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Alex

I made the right decision when I changed teachers. My new teacher is very demanding but I am finally making progress. It has only taken me 8 months to unlearn all the things I was doing wrong! He does not let me get away with anything! Good news is that I am starting a complete piece, not just a page from one of the lesson books. I am starting Sonatina Op 36 No 1 by Clementi. Nice piece. I know it will take me a while as I continue to work on pieces from the Faber series.

Your recording of Wonderful World is very nice. Brings back memories as most pieces do.

I listen to all the recordings and think, I must add that to my list of to do's.

Wow! Getting lots of activity on this thread again, I love it!

Alux, glad you enjoyed my Bach piece. I have Air on my list along with a Polonaise I found that looks pretty challenging but also within the realm of possibility of being able to master it.

I think you should be in good shape with "House of the rising Sun", "Sakura" & "Waves of the Danube" for when your teacher returns I found those three to be some of the more "relaxing" pieces to learn and thoroughly enjoyed Sakura, I felt like I was in a swanky sushi bar.

BSW I listened to a version of that Sonatina you're going to learn and it's very nice. I think I will add that to my list.



My lesson went well this morning. I passed Divertimento in D so my teacher has moved me on to Brahm's Lullaby and also Lonesome Road. I know I will be traveling a few days next week so my progress may be slow. The Lullaby has some tricky rhythm places but Lonesome Road looks relatively easy.

I'm still plugging away on my Bach in D Minor. I've got it about 3/4ths completed and should have the rest completed by next week and then start on some polishing of it.

I don't know what my problem has been the past couple of weeks but I've had to break out my metronome due to problems with both Divertimento and also Bach Minuet in D Minor.

My teacher also mentioned the end of the year recital and some other performance opportunity so it looks like I will begin preparing for those as well. I think she has it in her mind that I should play my Chopin Prelude. I'm not so sure about that...I can only get that played through correctly about 70% of the time so it is definitely one of my lower "reliability" pieces and that's when I'm playing alone in my own home with no one watching!


Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!

Back after the summer break and I've been able to pass almost all except for "Mexican Hat Dance" which is almost there (need a bit more speed). Actually "La Bamba" wasn't good enough but neither of us feel excited about it so we decided to move on. Now I've been added "Introduction and Dance" and some short etudes.

Have a productive week everyone!

By the way Daneel Olivaw, you were asking whether there was any more original keyboard music in the book, apart from "Bourlesq", and it turns out that the version of "Ballin' the Jack" in the book is almost the same as the chorus in the original sheet music. It is in the same key with the same right hand, but some notes have been taken out of the left hand. (Nevertheless, I am still finding it extremely difficult!)

Thanks Utkonos! I guess it's reasonable to assume that these pieces nearing the end of the book will be have more complex arrangements and be more 'interesting'! Still a long way to get there myself but good luck with it!

Got past La Raspa at my lesson today, yay. We both decided that skipping Jolly Good Fellow would be the thing to do - I could not generate a single ounce of enthusiasm for it. So no break for the wicked, meaning it's the Mexican Hat Dance for me.

I've had a few personal/family challenges come up the last couple of weeks, so although I didn't slack on practicing, I don't feel that I made vast quantities of progress on the Beethoven or the March. My teacher gave me a couple more things to try, and encouraged me to keep chugging. Luckily, I am not even close to getting tired of either piece so chug I shall do.

MeganR congrats on La Raspa looks like you're almost done with all of the Mexican themed songs. I felt the same about Jolly Good Fellow although my teacher made me learn it. I've got Hokey Pokey coming up in a few pages and I'm not too thrilled with it...

Good luck the March and the Beethoven those will come along too I'm sure. I've been traveling a lot for work so although some of my Alfred's pieces are doing ok, I'm very sluggish on this latest Menuet I'm working on.

I did have my lesson this past Saturday. We focused mainly on the piece (I Giorni) that I'm supposed to do at the end of this month in a recital. There are various anchor points throughout the piece that I need to be able to pick up from and play on cue (in case I space out during the recital coming up in less than two weeks) We also talked about Bourlesq, since it appears in Volume 2 and in the Alfred's Masterwork Classics Level 3 book. It's a fun little piece to play. I was able to get a recording of it. I was also given the RCM 3 sheet for the third part (Vivace) of Clementi's Op 36, No 1.

Saddly, I'm on the other side of the continent again helping my family. My mother is very ill and I fear she will not be with us much longer

bsharp I'm sorry to hear about your mother's health issues and I hope that your visits with her over he next weeks will be comforting for her. My thoughts are with you and your family. Hopefully your piano music will bring you some peace when you return.

bSharp, very sorry to hear this. Hope everything turns out in the best possible way for both of you.

