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Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course : Lesson Book, Level Three Review

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Cost

• Book - $8.95 from Amazon.com

Features:.

• In dealing with the advanced concepts of piano playing, the book has been divided into four sections:
  • A Review of Old Key Signatures
  • New Key Signatures and Concepts
  • "Just For Fun" Section
  • "Ambitious" Section
    
    
• Topics include:
  • The Keys of: A Major, F# Minor, E Major, C# Minor, C Minor, Ab Major
  • Thirty-Second Notes
  • Sixteenth Note Triplets
  • Tremolo
  • Overlapping Pedaling
  • Alberti Bass
  • The Diminished Seventh Chord
  • Moving Up and Down the Keyboard in Thirds
    
    
• Many pieces including:
  • The Star-Spangled Banner
  • In the Hall of the Mountain King
  • Theme from 'Swan Lake'
  • Shenandoah
  • Toreador Song from 'Carmen'
  • Für Elise
    

Editor's Verdict:

Do not be put off by the name: Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course is one of the most highly respected lesson book series available.  There are three Lesson Books in the series, which progress in comfortable but challenging levels from absolute beginner to fairly advanced, and supplementary books to practice your theory, sight-reading, or to add more pieces to your repertoire in any category: Sacred Music, Christmas Songs, Jazz and Rock and Duets are amongst those available.

Throughout, the book gradually moves from more lesson-based material to a higher proportion of pieces suitable for independent study.  By the final two sections the editors have almost entirely provided pieces for you to have a try at once you have completed the rest of the course, and it is likely that by this time you will have the confidence to tackle them on your own.  As with the previous book, Level Three tackles an incredibly broad range of topics, and takes the self-taught pianist to impressive heights.  The books particularly seems to strike the right balance between developing complex technique and introducing well-known and challenging pieces, the two of which are intertwined perfectly, so that you learn the technique, and then are able to practise it.

The music itself is mostly from the classical, folk and jazz repertoire which you are likely to know already.. There are some surprises, however, and you may be introduced to new pieces or at least new arrangements.  Most importantly, they are all pieces that are fun to play, sound impressive, and are stock repertoire for any pianist.  By easing you out of the teaching and into approaching the music by yourself towards the end of the book, it sets you up for complete musical independence once you have completed the course.

For those who want a more multimedia approach to learning the piano, with video demonstrations, audio examples and interactive facilities, this is clearly not the appropriate product.  However, if you already play to an intermediate level and want to top up on your skills, or have already completed the first two books in the series, this will develop your playing considerably.  What Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course lacks in flashy features it makes up for in quality music and information.

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Review of Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course : Lesson Book, Level Three