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Hi all! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I am currently trying to find a teacher (live in Telford UK and have tried websites with lists to no avail), but haven't had any luck yet. If I do find one, who knows what book I'll be using. However, if I don't find one I'll grab this book and follow along the rest of you!

I'm 36 and did try piano briefly when I was like 13, but couldn't afford lessons and we didn't have a piano at home anyway. I'll have a Yamaha P95 soon, though, so will be joining the ranks of the older newbie piano players!

Best of luck to everyone learning.

Hi everyone,

Like Matty H above, I recently bought a Yamaha YPG-635 & Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1. I'm now on page 69 (with "Alpine Melody"). I practice two hours a day on most days, & things seem to be going well. I currently find that a pace of two pages per day, plus warm-ups & exercises works for me. I do wish for a proper teacher though, since I have already identified a number of technical errors I was making earlier. I find the Alfred book to be good on teaching many things (including sight reading techniques, like interval learning), but trying to be both teacher & student are taxing. I plan on enrolling in an elective piano course for beginners this spring, through my university.

About myself: I am a geology graduate student with a wife and 21-month old baby girl. I've always wanted to learn to play piano, so I finally took the plunge. With so much left-brained science going on in my life, I felt I needed something more as a creative outlet. I still keep a spreadsheet to chart my progress though - old habits are hard to break, I suppose. I've been browsing these forums for a few weeks now & have found them to be a great resource. Thanks to everyone!

Welcome acearls and mattyizzo, hope you find this thread as helpful as some of us do.

Seaotter7 I agree with you regarding the pedal on O Sole Mio. It might be doing this completely wrong, cause it sounds a bit off with the pedal. The first bar does not sound that bad, but the second bar is a bit off with the pedal.

I can play Jingle Bells to speed. I'm trying to play Mary Ann now. I have a program called Notion3 (that I helped code, mind you) so if I'm not sure how a piece goes I just use the app. to write it down and listen to it. I do this for my kids' pieces too.

Welcome to this thread, acearls, mattyizzo, denjin.




If I order just one book I will pay more in shipping costs than in book itself. I am planning to start with Top Hits! Christmas and Basic Timing for Pianists. This will slow (more) my Alfred progression (I am not a Speedy Gonzalez too




No. For me memorize takes some time. Just some pieces I like.

I got Mary Ann at q=160 on my metronome.

This is a very fast Mary Ann to me


I am in "Beautiful Brown Eyes" - page 65. Broken cords sound nice.

It is funny to sing "Liza Jane" instead counting, but I only do this when there is nobody listening

I made a review of all pieces starting from Jingle Bells. I had to re-learn to play "Dueling Harmonics" - page 31, with all those intervals.

Hello everyone. I have decided to finally start learning the piano. I have a 9 year old son that is taking lessons. I have purchased the Alfred Adult Book 1 and am starting that today. I cannot afford for both of us to take lessons right now so I am going to work on my own for awhile. I have played instruments in the past but only know the treble cleff. Bass will be new for me.
I don't know how much practice time I will be able to get each day but I am shooting for 30 minutes right now.
We have a keyboard right now that is not full sized. I have ordered a digital piano but am not sure if I can get it shipped in here. I leave in Southeast AK and there are no piano dealers in my town. Hopefully this last order I placed yesterday will be able to ship.
I look forward to reading everyone's posts and keeping up with progress others are making.
Jules

It said "Moderately Fast," so I put it on a tempo where I can sway along from side to side

Welcome Jules. If you have any music background at all the Alfreds books will probably help you. I'm sure they won't take the place of a real teacher but they'll suffice for your current situation. A 30-min daily practice is actually commendable. I try to do the same, and another 30+ mins on the guitar.

I started with AIO book 1 on Monday. I'm currently working on The Cuckoo. So far the trickiest song for some reason was jingle bells which I must have played 100 times before I finally got it right. I'm glad I found this thread to see how other people overcame difficult pieces.

I am on Jingle Bells also. I have played the right hand part before but the left hand is new for me.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a song book to go along with the Alfred AIO course book?

Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving.
jules

Welcome Jules and Nipo.


You have the list of books I purchased in the begining of this page. There are a thread with additional books but I have to find it.


I am in "Alpine Melody" - page 69.
"Beautiful Brown Eyes" was hard to play but now is ok, even with pedal. I think it is a bit slow but I will practice more.
Pedal was one more thing to learn.

Here are some comments I collected from this thread regarding additional books(sorry I can not tell you the pages I took this):


Re: Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1 - 10/08/08 11:49
... At the moment I'm also delving into another piano method I bought a while ago. It's the Piano
Handbook by Humphries. The layout and design of this books are really superb. I'm liking it more
and more. All the material, even the beginning pieces, sound really beautiful and (again) extremely
musical on the accompanying CD (it must be a Steinway grand or something similar, the sound of
that piano is fantastic, not to mention a real pro is playing it). That is an advantage over the Alfred
method, I think. The book also puts more emphasis on classical pieces and a classical sound which I
really like. So, I will start using this method in parallel to the Alfred book to get more of that
classical piano feel even at an easy level. I would recommend this book as a supplement to Alfred's."


"Re: Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1 - 04/29/09 11:05 AM
... Thre are great books out there for beginners
- one that I love is "My First Book of Classical Music" - it's not too difficult but also not too easy.
I can play 3 pieces from it so far..."


"Re: Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Cour - 05/14/09 09:57 PM
...I highly recommend the Greatest Hits book. It is a great supplement to
the Alfred Basic Adult course. The Greatest Hits songs take me much longer to learn than the Basic
Adult Course pieces, but they are fun to play."


