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

I'd say a bit of everything.

Hope everybody had a great week!

Now that it's weekend, it's also piano time, at least for me...:)

2 questions on Scarborough Fair:

1. on dynamic sign: is pp<mp<p or mp>p?
2. on repeat, do I need to change pedal between last measure and the first repeating measure?

Thanks!

-------------------------------------
Here is the recording anyway, correct or not...:) Scarborough Fair

------------------------------------
Found the answer to my own question: pp＜zp＜mp＜p＜zf＜mf＜f＜ff＜fff

hope this helps others too.

I agree, having fun is the most important thing to learn piano for me.

Hi everyone,

I just started playing piano in January and picked up the AIO based on this thread. Just wanted to say thanks to the many posters for the excellent advice, I've had a great time these past few weeks and have found a great deal of happiness in taking up such a challenging and rewarding instrument. I play guitar so I was able to fast-track through the early sections but I got bogged down in the usual spots (I hear Blow The Man Down in my worst nightmares, haha). I am now working on The Entertainer and almost feel like a real piano player :-P

Cheers,
Hyde

The Entertainer in two months, that is pretty good. Well done.

I agree, even for a guitar player, imo. Welcome to this thread Hyde.

So, I am what you would call a lurker. I have referred here for guidance, support, and overall motivation. To tell you a bit about myself, I am thirty something (not for long), an educator, and a doctoral student. I have a daughter who has played piano for about three years now; she's ten. I really enjoy listening to her practice and know some people who play well. I often wished I had a musical talent. The short story, I decided to either go back to school or study piano. I got into school which meant the end of my piano career before it started... that lasted all of two weeks, I decided to do both.I am in Alfred's Book 1. I am working on Cafe Vienna, just started and a supplementary Beatles piece, Hey Jude. Surprisingly I whizzed through the beginning of the book (I am completely new to the piano) but am now slowing down my progress. What made me formerly jump in here was the discussion of BTMD. That song arrrrggghhhhhhh... I struggled with that more than any of them, I loved the conversations you guys had about it. I don't think my teacher understood why I had the struggle I did with it.

Welcome, HalfStep! I also heard lots of people mentioning BTMD... interestingly, I didn't have too much trouble with that one... the most difficult ones for me are those blues, especially "Good People", I guess it's because I had to play those eighth notes unevenly...

I found recording is a very good motivation for me, I even set some of my recordings as my ring tones on my cell phone:)

Hyde, it's amazing you get to Entertainer in only 2 months... just this Jericho took me 2 weekends to get it "right"...

Though I've been playing for a number of years, I practiced way too intermittently to make REAL progress. I got to a certain point and then practiced enough to stay there--seemingly forever.
So for Valentine's Day I bought myself the 3 volumes of AIO, and I'm having a ball. I'm practicing now every day, and learning more than I had in several years of hit and miss.
Funny, though, that so many people have mentioned "Blow the Man Down"!! I too hit a brick wall with that a few days ago, and played it over and over and over, sometimes at EXCRUCIATINGLY slow tempos, until I got that kind of syncopated thing going. I'm still not the master of it, but I've moved on. Today I'm on "On Top of Old Smoky," and the few pieces that follow.
Thank goodness for this thread where we can vent about things that concern REAL adult beginners and not those "beginners" who are struggling with the fingering in measure 47 of Chopin's "Fantasie Impromptu"!
BTW, "Wish4 Thing," nice job on "Jericho."

Michael, congrats to your progress! Hope to hear your recordings sometimes:) I found recording really helps me to focus and to "correct" certain ways I hit the keys to make the flow sounds smoother...

I like "On Top of Old Smoky", I think I like anything with pedal:)

I have had my piano for several years too... but I didn't practice too much, repeated the same book for 7-8 times, every time I stopped at "Good People" or a few pieces after that... I guess it's because my left hand can't play as smoothly as right hand. Jericho gave me hard time, Entertainer will be another hard one for me...

I'm just glad I've passed the "Good People" point this time!:)

Cheers to all!

So now my hang up is Cafe Vienna...ugh

I agree, I like the fact that we are "real" beginners. I am curious as to how quickly some have progressed though...

Spitfire,
I have a recommendation for "Lullaby" if you still want one. First, I agree totally with the other posters who say SLOW IT DOWN. But I might also suggest another little trick to start out. You're making music, certainly, with the right hand, and probably also with the left hand to a degree (but bass lines and chords seldom sound like music).
What might be killing you is that you're trying to make music as soon as you put the hands together. That particular piece has a lot of moments where notes in the left hand come in between notes in the right hand, etc. Trying right off the bat to make it sound musically like Brahms' "Lullaby" might be what's frustrating you.
So my suggestion is just to go very slowly and hit the right notes in the right order, making sure, for instance, that the B in measure 8 comes in WITH the D in the LH, and that you hit the A in the RH before you hit the next combo of G/GF. I'm currently doing that very thing with "Can Can" on p. 113, and it doesn't sound very much like the actual song yet. However, just getting the fingers to move together and hit the right notes when they should be hit is huge. After you get that mastered, it should be a small step to making it sound like music.
Good luck!

Thanks for the welcome everyone. I decided to go with a teacher from the beginning and I am sure that has helped speed things up quite a bit. I also teach guitar and I understand the value of slowing things down as suggested in an earlier post for Lullaby...you gotta go slow to go fast ;-)

The Entertainer is coming along nicely and I've started working on Amazing Grace...I am really enjoying these later songs!


@ Wish4 Thing:
I would love to listen to your Jericho, but I can't get the link to work...am I not clicking properly?

And I couldn't agree more about the blues pieces...I have played blues guitar for over thirty years but I can't stand the Alfred's blues songs. I find they are awkward and cheesy, I have an agreement with my teacher that we spend as little time on those as possible...LOL.

Cheers,
Hyde

Wow... I think I need another 2 months to get to where you are... you are fast learner!

Sorry, I didn't realize that all the links to my recordings change every day... I have to go back to fix all those links... here is Jericho again... You can tell me it's not good enough so I'll work harder!:)

Hope everybody is enjoying the weekend!

Wish4 Thing, that was awesome! Very smooth and you nailed that tricky section where the LH rests for a beat.

Thanks for sharing, I guess I should try posting something soon...

Thanks, Hyde!

Please post:) Entertainer or Amazing Grace?:) We'll have our level 1 recital here in this thread:)

It was a pleasure to me to hear Jericho, thanks for share.

I am finishing "Lavender’s Blue" and starting "Kum-Ba-Yah!". In "Lavender's Blue" the legato in LH with eigth notes was a problem for me. Even now, is not so smooth as i wish. You seem very confortable to do something like that in Jericho. For me it is very good.

Thank you, fliper!

I've only recorded it 100 times to make it sound smooth...:) the recording process tied me to the bench for 2 weekends (I don't have much time to practice during the week days...), just to play that, nothing else...

Now that you mentioned it, I went back to Lavender's Blue, and recall that it did gave me trouble too... I guess LH is our weakness when it comes to combination of eighth notes and "moderately fast" tempo...

keep up the good work, would like to listen to your recording some day too!

So piano lesson last night was interesting, I've got a pass on Entertainer (my favorite piece so far!), then my instructor decided to assign a grade three RCM piece for this week!

I was wondering where you end up within RCM once you finish the AIO? I understand there won't be a direct correlation, but grade three seems a bit high...(can you tell I'm freaked out? ;-)

Sorry if this was covered earlier in the thread, I'm still working my way though the previous years...

Cheers,
Hyde