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All very beautiful pieces of music!!! No doubt about it, much better than the Alfred book
Another you might like to try is David Nevue's Solitude. You can get the sheet music for this piece only for FREE on his website. This was the first serious, non-Alfred piece I ever played.

Thats a lovely piece aswell GlassLove. Thanks for that.

As a learner im obviously listening to a lot more piano music than I used to and ive come across music by people that I've never heard of but have absolutely fallen in love with.

Ludovico Einaudi, Philip Glass, Yann Teirsen etc. But what I dont get is that these three and others like them (including David Nevue I imagine) are described as 'minimalist' musicians and are somewhat looked down upon from the classical music establishment.

personally I love both classical and this contempory classical in equal measure (no pun intended) (no actually, pun very much intended)

Doesn't look like it's free anymore.
You can only preview the first page.

Found it here: Free Piano Sheet Music by Contemporary Pianists

Hmm, that is very interesting. I have never perceived Philip Glass as anything other than a highly regarded brilliant musician. I don't know as much about the others' reputations. If Einaudi is looked down upon, we might have to find the ugly source of that reputation and unleash our own pianoworld Monica on them

Thats what I thought aswell but the more I read about the genre of music hes part (Einaudi hates genres) the more I find that traditional classicists deride it as being 'immature' !!

for example...

"Minimalist music has been controversial from its inception, and criticisms have been levelled from two other viewpoints specifically.

The first set of criticisms are from proponents of musical modernism who regard minimalism as a betrayal of progress, a banalization of modernity and backsliding into kitsch. They argue that minimalism represents a surrender of "high" art to the values of "popular" art. These critiques mirror other "late modern" critiques of postmodernity. Namely, there is no such thing, merely a backsliding counter-enlightenment impulse that seeks the lowest common denominator rather than pursuing the more rigorous, and important, project of advancing human knowledge and good.

The second set of criticisms is often levelled by those who are adherents of what may be called more "traditional" forms of western classical music, particularly as they had evolved through the 19th century. They criticise minimalism for being repetitive, boring, without movement, and shallow. There have been frequent jokes whose punchline involves repeating the name of a minimalist composer over and over again, with Philip Glass being a common target. In their view, this music goes nowhere, and lacks intrinsic interest."

Personally I think these people have too much time on their hands. I enjoy good music regardless of what genre its in and how many snobbish noses it puts out of shape!

Wow, that is tough criticism. I am afraid I don't know enough about music to even understand why Glass's work could be characterized as a backslide into kitsch, nor can I identify why it would be considered "popular" rather than "high" art. Even if he were universally regarded as a complete dolt, I would still LOVE HIM!!!!
A friend and I went to see Brad Mehldau the other week (LOVE him too). My friend thought that the music was terrible, largely because it didn't have a "bottom to it," a comment I am still trying to wrap my head around. What does it mean for music to have a bottom? Does this make sense to you?
I was stunned, I cannot for the life of me imagine someone hearing such fine jazz piano and reacting so negatively to it.

lol thats a new one to me. 'bottom' to it ? Ive been around plenty of jazz and classical musicians who come out with some seriously weird descriptions of music but ive never come across that particular one. Bottom to it ?? lol

Ive come across traditional classical snobbery before so its nothing new to me unfortunately. The classical guitar for instance is still, in the 21st century, struggling to be accepted as a genuine 'classical' instrument by a lot of people. sad really.

Id love to see Brad Mehldau ! Would have loved to see Bill Evans when he was alive

Yeah, as my 13 year old would say "Bill Evans is EPIC." Have you heard Mehldau's latest CD-"Highway Rider?" It is PHENOMENAL!!!! Destined to be a jazz classic. It totally blew my mind the first time I heard it.

Wow, I love classical guitar. I didn't realize it suffered a bad reputation too. My nephew plays classical guitar. He lives in Greece, but travels to Spain frequently for lessons/new experiences. He is trying to start a music studio, but you know how things are in Greece right now, it is a really tough situation for him.

We need a BTMD fan club. I have a feeling it will be a pretty exclusive club!

Pretty good lesson today. Got passed on The Can-Can, Marines Hymn and Why am I Blue on page 116. I'm really enjoying the Blues pieces the best.

Worked though some of my Masterwork Classics book and Sacred Book. Scales in C, F and G.

They had a book Jass/Rock Course (Alfred) on the shelf when I came out of my lesson. I had to buy it. I'm going to save it for June when school is out and I'm not going to lessons June-Aug. Well....I might just poke around in it a little before then.

Also, I agree with Doug about having lessons every other week. Right now I have a 45 minute lesson every week. I'd be better off just going every other week.

Good to see some new people here too!

Congratulations on passing so many pieces, Gracie Cat. You have been on fire lately!!!! (especially given your teacher's standards).
What piece are you most attracted to in the Jazz/Rock course?
Yeah, I find myself just as motivated when I have lessons every two weeks. My teacher in on a cruise this week, so I didn't have a lesson, but I have made a lot of progress on the work she assigned me.