On a more trivial matter, I passed "Mexican Hat Dance" but "Introduction and Dance" still needs more work, although I have to admit that it's a pretty enjoyable tune. I like the fact that the left hand isn't as monotonous as it usually is in these pieces, and the allegro part is quite a feat to get it right (and of course, I'm nowhere near at playing it at that tempo)

Got also assigned a fragment of Burgmüller's "La Candeur" study although my current level won't allow me to do much more from that book for now. And then a simplified arrangement (Bastien) of "March Militaire". Enough to get me entertained for the rest of the week!

I had my lesson yesterday. I had to push it out from my normal Friday slot since I was on business travel for work. Unfortunately I've had a lot of that lately.

My teacher passed me on Brahms' Lullaby but held me back for another week on Lonesome Road. She wanted me to add some special phrasing and dynamics. She told me she could have passed me but wanted me to make the song more interesting and use some other skills she had taught me previously. I like that she is strict in that way.

I also miraculously passed a 16th note exercise in my Dozen a Day book which she wanted me to play allegro. I'm terrible at playing patterns and sixteenth notes quickly. I'm just not very fast or coordinated. I was very happy about this.

My Bach piece is coming along nicely I have it hands together and I only have one little spot where I need to correct the rhythm so I will get to work on dynamics next week.

Hope everyone has a good week!

I had my normally scheduled lesson today. There weren't very many days between this lesson and my make-up lesson on Monday.

I did pass Lonesome Road and the Chromatic Scales in Alfred's so she assigned me the next piece which is Village Dance, but the rest of my material didn't turn out so well. I just wasn't feeling my normal self this morning.

My Bach piece is still suffering some rhythm problems so I will work with the metronome again this week and perhaps work on some dynamics. Last week she found 2 problems, one of which I corrected. The second is still lingering. In addition she noticed a new one so I have two areas to work on. 1 step forward and 1 step backward I suppose

I did not pass my dozen a Day exercise and will continue with it for another week.

Also, I'm back to working on my Chopin prelude because my teacher has entered me in a classical music festival where she would like me to perform it.

I don't have any details, but she did mention other adults will be playing and that is good because I've only performed once in public and it was at her recital and I was the only adult and will be the only adult again this year as well. That makes me feel very awkward!

I think I mentioned previously that I had found a piano group locally to play with. Well, now I plan to play it at a piano group meet up and hopefully having a little public performance experience before hand will be helpful to me. Public performance is definitely not my expertise!

Nice one blackjack. I still have resisted to performing in a recital but I think it'll happen sooner or later. Last year I didn't find the idea of playing Alfred's I material very exciting, in terms of 'showing off' but maybe at the end of this year things will be different. My original aim was being able to play something a bit more exciting in original form but I have to admit that some of the pieces in Alfred's II don't look so bad so who knows.

In my last lesson she also gave me lots of scores from Martha Mier, Kabalewsky and "Dances Baroque to Jazz" (Denes Agay) so I'm sure we'll find something in that pile of material

bSharp, sorry to hear about your mom, it's so difficult to go through this. I'm going through a similar issue with my Dad, who was just diagnosed with lung cancer. I've been spending as much time visiting them (5 hours drive) as I can the last several weekends to help. Dad also plays piano so we enjoy trading turns on the bench.

blackjack, good for you in braving another public recital!

Daneel, I'm sure you'll find something interesting in the stack of pieces your teacher gave you!

My teacher passed me on Mexican Hat Dance. Personally I don't think it was worth a pass but she wants to pull back on Alfred's and focus on other things. (What to do? I'll miss my Alfred's thread buddies) Anyway, she did end up assigning Tarantella but only because it's in 6/8, the same as the Beethoven Sonatina I've been working on. That sonatina I really enjoy but I'm having to work on getting synced with the metronome. For some reason I'm not quite getting the hang of it - I think the piece is coming along really well but I find myself either having to catch up to it or slow down for the beat. So work continues.

Also continuing work on the March. I'm struggling with getting the trills in this piece to sound good. I figure I'm up to about 25% "goodness" which is actually an improvment.

And - I'm going to start a new piece, which is a sort of new agey piece by David Hicken called Sekhmet. (Yes, the lion goddess!) It's totally different from what I've been working on and it's also pretty long. 6 pages I think. My teacher spent time in my last lesson starting to analyze the first page with me and is going to send me some more info about what she thinks the best fingering will be, since the score doesn't have any fingering marked.

Daneel Olivaw if you have a chance to do a recital I say to go for it because it is a good experience to find out if it's something you might enjoy doing more of.

