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

Player1 I like it!

Kaydia in case you don't know already, Faber has audios of the pieces in two different tempos; practice and performance: https://pianoadventures.com/qr/ff1302/

I was aiming to match to practice tempo for most pieces. And just like you, I thought my tempo was OK until I've listened those recordings. Even "practice tempo"s were always faster

Kaydia
I'm glad the recording worked!
Yes, that tempo illusion is very familiar. As a beginner the brain gets so busy processing and executing everything that it feels like we're playing sooo fast. It does slowly get better with lots of practice, though, so just hang in there!

hebele Oh, very cool! I didn't know that, thank you very much! And, oh yeah, I was playing it way too slow. I've bookmarked the page and will be trying out playing along to the tracks for the rest of the pieces in the book.

candela That's encouraging to hear. I'll be hanging in there!

Kaydia

Practice the piece first, paying attention to learning to read the notes on the scale, note values (half, quarter, eighth notes, etc and how long to hold them), tempo, key signatures, and counting. Then listen to/watch the recordings/you tube videos to see how close you got to the way it's supposed to be played.

If you practiced the piece first, you not only learn the piece but you also begin to learn to spot the rhythm and harmony/melody without needing to listen first. If you listen first, you'll have a harder time learning the other things you need to start picking up on.

Player1 I appreciate the advice, thank you. This is the approach I've been taking so far. Sounds like I'm on the right track, so will continue to work on learning the notes, counting, etc. before viewing a video.

I finished with both the left-hand and right-hand chords versions of "When the Saints Go Marching In" separately, then went through the challenge of connecting them together on the repeat without there being a gap in the timing. I ended up doing it by using only the left-hand chords version, instead of having to flip to another page. Also, the right-hand version doesn't have the words from the song written in, and I'm not sure why, but it was throwing me off.

Now, on to learning the F Major chord.

Congrats @Kaydia - sounds like you're making steady progress! Funny, I did the same with When the Saints - it's fun to play both versions back to back and finding ways to reduce the page turning time gap. In fact it's one of the pieces I still play on occasion - it's so happy and bouncy.

Mind you, page turning is a skill we need to learn at some point... in fact I may need to face it soon with my current piece (I just started Moonlight Sonata which is two double pages long, yikes).

Another piece I really enjoyed playing (and still do) is Mary Ann, I believe that you already had that one. But then again I enjoy calypso type music and it has a very cute left hand melody

Kaydia Congratulations with your first recording! I wouldn't bother too much with the tempo though in this stage. It will take a lot of time to get it up to speed - I think you'll learn more when you move on to new pieces. You can always go back a couple of months from now and surprise yourself by finding how much easier it all will be.

Also, don't bother yet with chords and scales. Too early!

As you see, Player1 and I disagree on quite a few things, but that is the nice thing about a forum. You get different answers and you choose the one that suits you the best.

@Sophia I did enjoy the challenge of doing it in both hands. Also, I agree, it is happy and bouncy. And I also liked the Mary Ann piece. My tastes tend to run to pop, country, folk tunes, and mellower stuff.

Sophia Another piece I really enjoyed playing (and still do) is Mary Ann, I believe that you already had that one. But then again I enjoy calypso type music and it has a very cute left hand melody

I liked Mary Ann also. I didn't know what calypso music was until I just now looked it up. I'll be checking more into it later. Thanks for mentioning it.

Sophia Mind you, page turning is a skill we need to learn at some point... in fact I may need to face it soon with my current piece (I just started Moonlight Sonata which is two double pages long, yikes).

I'm going to kick that "some point" down the road as long as I can. Good luck with your multi-page turnings.

Player1 Be sure to learn your chords and scales by heart both on the keyboard and being able to speak/define/explain them.

I will do my best to learn and memorize them, but not so much on the speak/define/explain part since I've never been good at doing that.

Animisha Congratulations with your first recording! I wouldn't bother too much with the tempo though in this stage. It will take a lot of time to get it up to speed - I think you'll learn more when you move on to new pieces. You can always go back a couple of months from now and surprise yourself by finding how much easier it all will be.

Thank you! It wasn't so much the tempo itself, it was the realization that the tempo I thought I was playing and the tempo I heard on the recording were noticeably different. Otherwise, I agree with you about getting faster eventually, so right now I am not that concerned with tempo speed.

Animisha Also, don't bother yet with chords and scales. Too early!

As you see, Player1 and I disagree on quite a few things, but that is the nice thing about a forum. You get different answers and you choose the one that suits you the best

At this point I'm only learning the chords as they're presented in the lesson book. So far that' be 3 chords, I think. No scales yet. I don't see much point in learning more than I'm using since I don't tend to remember things unless I use them on a regular basis.

I appreciate the different perspectives. I just piece together different people's advice that I think will work for my goals and way of learning.

Kaydia

You probably already know at least 1 scale... C Major. C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C. All white keys. That's where everyone begins when they start learning.

There are things that go along with each scale you need to learn too. For beginners those are:

Chords
Chord inversions
Key signatures. (For C Major there is no Key Signature. The staff is blank with no sharps or flats at the beginning next to the Clef. All other keys have some combination of sharps or flats at the beginning of the score. The self study books do a very good job of not telling you that stuff.)

As you progress you get to learn new terms and other stuff like relative minors, but that's for later so don't worry about them now. Concentrate on your lessons and ask questions about stuff you don't understand clearly.

Thank you Player1 for the suggestion. I agree flashcards are a great tool. I have already been using the sightreading.training website now and again to help with note identification. The site does have flashcards for chords, but I haven't used that feature yet. I'll probably make use of it to help reinforce the chords that I've already been presented with in my method books. But not until after I've nailed down reading notes better. I can only learn/retain so much information at a time.

Pallas There's a good reason to follow a method book! I've seen plenty of people try to firehose all of the information up front only to get overwhelmed and lose motivation and interest.

Yes, I've 'been there, done that' with other stuff.

Pallas You sound like you know how your own mind works and what's best for you. Bravo to you!

Thank you. Getting old has some benefits, I guess.

Kaydia

Note reading will get better with time so don't stress on that. You'll learn the other things as they come along in the series. So, again, don't stress on it.

The method books work, lots of people have used them to become pianists. Do the lessons, ask questions about things you don't understand, and take as much time as you need to progress. It's not a race and your progress is yours alone and shouldn't ever be compared to someone else.