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

That's wonderful, beenlookin'! And a sonatina sounds like fun. Don't forget to let Mark know when you officially "graduate" from book 2 so he can add you to the list.

I haven't touched my piano in the last several days. Had my son and his 7 kids over for the weekend. That entailed trying to cram a couple of months of cleaning into about 3 days, lots of shopping for food, figuring out where everyone would sleep and finding adequate bedding, etc. Plus the actual weekend, cooking, taking walks with the kids, coloring, watching them "play" my piano, parade watching, visit to the cemetery with flags, etc.,and cleaning up. Too tired tonight to see straight. Will hopefully get back to piano tomorrow.

Congratulations Beenlookin! There should be a lot of musical pieces you should be able to play by now. Good luck in book #3.

Whats< the> hardest: piece: on" here?

Everyone is different, I don't think you'll find any consensus as to one particular "hardest" piece.

to me it was mexican hat dance so far and im at page like 105 i believe. most of the songs are fairly easy tho

Made it through Light and Blue and plowing through Hungarian Rhapsody now. The 2nd page is a bit tricky.

Just bumping this thread back up to page 1.

Finished "Morning Has Broken" (although I skipped the 2nd optional part with the left hand chords broken into triplets. I just didn't want to spend any more time on it.) Working on Alexander's Ragtime Band now. I'm not crazy about this song, but I'll push through it.

my book must be different as i have mexican hat dance on the 1 book and it is not on my 2 book i fouond this to be one of the easier pieces some of the pieces on the 1 book are very dificult towards the ending of the book so the last piece is 4 pages but i done it and i have started on the 2 book

I'm finishing book one and should start assignments in book two at my next lesson. As expected, in reading some of this thread, it sounds like there's varying opinions on the songs used in the book. Looking forward to it all the same.

I'll comment again when I get into it but just wanted to stop in and say hi. Looking forward to joining the book two group.

Jim

Welcome, Jim. Glad to have you join us.

just, finished, the, 2, book, and ,starting ,on, the, 3 ,book, later, on, today,

"True" beginner here with a first post on this forum.

A lifetime of wishing has turned to action for this oldie, starting with the purchase of three Alfred's books and an inexpensive faux piano. After breezing through the thoroughly pleasant Alfred's book one I've found their book two to be a slippery slug, a morass of mediocrity, a...well I guess y'all understand my point. I'm having real problems finishing these pieces as most lack inspiration and musicality.

I would appreciate tips/tricks others use for maintaining focus on the task.

Welcome Tararex.

I'm a little past a third of the way through the second book and personally find the pieces to be challenging, and for the most part satisfying. There are a few I haven't cared too much for but overall I think they are a nice selection. When my teacher plays them they sound very nice and certainly much more interesting than my meager skills allow.
Some folks here breeze through in little time and others (myself included) take a year or more per book. At the rate I am going I will take about a year and a half with the second book (took me about 9 mos on the first book)and I have lessons. We all have different tastes, backgrounds and goals and you may find someone who can give you tips to stay focused but for me the end goal keeps me focused and the book is a means to that goal.

I am ordering the Alfred Books on Amazon and for book two, it's titled "Alfred's all-in-one Course - Lesson, Theory & Solo," whereas the others are titled "Lesson, Theory & Technic!" Are they all the same thing? Or is amazon not showing the proper books for book two? I don't want to order the wrong one, so, please let me know!
Thanks!

Hmm.. hadn't noticed that before. It appears that only book 1 says "Technic". 2 and 3 say "Solo"

This is the one I have and I think is the one most of us on book 2 are using:

Book 2 at Amazon

Yes, those are the ones that I ordered, except book 3, which says "technic." I was not sure what the difference was, if any, but thanks.

And, the books I've ordered do not say "student edition." I hope I ordered the right ones. LOL.

Hi Doug.

I can't dispute you about the importance of keeping goals in mind.

Regardless of that I'm all about enjoying the journey too! After flipping through book two selections one last time I've decided to move on. Book three's pieces seem much more satisfying. Perhaps I'll go back to book two in a couple of weeks after I've mastered a few enjoyable selections. I do realize each piece is tailored to teach a specific skill so I really don't want to skip anything.

Patience has never been one of my virtues and I've only been at this 3 months. I've noticed a huge difference in comprehension time when playing something I enjoy vs. throwing the book across the room because I detest working on something dull. On the other hand I have learned a lot from these books. This isn't going to be easy, is it?

re: hava nagila fingering

Dear All,

I'm new here - though lurking a long time

doing Alfred 2 years - so not as fast as Tararex - teacher last 6 months. Very useful - esp with rhythm - I was frankly ignoring it until he pointed it out and it is still my biggest problem

My question is about the fingering near the end of Haga Nagila. There are several measures of 6ths in the right hand but fingering uses a system of thumb + different fingers so only thumb moves over keyboard. finding it possible and maybe it will help at higher tempo but my teacher suggested using 1-5 all the way through.

Is the complex technique useful for later? What fingering have you used? Or conversely is a fixed 1-5 more useful for later? After all, night song labours the point that it is easy to move hands up and down keybouard in fixed position, but then Hava Nagila rejects this idea.

Mike