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

The Can-Can is a fun song. It requires quick movement with the fingers. You should probably try to learn it first at a rather slow pace and then increase it as it comes together.

I don't know if you are using the Self-Teaching version or a different version, but the Self-Teaching version has unfortunately taken out the exercise for the Leschetizky Solution which helps to build strength and agility in your fingers.

I found a free e-book about learning Leschetizky's method at
http://wwww.archive.org

"The Groundwork of the Leschetizky Method" at archive.org

"The Groundwork of the Leschetizky Method" - pdf file


If you wish to see the "Leschetizky Solution" exercise from a preveious version of Alfred's, go to http://books.google.com and search for Leschetizky Solution. You should be able to preview that exercise from the All in One book.

The Leschetizky Solution is also included in Alfred's Basic Adult Finger Aerobics - exercise book available from amazon.com which would be a good accompanying book, especially for self-taught students like ourselves.

Last year, I stopped at He's got the whole world in his hands, the recording wasn't as good as I wanted. I was thinking to re-record it, then it took me another year to get to it again...:) Here is my new recording. If it's nothing, at least it helps to bump up the thread:)

Have a great weekend to everyone!

Sounds pretty good, Wish4 Thing.

On the subject of He's Got the Whole World in His Hands, I like some songs like Go Down Moses and Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore, but I really didn't like playing Jericho.

what does everyone else think about all the religious music in Alfred's?

It sounds nice to me. Smooth play.


I liked "Standing in the need of prayer".

I am now in "O Sole Mio!" - page 124


Here are some more recordings I made. Any comment is welcome.

069 - Why am I Blue - 2012-03-04 v02.mp3 (new version trying to swing swing the eigths, as suggested by JimF in page 156)
http://www.box.com/s/cc1a9ipvy54oqiqsymo9

070 - Good People 2012-03-04 v02.mp3 (new version, trying to improve the old one. I am not happy with it yet. It is not smooth and musical as version of Wish4Thing)
http://www.box.com/s/h66t135mmvabec42xukl

071 - Little Brown Jug - 2012-03-04 v01.mp3
http://www.box.com/s/u7d501q0e6t3sqa3seby

072 - Chiapanecas - 2012-03-05 v01.mp3
http://www.box.com/s/uu01kndxs4kfb1tsskn7

073 - Auld Lang Syne - 2012-03-11 v01.mp3
http://www.box.com/s/524335oo3nk4j7hrs1ft

I think you're really improving a lot.

The new version of Why Am I Blue big improvement - it swings.

Little Brown Jug - was really good - I think it's one of harder songs.

I'm not familiar with Good People I don't have that one in the Basic Book.

Auld Lang Syne was smooth.

Good going!

Johnny D, what did you dislike about Jericho as compared to the other pieces?

I hadn't particularly noticed the religious songs as standing out to me. I think they're part of Americana, and picked to be part of the tapestry of tunes some of which will be familiar to people and others will be new, but in either case hopefully bringing some enjoyment.

Thanks for your comments and your encouragement. To me the harder part of "Little Brown Jug" was the jumps over the black keys with the right hand.

I once had to sing this song in Sunday School as a kid. I don't really like the rhythm of it or the pronounced minor chords.

For a religious song it sounds kind of pagan to me. It reminds me a lot of that heavy metal song, In-a-gadda-da-vida, that Bart Simpson got the organ lady to play at church.

Fliper - When you play Little Brown Jug, might I suggest that you try to put a little more emphasis on the first beat of the first full measure (the A,C in the bass clef and A note on the treble clef).

fliper,

Big, big improvement in Why Am I Blue. Good work. The swinging eighths make it sooooo much more interesting and musical.

Jim

Fliper, I listened to your Chiapanecas.

For the 1st part of the song it seems like you're not giving enough time for those quarter rests, e.g. the quarter rest in the 3rd measure is a bit short and as a result the following notes come in a little early. Playing along with a metronome or tapping your feet might help.

Your timing on the 2nd part of the song sounds good. However you need to make quicker the chord transition from C7 to F at the end of song (and also at the 2nd ending of the 1st part). The C7 is only a quarter note so it gets one beat and then the F that follows is the next beat.