For me, I've done one recital and it was a pretty good experience. My main goal when my teacher suggests these things is to use them as learning opportunities and even though I'm not that at ease performing in public I may eventually become excited if I do it enough times.

MeganR congrats on passing Mexican Hat dance. I hope you will still post in here occasionally even after you move away from Alfred's I've enjoyed keeping up with your progress.


I had my lesson today and I have to say that it didn't go that well I had been misreading a couple of chords in Village Dance so I will need to work on that for another week. Also I completely bombed my technique piece in Dozen a Day, and I think even my teacher was a bit surprised/disappointed because it's the second week I've been stuck on it.

My Bach Menuet is coming along. I fixed my rhythm errors and I am finally going to work on the dynamics and finish that up in the next week or 2. I guess that's the one highlight of my lesson.

Honestly, I feel like my performance at my lessons the last two weeks has not been that great.

I went to my first meet up with other adults in my area to play piano and I was so nervous. It went ok, I performed my Chopin prelude very tentatively but made it through. I will probably go again next month in preparation for the recital my teacher signed me up for.

Hopefully the next week or two go more smoothly.... I feel that the last couple weeks/lessons have been rough.

MeganR, congrats for passing Mexican Hat Dance. Have to admit I enjoyed doing it and likewise my teacher passed me on that even though it wasn't perfect. Coincidentally she gave me all this material to start doing other things besides Alfred, although I think in my case we'll stick to it for a while. Have to admit being a complainer about it but have to say I'm enjoying way more the latest pieces I've been doing, as they tend to be more complicated to the ones I was used to. I guess that many adults are a bit like this, wanting to do complicated pieces out of a feeling of urge or time lost.

blackjack, thanks for your advise, I guess that sooner rather than later I'll jump to it, as I don't want to miss any chance to improve in whatever way it is, and this is something my teacher told me to be worthwhile a few times. And don't be too hard on yourself. It's clear that business trips or other things that affect our routine sure don't help. I have a couple of short trips next month so will see how I manage myself!

On a personal note, last lesson went well. I passed "Introduction and Dance" which I really enjoyed doing and now I'm with "Plaisir d'amour" which I really like too. The first page is almost done but the second is a bit trickier as again it has some changes in the left hand. Good thing as this is what my teacher actually told me I need more focus. I was given a few etudes (Diabelli, etc) to work on that and try to improve reading, as I'm still far from fluent when it comes to the bass clef.

Then continuing with Burgmüller and Gavotte (Handel) which is a nice piece I already tried on my own when I got "Introduction to Moderns to Classics" so it'll be great revisiting it.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Daneel Olivaw, congrats on passing Introduction and Dance. I think you're now in a part of the book that I enjoyed. Plaisir d'Amour is a really nice one too. I think that's the one Elvis based his song on?

My teacher is out due to a death in her family so I've got a bunch of stuff that is queuing up. Right now I think I have Village Dance and Circus March pretty well completed and I'm in the process of learning Hokey Pokey (which is actually a lot more challenging rhythmically than I expected). Also, I think my Bach piece may be pretty much done as well. But I've got to wait for her to sign off on all of these things.

...So I'm going to have a lot of stuff just kind of in a holding pattern until she gets back.

I'm thinking of working on another Bach Minuet but I don't really want to do that until she has some input about it...

How does the Alfred All in One series compare to the Bastien series? I have Alfred tucked away somewhere but my piano (group) class uses Bastien so I'm sort of stuck with Bastien for a while. Alfred has 3 books while Bastien has 2, at first glance.

It's gotten eerily quiet in here. I will give a short update.

My teacher is still out due to a death in the family so I've been working on some pieces from Alfred's in preparation for her return later this week.

I'm getting ready for the festival my teacher signed me up for and also her recital in December so I've been trying to practice on a grand piano from time to time. I'm planning on playing my Chopin prelude, which requires extremely light chords being repeated under a very light melody so any difference in touch from my own upright at home is proving to be a real challenge. I'm hoping I can manage to get through the piece without completely bombing. I have so much respect for people that can play their pieces without worry in front of other people. I'm hoping that I will get better with at this ability as I continue learning the piano and that it just comes with experience, like everything else...

Hope everyone else is well and progressing.

I've been away for about 3 weeks now due to my mother's death. I'll be flying back to California tomorrow.

One thing related to Alfred's Vol 2 that I did awhile back was the following. Not sure if I mentioned it in this thread.

Bourlesq (SoundCloud) - Mozart - Masterwork Classics Lvl 3 or Alfreds Vol 2

It's a fun little piece. Looking forward to coming back