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 purchased the "The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences" book
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Scal..._1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302955626&sr=8-1
But I did not start use it yet. Until now I use the Alfred AIO 1 exercises and other pieces, most of them from Gil DeBenedetti site
http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/freebies.html
I am at "Lone Star Waltz" (page 90).

So...everything got fun for a while. It may have helped that I really enjoy the way the pieces in minor keys sound. Jericho, The Stranger, Greensleeves, Scarborough Fair, and Raisins and Almonds were all challenging but not too bad.

But now...HOLY COW. Everything suddenly got super hard. I struggled through "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" but got it good enough that my teacher passed me. It's not as good as I would like, but I don't like the tune that much, so I'm OK with not working on it anymore . I started on "The Entertainer" last week, but I'm really hitting a brick wall with this one. I can play HS not too bad, but HT is darned near impossible. And my teacher started me on "Amazing Grace" today, which seems even harder.

It's very frustrating to be struggling so much now. A few weeks ago, I could play my weekly assignment HT within a couple of days, it sounded like actual music a day or two later, and within a week was pretty much polished.

On top of that, I practiced the bejesus out of "Moonlight Sonata", then I totally bombed it in my lesson today . A couple of days ago, (at home alone of course!) I played it the best I've ever played it...it just flowed so well and felt so smooth.

GRRRR! I know it will get better, just needed to vent a little. Thanks for listening!

Hi All,

I liked Scarborough Fair with the arpeggios in the left hand. I didn't think Greensleeves was very exciting with the LH block chords. Then I saw a version of Greensleeves with the same melody in the RH but arps in the LH (actually it was in a different key but I scanned it and transposed it to the same key as Alfreds).

It was a lot harder with arps than block chords but I kinda got it after much practice and thought some might be interested in how it sounds so here it is.

Greensleeves with arps - Ed

This was recorded using a TASCAM DR07 and my old Hamilton.

Ed

Hello beginners,

I bought my first (digital) piano a week ago, it's a Casio CDP-100 and as soon as I installed it in my room I took on Alfred's AIO Book #1. I'm currently at page 36 and things seem to be going pretty smooth but sometimes I have trouble with coordinating my fingers with the correct key on the piano.

Hi, I am new on this forum and also behind the piano. I studie piano for e few months and worked to book 3 oh the thomson method. It is kind of borring because a lot of it are child numbers. I would like to play more adult stuff. After reading a lot in this topic I think I have to order a Alfred book also. But I think ordering level 1 is not needed. I think thomson did cover that part. But from what level should I order. Level 2 or 3. I cannot take a peek into the books because I order them online in Holland. Who can give advice.

Chris

i'm using this series too. stuck on F chord cos been too tied up with work to practise. i must get a move on quick. :-P

I was just wondering today that after we complete book 1, we will feel confident enough to try learning our favorites pieces? or we will have to go through book 2&3 to accomplish that?

Hi everyone,
I just got my copy of Alfred's on Friday. Been working my way through it -- up to Lavender right now. I've been messing around with my cheapish 76-key (unweighted) Casio since November and just bought a used upright acoustic a couple weeks ago. My primary instrument has been guitar, which I've been playing for about 10 years, so I have some basic theory down since I do a fair amount of songwriting. But working through Alfred's is my first real experience with sight-reading (aside from a basic keyboard course I took in college years ago).

I think I'm coming at piano playing from a different angle than most on these forums. My overall goal is to just play some basic accompaniment in the vein of McCartney/Lennon/Dylan but I figure going through one of these self-teaching courses to "play properly" can't hurt. And I was a bit surprised how much fun I've been having playing these silly little tunes.

-Luke

Welcome to all new members in this thread!




See this thread
After Alfred's level 1


I started "Cafe Vienna". The eigth interval in the end is not easy to play.




You are in the right way, have fun learning piano with Alfred.

Thanks fliper, I read the thread you pointed out and it really helped me deciding where will I go after I complete Alfred's book 1.

I've noticed that quite a few people reporting Alfred's books being boring.......my view is so what?!

By that I mean, when starting out, I'm not capable of playing anything "interesting" anyway. I look at the songs as exercises that have some melody (vs scales etc (and yes, I do practice scales and exercises)).

I'm going for training my fingers, learning to sight read and learning about how music is put together (looking at the songs from the perspective of my Idiots Guide to Music Theory book). The reward will be down the road when I get good enough to play the "good" stuff.

The challenge at this time is to take these simple little songs and see how much feeling/musicality I can put into them with my limited skills.

Just havin' fun.....

Jim

Jim

These tunes are not boring at all. They are very very interesting and exciting, if anybody says these tunes are boring then they should try something less boring like dominoes or bingo. ho ho ho

I don't think anyone is saying throw the book away it is useless. I'm still working through the book but a lot of the choices of music are poor to be honest, not in how they are arranged but if in a few years time i'm at an advanced level and someone hands me an advanced copy of On top of old Smokey, i'll refuse it. Just songs i have no interest in or will i ever have an interest in. I still learn them though, as they serve a purpose.

I also have to say, the all in one book has some nicer pieces towards the end, such as The entertainer, Singing in the Rain and a few others so it's not all bad.

You're giving me hope!

I think this is incredibly important! Just hitting the notes is only the very very beginning of music. When I was just starting out, I took my book of fairly simple tunes to one of the music teachers at my school and asked him to show me how a particular piece went.
He played it absolutely beautifully, note for note as written, and I went home and tried to do likewise. I've gotten better, but I have yet to play it as well as he did at first sight.
It's not what music you play, but how you play music that's the key.

I actually enjoyed most of them. LOL

I agree about the tunes not being boring. A few of them are, but all of the major tunes (the ones that are hard before the next few easy pieces show up) all are quite fun.

Then again I'll be on Chiapanecas soon, so we'll see what I think then. :p

Am I moving through the book too fast? I got the book on Friday, and last night I got through BTMD error-free at good tempo. I'm asking because I've read this entire thread, and I see people taking weeks on each page. What I do is practice the current song until I can play it a few times in a row at decent tempo mistake-free. Then move on to the next (and reveiwing a few of the older songs each day). I even started second-guessing myself, thinking maybe I'm concentrating so hard playing the song that I'm not noticing mistakes. So this morning I recorded BTMD so I could just listen to it and it sounded good (well, as good as it could sound on my cheap casio. My piano tech has the action of my acoustic in his shop reshaping the hammers).

I've been playing around with piano for about 5 or 6 months up until getting this book, playing mostly chord accompaniment stuff (like "Let it Be", "Imagine", my own compositions), so I'm not coming at the book totally cold. Playing with both hands isn't totally foreign to me, and I've played guitar for 10 years. But I don't want to go through the book so fast that I miss something. But once I have a piece down, what more is there to learn from it? Isn't that the right time to move on to the next?

Those of us who took weeks on a page were also working until we could play it a few times in a row, at tempo, mistake free. LOL Of course, a teacher would say that you should be able to make it sound musical too. It sounds like you are doing great. You will slow down when you reach a level that is difficult for you. For now, just enjoy your progress.

+1 Mom3Gram. Luke, if you're playing a piece correctly and to tempo go on to the next one. If you come across a piece you really like (there're several nice ones towards the end) then work on it to make it sound very nice. But otherwise just go along at your own pace. We all have different musical backgrounds and experience and practice durations so it's natural that we will progress at different rates. It sounds like you are doing fine.

Hope you get your acoustic back in shape soon. Since I got mine, I hate to play my digitals :-)