Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Recommended book for adult beginner

Hi Shey, two thoughts. I think you have the 1st edition of the book.... did you not purchase the videos that accompany that book? Those videos provided instruction and a demo for each piece. They are well worth the $2/$3 cost of each video especially if you consider many pay a great deal more for a single piano lesson with a teacher. I would encourage you to purchase those videos. Rachel is very detailed in explaining the elements of each piece. It would not be right for me to provide the demo not only would it be a duplicate effort of what has been done, but I could never play any of the pieces as well as she. I'm more than happy to give some tips and advice though.

Second, I really don't think it is totally necessary to hear what a piece of music sound like before hand in order to learn it. In fact, some teachers even discourage this. It is important to learn how to play something properly by reading the music only and not depend on learning by ear. Also, I have found that it is very unreliable to listen to another person playing something as a way to check if you've done it right. That's because we are never able to completely hear everything that is played for a more advance piece of music than what our skills are currently at. Remember, a new, more difficult piece, is by definition a bit more advance than our current skills. What you need is actually the reverse; for you to play it for someone else to check whether you've played it correctly. Another possibility and one you could actually benefit from a lot more if you recorded yourself on YouTube and post it here for others to comment on. I would be more than happy to provide some comments as well.

Thank you for your prompt reply. Yes I agree with what you suggest, but still a bit shy of playing for others to hear. How can I access the videos that goes with the 1st book? I had a look and they were in a listing in dollars a few months ago. Would I still be able to get then and pay in uk currency, pounds sterling? I can't even find that list now.
It is nice to hear the piece played correctly, whilst attempting it though.
Still, glad you are around to help.

Go ahead and post a comment on Rachel's website regarding your interest in getting the videos for the old book. I'll mention mention you when I see Rachel tomorrow. Please use the same username when you're at her website. Thanks.

The new book covers similar materials up to page 38 or so of the old book. The materials have been expanded with a lot of details and Rachel added a lot more written work, but I think if you already have the previous book, you'll be fine.

BTW, the updated version of the new book is for typos, so I wouldn't stress if you have the new book before the latest update.

Hi Shey, looks like the videos for the previous book are still available: http://fundamentalkeys.com/videos2.html. I've not used PayPal for non-US currency, but it looks like it's possible: http://www.wikihow.com/Pay-in-Foreign-Currency-on-Paypal

Disclosure: I don't get anything at all for recommending Rachel's books. I just believe she's a good teacher.

Thank you very much!

Dale

I am not sure what to make of the new FK Book 1. It's not what I expected but I should have read the descriptions more carefully. I thought Book 1 would have more of easier classical pieces for sight-reading purpose.

As we got it for $10 plus $5 shipping, it's not worth the trouble to ship it back for a refund so we'll probably gift it to someone. I suppose it would work okay for a true beginner but I don't see it being useful beyond a month or two at the most.

That's the problem these days. In ancient times we could go into a sheet music store and select what we wanted. Now what we see online is not detailed enough to make a correct buying decision on.

ONE way for beginners to hear what their exercises "should" sound like is to get familiar with some of the MANY software scoring and editing packages, export them as midi files and play those - assuming you have something that can play midi files, i.e. not tied to ONLY a physical wooden piano.
e.g. Musescore, lilypond, PianoBooster - many/most are freeware.

But isn't the playback highly limited, without the ability to indicate phrasing and similar expressive elements ??

I have freeware called Crescendo and yeah the playback ignores everything else but the notes and plays at the same volume throughout.