Alfred Adult All-in-One Course Level 2 and 3

Sophia · 2024-05-28T02:50:57+00:00

Well, it seems that this forum is a nice refuge from another place that has too many ads and too much drama lately! I see we already have a nice Alfred 1 thr...

WieWaldi

YouTube itself can cut out scenes???!?!? Wow - this I didn't know

Anyway, @Nightowl I strongly recommend to get an easy video editor software on your computer. Mine was quite cheap and is very intuitive to operate. Quite cheap is still some money ($50 to $80, depends). If I hadn't bought it alrady, I would try out DaVinci Resolve Free.
It allows cuts, insert texts, and does a lot of other fancy effects. I really prefer cutting locally on my machine instead in YouTube.

Nightowl

WieWaldi Wow, you have excellent eyesight to spot the seam at 1.18 - I had to replay the vid to spot that tiny blur. 🙂
Thanks for advice. I had never made videos or uploaded to YT until I needed to do it to take part in a recital - it's all a massive learning curve for me. DaVinci looks good, but when I looked at the link I found that it is not suitable to work with my Chromebook (which does not have Windows). I could just buy a basic package, but my Chromebook is over 3 years old so I don't know whether it's worth going that route - what happens to the app if/when my Chromebook becomes obsolete? In some ways I would rather spend money on a nice camera which allows me to edit videos before loading them onto my Chromebook for upload to YT. Also, it would be handy to use for taking photographs - currently I use the camera function on my Chromebook but it's a cumbersome thing to manipulate when I want to photograph something out in the garden. I am a dim dino and find all this tech stuff puzzling.

Sophia - I did wonder about editing on YT - do you think I could keep the status of the video private until I have edited it? It would be cringeworthy if the unedited version went public.

WieWaldi

@Sophia I recommend some overblend technique to you. Either this cropping thing (e.g. closeup of your hands, then entire keyboard), or insert a nice picture or some snippets of your kittens for a few seconds.

This one gave me the idea of how to make use of cropping in post (this is a very old video):

Sophia

WieWaldi I recommend some overblend technique to you.

Thank you! Of course the real solution would be to play it flawlessly... but then again learning new digital techniques (and presenting a more interesting video as a result) is nice too 😃 Next video I will try some editing and hopefully not for cheating purposes either 😃

Nightowl Sophia - I did wonder about editing on YT - do you think I could keep the status of the video private until I have edited it? It would be cringeworthy if the unedited version went public.

I'm pretty sure that's the entire idea behind it! Publish it privately first and then present the edited version to the public 🙂

iternabe

Nightowl if you only need to trim video, the best software to use is ShutterEncoder. It’s free. It works on PC and Mac. And it’s really quick.

If you ever want to learn more advanced video editing, I second @WieWaldi ’s recommendation of Davinci Resolve. Not only is it free, but it’s super powerful and very popular even among pros.

Nightowl

Well, after all the helpful suggestions I tinkered around on YT and got familiar with their editing facility. I was able to clip the front section from my practice session, leaving the end piece intact. So, I'm very pleased to have this way of reducing the effect of Red Button Syndrome, knowing I can just press record and keep playing until I manage to play a piece reasonably well, then hit the stop button and clip off the first chunk. 😀

Anyway, here is my version of Village Dance from book 2. It's quite an easy piece, but is in the section which introduces chromatic runs so there are two short runs in this piece - enough for me, gently does it!

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Sophia

Nightowl Lovely!!!!!!!!!!!! You have a built in metronome in your head for sure, you lucky lady you 😃 I love the way you played the notes somewhat detached, which makes it such a uplifting piece. And it's a great contrast with the way you played the chromatic run legato. Definitely not as easy as it seems! (ask me how I know, heh).

It's so nice to see the progress all us noobies are making... many of us started around the turn of 2024 and now we're all approaching (or just reached) a year of playing. Which reminds me, ok somewhat unrelated but...

