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

Thanks Earl, is there any reason they don't put the f in there?

I remember earlier in the book they would have the notation of the level you would have to both begin and start on.

I cannot really answer why there maybe an inconstancy with this book, but is not unusual in music scores to find the crescendo and decrescendo symbols without any dynamic (volume) indications. Really it is an indication to get louder or softer but to no definite volume, however logic would dictate you would go up/down a notch from the last indication. When there are directions either at the start or end can be the editor or composer making a strong statement as to their wishes.

OK, "finished" with Saints and the next page moves to the "G-position" for my hands. I think I need to sleep on it before I can mentally make that switch. I know I need to be able to play all over the keyboard, but this is very different than the "C-position" I have been playing so far. Streeeettttcccchhhh!

Dru, I really was scared to move to G position, but it is much easier than you think.

I finally got to play without mistakes 'Beautiful brown eyes'. It is interesting, it looks like such a simple song but when I tried to play it at first, there are some parts where I just blocked and had no idea how to play it. I had some troubles playing correctly the third measure of the first and third lines. However I moved to 'Alpine Melody' and played it without mistakes in a few minutes.

Thanks. I will be working on that section soon. I suppose I didn't know "C-position" a couple weeks ago, either.

OK, I just got to Page 54 and after completing "Money Can't Buy Ev'rything" they tell me I am ready to begin "Greatest Hits, Level 1"

Is that a chapter in this book? Is that a different book?

Dru, that's a separate book. Search for it on Amazon and you can see some of the songs contained in it.

You're really plowing through the first part of the book! Good work!

Hello! I am new to the forum and a beginner. I started lessons in february and I'm ploughing through Alfred's first book, working on Brown Eyes and Alpine Melody.

This thread is great. Thank you all, current and former users of this method book, for sharing frustrations, problems and progress. I can confirm that new hand positions become easy with practice.

I wonder if I am moving too fast. I play all pieces well, that is not a concern. But I am not sure I would continue recognizing all chords easily or immediately after covering more material at this speed. I go back in the book almost every day, I recite in my mind the notes in each cord and make a concious effort to read chords, not just breeze past them. Someone mentioned somewhere the tension between sight reading and memorizing a piece...

Now I am forcing myself to read the intervals, as someone here and my teacher suggested, and taking on additional pieces to learn and play. Thanks a lot for the Greatest Hits tip!

You are right where I am. I think the "both thumbs on middle C" is coming up soon. From basically zero a few weeks ago to this point, I feel so accomplished. Lots of fun, and even my wife doesn't think it is annoying to listen to.

Wow, that Alpine Melody has me all messed up, switching hands again. Usually when I get that way, taking a break and trying again tomorrow, I am much better.

Also, realizing that the single melody notes played with the left hand are from the same chord that the right hand is playing helps, as I can get my hands on the chord at the beginning of the measure.

That chord hitting only beat two of a 3/4 measure is throwing me, but once I can hear it in my head, the hands are not too far behind.

I love getting to parts where I am stuck, as it feels so good to get through them.

This weekend I have been working on Standing in the Need of Prayer, Alouette and Lavender's Blue. I think Alouette is easy, the two others are a bit more tricky for me. I really enjoy playing Standing in the Need of Prayer.

Silvia, I also find going back to previous songs in the book a good idea. I didnt do so at first until I realised that songs I didnt play for many days, I made many mistakes when trying to play them after some time and had to learn them again, much quicker than the first time though. But it made me think how weak is my "piano memory" at this point, so started to bookmark all the tricky songs played so far, and at the end of my practise time, I try to play most of them at least once. I think it is a very good exercise.

Great idea. I think when I get to the level where I can play the "Greatest Hits", or perhaps after actually finishing this first book, I'll go through a bunch of those and keep them in my playing repertoire to keep my chops up. I'd rather play full songs rather than the short, one page songs we are getting in the lesson book.

Congratulations to all of you working your way through Alfred's! I started lessons in April 2013, off, on, off, etc, etc. Picked up Alfred's again after a long while and see that tunes are a lot easier and the lessons are clearer for me to understand. I went through Happy Birthday once. It's fun now being able to at least pick these tunes out of a lineup. Makes me feel a bit accomplished.

Jorge. I agree with you, Alouette is easy. Amazing I would say that. My teacher has me adding chords to Skip to my Lou and it is proven to be quite a challange.

BSW my teacher is the same way. I will pass a song after working on it for a week and then she will add some interpretation that she wants me to perform and I'll be "stuck" working on it for another week. Its fun though, some of the things she adds really make the songs more interesting to play and listen to.

Blackjack you are right. It does make what seems like an easy tune much more interesting. Plus I am learning more theory.

My teacher has promoted to On Top of Old Smokey and The Can Can. I'm very happy to be moving out of the blues after being in that section for the last month. I think I was actually starting to get a little blue!!

I learned Standing in Need of a Prayer, moving on tonight. It seemed relatively easy, especially after listening to it on Youtube first. Figuring out how a piece HAS to sound is not always easy, even with these simple tunes at the beginning of book one.

From now on practicing will become harder. I am working full time again after a maternity leave of 10 weeks. With a toddler and a newborn my hands are always full, literally. Now the only time to do it is late at night. I must figure out who invented headphones. They rank on the same level with sliced bread for me.

Interesting idea about adding chords to a RH-only piece. Do you have to figure them out on your own or do you get guidance?

Yesterday I started with London Bridge, Row the Boat, and had a quick look at Blow the Man Down. So many new things in a few pages! London Bridge tells you to move right hand one key to the right. For me that little thing supposes a really big change, my brain still thinks my hand is in the C position, so I press the wrong keys all the time. I have some bad habits, like associating a finger with a note, and now I am paying for it. I think the best way for me by now is to think your hand is in a different position for this song, not in C.
Another difficult thing for me is to separate the brain to handle the two hands differently, and in Blow the Man Down it starts to be an important part, but I find that skill much more enjoyable, so eager to practice it.

30 years ago, I realized I was not going to be able to memorize a piece of music, just a mental deficit there, so this time around I went for sight reading, and have worked on it for a year before getting back to a work book. The end result is I have a pretty good connection between the sight of a note on the page, and the sight of the eqivalent pattern on the key board. So, now starting one of the Alfred's books, I have to keep alive this connection, which I found threatened by the finger number thing.

The upshot of all this, is that I move my hand into the keyboard a bit to feel the black keys, like the blacks on each side of the D using the outside fingers. And the image of the key board is in my head irrespective of where my fingers land. This is also what I have been doing to try to learn the position of keys without looking at the keyboard, something I am really going to need to speed things up as I am not going to have pieces memorized, and looking back and forth, from page to keys just won't allow speed.

So, is this an idea, feeling the keys, or is this a crazy idea and just a dead end? Hmm, if we are all beginners here, maybe I won't get an educated reply on this.