Oooh, yah, those broken chords pushed me to a new level.
I wonder if I could play them now...might have to go and revisit some of those pieces.

Hands together Bb major scale is my current neural path stimulator!

HA! Not quite. I'm moving along, but the holidays really ate into my practice time.

Waltz in G minor was actually a pretty nice piece. I would have been willing to polish it a little more, but my teacher called it good enough, so we moved on. Skipped the Tchaikovsky symphony theme, and started on Fascination this week.

It's funny how different people do on various songs. I had great trouble with the rhythm of Light and Blue, while songs like Morning Has Broken come automatically. I've worked up to Brahm's Lullaby now. The pedalling is a bit tricky; you really can't use brick mode. My ankle tires from holding up the foot for extended times.

arrgh I'm stuck at olympic procession. I started out on that a couple of weeks ago, and can't get it right...

@cfrederi, I also worked on that one for two weeks, I think you can stop practicing it as long as you have your chord inversions right, the song itself doesn't sound very good...

After spending several weeks on the Bb major/G minor scales, I had such a hard time switching my brain back to D major to learn the Symphony theme! A nice exercise, in the end, but ouch, it gave me headaches! My fingers kept hitting Bb and Eb instead of C# and F#. Now I have to do the contrary and go back to flats with the Eb major scale and Loch Lomond

Thanks sinophilia - sounds like good advice - I'll follow it. I have no problems with the chord inversions as such, and you're right - the song doesn't sound that good.

Good luck with Loch Lomond!

I wasn't a fan of the Olympic Procession either.

I am kind of looking forward to Ballin the Jack because of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXXjGjhjTus
and this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r_v2hGtIQM

So I am inspired to work out He's got the whole world in his hands.

Just wanted to give you all encouragement. I did the Alfred 1-6 series (the longer version of mostly same songs). Survived them all and now can go back and play ones that I liked and ignore Wash Day Boogie and Olympic Procession. Some days I just pick up book 5 (about where the Adult #2 is) and enjoy it. Wish I could tell you that I'm a brilliant pianist now but I can tell you that I still love to play and many technical aspects are easier now. Just enjoy the learning. Love hearing about your piano journey.

Someone asked me about my PW name "Wisebuff". It actually comes from my other life. A professor should be wise (ha ha) and I'm a Colorado Buffalo fan. Maybe I should change to one related to piano.

*putting another log on the fire and opening a new bottle of champagne to share with everyone who stops in to welcome Becca to level 2!*

I'd love a glass! Thanks Malkin! It's sure nice being here. hehe

Congratulations to you!

*fills glasses*

Cheers!

Woohoo, champagne!

Oh, and gratz again Becca. Looking forward to your celebratory submission to next month's recital

Hi Becca, it's great to have you here!

I like the right hand, but the left is very monotonous, Look forward to playing proper blues.

Thanks guys! Allard I'm not to sure about recital submissions just yet! LOL We'll see how far I get by then.

Oh the recital...

I tried to record Frankie and Johnnie and I found out several things that needed correcting. LH rhythm not even enough, RH harsh here and there, and a ritardando that just wasn't there - it sounded nice to my ears, but awful on the recording! Plus, if I don't play it right the first or second time, I get more and more nervous and start forgetting entire phrases, so it's no use trying over and over again. Sigh.

Aw sino--great that you recorded and good that you noticed your issues.

Last night I realized that I was playing the left hand for the whole second half of He's Got the Whole World in His Hands completely wrong.

It reminded me of Murphy's Law stating that while there is only one way to play the piece correctly, the number of wrong ways to play it approaches infinity.

Hey Guys! Thought I'd hop in here. I am just putting the finishing touches on Deep River and starting Loch Lomond. Almost there!

I have been playing the piano for awhile, but have relied more on my ear and knowledge of music theory. I found I had a knack for composing and so I got caught up writing for awhile and never truly practicing to improve my piano abilities.

The hardest thing I find is just taking it off the page. Most of the songs I find fairly easy to play as far as dexterity, but my sight reading has got a long way to go!

Keep at it guys, I'll let you know how I do on Loch Lomond tomorrow.

Welcome Patrick! I really liked Loch Lomond - I can only play it very slowly actually, not march-like, but it sounds nice.

Nice to see more new people in this thread.. I am up to deep river now.. That's a nice one

Good luck guys.. Book 3 thread needs fresh entrants

So... I've finally reached the last piece of Alfred's book 2, Variations on Canon in D

I guess it will take me at least a couple of weeks to play it, and I still have to finish Danny Boy, but hey, I'm almost there! Yay!!

Well done! I hope to follow you soon

Way to go sino!

Thanks! I've already sketched a plan for my piano practice for the rest of the year. Alfred's book 3 as a staple, some technique and sight-reading every week, plus an additional song of choice every month. Can't wait

Where are you guys at?

Congratulations sinophilia! Well done! And good luck with book 3!

It'll be a little while before I'm there. I just started out on Pomp and Circumstance....

Oh I had such a hard time with that one... hope you fare better than I did!

Ballin' the Jack and the Verdi one. I have them well done HS, but not yet hands together.

The original sheet music from 1913 for BtJ can be seen here:
http://www.thehackley.org/viewer/?nam=Ballin%27%20the%20jack&im1=1&imN=6&img=0001&ext=.jpg&url=http://www.thehackley.org//dplhacsm/display/dpl-hac-12124-

Before you look around more on that site, please be aware that some of the titles don't match up with current sensibilities of politeness!

Nobody Knows the Trouble I've seen was so easy, I wonder why it's there!

This is great reading everyone's take on the pieces towards the end of Book 2. I liked quite a few of the pieces at the end of Book 2. La Donna e Mobile, Deep River, Danny Boy, Canon in D, Fascination, Love's Greeting (Salut d'amour). A couple of those led me to different versions (Canon in D) or the originals (Fascination, where the original is not a whole lot harder than the Alfred version, and Salut d'amour, which is waaay harder). Etude (arr. of Chopin's Etude Op.10 no.3) is my all time favorite from the book.

Ballin' the Jack was not a favorite for me, but I really enjoyed the Verdi piece, La Donna e Mobile. Make that present tense--I've started playing it again. I made up words to go with the tune (after all, it's opera!), words I don't think I will be sharing.

It's very encouraging to pop in here and read the progress of others ... especially as there appear to be a few nearing completion of Book 2! As for myself, I'm now happy with the way La Cucaracha sounds (pages 20-21) so tomorrow I shall begin on the E Harmonic Minor Scale and then The House Of The Rising Sun.

Aside from that it's freezing at the moment so for the past few weeks I've been warming my hands and fingers up with a hot water bottle during practice sessions. Roll on the summer!

I don't really like the version of canon.. Wonder if there are other slightly better sheets for this one.. I dunno why it just sounds dull and blander than it should be :-(