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Asked this question in response to another thread but maybe that wasn't the proper place to ask it. Maybe better placed here. I am an adult student, 56 yrs. and have been taking lessons for 14 months. My teacher, who I am very pleased with is having me do a couple of different things and I wonder what you guys think. I am about 2/3 of the way thru the Alfred Adult book #2. My teacher says that this is fairly fast progress, although it doesn't seem like it to me. Also, among other things we have compleated all the cords and inversions in preperation for working from a fake book, which I have been doing for the last 5-6 weeks. For some strange reason the cords and inversions really make sence to me. Not nearlly as hard as I thought they would be. Just takes a lot of doing them. I really enyoy this because it gives me a chance to play a lot of tunes that I like and still work on the basics every day. Also, keeps me from getting bored. My practice time is probabily a factor in doing several things at the same time, 1 1/2-3 hrs. per day. I really like the lounge lizard standards type of stuff but am also looking forward to doing a lot of caassical playing. I really love opera and am trying to aquire more of a taste for classical piano music. But then again I really really like jazz. Does this make ANY SENCE AT ALL?? I guess I like it all. Only one regret should have started 40 yrs. ago. Any feedback about this method would be interesting.

Hi Frank,
I am also a late starter with just three years experience. I used the first Alfred's Adult Book early on and that approach seems matched to your goals. The Faber series is also very good and could be an alternative for you to check out. Sounds like you are making great progress. Enjoy!

Frank,

I know what you are talking about. I am 58, have been taking lessons for about 5 years. My teacher was taught in the "classical" school, thus, it is how she teaches, so most of my stuff is "easy" arrangements of classical music, but all based on sight reading. Now, I like this kind of work just fine, but I keep getting sucked into the "lounge lizard" stuff that is based on bass-chord and melody line. Sometimes I just want to sit down and lay down some nice chords and put melody to it. You can play any of the "standards" that way, and it sounds good. So, I keep jumping back and forth with it all. I know there is really no substitution for good sight reading, but I think that starting something like that when you are 40+ years old is really asking for a big frustration. I have a friend that is a "shrink" and he told me that we just loose the brain chemistry necessary to make that kind of quick connection at our age. I don't know if that is true or not, but I can attest to really hitting a "wall" with sight reading.

Chuck

Chuck,

It sounds like you also have a good teacher. My dad was a professional sax player and he got a lot of work because he was such a good sight reader. I think once you knock that wall down you will be much better for it and enjoy the ability to play most anything you want.

Just got my new piano(Estonia 190)Saturday and it caused me to have a small revelation. The music desk on the grand is much higher than the one on my Kawai upright, so I can't watch my hands and play at the same time. Which is something that I was doing unconsiously and getting lost on the score. My teacher told me several times not to look at my hands many times and I could swear that I wasn't. So, now the realization that I was and didn't really need to look down is my little victory for now. Looking forward to more small light bulbs to go off in the future.

BTW I think your "shrink" frind is wrong, that doesn't happen until at least 80+ !!

Good luck with your wall.

FrankR