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Hi Everybody -

Just a quick introduction and hello to all the people on the AIO Book 2 thread. I recently finished up Book 1 and am now moving on to Book 2. I am an adult beginner, 44 yo, never played piano before last May, when I picked up Book 1. Since September I have been taking lessons from my son's teacher.

My son is 12 and has been playing since he was 7 or so. Even though it can be frustrating and tedious at times to practice every day, we both love piano and it is a great bonding thing for us. My son is just finishing up Fur Elise (the full version) for a recital this Saturday, and it is so beautiful just to listen to him play. He's not the second coming of Horowitz or whatever, but he is my boy, and listening to him play Beethoven with soul and feeling is about as good as it gets for me.

Anyway, my teacher prefers Piano Adventures and John Thompson's Modern method over the Alfred Adult, but she is fine with me keeping in the Alfred Adult books if I want to. I am in PA level 3A, and half way through the Thompson book 1.

In the AIO Book 2, I am just getting started with Guantanamera, and unlike the other recent postings, I love that song. I like the way it swings. [Also it reminds me of a funny skit I saw one time on Saturday night live, featuring Dan Ackroyd (?) - he stuffs his pant leg... I tell you he stuffs his pant leg... :)]

Best wishes to all --- music making, especially as an adult beginner, seems almost spiritual to me. Peace

Welcome Zenobe, congrats on finishing book1!

Congrats on your son’s accomplishments Zenobe. Best of luck to you and him this Saturday. Very glad to see you here. It feels quite homey seeing a lot of familiar faces.

No progress for me lately. My teacher assigned reviews of primer & level 1 of piano adventures. We just started 2a and she gave me lots too. I am still at Down in the Valley and haven’t touched Alfred for 2 weeks.

That's okay, Nguyen. You are laying down a good foundation. Between having a teacher, and doing the Faber series, you will probably not struggle as much with the Alfred 2 pieces when you get to them.

Hi Zenobe! You are the first one I've seen who likes "Guantanamera". It sounds really awful when I play it. :-(

My teacher has been gone for two weeks. So I have been spending some time on Alfreds. Gave myself a pass on the Theme from the overture today. Learned and Recorded...Now to be forgotten. Coming along with Light and Blue. This one will be a keeper...

I too like Guantanamera altho it was hard to get it to flow smoothly. It took some exta work.

My teacher is back now so we will probably be working on something else next week....

Hello all, do you mind if I join you here?

I have been playing piano now for 5 months and I had my Book 1 certificate signed yesterday by my teacher (oh yes, she HAD to sign it!). We started on Book 2 and tried playing Down the Valley (not bad for first time), Bridal Chorus (a bit of a struggle) and right hand Guantanamera (it really doesn't sound good when played one handed!).

I am also taking Step 2 exam (London College of Music) in April, so I have to practice for that.

Welcome aboard. Guantanamera's pretty challenging. Good luck.

Yes welcome Gintarec! Many of us have struggled with Guantanamera, maybe it's Book 2s Blow the Man Down?

I hated it, honestly, more than any other tune I've attempted in the Alfreds books! Yet now that it's under my fingers it's growing on me so I find I want to polish it a bit more! I still don't like the tune but it bounces along nicely and is quite fun to play. Funny thing music!

Thinking people might 'get' Guantanamera more easily if they knew the words, I went looking for lyrics & found a (to me) really interesting article about the song's history. It's a Cuban song, originated probably in 1929, & a Guatanamera means a girl from Guantanamo. But Guantanamera is also a song structure that invites impromptu verses, and the lyrics that Pete Seeger sang & translated in the 60's were written by a revolutionary poet. Sorry if this is more than you ever wanted to know about Guantanamera, but sometimes knowing the origins of a piece can be helpful...?

& now I'm going to look at what Wikipedia has to say about La Bamba, because THAT's the piece that's giving me problems right now!!

