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

The CD version costs twice as much and I don't even know how I'd play it in the same room as my keyboard. Is it really that necessary?

I found this, is this the right thing to buy? Or should I get the one that is simply the "Basic Adult Piano Course"?

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Alf...rse-Level-1-Willard-Palmer/9780739082423

G3ck0, Yes that is the one you want. It shows that the DVD is included with the book. The DVD is very helpful; much more so than the CD.

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your new adventure!

Thank you. I often question myself if I am on the right path. I feel that I have hit the point where a teacher would be immensely helpful. Even to alleviate some of my concerns.


I completely agree. It really is a great exercise. In particular, finger #4 on the left hand got a great workout on this one.


Yep! I can't wait to start bugging the guys and gals over in the Book 2 thread.

I'd skip the CD. I don't have it and see no need for it. If you had it, you might listen to each track once, if that.

If you wish to know how a particular piece might sound, simply search YouTube.

I tried to hear the dynamics in the first line, but both repetitions sound the same. I am still unsure myself exactly how loud mezzo forte should be, but based on my time with my teacher, the difference between it and piano is much more than you have here. Is this what you mean about being faithful? Would you say that when you played this one, you played the dynamics of the first line accurately?

I'm starting to wonder if I am just not hearing the audio correctly when people post recordings, instead of it being a fault of their performance. I'll have to get my better headphones and listen more carefully.

Edit: I used headphones and can hear the difference in dynamics on line three, so I guess you just didn't have the right feeling on the first line. The difference still doesn't seem large enough. I was very surprised at how loud my teacher plays mezzo forte. I had initially been playing "mf" as "medium". This is possibly what you are doing as well. Now, I have to imagine what I think is medium loud and play it a touch louder. This became easier once I acquired my Clavinova and cranked the volume up, so I could hear a dynamic range.

It is completely the fault of my performance.

Please know that I am not trying to insult you or be overly critical. I am learning just as you, and I am at the point where dynamics are my focus. I am having to spend a lot of energy on getting them correct so that is what I listen for when people post recordings.

For what it's worth, your dynamics in the other two sound right to me.

I am still working on getting through The Stranger. I am spending more time on it than usual since it exercises the left hand as primary. I don't believe I have played the fourth line yet! I keep trying to get the first three lines correct.

First off, by no means was I insulted. I completely understand my limitations as a student. In fact, I upload these to receive critique and comments. I appreciate every comment received, either here on the thread or in private message. I am not looking for gratuitous commentary. I am here to improve. And I am certainly not looking to "show off." (There is not much to show.)

All comments, and yours here specifically, help me understand if my self assessment is on target. As of now, without a teacher, my only guide posts are from the generous members of Piano World.

The bottom line here is that I am truly thankful that you listened and took the time to comment.

I spent time with The Stranger today. After a while, I planned to work more on Entertainer or Amazing Grace, when my book popped open to Raisins & Almonds. I really enjoy playing that piece, so I decided to record it. It took me a few tries to get it how I wanted, since I kept making ridiculous mistakes near the end. So here is my first ever public performance.

Raisins & Almonds

nicely performed Danial and how amazing you picked up picked up and recorded the whole piece in a day. Looks like you and scorpio will be onto book 2 soon.

Daniel, that is how it's done, very nice! And congrats on your first recording.

Now, I have to ask, how did you record it? This has been my white whale; getting a consistent, decent recording. Some I am very happy with, some I am a bit disappointed. After review, my last three were not to the level I desire.

The Clavinovas have a native audio recording function. I just copy it to a USB drive, then use iTunes to convert the WAV file to MP3. It would be handy if the piano could create MP3 natively, but I bet the CPU inside is too slow for real time conversion. Is this what you wanted to know?

I flipped through the P-155 manual and it seems to only record MIDI. I suppose that is why you are asking. What do you use to convert your MIDI to audio?

No, I do not have to convert MIDI. I record from the AUX outs through a recording interface (Focusrite 2i2) to computer. I use a DAW (Mixcraft) to record and convert to MP3. Getting the volume levels correct is the tricky part.

Ahhhh, finally somewhere I can read a few posts on how people are progressing and relate to!

Reading wise I am an absolute beginner myself, I started learning myself by ear (bad habits can be formed I know :() and playing wise my teacher finds me a difficult one... I can kind of play quite a variety by listening and mimicking, I can also improvise and recall from memory rather well but when it comes to sheets, well that's another story entirely :P

I'll be sure to follow the posts in these threads and pop in from time to time about my own progress as I start to see things improve, but it's certainly nice to see that there is help out there for all levels of playing and that we are not alone heck we all have to start somewhere right?

Greensleeves
Go Down, Moses
Scarborough Fair

Tough to play Greensleeves when its 106 degrees outside. As far as dynamics and recordings go, I'm not using a pro-level camera and mic to record these so sometimes the dynamics don't translate well. That doesn't count the framing, lighting, etc. Not to mention that I always seem to play 10x better when I know I'm not recording!

Well done applejack, three more down in book 1. The stand out of the three was Scarborough Fair, very fluid.

Once again, as I was flipping to the page with The Entertainer, I paused at a previous piece and decided to make a recording. Again, it is several pieces back from my current focus, but that seems to be the modus operandi for me. I struggle with a piece just to get a couple decent play-throughs, then a few pieces later in the book, I come back and play it with ease.

Scarborough Fair

It is nice that more are uploading their efforts. I believe it is a help to all.

I just wanted to comment on some of the recent talk about people not liking songs in Alfred's, etc.

May I suggest that what people aren't liking is their own mind. Our base mind that is part of the nervous system. It doesn't want to sophisticate. Doesn't want to change. In the simpler songs. That sophistication is happening. That part of the mind wants to reject that. Comes up with excuses. Works against us. When all we are doing is obtaining sophistication of the nervous system.
I'm sure I have this understood. I first experienced this rejection of the mind in training for marathons. It can get so tough. The mind will literally yell out NO or STOP. Ultramarathoners do them to overcome the mind. Later on in a 100 miler. They will experience plain out hallucinations. That is part of a breaking. A person gets broken about 4 or 5 times during an ultra like that. The breaking gets worse. Overcoming the breaking is what it's all about. To go from broken to get up and proceed. That is where the victory lies.

I can see here in Alfred's that there is a method of training. There are things to work on in songs. It is focusing on teaching certain aspects of sophisticating our muscles/nervous system in a very smart progression. If we don't get it. We can't proceed well. That is a physiological truth.
Don't let our base minds undermine our training.

rnaple, unfortunately in January this year I had to give up running altogether (and then took up piano). I had run marathons for a number of years before stepping up to 100 km and then into the 100 mile events before age caught up to me. I have great memories of hallucinating last year after being on the go for 35hr lol.

You are spot on about how the mind plays tricks on us to get out of working on something. The secret is to live in the moment to look for something good here and now and not think about what lies ahead. For myself breaking through the mental barriers and completing Australia's toughest ultramarathon is one of my life's highlights. Nothing seems difficult now and has certainly helped in my outlook for learning the piano. Relentless forward progress is the motto of my old running group, sort of how I live my piano life now.