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bSharp that sounds very nice, I will be getting around to working on that one eventually!

Ok so I just got back from a business trip last night and decided to have my lesson today even though I really wasn't feeling that great.

I passed Village Dance and Circus March and also one of my Dozen a Day pieces.

This week I need to continue working on Hokey Pokey which I mostly have memorized and then she also assigned a short 4 bar piece called Chorale which is after Hokey Pokey.

My Bach still needs work so I've got some things to work on and I'm hopeful I will pass next week.

We also reviewed my Chopin Prelude and I played it pretty nicely considering I hadn't played it since last weekend before I left on travel. I'm also going to try and find a grand piano to play on this weekend to see if I can get more comfortable playing on that for the theme festival I'm playing in.

I've been thinking of maybe even trading in my upright for a grand but perhaps I'm getting carried away ...

So I had my first lesson today again in over a month. It was nice to be back. We had to discuss and remember where we left off

I started Part 3 of the Clementi Sonatina this week after returning to California (it was given to me right before I left for PA). We focused on that first, with me playing through it in front of the teacher. I'll need more time on it, but I was able to get through the whole thing slowly by reading it - of course there were many mistakes

We then discussed the I Giorni piece, played a few parts, discussed what could be changed, etc. I'll be playing it at the Winter recital in January and then again at Carnegie Hall in February.

My teacher wanted to see if any recordings could be done. I wasn't ready to do the first two parts of the Sonatina yet, since I essentially didn't play at all while in PA. We'll see if we can get that done next week.

I did however play Bourlesq (from Alfred's 2) for her and had it recorded with their new Zoom device Next two minor scales to work on are C Minor and F Minor and I'll be working out of the sight reading books I have now. I would also like to have her record the Menuet in G Minor. I seem to go off on tangents and try things she doesn't necessarily assign

Lastly, I asked that the lesson time be changed from 45 minutes to an hour.

The best decision you will ever make in your piano journey.

I passed Tarantella at my last lesson, such a short piece, and there were those moments when I'm sure my husband couldn't stand hearing me practice one more time. Anyway, I'm going to be taking a break from Alfred's for now so I can focus on the other pieces.

I can't believe I'm still working on that March, but the trills are giving me fits. I played the whole piece for my teacher last time and her advice was again to slow down, especially the 2nd section and also to pay attention to my breath right before the trills. When I started practicing with that, I realized I've been holding my breath and as soon as I started intentionally inhaling just before the trill ---- out popped a pretty darn good trill! So that was fascinating and also rewarding, which isn't to say perfection has been attained yet.

Almost done with the 2nd movement of the Beethoven sonatina, polishing pedal and dynamics now and the odd bit of spot practice in the sticky spots.

The Sekhmet piece (Hicken) is challenging not so much because the music is difficult, but because of the left hand broken chords - feels like big stretches for my hands. When I mentioned this, my teacher just said, she just barely clears 5' and has almost certainly smaller hands than I, so it can be done. I will bring up hand position and wrist movement next lesson because I am noticing that my left arm is getting a little sore sometimes when I play this piece so I'm sure I need to do something different.

MeganR it sounds like you're working on a lot of really challenging pieces certainly a much bigger work load than I could handle.

And don't feel bad about your march. I've been working on my Bach Minuet for close to two months now and I feel super slow and a little embarrassed that every week I'm posting the same thing on here along the lines of "Still continuing to work on my Minuet..."

I had my lesson today and I'm very happy to say that my teacher finally approved of my Bach Minuet in D Minor! It took me about a month and a half but it was really worth it. She made sure I had every little detail perfected to what she wanted which I appreciate because I would have tried to slide by and pass myself a long time ago if it weren't for her. I thoroughly enjoyed learning this piece.

I posted it to my sound cloud here. Please check it out if you have time. It is a short listen and is especially nice if you're in a contemplative mood.

Bach Menuet in D Minor

I also passed Hokey Pokey and Choral from Alfred's today, which both were very manageable compared to other things I've been working on. So I will be moving on to Night Song which I'm looking forward too, it's a nice little nocturne.

I also have a new Dozen a Day piece and will also start on another piece by Chopin.

I'm super excited to get started on all of the new pieces! I hope everyone else is progressing as well and look forward to seeing your updates soon.

It's verrrrry quiet in here lately...

Alright I will give my update for this week.

