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

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).

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.

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?

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"...

Nightowl

WieWaldi Thanks for the vote of confidence WW, but your logic is flawed... you failed to take into account that Sophia has MUSICAL GENES that others can only dream of!

Sophia I love those new definitions - they are spot on!

WieWaldi

Sophia It's the original, believe it or not! But... I am not an intermediate.

Someone once said, there is no easy Chopin. On top of that, this video is titled: "Prelude in A, Op. 28, No. 7, Chopin (Intermediate Piano Solo) Alfred's Adult Level 3"

Ok, now I stop trolling, here. Want to keep the other thread to be the longest one 😏

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?

Sophia

WieWaldi now I stop trolling, here

Lol agree, we will do our trolling in the blues thread. At least there it's crystal clear what our progress status is. Proud to be lovely beginner!

Alfred is complicating it too much with beginning beginner, advanced beginner, early intermediate, blah blah... But it's true that from now on, there are no more simplified arrangements.

Nightowl is not far off from grabbing that pot of gold. Only one third of a book to go!

Edit: maybe we can simplify the system. With your playing:

Beginner: you can impress your momma.
Intermediate: you can impress your friends.
Advanced: you can impress other musicians.

Easy but fair 😄

Animisha

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

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

Sophia

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

Yes, born and bred, until married life whisked me off to Canada 🙂 I think Josephine, you and me are the only Dutchies in this forum - and she is the only one who stayed there 🚴🏻‍♀️

Nightowl Sophia has MUSICAL GENES that others can only dream of

That, or the quitting syndrome that's the stuff of nightmares 😃 In a way I'm probably still catching up with the skills I lost over the decades - once upon a time I could play Fur Elise (probably badly), so in a way I'm still behind where I was 4 decades ago. Nah I know a lot more now. Did I mention I learned how to pedal? Yeah, that. And dynamics. And now I can share the piano journey with my friends in this forum. And I have PACT now - which gives me a 🥾 in the 🦋 (minus ....erfly) any time I don't feel like playing that day 😂

I still think you are making remarkable progress for someone who is self studying and starting from near-scratch (please don't ever forget that's not the case with everyone here). In fact I'm impressed with all the forum participants. I think it's wonderful how a whole bunch of us started as adults in the past year or two - and look where we all are now with a bit of perseverance! 🎹🎹🤠🎹🎹

Josephine

Sophia Yes, born and bred, until married life whisked me off to Canada 🙂 I think Josephine, you and me are the only Dutchies in this forum - and she is the only one who stayed there 🚴🏻‍♀️

Maybe I should move too, I'm not even good at riding a bicycle 😄

Your Chopin was impressive, that piece is so much more difficult than it sounds. I tried it after 2 years and I couldn't play it. Then I tried it again last year and it was still frustrating. It's so difficult. I managed to get a recording for a pianoworld recital at the beginning of this year, and I haven't played it since, so I can't play it anymore now.

Sophia

Well, my Chopin piece is by no means "finished" (is Chopin ever?) but I thought I'd like to get on now with other pieces and the blues course. Plus under normal circumstances I can get hit the right notes mostly, now. I figured it was time to start recording... and then this happened. Still, I am moving on now to the next piece in my book and also finally start my exciting new blues lesson 😃

P.S. WieWaldi, I still need to experiment with video cuts, but at least I'm getting the hang of captions a little better now 😄

WieWaldi

Well - you played Chopin (and we know, there is no easy Chopin) under extreme difficult conditions. Making a difficult composer's work extremely difficult. Considering the short amount of time you spent with this piece, color me deeply impressed. Nevertheless, I would like to hear this with a clean recording, you are so close and Chopin is worth to be played without disturbances.

PS: Don't fiddle around with video cuts. Instead, drill your kittens to jump on your keyboard whenever you make a mistake by your own. Nobody will ever suspect you're playing a wrong note. 😉

Nightowl

Ah, finally, a piece that truly challenges you - it must be Chopin! 😁 Tough enough, without the kittens misbehaving (but with faces like theirs they can get away with murder)!
I'm sure you probably play this much better without red button syndrome and the kittens sabotaging your efforts, but it's good to know that even for a gifted player like yourself Chopin is no walk in the park. I'm sure you could perfect it if you wanted to, but the blues are calling you away again. 🙂

Nightowl

Here's a piece from book 2 - Black Forest Polka. I enjoy playing it, but currently I cannot play it as fast as I would like, because my fingers tend to get muddled.
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I'm also working on The Riddle, which is quite a pleasant piece that formed the basis for The Twelfth Of Never.

Sophia

Wow Nightowl, that sounds fantastic!!! It is such a happy piece to start with, but your radiant mood just shone through making it sound positively delightful. I dare anyone to keep their feet still while listening to that 😄

WieWaldi

This was great, Nightowl. Loved the confidence, you played with. Your LH acts like a metronome, giving the RH a solid frame for the melody. Don't worry about getting fast, this come from alone with time. It is way more important to play clean and not to play sloppy. As you did! 👍

btw - thanks for pointing me out, I had posted a recital comment in the wrong thread. 🥰 Wouldn't have noticed... 🙈

Nightowl

Thanks @Sophia and @WieWaldi, it made a change for me to play something a bit more upbeat than my favoured material of waltzes and other gentle melodies. I can't imagine ever being able to play at the rapid pace of RSL12's recital piece though - that was phenomenal! I'm just not made for speed!

Sophia

Nightowl I'm just not made for speed!

Luckily there are millions of slower, lyrical and delightful pieces for a lifetime of pleasant pastime, speed is not needed 😃 That said, I agree with WW that speed will come whether you need it or not... I don't think any of us could imagine playing pieces at the level we play now even a few months ago!

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