Personally, I had a little trouble as well getting that C7 to F transition down, but with a bit of practice you should get it.

fliper, I really liked the sound of your recording/piano. Do you have an acoustic or digital piano?

I noticed your tempo seems changing a little bit with time in your playing (not the swing part!:), I wasn't sure if you did it on purpose or not? If yes, I think it's a good skill to have! if not, maybe metronome can help with a more steady tempo? I myself tend to play faster and faster without CD or metronome...


I have been reading through this thread from page 1, still have 20 pages to go:) Some of the fellow players didn't seem to like the bang bang bang part of this particular piece... for me, I was just trying to use it to practice how to control my left hand so I don't bang it too hard... I feel it was a good exercise for me...

Johnny D, interesting what you say about Jericho. The minor key and the rhythm are the parts I like best about it!

Thanks for your valuable comments.



Thanks. I agree with you about swinging eigths.



Thanks for your comments. My piano is a digital piano, a Roland FP-7. Analog outputs are connected to a small mixer - Mackie 402-VLZ3. Mixer is connected to the audio interface - Mackie Onyx Blackbird.

I just try to play as the book, without any changes. I agree with your suggestion to use the metronome or play along the CD (I think is a more fun). Until now I only use it very little, because I prefer listen the piece and try to play it later.

Similarly for me, while I am not too fond of the song When the Saints Go Marching in, I did feel it was a good exercise and well placed in the book in terms of progressing.

I'm currently practicing the song "Laura" from book one, but I was wondering about the best method of practice. My current method is to practice a new song till I can play the whole tune with about 10 percent errors. By then I'm getting tired and/or bored so I move on to the next song to keep up my interest. On the following days I practice the new song first till I get frustrated or tired and then go back to the previous song. I'm now practicing 10 songs. Actually, at least half of them I can play without mistakes so I play them only once or twice for review so I won't forget, but I know I can't keep doing this indefinitely because there won't be enough hours in the day to practice all the songs. Any suggestions?

I didn't particular like the constant bang of the chords in "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands" when I first started practicing it, but the better I got at playing the tune the more I could concentrate on the technique of varying the volume and/or duration of the chords along with the melody and now it's one of my favorite songs to play. I also, now use the same constant "bang" technique with the bass chord section of "Joshua Fought The Battle of Jericho". It was a little harder to learn, because of the syncopation in the melody section (bars 2,3,4,6) but once I got it down it made the song much more interesting.

Nothing in Alfred's Book 1 is going to be in your repertoire for very long. What I mean is - (depending on how fast you progress, of course) 6 months or a year or whatever from now, if someone asks you to play a song, you will almost certainly not pull out your Alfred's Book 1 and play something 10 or 15 pages or more back from where you currently are working. So IMO, there's no reason to keep practicing them that long after you've learned them. If you get a piece to the point that you can consistantly play it without errors at speed, it's time to drop it. To be honest, I never got any of them PERFECT before moving on, but I'm working with a teacher - my teacher would sometimes catch errors that I glossed over or didn't even realize I was making; or, conversely, decide to drop a piece and move on because she felt that I had learned the lesson of the piece sufficiently, even if I still thought it wasn't good enough. Nonetheless, even if you're working without a teacher, I say drop them when they are consistantly error free.

I more or less do the same thing except when I can play the piece pretty solid with the metronome I drop it and don't play it anymore. More or less just keep moving forward that way. I can tell when I'm improving and it seems to work better for me than sitting and working on one song at a time.

Wow, you have quite a fancy recording studio at home:) Nice!

I'm thinking to start video recording after Level 1 so I can try to correct my techniques as I did in my audio recordings... but I have no clue how to do it with an acoustic piano. After reading through other threads regarding this topic, I probably have to buy some new toys for that...



Hi, Johnny D, I finally finished browsing through all the 160 pages of this thread:) came across this post of yours that I missed...:) I think you are absolutely correct on that eighth note... I found this possibly original recording of Alfred's book online. It seems playing the eighth note as a fermata too? I'm curious if you have a different version of CD? Also with this version, second time in measure 4, it plays LH staccato, it doesn't sound correct to me either? I wonder how your version of CD sounds like... Thanks!