A Review of Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Level 1

Piano players come in all ages and in fact we don’t always start learning the piano when we’re young. There are thousands of adult piano students ranging from ages 18 – 90, and with the advent of online learning, that number is increasing every day and is one of the wonderful benefits of offering online piano lessons.

One of the best places to start for adults is Alfred’s Adult Piano Course which comes in three levels. Today we’re going to take a look at what Level 1 offers and there is a link at the bottom of this blog where you can purchase this book along with the other two in the series. Please be aware that these are affiliate links and a small portion of the proceeds come back to me.

Alfred’s Adult Piano Course Level 1 opens with a quick overview of piano basics, such as hand position, posture, how to hold your fingers over the keys, and also a quick review of notes and they piano keyboard. If you already know these things then you can just move on to where the actual music starts. If you aren’t familiar with any of these, take a few moments to go over everything because you’ll probably find some questions that you have answered.

What you’ll notice as you get into the music portion of the book is that each exercise and piece follows a sequential order of difficulty. This will really help you stay encouraged while you learn instead of overwhelmed by something that is too difficult to play at your current level.

Each page will introduce a new and different concept and then you will have a simple exercise to play so you can practice that new concept.

Some of the things that you will come across in the beginning are:

• 5-finger exercises
• Playing different notes values in the same piece
• Playing in both the treble and bass clefs
  
• Playing notes in different key signatures

You’ll also notice that as you move through the book the amount of information being introduced will increase. Again, this is done in a way that won’t seem like you’re having to learn too much information but at the same time you’ll enjoy the increased amount of things that you are learning and able to play on the piano.

Also, many of the early pieces are very familiar so while you are learning the new concept introduced on each page, you’re also learning a tune that you probably learned in childhood which makes it really fun while you learn.

Don’t think that Book 1 is all just really easy material! As you’ll see in the video at the end, I show you just how far you will advance in this book if you follow it by starting at the beginning and taking each page/concept one at a time. By the time you get to the middle and the end you’re going to sound like a real pianist…so take the time to really learn the beginning parts of the book before you try moving on to the more difficult pages.

Some of the fabulous pieces that you’ll fine in this book are:
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• Joy to the world
• Over the Rainbow
• The Entertainer (this one I play in the video at the end)
• He’s Got the Whole World
• At Last
• Singin’ in the Rain
• The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island (remember that TV show?)

There are lots more than the few listed here. Such a fun group of pieces to learn and you will gain an amazing amount of technical knowledge by going through this book.

The great thing is that there are two more books in this same line that just continue teaching you the same way and introducing harder music along with the new concepts.

Getting yourself through each of the Alfred’s Adult Piano Courses 1-3 will give you a really great foundation to playing the piano that you can continue to build upon and come back to anytime you need to refresh a particular concept or technique that you are having some trouble with.

Make sure to watch the following video as I take you through Book 1 and play some examples of a few of the pieces in this book.

You can fine each of the Alfred’s Adult Piano Courses here: Make sure to start with Book 1 if you are a beginner though!

Alfred Book 1:  https://amzn.to/36CKGQQ
Alfred Book 2:  https://amzn.to/2sO40ft
Alfred Book 3:  https://amzn.to/2FnzaNm

If you like my tips and lessons, you will love the courses over on my website. Whether you are a beginner looking to get a solid foundation to build on or you are looking to take your existing skills to that next level, the online music courses on my website  https://www.pianolessonsontheweb.com will help you do just that.