Alfred's Adult All-In-One Piano Course: Level 1

Quitter · 2024-05-27T16:11:19+00:00

This thread is a place for folks to discuss the Alfred's Adult All-In-One Level 1 experience. There were many of these threads on another, un-named piano fo...

Pallas

Quitter Glad to see you too!

BartK

iternabe Pardon my OCD, but can @Quitter or someone please get rid of the backslash in the title?

Done.

Pallas

BartK Thanks, BartK.

Pallas

Scarborough Fair. Memorizing, is going very well, and I'm able to focus much better on the dynamic changes and my technique, as the memorization gets more complete. This is interesting! I have no doubt that I'm learning pieces more thoroughly in order to memorize them.

Raisins & Almonds: This one is coming together nicely, and much more quickly than SF. I hadn't decided to memorize R&A, but today I closed the music for the first time and got pretty far before stumbling on the tricky bits. I think I'll memorize this one too.

He's Got the Whole World: This one's not yet my favorite, but it's got potential to be quite fun. I'll need to spend some time counting v. slowly with the metronome to get the timing. The shifting key signature is interesting.

The Entertainer: I started learning the left hand. I tried to wait, but I can't help it. The fingering is so tricky and interesting!

Supplementary learning: I was all over the place today. I pulled a book of "easy" arrangements of classical pieces off the shelf to see how sight- reading is coming along. It seems I'm in a "leaps and bounds" growth period, and all of a sudden pieces that seemed way beyond me seem to be showing me their patterns, and I can sight-read and play swathes of pieces that seemed way out of reach only last week.

Good old Alfred seems to be working pretty well for me right now.

Today's supplementary reading: My Life with the Great Pianists by Franz Mohr, one of the Steinway piano tuners mentioned in a book about Glenn Gould I just finished reading.

Also, due to some helpful recommendations from the more experienced of us, I started a Coursera Introduction to Classical Music course, because I'm retired and I can do what I want, dangit.

hebele

Pallas Your comment about dynamics is interesting. I feel my dynamics are hit or miss. Especially sudden changes. Maybe I should try memorising a few pieces.

Also how do you guys learn a new piece? Do you add dynamics later (after notes, articulation, rhythm)? A youtuber recommended practicing with dynamics from the beginning. I am not sure about that advice.

iternabe

hebele I follow the Let’s Play Piano Methods channel on YouTube. In his level 1 lessons, he teaches to first learn the notes and rhythm, then articulation (phrasing), then dynamics, then pedals. It makes a lot of sense, because dynamics always turns out to the hardest part to get exactly right for me. If I practice a piece 50 times, the last 25 would be all on the dynamics (and pedal if it’s tricky). Also I find it especially hard to get the first note’s dynamics spot on.

Pallas

hebele I'm really new, so I don't feel confident in dispensing advice. I watch a lot of YouTube videos, and I saw one with an advanced guy who was sharing tips on how he does it. First, of course, he says, "Learn/practice slowly enough not to make mistakes, so you don't accidentally learn mistakes," then he proceeds to demonstrate his technique, but every few moments, he makes a mistake and says, "Sorry!" So, what I took from it is there's an ideal way, including not practicing mistakes, and practicing with all the dynamics and the pedal and both hands and metronome and so forth. But I'm still just me, at my level, with my brain. So I learn, and practice, keeping as many chainsaws in the air all at once as I can, while not beating myself up if I just cannot make any progress, and in order to get back in motion, I need to put one of the chainsaws down and not be perfect.

What I've noticed is, each new piece I practice, I can keep another chainsaw in the air a little better than last time. So, I plan for ideal work, but I Do what I can, as I can, Avoid being hard on myself for not doing everything perfectly all at once, while managing to Believe that if I keep aiming high, I'll get better.

Sorry for the mixed metaphors.

Quitter

hebele I feel my dynamics are hit or miss. Especially sudden changes. Maybe I should try memorising a few pieces.

I think the Youtube guy is spot on with that methodology. When I have a problem area like first note dynamics, I'll create an exercise to focus on just that issue. Work on it until you fix it to your satisfaction.

Quitter

Pallas then he proceeds to demonstrate his technique, but every few moments, he makes a mistake and says, "Sorry!"

An important skill for all musicians to learn is playing through your mistakes. The reality is that pros don't practice until they can't get it wrong. Pros simply play through, and use little tricks to hide their mistakes. For instance, I always turn and glare at the keyboardist in our trio. 😉

Pallas

Quitter I'd love to hear more. Can you give an example of what you mean?

I heard advice saying learn every piece with full attention to every aspect from the beginning, hands together, pedal, dynamics, articulation, the whole enchilada - but I honestly think that's good advice mostly for when you have a lot of skills already. I still have to just sit down and look at just the notes and make sure my fingers can hit them all accurately, and, like I think you implied?, isolate a tricky measure and drill just the notes until I can play accurately. If I try to think about my hand shape, what my foot should be doing, how firmly or gently to strike the keys, whether it's staccato or legato, and so on and so forth, my brain goes blank.