@iternabe I believe you are the only one who kept an exact journal of what, when and how long you practised. Very disciplined indeed. Aren't you approaching the one year mark as well? Are you planning to create one of those "one year progress" videos? I'm way too unregimented to keep track of when, what and how, and I didn't quite start from scratch to start with. But in your case it would be wonderful to see what you have accomplished in one year. Inspiration for us all I'm sure 😃

Oh, and while I'm writing this chaotic message, I just realized that the recital is live! <hop-skips off to submit piece>

iternabe

Sophia @iternabe I believe you are the only one who kept an exact journal of what, when and how long you practised. Very disciplined indeed. Aren't you approaching the one year mark as well? Are you planning to create one of those "one year progress" videos? I'm way too unregimented to keep track of when, what and how, and I didn't quite start from scratch to start with. But in your case it would be wonderful to see what you have accomplished in one year. Inspiration for us all I'm sure 😃

Maybe I will 😉. I certainly have enough raw footage, too much maybe. BTW I am not as disciplined as you described. I record everything, and keep track of my practice session start/stop time with an app. But I would not bother noting down how much I spend on scales, arpeggios, or on each individual piece.

Sophia

iternabe Maybe I will

You might consider sending such a video to some bloke on the Internet who does "reactions to one year progress" videos - I forgot his name but I found him quite entertaining and actually supportive - I wouldn't like it if he cut up people and he doesn't. I know it's hard to gauge our own progress as self learners. I mean speaking for myself sometimes I think I'm not doing too badly, then I compare with a more advanced pianist (or perhaps even bot) playing my current piece and I am ready to burst out crying. You know,

But I digress 😃

iternabe BTW I am not as disciplined as you described.

I thought at some point you mentioned keeping track of your progress, and you even mentioned the time spent on your recent videos. Maybe I'm wrong though. Colour me deeply impressed anyway, because my discipline is limited to sitting down once or twice a day and just do what my scatterbrain comes up with, spur of the moment type of thing 🙂

I have made a playlist of my recital pieces, which in itself is a bit of progress tracking as well, plus whenever I remember to post here when I start a piece, I know how long I worked on it before I make a video (Adagio was 9 days from start to recording).

Animisha

Sophia Adagio was 9 days from start to recording

I don't think that I have ever learned any piece from start to recording within nine days. Let alone a recital piece!
Colour me deeply impressed! ☺️

Nightowl

To keep track of my progress I note the date when I start/finish each piece. I write these dates near the title of each piece, and I also tick the title in the contents page of my method book when I finish working on a piece. I put a dash against pieces that I skip, so I can see if I'm skipping too many or missing some vital step in my learning journey - e.g. if there are 3 pieces in a section teaching a certain technique, I make sure I've done 2 of them, even if they are all a bit dull.
During book 1 I noted the start and end times for every practice session, then totted up the total hours spent, because I wanted to see how many hours it took me to complete that book. Since beginning book 2 I've stopped that habit, because I consistently practice for 1.5 hours a day so it will be easy to calculate the total hours. I estimate that I will take roughly double the number of hours on book 2 that I spent on book 1, which is probably pretty average.

Nightowl

Animisha Me neither, but Sophia is ~~annoyingly~~ talented.

I love that expression; "Colour me deeply impressed!" I had never seen it used until recently - does anyone know where it came from?

Sophia

(((((Animisha))))) Welcome back.

I do think that certain pieces almost seem made for us. Some, like the Chopin piece that Nightowl just started working on, still remains difficult for me. Or Laura, omg, Laura. But the Adagio was somehow fairly easy to get into my fingers.