I'm working on Night Song which is actually quite interesting and a good challenge. Definitely more challenging than the last couple of pieces. I have hands together pretty well and need to work on smoothing a few things out, adding some dynamics and then adding the pedal. Overall I think I've made decent progress on it. I will probably start looking at Space Shuttle Blues this week and sneak it in before my teacher assigns it

I started in on my new Chopin Piece which is the very beautiful Waltz in A Minor. I got the first 4 lines hands together and will work on the next 4 this week. I'm really enjoying this one. It's a little bit easier than the Prelude I previously worked. I think it's at a good level where it's challenging but not overwhelming like the prelude was.

I'm also working on a Dozen a Day piece that is quite challenging as it has different chord progressions in both hands. After a week of practice I only got 2 measures completed!

Lot's of chords this week!

I'm also continuing to work on my Chopin prelude because I need to play that in a festival in November. I'm very nervous but my teacher told me I am ready and to try and remain calm. She actually told me to try some breathing exercises for my nerves. I will meet up with some other adult piano players this weekend and see how I do in front of an audience I'm not much of a public type person

I hope everyone is well and making some progress on their pieces.

I didn't want this thread to fall to page 2, so I'm bumping it up.

Blackjack, I see that you have been progressing well in Book 2, and also playing Chopin. Wow! That's awesome!

As a self learner, I'm moving lot more slowly. Plus, I've slacked off quite a bit on practicing in the last two months. No excuses, just lack of focus. I still manage to hit the keys for at least a few minutes every day, but not at all as much as I should/would like to. I've started "House of the Rising Sun" several times and just couldn't get into it. So lately, I've been practicing the previous three pieces, and have started playing Christmas music so that I can play several pieces (some old, some new) by Christmas. I've also re-started "House of the Rising Sun" AGAIN today.

Hi mom3gram,

Glad you bumped us up again, we keep sliding off the first page!

I think as long as you're getting to the piano everyday then you're doing great! My practice ebbs and flows but I have to keep progressing every week because I have to be prepared for my lesson each week. So to some extent having a teacher makes it easier to keep after it.

Good job on getting to House of the Rising sun. I really enjoyed learning that piece. I thought it would be simple but it actually took me some time to get it under my fingers...

Which Christmas pieces are you working on? The only one I have is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas from the first Alfred's and it's definitely a bit rusty.

I just got back from holidays this week and have to work on "Balling the Jack", "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" and "La Donna e Mobile" for next week.

I achieved a few piano milestones while overseas, since I got a chance to play a grand piano for the first time, and also a church organ. I also got a chance to dance "Balling the Jack", which is a lot easier than playing it!

Utkonos, nice to have you back in here on this thread. How did you feel playing the grand? I think it's really different from playing on the upright. Every time I have to play on a grand it takes me some time to adjust.


I had my lesson today. I'm continuing to work on Night Song it is almost there. I will also work on Space Shuttle Blues this week and try and get that under my fingers.

I'm getting very nervous for the recital I have to be in next Sunday. I'm working on my Chopin prelude and trying to keep it all together and perfect. I'm going to let you guys know how I do. I did go to a local meet up and play with some other adults and I did ok, no memory slips but I did hit a wrong note which was unfortunate. Its hard to play in public!

Honestly my progress this week was pretty slow. The Chopin Waltz I'm also working on was terrible progress this week. I think I maybe learned 3 or 4 measures so I will need to spend some time working on my practice habits this week. I just wasn't as focused as I normally am. I think I'm worried about the recital

The grand definitely felt good. The keys seemed to be more responsive but not too heavy. Are you playing a grand in the recital? I read in these forums that grand pianos have very heavy keys, but my friend says that this is just one particular make.

Night Song was not easy for me but I really enjoyed Space Shuttle Blues. There is a difficult bit when you are playing chords in parallel and then one of them contains a black key, if you see what I mean.

You are working on very sophisticated music! I am nowhere near the level where I could tackle those Chopin pieces. This weekend I found a lead sheet for "Silent Night" in B-flat and have been playing that.

Hi Utkonos,

That's interesting that the grand felt good for you, it was a difficult change for me at my recital last year. It was heavier and the keys place a lot of upward pressure on your fingers compared to my upright at home so it is a bit disconcerting at first and especially when you get nervous, like I do, performing in front of people.

I went to a couple of piano stores and played on some grands recently to try and get adjusted ahead of the recital. I will perform this Sunday. I'm very nervous

You're right about night song. I'm about 2 and a half weeks into it and it's finally feeling natural and sounding good. I think it has been more difficult than I expected. I started some of the notes on Space Shuttle Blues and I'm really enjoying this piece. I especially like that they mixed in some triplets along with swing rhythm, definitely makes it more interesting to play. It's nice to have a blues song thrown in every now and then.

You're getting close to the end of the book, are you considering to move on to Book 3 after you finish this book?