Good to see you Gintarec! I think we started Book 1 at a similar time, maybe you got through it a bit faster than I did. Anyway glad to see we're all hanging in there. Piano still gives me lots of pleasure and peace.

Loving the background and history lesson joyoussong - thanks! How weird about the "girl from Guantanamo" angle! Who knew? Kind of creepy considering what Guantanemo is known for now. Keep it coming - my take on La Bamba is limited only to the fact that it's the one song that Los Lobos (one of my all time favorite bands) had a real hit from, even though they didn't write it and it is way more commercial than their other stuff.

For me, I'm still working G-mera in Book 2, and lots of other stuff from Piano Adventures 3A (including my very first Sonatina fragment - exciting!) and good ol' John Thompson Book 1. Adios for now ---

Had a lesson today & got some serious help on the La Bamba timing from my teacher. It seems like a lot of the Book 2 pieces have R & L hand parts that are so intertwined, neither makes sense without the other - in other words, there's not really 2 distinct lines, so the 'learn each hand separately, then play together' routine hits a serious limitation. For me, anyway. This is one of those times when it's going to feel SO good when I'm past it.

BUT I also asked my teacher what I was doing wrong with the series of repeated notes in Mexican Hat Dance & the second line of Tarantella, because it was making my wrist/forearm tired, & she showed me how to strike the note with my wrist really loose - it's an upward motion, really, kind of like the flopping fish hands someone pointed out on the Meade Lux Lewis video on another thread - on the first 2 of 3, then come down on the third (the last of each series of repeats). It's going to take some practice, but I'm sure it'll make a big difference. And for these small things is why my teacher is SO worth what I pay her.

Thanks all! I think my Down the alley is sounding ok now, and I am getting along with Bridal Chorus. I'll tackle the Guantanamera after this. We have our own 'humoristic version' for lyrics of this song in Lithuania and everytime I play/hear it, it reminds me of home (I live in UK now).

I'm having a hard time with House of the Rising Sun. Can anyone give any advice on that one.

The trouble I'm having is not being able to read the left and right hand in real time as I play the piece so the only way around that seems to be to memorize the left hand changes and read only the right hand as I play it.

Where I'm at, the pieces seem to come quickly. Polishing them, not so much, but my teacher and I have a mind towards making some fast and furious progress in Alfred's over the next few months, so perfection ain't gonna happen.

Case in point, the Divertimento in D. I probably put two hours into it, and should speed it up some, and improve the differentiation in dynamic range. Not gonna do it. Time to move on.

http://www.box.net/shared/pbeuaj5nol

Hi book two-ers!! Haven't posted here in a while. I'm just starting to work on Canon in D then I'll be moving on to book 3. Anyone else tackling the Canon?

Ooooooo congrats on getting to the end of book 2! It seems an awful long way off to me Currently working on Morning has broken.

I'm still working on "Light and Blue". It's just not sounding remotely musical HT, although it isn't quite as bad RH only. I just listened to John Frank's version at the beginning of this thread, and now I'm really depressed. His sounds really great! He has a great rhythm going there that I wish I could get in mine. I KNOW I'm going to be thoroughly sick of this piece long before I get it to sound good.

Ok I am finished with Light and Blue... Got it recorded and put to bed....I am still going to work on it, but its time to move on.... Had Hungarian food for lunch yesterday, I wonder if it will help be with the next song.

How long did "Light and Blue" take you, wj3? I'm still stumbling through it. I can play it without wrong notes, but slowly and haltingly. I can't get any discernable musicality or rhythm to it. The date in my book says I started it on 2/16, so I've been working on it for a month. Maybe time to give it a rest and come back to it at a later date?

Mom3gram, I finished the theme from the overture on 2-23-10 and started seriously working on Light and Blue then. So about three weeks. But I really probably started a learning it a few weeks earlier. I tend to play it too fast, I should be kind of a lazy rhythm. In my recording I started off ok but then speeded up toward the end. So I will need to keep polishing it to play it well. Maybe I'll make another recording.