Saturday, July 3, 2010

Order Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Greatest Hits, Level 1 (Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Series)


I am using the Greatest Hits book to round out the lessons in Alfred's Adult All-in-One Course. The latter suffers a little from not having enough full-length scores to really practice the material. One or two verse ditties only go so far and everyone else in the house gets tired of Jingle Bells or The Saints Go Marching In much much sooner than the piano student him/herself.

Even though the book claims that students are ready at page 44 of All-In-One to attempt the scores in Greatest Hits, I have my doubts. The opening song is very challenging and I still am nowhere close to mastering it. It is only when I got to around page 72 of the teaching material that I felt comfortable returning to Greatest Hits and trying some of the other arrangements. In particular, My Heart Will Go On is a very satisfying piece; it never really leaves middle C and the basic beat is familiar to most people.

I highly recommend this as an accompaniment to the All-In-One course. I subtracted one star as I think it could have included at least one more easy arrangement at the start of the text. After all, students buy these supplementals to practice, and encouragement - especially for those teacing themselves - is crucial.

Note that the book does not include a CD; even though most of the pieces are well known, it still would have been a nice touch.Get more detail about Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Greatest Hits, Level 1 (Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Series).

No comments:

Post a Comment