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

Shey, you can get the Bach pieces free at

http://imslp.org/

I used to play a lot of Dylan stuff on the guitar. Just went downstairs and tried to mess around with Like A Rolling Stone on the piano. Couldn't get it to sound too good though. I'm still a novice, I guess.

On a side note, an interesting thing I found out in the past couple of years is that a lot of musicians like Dylan and Springsteen that we associate with being guitar players actually wrote a lot of their music on piano. In fact, Springsteen said that he wrote all of Born to Run on a little Aeolian piano in a small house that he had rented in New Jersey.

I found some of them on the link a couple of posts above.. but have a look on the internet in general.. search :-

"bwvxxx sheet".

You maybe find some with fingering, which does help!

I went to see Jon Anderson earlier in the year, the ex lead singer of Yes and one of the main songwriters of the band. He played some of progressive rock's greatest pieces by strumming a beat up nylon string guitar and singing alone, no back up band or fancy tricks just him. One of the best concerts I have been to.

earlofmar: Thanks, it gives me some consolation to know that my recording problem is a general one.

rnaple: Thanks.

JohnnyD: I think you are right about those quarter notes, I hadn't noticed it. (Probably because the last note is fermata, it fills the measure and keeps it from sounding weird/incomplete). As for Laura being the most challenging piece, I don't know. I am working on "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" at the moment and it has been really difficult so far, it's probably more difficult than Laura I'd say. Also there is Chatanooga Choo Choo at the end, it's 4 pages long and from the recordings I watched on youtube longer than 2 and a half minutes. That should be hard too I think.

I wonder what book you are talking about here, have I missed something here? This is not the All In One book 1 is it. My book ends with The Entertainer, no Laura or Christmas songs. Just wondering are you talking about the supplemental books?
Apologies, I'm finding piano studying fills my brain so I may have missed what book you were discussing.

Shey; mine is called "Adult All-in-One Course: Lesson, Theory, Technique Level 1".

What I ordered was exactly this, from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0882848186

There are 6 pieces after Amazing Grace, which the book refers to as "popular selection" or something like that. I remember somebody mentioned he had a version of the book with 4 popular songs rather than 6. So I am susecting there are several versions.

Older editions do not have the "popular selections" at the end of the book. And from what I have heard, some have only five selections and some have seven. If you want the extra selections you need to purchase from a place that does not have old stock.

Also, I highly suggest the edition with the DVD:

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-All--Course/dp/0739082426/

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/Alfred-s-Basic-Adult-All-in-One-Course-Book-1/19540128

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfreds-Bas...r=1-1&keywords=alfred+all-in-one+dvd

Thanks for the info, I have the older version with no extra songs, I realise I have had mine a few years before I used it. Can you get the DVD as a seperate item? I expect that is helpful.

You can get the DVD (plus the extra songs) with the latest version of the condensed (not all-in-one) version of the book.
Amazon Link
Be careful, there are other older editions of the same book that don't have the new songs (and don't come with the DVD).

ETA: I think it's at an extra low price at Amazon right now to complete with SheetMusicPlus, who are currently running a method book sale.
Sheet Music Plus link

I don't suggest expending effort to get the newer printing with the supplemental pieces. I found them boring overall and aren't part of any lesson, so I felt like I wasn't really learning anything in particular.

Sounds awesome. I love that song, Your Move.

Edit: After watching a couple of clips of Jon Anderson playing Your Move, I went downstairs and started messing around with it on the piano. I thought the song sounded pretty good on piano. So, I decided I would try to transcribe a bit of it on musescore and share it (image below).

I'm not sure if the melody is quite right, but feel free to improvise. Also, note that for most of the song there are basically only 3 chords : E, F#m, G#m. However there is also an A chord when it goes to the part... Captured for the Queen to use


Larger image

This is the book I have: Alfred's Self-Teaching Adult Piano Course
Unfortunately I didn't get the DVD because this edition wasn't out yet when I ordered the previous edition that came only with a CD

I've enjoyed the supplemental pieces, and while they have not needed an introduction explaining new techniques and such, they have been quite challenging and have helped me further get accustomed to recognizing the notes on the staves.

One thing they have done in the bonus songs is that they have eliminated some, but not all, of the cues as to which fingers to use. I believe this was done so as to slowly wean us off of this crutch so that we can play more general sheet music without all the finger cues, and to progress in the future.

I have had little time to record. So I am catching up:

Scarborough Fair (https://app.box.com/s/ao1di518avum207rr6eg)

Raisins and Almonds (https://app.box.com/s/x1kx8wfn5eqtqnog8pt8)

Scorpio, I really liked your two pieces and Raisin and Almonds was lovely. I don't know that tune at all it sounds a bit Russian, those are the two I am working on just now hoping to get them to sound as lovely as you made them sound.

Nice work Scorpio

@scorpio - Great job! Sounds really smooth.

@Shey - Raisins and Almonds is a Jewish folk song. I think it does have an East European, Fiddler on the Roof, kind of feel to it.

@scorpio Very smooth recordings, congratulations.

I also have progress to report, my take on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHLT5roqtTA

This piece was really challenging and in my opinion the hardest one so far in the book. Took me lots of work but luckily I had a lot of free time from work. Only 2 pieces left now, can't wait

Sounds great sydnal. Everything seemed right, although perhaps it could be played a little slower.