I'm in for the BTMD fan club. Charter member I guess.

Bravo GracieCat on your progress. The blues pieces were my favorites too until I got to Good People.

I'd be interested in what you like in that Jazz/Rock book too.

Just got back from my lesson and I'm feeling down because it didn't go as I had hoped. It was one of those days when I couldn't do anything right for some unexplained reason. I've been playing Good People for near a month now and had hoped to get past it (I hate this piece now) and move on but alas I am stuck with it for another 2 weeks. I started out completely unable to get it started despite playing it fine last night over and over. It was as if I had never seen it before. Very disappointing but eventually I got it only to be corrected in one spot in particular that I was missing the rhythm on 2 notes. So it's back to playing it over and over to get that one spot correct and to have the confidence to play it better next time. Boo. Did I mention that I hate it?

I did fairly well on Little Brown Jug but I didn't expect to do it well enough to pass it and I didn't. I did pick up some good pointers on technique for it though.

We then worked on What A Wonderful World for the remainder of the time and he showed me some better fingering for my left hand that will make it much easier and we went through the right hand melody fixing some rhythm errors. If there's one thing he's a stickler on it's getting the rhythm correct as written. I think that familiar pieces are sometimes harder to get correct because we are used to hearing them played in ways that may not be the same as they are written in what we are playing.

Sorry your lesson didn't go as well as you'd hoped Doug. I know it's frustrating. You'll probably find that you accomplish a good deal at your next lesson. I have one song in my Sacred book that I've been working on for 5 months. It isn't hard, I'm just so sick of playing it and I literally plow through it carelessly. I keep telling her I'm tired of it. Every week I just bang through it and she then reassigns it.

This week I played a classical piece during my lesson and in the last measure I added two notes and a rest. (It sounds better MY way.) She was horrified and said that this type of music should stay as close to the original as possible. I just assumed I was playing a dumbed down version.

Commandment #11 - Thou shalt not add your own twist on classical compositions...

I find it very hard to get everything accomplished before my next lesson the following week. I think 2 weeks of practice in between lessons would be perfect.

Right now I'm working on Good People and Little Brown Jug. Both will take more work than the preceding songs. I was just sitting at the piano practicing them.

As for the "Jazz/Rock Course" book of Alfreds... I have no idea what's in there that I like. The book definitely has more work going on in the left hand than I've run across in my All-In-One book so far. It's getting to be about that time to step it up I suppose. Some of my supplementary pieces are now getting more left hand work too.

HERE is a link to the book that you can preview. Probably not a book I'd want to start before page 117 of Alfreds-All-In-One, though some of the beginning stuff could be accomplished earlier on. It just looks to me like it would be better for someone in the late part of book #1 going through the All-In-One Series.

Hmm... I think I like the looks of that book.

Good People is on page 49 which is about half way in so it should be doable to at least that point given it's where we are in the AIO Book 1. The introduction says it can be used after page 73 of the Basic Adult Piano Course.

It might be a good one for me for some variety and it fits in with my interests. I think my teacher would approve too.

I wonder where page 73 of the basic course would be in the AIO book?

Here are the ISBN #'s for the book and/or cd:
0-7390-1333-5 (Book)
0-7390-1334-3 (Book & CD)
0-7390-1335-1 (CD)

Im definetly going to go for the Blues/Jazz course but I think I'll wait til im further into the three levels first.

Is anyone else worried about their sight reading skills ? I can recognise the notes of both staffs fairly well now without more than a second or twos hesitation but what im still having difficulty getting my head around is timing and rests. anyone have any advice on practice for that ?
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I'll be up til at least 10am GMT watching the election so I'll need some interaction if im to stay awake !

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.

Will need to get a hold of it then I think. Its good to have other material outwith the AIO to get your teeth into. especially if its bluesy!

I really like the look of the Alfred's Essential Keyboard Repertoire series. but thats obviously a fair way off for me.

I am going to order it too.

I had a great practice session yesterday afternoon. Got home from work, poured a glass of wine, sat down at the piano and before I knew it it was 2 1/2 hours later (good thing my wife wasn't home, the lawn needs mowing). I was having such a great time and everything was just clicking, I was in a zone. I finally have Good People working and tried a couple different voices that made it more interesting. I made significant progress on Little Brown Jug and may be able to have that ready for next lesson. I started Chiapenecas and think that one will come easy. That one was made for an Organ and playing it like that reminds me of baseball and hockey games. Lastly I worked on my new fingering for the left hand in What A Wonderful World.

Never did get to any scale practice.

Days like that renew my commitment to obtaining my goal and as I sit here at work (shh, don't tell anybody I'm on the forum) I can't stop thinking about getting home and doing it all over again.

Then again, maybe it was the wine?