Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and All in One Adult Piano Course Book #2

Utkonos, I watched this video on tremolos, I guess it helped a little. I can't say I'm exactly happy with what I'm doing with it, but it's interesting to try. You have to be confident you can hit the chords first for sure. I have my next lesson on Tuesday, so I'll ask about it. I also thought I'd try playing the left hand chords staccato on the repeat just for something different.

Got the Chorale recorded this morning, the first couple of measures aren't as even as I would have liked, and I still need to bring up the tempo a bit. Also, I think the recording captures the left hand louder than it actually is in "real life" but this is another thing I'll ask my teacher about.

Had my usual Saturday lesson. Nothing new was assigned or look at out of Alfred's though. I played Schumann's the Wild Rider at the very end. That went well, but of course she pointed out some articulation issues which I'll work on. She mentioned that if I were to play in the upcoming recital, that she would want me to play that. There is a recital on an upcoming Sunday in June, however, I'll be flying back into town that day. I *could* make it, my flight gets in around noon and I think the recital is evening or late afternoon. Hmmm. Do I try to make it?

Lesson started with usual scale, triads, etc. Aâ™­ Major. Now we move on to Eâ™­ Major. After that was sight reading practice which went well. The new piece she assigned to me today was Sonatina in C Major (Op 36, No 1) by Clementi, first movement. She broke it down it parts (Expo, Dev, Recap) and provided a little history/background. This should keep me busy ;0

Wow lots of updates in here over the last week!

mom3gram Looks like you're making continuing good progress on Solace and starting La Raspa. I don't think I enjoyed La Raspa too much because after La Bamba I was getting really tired of all of the latin songs.

marko697 I like what you said about having the outside books. My progress in Alfred's #2 is a lot slower than I was expecting but I think part of it is I'm also working on Masterworks classics along with some other books outside of Alfred's, so it really take the pressure off. In regards to La Bamba, I actually found that song to be incredibly challenging even though it was a review song. The mix of rhythm, legato playing in spots, a mini scale, and on and off pedaling made it the most challenging song I've come across in Alfred's #2 so far.

Utkonos very nice to see an update from you, it has been a while! Thank you for the thoughts, it means a lot Night song looks like a really nice piece but it's going to take me a long time to get there! Regarding the tremolo, the best tip my teach gave me was to keep my hands extremely relaxed. If you stiffen up or get anxious trying to perform the tremolo it just doesn't work. Sorry I don't have anything more concrete. I know if I tried to go back and do the tremolo it would be difficult for me to learn all over again.

MeganR Chorale sounded awesome! I really enjoyed the melody and very nice trill at the end. Great job! I have a Bach book I bought but my teacher wanted to wait to work on it so maybe when it's time I can suggest Chorale.

bsharp I say try to go for the recital!! If you have never performed in one before it's a great opportunity to perform in public. I performed at my teacher's recital last year and I was the only adult and although it was nerve racking (and a little embarrassing to be the only adult) I really got a lot out of it. Search my previous posts and you should find a thread I wrote about it.

Ok so this is my update, I'm a bit delayed posting it...My lesson moved to Friday from Saturday so I'm now doing an early morning lesson before work. It seems to be ok so far although I did prefer my Saturday spot but my teacher needed to make a change.

I am still working on Introduction and Dance. It is turning our to be quite challenging and my teacher said it's not perfect yet I think one more week and I should have it completed. I'm trying to work on getting the scales contained in the song a little more smooth and polish the dynamics.

My teacher assigned Streets of Laredo so I'm going to work on hands together right off the bat because it looks pretty easy. (I'll probably regret saying that)

I passed a couple of more Dozen a Day Exercises and my teacher assigned a new one.

I'm still working on Chopin's Prelude in E Minor it's extremely challenging. I have about half the song hands together and the last half is still a very rough hands separate. I wanted to continue practicing hands separate but my teacher encouraged me to begin practicing the whole song hands together. We'll see how that goes. There are a lot of jumps and strange chords that are making it very difficult. I can see working on this for another couple of months. Might have bit off more than I could chew on this one.

I also passed myself on Melodic Tune by Kohler and I will take a break from Masterworks this week and just focus on everything else that I have going on.

Good luck to everyone and talk to you again soon!

Quick update

Can now play My Heart will go on from Greatest Hits Vol 2 from memory with no mistakes most of the time now.
Started on Solace a couple of days ago about 2/3rds through finding this one tricky,also still working through Masterworks Classics 1 and I am going to start on "Tomorrow" from Greatest Hits Vol 1.

Happy playing.

Good luck with "Solace", marko697. I'm still hacking my way through it, but it's getting better. I think I will take out my Greatest Hits book and check out "Tomorrow". I haven't played out of that book for a while.

