Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #3

Oh yeah! I do love me some Martha Meirs. I diverged from AIO long enough to work through Jazz, Rags and Blues Books 1 and 2. That was what I considered as supplemental. I am now looking for something more for foundation work - to pick up after I complete AIO. Also liked working through supplemental books by William Gillock and Larry Minsky. I attempted Phillip Keveren without a lot of success - not sure why. Too much hand movement across the keyboard for me at the time I think. I have done a lot of work with sacred, hymns and holiday pieces too. All of which I consider supplemental.

I don't know if I am expressing myself well. I am a little lost for direction at the core. not so much at the day to day. I appreciate the thoughts.

So where are you going? Maybe if I ask question instead then I can reapply the answer to me?

I have a teacher, so he's in charge of anything foundational; I don't even know what that would mean. In Alfred 3, I'm starting the Clementi Prelude in D minor; I was just listing to recordings of it on youtube, and thinking it is kind of boring. I'm in no rush in the Alfred, because peeking ahead it is quite a few pages until anything looks interesting.

I have book 3 of Jazz, Rags, and Blues and there is quite a jump in difficulty from the earlier books in the series. I am presently working on Waterfront Jazz. "Working on" makes it sound like I might be making progress. "Stuck on" might be more accurate.

I am also playing/ working on the Stravinsky Five Finger pieces that are mentioned earlier in the thread.

At my last lesson, my teacher gave me a little speech about harder pieces taking more time, so not to expect to knock them out in a week, so it's all fine.

I loved this when I first heard it but the it proved very difficult for me. After learning the basic piece I went to the Bach Prelude in C, finished it and put it into the last recital, but still can't play the Clementi Prelude fluidly. It is one of those pieces that is in my constant practice list.

My instruction was to to block the RH chords. Problem for me is that I can't reach all of them, but I marked the ones that need rotation, so I know where I'm going and how to move.

My guess is that I will like it better when I can play it more competently.

And hey! Congrats to your Aussie boys on their TTT yesterday and the yellow jersey!!!

I've decided to put Alfred 3 aside completely. I picked it up again yesterday and it takes me too much time just to read through the pieces in the second half of the book. Most of them are more difficult than the extra stuff I'm working on. I'll be glad to go back to them next year, but for now it will be mainly Burgmuller and Czerny etudes for me, and the beginner pieces in Pianist magazine. Plus I have a few other things I want to try out, such as Les Cinq Doigts and Chopin's Waltz in A minor. And there's my daily sight-reading. No time for Alfred right now!

Blocking the right hand chords is difficult but a good start non the less. As this was the most complicated chord changes I had come across up to this point I found it a very useful exercise in itself.

So in my own world with the piano I hadn't seen the news in the last couple of days. A revolt in Egypt and now I am being told an Aussie has done well in the Tour De France....it's all late news to me

sinophilia, I don't blame you for putting book 3 aside. It is so frustrating every time I go to learn a new piece just how slow it can take. I have started four pieces at once (bad timing as others have completed almost together) and right now it feels almost like they will never come together. So a good balance of material is important.

The whole Orica Greenedge team rocked it, and Simon Gerrans is still in yellow today. It's still quite a long ride to Paris.

Sino--best wishes on cutting yourself free of Alfred! I shall miss you on this thread!
Earlofmar--I do love hearing reports of your skip around approach!

I will plod on!

<font= Public Address>
PLEASE RISE
</font>

I am working on the Star Spangled Banner.

It is so bad, it could be considered treasonous!

Swan Lake is pretty fun!

Easy after the SSB!

It brings up happy memories for me too. When my daughter was about 3 she talked so much that I bought season tickets at the ballet (matinee and in the highest balcony because that was all I could afford) and took her regularly, just so that she would have an opportunity to stop talking for a little while.

I'm on "In the Hall of the Mountain King" right now. Took me a while to get through "Come Back to Sorrento".

Still Alfreding along...

Finished Jazz Ostinato. My initial go at putting hands together resulted in a kind of paralysis, but then the whole thing just fell into place and seemed to improve noticeably with each play through.

The Tap Dancer
I thought was going to be too dopey, but it is cute and quite fun to play.

Congratulations I always liked the sound of Jazz Osinato but never learned it.

Hoping to keep this thread alive - not there yet but hope to be starting AIO 3 in a few months. Jazz Ostinato/C minor is one of the pieces I am looking forward to.

Given my pace, I'm sure to have more than a few months left!
My new kindle has the feature where it estimates how long the next chapter will take based on my rate; I'd hate to see that calculation at the bottom of my A3!

Working towards the end of book 3 the pieces get tougher and this typifies the future where two, three or more months to get a piece to performance is not unheard off. Lets not even get started talking about the advanced section although there are a few in there that are quite doable.

The section with Jazz Ostinato, Tap Dancer, and the Hornpipe (started last night) is a bit of a break in difficulty. It's the typical Alfie pedagogy cycle, work the student HARD and then drop in a few easier ones for a break. I think I have about a dozen more, and then the pieces in the Ambitious section which I haven't started, because I am not that ambitious!

Hornpipe isn't quite finished, the next one is already assigned, and I can't work on it without thinking of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXId5jOTxdg