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

Troubledclef, you will get many more answers if you ask this question as a separate thread. However my take on this problem is always to work on problem areas of a piece first. There may be more than one causing concern so I would split the piece up and just work on those for a while before learning the whole piece and playing through. I am nearing the first year of learning so pieces I take on can have as many as four problem areas. I work each of them in isolation before attempting to put them together.

There are of course pieces where the problem is just an overall one. O Sole Mio says that it is a new style of bass so if that is your problem then practice very slowly (rushing only ingrains mistakes) with hands separate and then hands together. This can take days or even weeks before eventually it feels more natural.

A classic mistake is to play from the beginning to your problem area and then almost come to a halt or start making mistakes and then start from the beginning again and repeat until frustration sets in. All you are doing here is practicing what you know already and not working on the problem.

Have a look at this link and see if it also benefits you

http://fundamentalkeys.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4

Hello, everybody. I'd like to announce that I have finished book 1 and have now moved on to Alfred's 2. It took me 2½ years to finish book 1 which seems to be longer than most people, but I have finished it, and I am proud.

The good news is that the first couple of songs in book 2 are a lot easier than these bonus pieces at the end of book 1. In fact, I am told that if you can do the bonus pieces in book 1, then you can handle anything in book 2 So those bonus pieces lay a good foundation for future learning.

To summarize:
I had no teacher.
It took me 16 months to get through the original ending of book 1 - (Amazing Grace).
It took me another 14 months to do the 5 bonus songs at the end.
I practiced on average about 5 times a week, 2-3 times a day for short periods 5-15 minutes.
It would have benefited more by practicing for longer periods in one sitting, which is what I started to do lately.

So, I want to wish good luck to everybody here, and I hope to see you in the Alfred's 2 thread in the future.

Congratulations, Johnny! It took me two years also, and I didn't have those extra bonus pieces to deal with. I'm still not done with Book 2 after another 2 years. I'm slow but I'm determined. Good luck with your new book.

Thank you, mom3gram. Hopefully, both of us will be finishing book 3 in the future.

Congrats, Johnny D, it is an accomplishment. I hope to join the graduate ranks someday. Right now pedaling still has me cringing...

Thanks, ajames, and I'm with you about pedalling. It's like once you learn the song, you have to learn it again, except this time with the pedalling.

Actually, I'm still polishing up Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas while I attack the new book. The pedalling on that song is a real pain, but I have to admit that it sounds really good on the last line.

These jazz songs tend to only sound proper if you play with the jazz rhythm. That is, you are playing the long-short-long-short eighth notes, instead of strictly following the notation. This is even recommended at the bottom of the page (somewhere on one of the jazz pieces).

Congratulations Johnny and well done!! That's good to hear and you really should be proud of yourself. May be a while before I see you in Alfred's 2 thread - but I do intend to be there!!

Thanks Daniel for yr comments and yes that makes sense. I somehow doubt whether I'll ever quite master that jazz rhythm, but feel that if I can 'hear' the tune I'm trying to play then, for the time being, that feels like progress.

Today I had a piano lesson. Initially when I started (in March this year) I was sure I didn't want to have lessons - felt that wd put me under pressure and I don't want that - just want some help to learn to play the piano at my own pace for my own enjoyment. There's a Music School in a town nearby which has a coffee shop and I've gone there a couple of times recently and without any prior planning, I asked about piano lessons and one was arranged for today. The lady who teaches was very understanding - seemed happy to 'meet me where I am'. She suggested some books on scales etc - commented on posture and hand placement etc. I played 'Little Brown Jug' (very badly - it's a traditional piano and the keys felt so much heavier than my Yamaha) and she made some helpful comments, but also commented that I was doing 'nothing wrong'. She knew the Alfred course and made 'approving' comments about it. It was a half hour lesson - was enough for me. I feel comfortable with the teacher - feel that she understands what I want to achieve and seems happy to help me in that. I didn't feel pressured in any way - have left it that I'll make another appointment when I feel ready - not keen to have regular lessons at the moment - just want to get some reassurance as well as some guidance.

That sounds like a really good idea, angelsong. I don't like the idea of being pressured, either, but a lesson now and then would be a great help.

Thanks Moonraker - can't quite believe just how this teacher, and the whole setup at the music school seems to fit my requirements so well. It's almost on my doorstep and yet I didn't think it would be 'for me' - sort of assumed it was for 'proper musicians'!!

Congrats, angelsong....
Hope your teacher helps you learn alot.

Thanks rnaple - feel very hopeful about it - also grateful that this teacher seems just right for me for the time being anyway.

The most helpful part of my lesson on Thursday was when my teacher commented on the 'wrong' placement of my fingers when playing Little Brown Jug (F Major) - didn't get past the first line where there are harmonic (?) intervals. I was unable to play the interval 'b flat' and 'd' or 'e' with fingers 1/3 and 1/4, as show, so I improvised using 2 and 4-5. She showed me how to slide my fingers up the white key past the beginning of the black key, enabling me to play those intervals with ease. I have seen this explained in a video online some time ago, but had forgotten. This has helped me tremendously - makes sense to use the whole key and not just a couple of inches at the bottom.

I am so glad to read about everyone's success with this book. I have just begun my piano lessons last week, using Alfred's basic adult lesson book. I am at the very very beginning: still trying to strengthen my fingers, to work on my hand positions, and to read notes. They are hard, but all your success stories have motivated me to try even harder. Thank you for sharing them.

PS, what is the different between the basic version and all in one lesson?

Thanks :-)

Welcome yaoyao2m. I started in March this year with Alfred's Adult All-in-One Course which I think is excellent, so I'm not sure about other versions, but if you're having lessons your teacher should be a good guide to how you're progressing. Best of luck.

Welcome yaoyao2m! The all-in-one includes theory and technique (and a few more pieces, particularly a few blues and jazz) while the basic does not. With the basic book you can get separate theory and technique (and blues and jazz) books. That is my understanding anyway, I have the all-in-one.

Thanks. I think I will focus on the basic one for now. Having my third lesson today :-).

Thanks for the post. I found the article helpful, I am going to give it a try. It is hard to stay motivated when I don't see much improvement.