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 Brilliant. You are not just talented, you have a great feeling for good showmanship, too. And a very good sense for pauses, that are filled up by your Muppet doing the river dance. If you add costumes to your kittens (and Simba), you can create the next Muppet show!

Sophia It's quite humbling to be outplayed by a distracted dog 😜

Nah - this dog makes use of playback. Believe me! 🙈

Sophia

WieWaldi If you add costumes to your kittens (and Simba), you can create the next Muppet show!

I wish!!! But when Simba found out that I was going to perform with a puppet, he didn't even want to be in the video. Notice there is an empty spot where he usual perches.

People in showbiz! All sooo difficult - including cats and Muppets!

Nightowl that's the most entertaining video I've seen for a long time!

Thanks 🥰 It's fun to try and come up with things to make people smile 😎

WieWaldi

Sophia But when Simba found out that I was going to perform with a puppet, he didn't even want to be in the video.

Ahhhh - I see. Cats can be such divas! Even the tomcats 🤭😸

Sophia

Right?? They are too used to getting all the attention for themselves... no competition allowed!

WieWaldi

@Sophia , does your keyboard have a typewriter sound, like this?

Sophia

Haha I don't think so... at least it's not on the list of sound effects (for the tap dance I used 618 - Footsteps):

BTW I I love Leroy Anderson. The Typewriter Song is one of my favourites (and no one does it as well as Liberace). I think my personal favourite is The Syncopated Clock... very high on my "want to learn on piano" list 😃 Or guitar - once I get back to that.

Gah, you got me down a rabbit hole now. I even found an (almost) a capella version now 😃

WieWaldi

Aaaaawwwwwww - okeey.... When can I listen to your version?
Well, at least now I know why you weren't distracted by my metronome all the time.

Sophia

Hahaha darn right! 😁🤩⏰️🕑🕒🕔

Sophia

Gah. I just started the next piece... left hand Eb and Bb, right hand Eb D# Eb C etc. It sounded.... weird. Beyond weird. WRONG. Definitely, definitely wrong. But I'm playing all the right notes, what the....... I couldn't even recognize a melody.

Finally went to listen to someone on Youtube....... weird weird weird. It sounds okay for them. I even know the melody, another version is in an earlier Alfred book. So what am I doing wrong then????????? My reading ability is not THAT bad...

Yeah, it's that bad. I completely missed the two bass clefs at the start of the tune! NOW I can get it right!

Side note 1: I hate music notation! Why on why did they not make the treble and bass equal?
Side note 2: Why is it so terribly hard to read bass clef when it's the top bar?

Animisha

Sophia Side note 1: I hate music notation! Why on why did they not make the treble and bass equal?

There is this looooooooong discussion about musical notation somewhere else here on the forum.
But I couldn't agree more! I would be so good at sight reading if only they made the treble and bass equal.

Sophia Side note 2: Why is it so terribly hard to read bass clef when it's the top bar?

Because you are a normal human being with a normal brain that makes shortcuts and rules of thumb.

WieWaldi

Sophia Side note 1: I hate music notation! Why on why did they not make the treble and bass equal?

I also hate music notation.
Why isn't there just one single clef - with a remark for the octaves used?

Sophia Side note 2: Why is it so terribly hard to read bass clef when it's the top bar?

Because we are not used to it. But feel free to re-write it in treble clef and add an "8va bassa". Okay - I know the hard-core classical pianists amongst us tell you, "Don't do it - this isn't allowed in music notation!". (8/15va alta is only allowed in treble clef and bassa is only allowed in bass clef... 🙄) The not so serious players (me) don't care about it.

Kaydia

Sophia I completely missed the two bass clefs at the start of the tune!

This happened to me recently, except it was treble clefs. In my case I didn't suspect anything was wrong. I only caught it because I looked it up on YouTube to see if I was doing the technique correctly (it's an etude).

At least we first try working our pieces out ourselves. I like doing it this way because I feel I learn better by making and correcting mistakes, so I tend not to watch any videos beforehand.

Nightowl

Oh, yes, for me it's the main reason why learning piano is so devilishly difficult - the fact that the notes are placed differently on the bass and treble clefs. I'm sure some bright people can come up with many reasons why the grand stave has to be notated in this way, but sometimes it feels like an instrument of mental torture! 😬

Sophia - I feel your pain, it's SO confusing when they position bass/treble notes in places where they don't normally appear! It makes my brain hurt!

I have 3 pieces left in book 2, but I only like one of them. 😒 I think I will be kind to myself and only play the first 2 pages of the final piece - Canon in D (or Canon Dirge, as I tend to think of it). It's probably not wise to skip it completely but there's only so much I can tolerate. 🙃

Sophia

Nightowl it's SO confusing when they position bass/treble notes in places where they don't normally appear! It makes my brain hurt

Right? They have all these notations like 8va etc... you'd think they could make use of that rather than suddenly switch clefs on us. You might be onto something... hmmm mental torture. Yeah, I'll buy that!

Player1

Sophia

Part of it is to teach us to pay attention. Part is to teach us that not everything is uniform.

The rest is just mental torture.

Animisha

WieWaldi "Don't do it - this isn't allowed in music notation!". (8/15va alta is only allowed in treble clef and bassa is only allowed in bass clef... 🙄)

Which parliament created this law, who is the police to make sure that we abide by this law and what is the punishment if we don't?

Sophia

I confess... sometimes I'm a little lazy and check what it's supposed to sound like. Especially with a tricky rhythm. But the one time I don't cheat, I get punished for it 😁😄😅

Kaydia

Sophia I wouldn't call it "cheating". Just a different approach. And mistakes aren't punishment, they're learning experiences. 😇

Sophia

Sigh. I have a very good mind to skip the rest of Alfred 3. It started nice enough, but now there is piece after piece of Rock-a-My-Soul (which I hated the first time already), Sea Chanty (aka Drunken Sailor), Dry Bones, etc etc. Honestly... I don't even want to hear those, let alone spend weeks practising them.

It's not very motivating to play stuff like that, so I have been stalling a little with older pieces and other beginner's books. I was very pleased to get my ancient Folk Dean Melodic Studies out, which I have never been able to read, nor play. And I could actually sight read through the first two pieces, fairly easily. Ok it wasn't smooth, but it's finally some solid proof that I am now further than at any point where I quit in the past. So it's not ALL bad 😂

Animisha

Sophia I have a very good mind to skip the rest of Alfred 3.

Very, very few people actually finish Alfred 3. There is absolutely no reason to torture yourself with those pieces.
You have now got a nice ground, and you can choose how to continue.
If you want to keep on working with Alfred's method books, take a look at Alfred's premier piano course. It moves somewhat slower than AIO, so maybe book 4 or 5 would suit you? The pieces are so much more enjoyable than the ones in AIO 3.
But apart from that, there is so much out there. RCM books, ABRSM books, Keith Snell, you name it.

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