im very much of the opinion now that supplementary material helps a great deal.

I must have a bit of OCD when it comes to music books though because I never buy a book from a series unless I know I can buy the whole series at some point later on (I bought all 3 of the AIO at once just incase it went out of print!) and there are so many series to choose from. for example I wouldnt know which of these two series to 'embark' upon...

http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/044580/details.html
http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/0455/details.html

and does anyone have the Alfred Sight Reading book ? Ive been thinking of getting the Hanon: Complete Virtuoso Pianist book but not sure if I should go with the Alfred one instead. Any advice ?
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"The best argument against democracy is five minutes with the average voter" - Winston Churchill

SmokestackLightnin, go page to page 122 of this thread. About half way down you'll see two of us review the Alfred Sight Reading book.

I also have the Hanon Virtuoso Pianist book. This book will be something we'll be growing into over the coming years.

The Alfred book is almost exactly the same. I went and compared both books. They all have the same exact 60 exercises. Alfred's is missing a few of the "in-between" exercises. For example, the exercise on page 83 of the Virtuoso book isn't in Alfred's. Hanon's is more complete. I don't intend to work every aspect of the Hanon exercises and Alfred's would have been more than sufficient for my needs.

Here is a link to the Hanon book I use. It's the "complete" book. (It's NOT just book #1)

I love my supplemental books. It is just additional practice to reinforce what we are learning in the method book. My teacher says it's so important to get the basics firmly under me as I go.

A few of us are within a dozen or so pieces of the end of the AIO book 1 and the final piece is Amazing Grace. It has always been a favorite of mine and I look forward to learning this one.

My wife has a hard time emotionally with this song due to losing her mother about 10 years ago and the memories it brings back. She is going through another rough spell right now with her brother who is gravely ill but despite her sensitivity to the song she sent me this this morning and I thought it was worth sharing due to it's connection to the AIO course.

Amazing Grace - Black Keys Only

My fingers will never be able to muster up the beauty that's in the man's voice and heart.

Now I'll have to go fiddle with the black keys.

I hope your wifes brother gets better Doug. I think a lot of people feel quite strongly about Amazing Grace for a lot of different reasons. Its definetly a lovely melody and hymn and im looking forward to being able to play it.

Ive only just now tonight managed to get the Can Can sounding right though so the end of the book isnt quite in sight for me yet!

I had as much trouble with the Can Can as I did with BTMD I think.

I am, as we say in the UK, 'well chuffed' with myself tonight. Ive managed to nail Why Am I Blue and Good People in 2 days !

Really really not looking forward to Little Brown Jug though. sounds absolutely awful.

Congrats, Smokestack!!!! I know the "Chuffed" expression. I also know how to properly open a bag of crisps in a pub so that it might be shared with friends!!!(taught to me by a dear friend now deceased).
Little Brown Jug is AWFUL. It is one of the very few pieces my husband asked me to stop playing!!!!! He also hates He's got the whole world in his hands (but fortunately I passed that at my lesson last night and won't EVER have to play it again).
I am now playing "The Entertainer." I played tonight for about 30 minutes and have the right hand under control, but that is no accomplishment when you take a look at the piece. My teacher did say "Don't expect to master this in one week!" First time ever.
I also learned to "trill" during repetitions in my Purcell piece (Minuet), which was very exciting, but also quite daunting. I will post another message regarding my success with that later this week. I spent some time with it this evening, but it seems close to impossible.

I just saw the last post, I did not mean to post a smiley face after sharing the fact that my friend had died, but rather after I learned to open the crisps. I hate icons. I think I should commit to never using them again.

Dont worry, I got what you meant by your smiley face And the crisp bag thing is a nessecary skill in this country so well done!

I just played Why Am I Blue and Good People through again without any practice today and they didnt give me any trouble so im happy to move on.

So ive got Little Brown Jug and Chiapanecas to work on now. Ive noticed they've stopped making such a big deal of new chords as there is no note whatsoever that Chiapenecas has Bb and C7 in it and both are new. I suppose thats progress though. Not a big fan of Chiapanecas either im afraid. Auld Lang Syne should be okay but being Scottish ive had that tune carved into my soul since I was a kid.

Good luck with the Entertainer. I love that song. Was really really difficult to play on the guitar though so was a bit of a nightmare. still is actually. I was hoping the piano version would be a bit easier since thats what it was originally written for.
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"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" - Carl Sagan

Sorry to change the subject briefly but ... Smokestack ... your Carl Sagan quote is one of my favourite quotes (and a guiding principle more people should live by IMHO) by one of my heroes. Just had to say that

Cool I've always loved this quote too. and Carl Sagan and even his son Nick who seems to be following in his fathers footsteps.

Where in Scotland are you from ? Im from Glasgow originally.

I also like this quote

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"For so long as 100 of us remain alive, we will never in any degree be subject to the rule of the English. For it is not for glory, riches or honour that we fight. But for liberty alone. Which no good man loses, but with his life" - The Declaration of Arbroath

Heh. Quite fond of that one too I'm originally from Edinburgh, but live on the Isle of Lewis.

See now your really bringing out my heros. Bertrand Russell was a genius. Still trying to finish the History of Western Philosophy. my fav Russell quote is one ive put on here before...
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"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge" - Bertrand Russell

Terrible lesson today. I passed nothing and didn't get anything new to play. I spent most of this past week working on my own stuff. I guess that's what I get. I do have Good People down, but I made a mistake on measure 4 with the left hand, and my 3rd finger sometimes strikes two keys when I play the descending blues scale on the 1st, 3rd & 5th measures. I do like the song.

I'm really not having fun "polishing" Little Brown Jug. I can't stand it so I can't practice it for more than a minute or two.

Next week I'm leaving my classical book at home and taking my new Jazz book. I'm ready for a change.

Hi Gracie. Sorry to hear about your lesson. I suppose there will be weeks like that for all of us where we arent enjoying the material. Just have to keep the end goal in sight !

I tried that measure in Good People you were talking about when you mentioned it the other day but didnt find myself doing the same thing so dont really know what to advise on that im afraid.

Im not enjoying Little Brown Jug either though and I didnt think i would be but im really enjoying Chiapanecas. Getting to the point where I can see the end of the book in the not too far distance.

Just wish I had a teacher to sign my certificate

Help!

I want to buy the Alfred Jazz/Rock course but there seems to be two series with the same name. One is part of the Adult Piano Libary and one is part of the Basic Piano Libary. The Adult one is obviously the supplemental course to the AIO but then the Basic series has more books in it covering improvisation and performance.

any ideas which one is the best option ?

Mine is called Jazz/Rock Course, A complete Approach to Playing...

It has 96 pages. Level 1 of the other series only has 32 pages, Level 2 only 24. I wonder if the book I have might contain the whole series. It's only $11 at Amazon.