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...

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.

WieWaldi

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

Didn't know this is meant for bikes

Sophia

Josephine that piece is so much more difficult than it sounds

Yes, without cat distractions I can play it a little better... but its smoothness is still sort of random 😃 It seems so easy because it's slow, but I think all those fingers crossovers and needing to spread your hands so wide make it difficult! For now I have enough of it, but will revisit it every now and then.

I tried to find your recital piece in PW, but I didn't see it. I'd love to listen to your version 🙂

Sophia

I decided to move on from Blue Rondo in my Alfred book. It's supposed to be a blues piece, but ironically I actually don't like it all... so I didn't even bother polishing it. Then I turned the page and what's next? Three pages of minor SCALES! What the... Scales?! I'm not a fish! I don't want scales! Of course we all know I'll be doing that lesson eventually... but, well, later. 🙂

So now that I'm both in between blues lessons AND Alfred lessons, I figured I might as well play through my Thompson book again. At last they all sound so pleasant and I find them rather easy to play now. Then this happened...

I guess he watched Sandy and decided it's now his turn to perch on my shoulders!

Animisha

Awww isn't your cat the sweetest!

Sophia It's supposed to be a blues piece, but ironically I actually don't like it all... so I didn't even bother polishing it. Then I turned the page and what's next? Three pages of minor SCALES! What the... Scales?! I'm not a fish! I don't want scales!

Maybe, just maybe, isn't it time to do as so many others have done, and ditch your Alfred's book and find something that suits you better?

When I left Alfred's, I got on the RCM track for a while. Plus Technic is fun, some Piano adventures, some Thompson, Schaum, Piano safari, a Dozen a day... and then I went all in with the Russian school of piano playing. 😎
Just to say, there are many ways of learning to play the piano, Alfred's is just one of them.

Nightowl

Good grief, now that's what I call a distraction! Full marks for playing while being used as a cat climbing frame. 😀

That is a pretty little piece, very relaxing. I've spent the last week working through book 1 again, this time including the pedal. It's a real confidence boost when I find I can play a piece fairly well after just a few minutes, when I remember that it originally took a week or two of practice to learn. It's not that I can play it from memory, but it's nowhere near as difficult as learning something from scratch. I even polished a piece that I didn't enjoy the first time around, and it didn't feel like a grind because it didn't take long. Soon I will start on book 2 again, working my way through each piece until I come to the pieces I was struggling with. I know they won't suddenly become easy, but maybe this revision period might pay dividends.

Sophia

Exactly!!! I feel the same any time I revisit old pieces. As for John Thompson, there isn't a single piece I don't like... they're all as adorable as that one 😃

Sophia

Heh, I know, I moan a lot about Alfred, but truth is that so far it's proven the best method for me because it managed to take me to a level I never reached before. So it definitely does a lot of things right 😃

It's just that the pieces aren't very appealing, overall. With some exceptions of course, which I mostly reserved for recitals etc. But yeah I am eagerly awaiting to leave Alfred behind me (only slightly over half a book to go, if I skip/skim over some pieces). I don't want to venture away just yet, because I'm still learning so many new things! And I have the blues course for the fun element. After that... who knows.

But right now I'm giving myself a break from both and going through Thompson level 1. It's really a confidence boost to notice how easy those pieces are now. Plus, every single one makes me smile somehow 🙂

Sophia

After ~~diligently studying~~ cough ~~reading~~ cough skipping about ~~three~~ cough ~~nine~~ cough twelve pages of ~~riveting~~ cough ~~interesting~~ cough boring theory, I have now reached Laredo.

Obviously, Alfred has decided that it's time to really drill down on double sharps and double flats. Boy, do I feel double crossed! After much puzzling, I can now make out the first few bars. It's a pleasant enough tune though, so I will be happy to spend the coming weeks on that, once I know which note goes where.
Ahhh, the hells we voluntarily submit ourselves to

Nightowl

Well, if you keep going maybe you'll be able to play the piece that @rach3master uploaded recently in the Christmas thread - although it might take a few years! Their performance was absolutely incredible, but the player stated they've been playing for 25 years, so they have clearly put a lot of dedication into honing their skills. I don't think I could ever play such a complex piece, even if I play for 50 years, but it's inspiring to watch someone play at such a high level.

Back on planet earth, I have finished replaying my way through book 1, and am currently back in the middle of book 2, revisiting Hava Nagila, which was not that appealing the first time around, and is now annoying me a bit. A lot of pieces in A's books are like that... annoying but necessary steps on our painfully slow piano pathway. 🙂 Alfred is like an elderly family member who gets on your nerves at times, but you reluctantly heed their advice because you know it's sound.

Sophia

Oh I know, those are more notes in one minute than I have probably played in total this entire year 😂

Coming back to ~~earth~~ Alfred, haha I love that description. I can just picture him... "take your medicine, it's for your own good!"

Animisha

Sophia Plus, you'll build character!

PS. Apart from boring, Alfred's music theory is presented in the most ugly way possible.

Nightowl

Yeah, the medicine doesn't always appeal to my taste, but I find that I can solve that with a fix of chocolate to take the edge off it afterwards! 😁

I'm still plodding along with my reworking of book 2 pieces, I think by the end of this year I will back to the place I previously reached, which will leave me with the final quarter of the book to finish. I think it may take me a further couple of months to finish book 2, so it will overlap with my 40 pieces challenge, but hopefully if I'm fairly thorough in playing through book 2 my skills will be sufficient to play some pleasant pieces. I might even find a teacher, if I feel brave enough. I'm not confident about the idea, though.

Sophia

I decided that for now I'm not wanting to spend too much time with the Latin piece that contains all the double sharps. I can sort of read through it and I get what it is trying to teach, but it's not fluent. But I don't like it enough to get any further with it just yet, so... that's that, for now.

That means that today I started my next piece - and it's a one chord blues/boogie! I wrote about it in the blues thread. It think it'll take me quite a while to learn that one, but I think it may be worth it... for no other reason than to get the left hand used to boogie woogie 😄

But this is what you may find interesting, @Nightowl: at the end of the piece, it tells us:

Yes - you are less than a book away from one of the reasons why you wanted to learn piano in the first place 😃

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