Faber All-in-One Piano Course Book 1

Animisha Just learning to do something else with my right hand than I did with my left hand, mamma mia!

"mama mia!" indeed!

Animisha I also needed to play many more easy pieces than Alfred's provided. But I did, and in the end, I learned.

Perseverance for the win!

Another short update. I completed "Shepherd's Song (From the Sixth Symphony)". I was enjoying this one, so I stayed on it
longer. In doing so, I could really feel the difference in my playing as I was able to play more relaxed after repeated play throughs now and again over the past few days. I'm not saying it sounded better; more so that the physical aspect of it felt better.

Sophia I always get a kick out of going back to really early (now easy) pieces and find that I can basically play them flawlessly first run through. Then of course I got back to a piece that I just practiced a few weeks/months ago and can't string two notes together...

I find this depends very much on the piece. With pieces that have a simple melody with chords structure, it is easy, because chords like C F G D, I can basically play in my dreams. But in pieces that I call polyphonic, in which both the right hand and the left hand have a melody, after a while I need to relearn them as if I never learned them before.

Animisha But in pieces that I call polyphonic, in which both the right hand and the left hand have a melody, after a while I need to relearn them as if I never learned them before.

Do you at least find those pieces easier, quicker to relearn? I went back and relearned Jingle Bells, which I really struggled with to get HT and no hesitations. It was definitely easier and quicker to relearn. But that's a simple piece so perhaps not a good example. Maybe it doesn't work the same for more complex pieces.

I'm not THAT far ahead of you, Kaydia, but I'd say it's definitely easier/faster to relearn pieces a second time

Animisha But in pieces that I call polyphonic, in which both the right hand and the left hand have a melody, after a while I need to relearn them as if I never learned them before.

Kaydia Do you at least find those pieces easier, quicker to relearn? I went back and relearned Jingle Bells, which I really struggled with to get HT and no hesitations. It was definitely easier and quicker to relearn. But that's a simple piece so perhaps not a good example. Maybe it doesn't work the same for more complex pieces.

Actually, half a year later I find that I have completely forgotten those pieces, and it will take a lot of time to learn them again. The only way in which they are quicker to learn is that compared to years ago, I have become just a bit better in learning polyphonic pieces.

Jingle bells is a good example because it uses intervals that by now are so, so familiar to me that I hardly need to spend any effort reading and playing them.

Here is an example of an easier polyphonic piece - I find polyphonic pieces never easy, but easier. I learned it five years ago, and I would need more effort in order to learn this again, compared to pieces with a melody-accompaniment pattern. For instance, Oh when the saints go marching in from Alfred's, I can play correctly immediately.

Animisha Here is an example of an easier polyphonic piece - I find polyphonic pieces never easy, but easier. I learned it five years ago, and I would need more effort in order to learn this again, compared to pieces with a melody-accompaniment pattern. For instance, Oh when the saints go marching in from Alfred's, I can play correctly immediately.

Well, I did I did some quick research on what a polyphonic piece is, and yes I can see why they would be harder to learn/relearn. Something else for me to look forward to.

For the benefit of any other beginners wandering through, here are a couple of resources I came across that provide at least a basic overview of polyphonic music.

1) What is Polyphonic Texture in Music? on the Hoffman Academy website.

2) A brief, 43 sec video with 3 examples of piano music textures (Monophonic, Homophonic, Polyphonic)

I'm now in Unit 6 which introduces eighth notes. The first piece in this unit is "French Minuet". I was wondering how people dance to this type of music, so I looked it up on YouTube. I thought maybe I wasn't playing it right, even though I was doing the counting. But after seeing the dance steps, I guess that's how it's supposed to sound.

Also, I just remembered to check the Faber website to see how they show it being played. I was surprised at their tempo which was quite a bit faster than I was playing it. The tempo on the piece is indicated as "Flowing smoothly, rather slowly". Then it suddenly occurred to me that I was basing the tempo on the eighth notes, not the quarter note time signature. Whoops.

Four more pieces completed: "Morning" with a focus on the Cresc and Dim symbols and Phrases, "Taps" which introduced the Upbeat, "Happy Birthday" which introduced a Fermata, and "English Folk Song" with blocked and broken C chords. These all felt more like review pieces since I was already familiar with all these concepts from the Alfred's book. The only thing of note here is that Faber included the pronunciation of fermata as fer-MAH-ta, and I realized I'd been hearing it in videos as fer-MAH-da. Also, the accent is on the 2nd syllable. I need to relearn this word!