Well, we have eleven songs to go, and some of them look pretty hard, so I expect I will be in book 2 for several more months yet. Book 3 does not look very exciting. I looked at the contents, and it seems to be mostly repertoire and new keys. It also doesn't seem to be as linear as books 1 and 2. I have seen some of the music in the videos by Xiao Qin on Youtube.

I must have been lucky with that particular grand; usually I find it very hard to play a piano with heavy keys. On most pianos I find that every so often I will press a key and get no sound at all because I didn't strike it assertively enough.

Hi all,

I've been a bit disconnected between work and a couple of short trips, so my progress hasn't been great, but there was some at least.

I'm currently doing some pieces from the book "Dances. Baroque to Jazz" (Denes Agay) which I find really interesting. From that book I already passed Gavotte (Händel) and now I'm almost done with "The Bonny Lass" which is pretty enjoyable as well.

I'm also continuing improving the etude from Diabelli and Beyer so I hope to get some of these passed on the next class.

Other than that we're still continuing with Alfred's and doing "The House of the Rising Sun"

So this is it mostly. Progress is getting a bit slower given the greater difficulty of the pieces, but on the other hand it's also rewarding to be playing more "interesting" melodies!

Utkonos I looked through the 3rd one as well to see what was in there. I'm pretty sure my teacher will want to use it. I haven't discussed plans with her yet because I'm probably a year away from finishing the current Alfred's book. I can't believe it's taken me 1 year just to make it half way through this edition but it is what is. I'm maxed out on what I can do for practice both in time and from a physical perspective.

Daneel Olivaw nice to see your update. I think you're around the same part of the book as Mom3gram is. I saw her post that she is also working on House of the Rising Sun. That's a great piece, and harder than it looks too!

I had my lesson today and it was pretty good. I barely squeaked by on Night Song which was really much more challenging than I expected! I'm still working on Space Shuttle Blues which I'm really enjoying and will maybe pass it next week.

I also played my Chopin Prelude which is ready for my performance on Sunday. Now as to whether I actually play it without problems in front of an audience? Well that's an entirely different story!

I'm continuing to learn the notes for the Chopin Waltz which I'm really enjoying and finding very challenging.

I also passed a Dozen a Day technique piece. Overall I'm making very slow but at least steady progress.

Looking forward to see how everyone else is doing. Our thread is regularly stuck on the second page now.

I have a really nice update today. It's not necessarily Alfred's related but I've been mentioning it in some of my posts in addition to my Alfred's work in this thread.

As some of you may remember I mentioned that I had a performance that I've been preparing for. And I was working on making my Chopin Prelude in E minor as good and as automatic as possible over that past month or two.

Well, this weekend I performed at a festival in my local music teacher's association and I was able to play it all the way through and get all the notes and rhythm correct. My dynamics were not as nice as I would have liked and it still wasn't as good as what I am normally able to do at home but I am very pleased that I didn't make any mistakes and that I didn't need to start or stop in the middle of the piece!!

Also, this event had a panel of 3 judges that provide feedback on your performance so I think that maybe within a week or two my piano teacher will bring the judges comments to my lesson!

I have to say that the worst / most awkward part of the festival was that, as far as I could tell, I was the only adult registered and I was literally seated between a teenage girl and a girl that was probably 8 or 9. One boy even brought some sort of wooden box that he rested his feet on so they wouldn't dangle off the edge of the piano bench. Super embarrassing and awkward for me.

But anyway I made it through and I can honestly say it was a much better performance on a far more difficult piece than when I performed at my teacher's recital last year. Maybe I'm getting better at being in front of people?? We will see how things go later in December when my teacher holds her yearly recital.

In any event, it is a relief to be finished with that event and I wanted to report the good news

Congrats, Blackjack! That's awesome. I have to give you a lot of credit for performing with a group of kids. I'm glad that you had a good experience with it.

I haven't progressed any further than Plasir d'Amour in Book 2. I'm mostly playing the last three pieces in the book, some "throw away" easy pieces for the 40 piece club, a sheet version of "You Raise Me Up", and Christmas music from two books - traditional and "hits". I don't know if I will get back to Book 2 before the end of the year.

blackjack Congratulations! That piece is incredibly hard. I actually "fired" my last teacher because he wanted me to learn it.

Daniel Olivaw and momgram It sounds like you have found your own music to work on, which is surely more fun than working through Alfred's anyway! I am still ploughing through the book but honestly I don't know if I am getting much benefit from it.

I looked at some videos of people playing Diabelli etudes and they looked much harder than anything I have encountered in Alfred's with all the high-speed tinkly arpeggios and dynamics. I am still very much a plunker and I don't know whether I will ever develop the dexterity to become a tinkler.