The recital piece (Classy Rag) came less naturally for me, and it became a bit of a personal challenge. Plus, I didn't cheat on that one. Hence, it's not flawless 😁

All in all, I'm not the most patient type, so three weeks seems about the limit of my stamina. If I can't play a piece from my method book by then, I usually move on 😊

Sophia

Perhaps we made it up from our Dutch roots? 🤪

Edit: I looked it up and according to Google "The phrase came from a hit song in 1969 from a group called The Winstons". So I guess we didn't make it up after all 😁

Animisha

Sophia Perhaps we made it up from our Dutch roots? 🤪

Sophia, do you have Dutch roots? 😃 So do I.

Sophia

Ok, I'm sure this thread gets read by more than just us Alfred (almost-no-longer) beginners 😃 So let me ask my question here... I'm about halfway learning the gorgeous Chopin Prelude in A Major and now reached this this measure:

According to the footnote, they should be played separately, quickly.

But then listening to this recording he distinctly plays them all at once. So... which is correct(er)? Or is that just a matter of taste?

WieWaldi

Sophia When I face an arpeggio, I put my hand tilted on the keys. Left hand first, starting with low notes.
Edit: Maybe rolling your hand over the keyboard is a better explanation.

AFAIK, the standard arpeggio (without direction arrow) is the up-arpeggio (ask musescore).

WieWaldi

Sophia But then listening to this recording he distinctly plays them all at once. So... which is correct(er)? Or is that just a matter of taste

Compare with this video. I think it is a matter of taste or call it musical freedom of the interpreter. Mr. Williams made a lot use of rubato and dynamics. He played this arpeggio notes extremely softly, maybe an arpeggio would have disturbed the softness, he intended.

Btw, is the Alfred version the original from Chopin or is it arranged for ~~beginners~~, ehrm.... intermediates?

WieWaldi

Sophia Ok, I'm sure this thread gets read by more than just us Alfred (almost-no-longer) beginners 😃

Ok, where do we sort the "almost-no-longer beginners" in?

Player1

You can't play all the notes at once so play them quickly as you ascend the scale. Fast fingers!!!

Sophia

Thanks guys 🙂 It just puzzled me why the person in the video didn't use any arpeggio at all. He just plays the chord, that's all. But then I watched Gale and he said that Chopin meant it to be improvised <gasp> a little and to play it any way I see fit! Well, that makes sense. And I like the sound of that, I mean, what's not to like about improvising 😃

I can play the first two lines now, but (to repeat a wise person): I can see the sun come up and set again before I'm finished 😂 But it's a very sweet piece so I'll just keep going with it!

Nightowl

Sophia, that looks crazy complicated, but I guess by using the pedal the chord played by the LH can be sustained to last for the full 2 beats, enabling you to quickly move the LH up to the treble to play those two notes very quickly. It looks fiendishly fiddly but if anyone can do it, you can! 🙂
I'm still muddling along with Musetta's Waltz, I can play it reasonably well at slow speed, but I need to speed up the note runs and improve the flow a bit. It's such a pretty piece when played well, but it could take me ~~years~~ weeks to manage that.

WieWaldi

Nightowl Sophia, that looks crazy complicated...
...
I'm still muddling along with Musetta's Waltz, I can play it reasonably well at slow speed, but I need to speed up the note runs and improve the flow a bit. It's such a pretty piece when played well, but it could take me ~~years~~ weeks to manage that.

Come on. If you can play Musetta's Waltz, you are about 5 months away from Chopin.

Edit: I must admit Sophia is a rocking fast learner, let me predict, you should reach this Chopin piece between 5 and 10 months.

Sophia

WieWaldi Btw, is the Alfred version the original from Chopin or is it arranged for beginners, ehrm.... intermediates?

It's the original, believe it or not! But... I am not an intermediate. Remember this thread? Yeah... I still live by this

WieWaldi Watching your video as well 😵, I come to the conclusion, I will be a beginner for the rest of my life 🥴. But I have a clever solution how to track my progress 🤣:

bloody beginner
...

This hasn't changed for me 😃 I still have a long ways to to before "eternal beginner", and then start again through the list with "bloody amateur"...

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