Some pieces are easy enough to just start practicing All the Things at once, but some seem to require learning in layers in order to get anywhere.

Sophia

Quitter I always turn and glare at the keyboardist in our trio. 😉

Great strategy! Blame the other fellow... 🥶

Pallas

Quitter An important skill for all musicians to learn is playing through your mistakes. The reality is that pros don't practice until they can't get it wrong. Pros simply play through, and use little tricks to hide their mistakes.

For sure! In the book on memorization I just read, accuracy and recovery are presented as separate activities. 1) Learn a piece and practice playing accurately, but also 2) grow the skill to be able to recover when you don't.

Pallas

Quitter For instance, I always turn and glare at the keyboardist in our trio. 😉

🤣🤣🤣 It was the dog.

ranjit

Quitter The reality is that pros don't practice until they can't get it wrong. Pros simply play through, and use little tricks to hide their mistakes.

Pros do both.

That said, in a gigging context, the emphasis is not on accuracy but on the ability to learn very quickly and sight read/play by ear.

iternabe

Pallas I heard advice saying learn every piece with full attention to every aspect from the beginning, hands together, pedal, dynamics, articulation, the whole enchilada - but I honestly think that's good advice mostly for when you have a lot of skills already. I still have to just sit down and look at just the notes and make sure my fingers can hit them all accurately, and, like I think you implied?, isolate a tricky measure and drill just the notes until I can play accurately. If I try to think about my hand shape, what my foot should be doing, how firmly or gently to strike the keys, whether it's staccato or legato, and so on and so forth, my brain goes blank.

@Pallas I remember hearing that suggestion in PW by an experienced piano teacher. I believe it can work if the piece and player's skill level are well matched. But I can also imagine, and have in fact experienced myself that when I tried the "do everything at the get go" on some new piece, I am making so many mistakes in so many areas simultaneously, that I am so flummoxed and unable to tell what those mistakes are. That would surely be a sign that I need to break things down and tackle them one-by-one.

Quitter

Pallas I'd love to hear more. Can you give an example of what you mean?

Select any song (with lyrics) that you know well, and can play from memory. Play through the song. Now add another instrument, your voice. Play and sing at the same time. How did you do?

For me, whenever I add something to a song, if the song is not completely in muscle memory, my playing will degrade. So either my singing or my playing must be in muscle memory for me to have a decent performance. Later, when both are on autopilot, I can do other things, like notice audience reaction, hear how my instrument sits in the mix, etc.

On piano, where I'm a complete novice, even the tiniest addition of workload makes it all turn to crap. That's why you can play either hand by themselves, but when you first try it hands together, it's ungood. For me at least, it would be unwise to try to play all aspects of the song at once when I start.

Later, when you are more experienced, you recognize the rhythm, chord sequences, etc. for a new song. You won't even have to think about the inversions, or how you'll musically move from chord to chord. Your fingers just know how, and do it of their own accord. That leaves you free to concentrate on other things, like "Is the drummer hitting on my girlfriend?" 😉

I hope that was what you had in mind with your question. Oh well. It's the Internet. You get what you get..... 🙂

iternabe

I have heard there are two approaches, one more suited to practice (and learning), and the other to performing.

When learning and practicing, the goal is to drill the correctness and perfection into muscle memory. One of my favorite youtube teachers said, instead of "practice make perfect", "make perfect first, then practice". Of course to make perfect first for beginners, some needs to give, and that's usually the tempo.

As for preparation to performing, stopping on mistakes is simply unacceptable. So it make sense to just play through with unwavering rhythm and tempo, and like @Quitter said figure out some ways to cover up.

Pallas

iternabe Thank you! I just created a new thread in case someone here with a different perspective cares to weigh in!

Pallas

Quitter I hope that was what you had in mind with your question.

🤣 Yes. I now understand what you mean. I learn and practice in layers just like you described, so at least I don't feel alone in doing it that way. I'll honestly take any answer provided I get to ask more questions. And more. And more.

Pallas

I scanned my Alfred Level 1 into PDF to use with my iPad, and I was just now sight-reading the end so I could decide how many extra pieces I would learn before moving on to Alfred 2, and halfway through Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, the piece took a real turn for the weird. I was all, "Wow, sometimes these Alfred pieces don't sound so great," but of course it wasn't that simple. 🤣

PSA: Please QC your scanned sheet music before you try to sight read on a hot day after recording a completely different piece 2,125 3/4 times to get a take without mistakes. (I think starting from Take 11, Scarborough Fair stopped making any sense at all, so it's no wonder I didn't immediately notice when Gilligan showed up to Have A Merry Little Christmas.)

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