Thanks mom3gram, I have had the Greatest Hits Vol 1 and 2 since I started thought it was time I tried a few of the songs, to be honest I had looked at My Heart will go on lots of times in the Vol 2 but never felt ready to learn it. Pleased that I finally have. Keep chipping away at Solace I'm sure it will all click for me and you soon ;-)

Hi blackjack. I signed for the recital. It should be interesting. I'll have about 4 hours to prepare for it upon returning from the midwest ;0 I'll be playing The Wild Rider by Schumann.

I don't think you'll have any problems with Streets of Laredo. I'd say start with both hands, maybe even look at it as a sight reading exercise, just go slow

I'm rather looking forward to Streets of Laredo, that song actually has an interesting history and is related to St James Infirmary.

I had a great lesson tonight, and passed Light and Blue. So now on to Hungarian Rhapsody, which also looks like fun - she had me sight read the right hand a couple times and thought I'd do fine with the left hand on my own.

I also passed the Chorale and we agreed I'd try one of the Marches next. I didn't have any particular preference, so she picked the March in E Flat, BWV 127 since she had just had me working on my E Flat scales, it seemed appropriate. I think this piece will take me a while, it has trills and triplets and repeats oh my. I'm going to keep playing the Chorale though because I like it so much.

And to cap it, I'm moving onto a new Sonatina, Beethoven Sonatina in G which to be honest I was already noodling around with because I was getting kind of bored with the other one.

So it looks like I've got my work cut out for me although next week may be a not as consistent in the practice department as I'm going back east to visit my son, daughter in law and most especially my granddaughter. My son is a guitar teacher and thinks he'll be able to borrow a keyboard of some sort for me - he did the last time I was there and that worked out ok, so fingers crossed.

bSharp[C]yclist, that's great you decided to do the recital. Sounds like fun!

Hello everyone, just spending the first part of Memorial Day reading through the updates in the thread since the last time I visited.

bsharp Awesome! Even though you're going to have limited time to prepare I think it will be great fun and good experience for you. I looked up the Wild Rider sheets and it looks like a challenging piece, a very nice selection for your first recital piece! I wish you luck and I can't wait to hear how it goes.

MeganR Congrats on passing Light and Blue, Chorale, and your Sonatina! You have been very busy!!

As for my update this week, I had my usual lesson on Friday and my teacher passed me on Introduction and Dance which I was very thankful for because I was getting tired of it to be honest, although the extra week of practice did really make it sound a lot nicer.

I have hands together on Streets of Laredo and will probably pass it on Friday if all goes well. It is a lot simpler than all of the previous pieces. So it's a nice little break.

I passed a technical exercise in my Dozen a Day book and was assigned a new one.

Also, I now have hands together on my Chopin prelude that I've been working on since mid April I will begin increasing the tempo and probably work on the dynamics starting next week.

Since my teacher did not assign a new Alfred's piece, I'm going to start in on the next little piece from my Masterworks called Andantino by Louis Kohler. It looks relatively easy as well.

I hope everyone enjoys their week practicing piano and I hopefully will check back in here again very soon.

Thanks, blackJack. Glad to hear Streets of Laredo is going well. It is a relatively easy piece, compared to the pieces before it. For Andantino, see if you can sight read it. Seriously, give it a try ;0. Your right hand is always in C position. Your left hand the same, the only subtle part there is dropping down slightly for the inverted G major broken chord. Start real slow and let the interval between notes guide your fingers. Look through the sheet first and play with your fingers on top of the keys before actually playing it. My teacher has me do that for the sight reading exercises. Or maybe you already practice like that ;0 I think you could have it done by the end of the day!


For the recital, I actually changed the piece I'll do. I'm instead going to do Menuet in G Major, the one from the Masterworks Classics Level 3 book. I probably made it harder for myself, but I think this a more elegant piece and harder to play musically, at least for me. I'm also more familiar with it since having started to learn it back in February. Right now I'm working on being able to start from every fourth measure (from memory), starting backwards. My teacher suggested that. During practice this past Saturday I made slip in between measures 13 and 16 and she asked that I start from 13. I found it very difficult. My muscle memory is so reliant on starting from the beginning! ;0

As for the rest of practice, we did play through the Menuet several times and discuss recital formalities such as what to wear and how to bow ;0 We ended with working on Sonatina in C by Clementi, which is going well. It will take me time to get it up to the marked tempo, but I can play it pretty solidly at a slow speed.

bsharp, thanks for the tips on Andantino. Even though this was good practice for sight reading I will still need a week or so to learn it and make it sound nice. I got through the first 3 lines somewhat roughly, but the 4th line is just to difficult for me and I'll need to practice it.