"Re: Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Cour - 05/21/09 12:52 PM
I have just started the Alfred's Sacred Book 1.
The first pieces are very easy, but the music and the words are so inspiring that I do love them.
I think I am going to have a great time with this little precious book!"


"Re: Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Cour - 06/15/09 02:26 PM
... So along with my Alfred Book 1, I occasionally play from:
Faber Adult Piano Adventures (haven't actually touched this one in quite a while)
Alfred's Greatest Hits Book 1
Alfred's Pop Songbook Book 1
Bastien Piano Basics Book 1
and some sheet music from the free sheet music sites
Perhaps I would advance in Alfred's a little faster if I concentrated on it exclusively, but I enjoy the
variety and I think it helps me learn better in the long run."


"Re: Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1 - 04/30/10 09:42
PM
Greensleeves was probably my favorite piece in Book 1.
The "Greatest Hits" book is more difficult than the lesson book, the pieces are more fun to play, but
they are still very simplified versions and not the complete versions. I'm just working my way
through it now, as I found them too difficult before. However, many people work in it
simultaneously with their AIO book, so it is doable. I'm also working through the "Pop Songbook".
Another supplementary one you might enjoy is "Alltime Favorites". It has a combination of
classical, popular and folk tunes. I sometimes wish that I had purchased that one instead of the
other two."


"Re: Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1 - 05/04/10
09:01 AM
Originally Posted By: JimF
... In that vein, I've also got hold of another book of simple beginners' pieces (The Big Book of
Beginner's Piano Classics) which looks pretty good to me. Hopefully learning a couple of pieces
from it, plus the Greatest Hits book in addition to the main Alfred's book can't but help.
I've started working on the first piece (a very simplified arrangement of a Bach minuet) which is
sounding pretty good so far. I'm also learning Eidelweiss from the Greatest Hits book, and I'm
finally up to BTMD in the main book, which I attempted last night for the first time. I didn't manage
it straight off, but it wasn't anywhere near as scary as I was reckoning it to be, thanks to its
fearsome reputation in this thread..."


"Re: Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1 - 05/06/10 09:00 PM
I have the Jazz/Blues book and its very good. Book one users can use it. Some are nice and easy
with some nice sounds."


"Re: Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #1 - 04/09/10 01:07
PM
"... For supplemental I chose Alfred's Jazz, Blues and Rags by Martha Meir. Most people go with the
Allred's Greatest Hits. I have not heard anyone mention the JBR Series? Anyone tried that series
out? I am doing all the first 3 pieces in Book 1 and enjoy them all. It is set up to present one piece
with a Jazz theme or influence, then next is Blues and the next is a Rag. So there is some variety
and interest turning every page.
I only took on Jericho from AIO this week so that I could spend more time with the supplemental
book. I am doing well with those side pieces and it does not seem to affect my progress with AIO.
Except of course finding the time."


"In adition I use 2 free piano sites:
additional play (I am in "Bridal March" - learning to count 8ths)
http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/freebies.html (Link:
http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/freebies.html)
as reference
http://www.piano-play-it.com/ (Link: http://www.piano-play-it.com/)
Regards to all
Pedro"

I'm working on Beautiful Brown Eyes today and find myself wanting to skip the last C in the first and third measure. It is taking a lot of practice to make sure I play it every time. I'm not even attempting the pedal on it just yet.

I'm not sure if anyone posted it yet but I've found http://www.youtube.com/user/PianoNoobAlexMan#p/c/4686052E0911DF9C/31/ATZSrBqpX58 youtube channel more helpful than the CD for hearing how the pieces should sound.

Yes. PianoNoobAlex has all pieces of the Basic Alfred 1 and 2.

In the first page of this thread you can see this and more information regarding Alfred Adult Books.

Thank you so much for the song book recommendations. I am going to see if our local music store has any of these.

Well, I finally got my book this morning! I am using Alfred's Self-Teaching Adult Piano Course - Level 1. The reason I went for that version is I also have Adult Piano Adventures (All-In-One) and the Alfred Premier 1A but those seem to be missing something. The Self-Teaching Alfred's one has some extra info each lesson which is helpful. The style of teaching is quite different from it compared to my other books, though. Anyway, it is at least quite similar to what is in the normal All-in-One.

Hope everyone else is doing well! Any other piano newbies in this thread? As I just got the book this morning I'm only on Page 29 "King Wenceslas" and "My Fifth".

Hi denjin. I'm working on Book 1 as well with the All in One version. How are you liking the self teaching edition? What kind of extra information does it include?

I'm up to playing Joy to the world and going back to work on Blow the Man Down some more. BtMD has been tricky as I can either get the timing right or a nice legato, not both.

I like the self-teaching one, except for the fact that is has a normal binding which makes it hard to place it above the piano well. I am not 100% sure what the difference is other than about 50 more pages in the self-teaching one. I think it has a bit more theory and explanation perhaps. The only reason I went for this one is the Adult Piano Adventures one seemed to lack some direction so I hoped a self-teaching book would work better. I've not been able to find a teacher yet so I thought more help from the book would never hurt.

I've been doing Jingle Bells for a few hours now as it's a bit harder than the other early stuff. It has blocked notes (in 4ths and 5ths) in addition to using both hands. All fun, though!

Jingle Bells was the first one in the book i had a hard time with too. I've notice the book seems to jump in difficulty after a few songs instead of a steady progression.