I think the Menuet will be nice. When I did my recital I practiced the piece from various starting points and for me part of the reason was in case I had a memory slip I would have somewhere nearby (hopefully) place where I could pick up. Good luck I think Menuet will be a nice piece for your recital.

Yup, I remember that I think it's tricky because it's all of a sudden 3,1,3 in the left hand, instead of 5,3,1. So my teacher would tell me to start with those 4 measures first, do it again, then start from the beginning. Or more precisely, play from measure 13 to end, then from 9 to end, then from 5 to end, and then from beginning to end.

Alright, it's gotten a little quiet in here this week.

I had my lesson this morning and now I'm goofing off at work on piano world instead of actually working!

I had a good lesson. I passed Streets of Laredo and she even laughed and said it was a much easier piece than everything else we've been working on. To those of you looking forward to this piece I think you will enjoy it and it will be a nice 1-2 week exercise for you.

I was assigned the next piece which is Plaisir d'Amour which will sound familiar to those of you that know Elvis songs. (Can't Help Falling in Love)

I also made some nice progress on my Chopin piece to the point where I'm going to be working on dynamics and rubato. I'm very excited I've even made it this far on it because of all the difficulties in just learning the notes, chords and rhythms.

I didn't pass my technical piece in my Dozen a Day book so I will continue working on this for the next week.

Also, I'm still working on Andantino from Masterworks 1-2, I need to finish the last few measures and then put the dynamics in. I think I will get it done this week.

I hope everyone has a great piano weekend!

I could not take Guantanamaro any longer. So, even though still I forget to hit the pedal half the time and move in fits and jerks, I said the heck with it and went on to Theme to the Overture from the opera Raymond.

I like this piece much better, and it seems much easier. Plus, Ripley, my pickiest cat and the one who came to sit beside me when I played everyone else's recital mp3s, actually came into the room and sat listening to me practice, which she doesn't normally do. This tune sounds very familiar, wonder where I heard it. Though I seem to remember it played really dramatically, without the staccato. Not familiar with the opera, and the silly part of my brain keeps insisting it's from an operatic version of Everyone Loves Raymond.

Sort of wishing I had a teacher now, to point out all the places I am messing up that I don't know about yet.

Lesson yesterday went well, although we still aren't doing anything out of Alfred's. This past week I focused on Menuet on G for the recital and Sonatina in C Major by Clementi. I can play the Sonatina well at a slow tempo (about 60 for 1/2 note). The sheet suggests between 88 and 100. It will take me a little time to get up to that.

Inkwolf, I know what you mean about Guantanamera. It didn't take long to get to the point where I couldn't stand it. I did manage to get it to a reasonably acceptable standard, although it didn't sound all that musical. "Theme from....Raymond" was definitely easier, and more interesting to play. Don't look now, but there are more Mexican ones coming up. LOL!

Ha ha ha, I have no intention of building a wall to keep out Mexican music. ^^ (Oh, looked it up, it's actually Cuban.) I think the problem is that I've heard this song as elevator-type muzak all my life, a million times and never really cared about it, so it seems horribly tedious. It got to the point where I would only practice fun stuff and sight reading for days, thinking "I really ought to pick up Alfred's again...but....Guantanamera is lurking there waiting for me."

So now, back to lessons! ^^ The Girl from Ipanema is probably also lurking somewhere in those pages, and is likely to give me the same sort of mental resistance...

I passed myself on "Theme from Solace" today. It's not perfect, but I think as good as I'm capable of. "La Raspa" and "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" are a lot easier, and I should be able to pass on those sometime this week. I also reached #42 on the 40 Piece Club - mostly because my pieces, except for those in Book 2, are mostly really easy. Now is the time to really hit the "Greatest Hits" and the "Pop Songbook" and try some of the ones that I think I might like but have been afraid to try.

I really liked Guantanamera! I guess we all have our personal tastes, haha. If it helps any, Ipanema is in Brazil. Think of yourself on a beautiful Rio beach.

I have to agree with MeganR on Guantanamera, I think it is one of the prettiest songs in the Alfred's review section. I think once you get all of the rhythm, pedal, and dynamics really polished it is fun to play and has a really nice melody and rhythm to it.

Try giving it a rest for a few weeks and coming back to it. I know it took me 4 to 5 weeks working with my teacher to get it completed so it is definitely a challenge. But it's worth the effort and I think it's a good review of rhythm, pedal and dynamics all within one piece. Besides you'll have La Bamba coming up soon and that one in my opinion is even more difficult than Guantanamera.