Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Course: Lesson, Theory, Technic

I recently purchased the “Adult All-in-One Course: Lesson, Theory, Technic, Level 1” and have been very pleased with my experience so far. The lessons are clear and progress at a comfortable pace, making it easy to build confidence with each new concept. I appreciate how the book combines lesson material, music theory, and technical exercises all in one place. This integrated approach helps reinforce what I’m learning and keeps practice sessions interesting. The explanations are straightforward, and the exercises are varied enough to keep things engaging. I also like that the book includes familiar songs, which makes practicing more enjoyable and motivating. Overall, I would highly recommend this course to adult beginners or anyone looking to refresh their piano skills. It’s a comprehensive, user-friendly resource that makes learning piano both accessible and fun.

A little background before I get into the real review: My 14 y/o trumpet player daughter has been wanting to learn the piano for years. Because she has C.P. we had been putting it off thinking that trying to coordinate both hands at once and read music would be too frustrating for her. Her trumpet teacher disagreed and recommended she start with the Suzuki method as she has and incredibly good ear and quite a bit of natural musical talent. From my understanding of Suzuki, there is quite a bit of parent involvement required. This is a problem for me given I have limited experience playing an instrument (flute. I really should have listened when my mom said I'd regret giving it up) and absolutely none with the piano. I bought this book to help rectify that, knowing that I'll be sitting in on her weekly lessons and absorbing a lot of information there. Having only had the book a couple of days, I love it already. The book assumes you are coming to the piano with no prior musical experience and starts from the very beginning. It introduces the musical alphabet and shows where each note falls on the keyboard. When reading from the staff is introduced, the note names are printed right in the note so your eyes are traveling along the staff instead of looking elsewhere. With each lesson on theory you are given exercises and practice tunes that reinforce the lesson. There are also written exercises to really help make those connections solid. You move along fairly quickly, playing simple melodies with each hand separately to playing with both hands. Once harmonic intervals are introduced (pg.26) and you start playing the melody with one hand and harmonics with the other, you really feel like you're making music! It's pretty exciting to go from not knowing where middle C is located to playing Jingle Bells with a bit of harmony in 2 days! I can't wait to continue to grow with this book. I do plan on adding scales and such to my practice sessions, as these are truly the things that will help you progress and give you a more fundamental understanding of how music is put together. Playing scales and arpeggios are just as important to a musician as stretching is to a runner. They may not be the most fun, but they are essential, which my daughter hates to hear. Some have said that the song selection leaves a bit to be desired. While I don't disagree that songs like "Tisket, A Tasket", "Lightly Row", and "Aunt Rhody" are juvenile, (these are the songs all young musicians start with. The Good Lord knows I've sat through many a squeaky beginning band performance of them!) they are the type of song that build that foundation for the great things to come. By the time you finish this book you should be able to play songs like "Over the Rainbow" and "Singin' in the Rain". You can also find loads of simple piano music online for free and there's always the option of purchasing books of beginner music if you find that you're board by the selections provided. Also be aware that this book does not come with the c.d. Not really a problem as there are loads of nice folks who have uploaded videos to youtube of all the songs. Just search for Alfred's Basic Adult Piano and you'll have your pick. All in all, I really am enjoying learning with this book. I feel like I'm able to grasp the concepts that are introduced and will be able to help my daughter along once her lessons start in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to finishing this book, which I hope will come sooner rather than later, and starting on the next one.

Easy to follow. Took piano as a kid and wanted a refresher course. Great for me but also easy to follow for anyone starting out.

Book is a fantastic tool to self teach yourself. Eventually I would recommend a tutor to move forward, but this book got me off to a running start that my teacher said seemed like it worked well for me.

I’ve seen people giving the book poor reviews because it doesn’t come with the DVD anymore. You can find all the songs in a single playlist on YouTube if you search for the name of the book. I’m having a lot of fun with this book mostly because the songs are great. There are a few really fun blues riffs and some great traditional American (US) spirituals that are really fun to play. That said, I’m disappointed in its treatment of music theory. The book introduces concepts but doesn’t always explain why they’re important or how they relate to other parts of music theory. For example, there are 3 different types of minor scales - natural, harmonic, and melodic. The book introduces the types and explains how to make them in each key but it doesn’t explain WHY there are 3 different types of minor scales. The answer is super interesting and really helpful but I had to go onto YouTube to learn about it. It would be nice to have a course that you could trust was comprehensive in its explanations about theory so you could be sure you’re not missing anything. I haven’t found anything better, so I would still recommend the book for introductions to concepts. I would just suggest that you supplement the music theory component with other materials. Andrew Huang has an excellent introductory video on YouTube for those who are interested. Gracie Terzian has a more in depth playlist that I also recommend. The book also doesn’t offer much in terms of technique exercises. It offers a few but given how important technique is, especially for beginners to keep from developing poor habits, I would have liked to see more discussion of technique. If you’re looking for technique exercises, there are some wonderful channels on YouTube with really fun exercises that are great for training but also sound really beautiful. I recommend Learn Piano with Jazer Lee, for more advanced exercises and true-piano-lessons.com for beginners.

I think this book is fantastic. I'm a professional guitarist, but was new to piano when I picked this up. The authors build your skills and knowledge in a way that is fun, engaging, and well-structured, with lots of catchy songs (both new ones and familiar classics). There is also good information on technique and protecting your precious hands from injury while practicing. I haven't been the fastest learner, but I've enjoyed every stage of my progress.

Great practice music sheets I get some great lessons

I just got it today and burned through first 4 chapters. For full disclosure - I played a piano for like 6 months when I was a kid and I have basics in music reading, but even if I didn't have these essentials, this book literally delivers new concepts with such ease, that my only regret is not discovering it sooner! I am trying to find the access to the videos which go along the book, as CD nowadays is unfortunately useless - I have no CD player, nor the laptop, nor the desctop has one. There is one review comment here which downmarks this book and learning system because the terminology in American English. I am sorry but that's ridiculous, especially in this day and age with all the tech around. I was 25 when I came to the UK nearly 22 years ago, and I could barely string a sentence in English, and without curent tech I had to rely on huge paper dictionaries. If I, a foreigner, for whom English is a 3rd language managing to understand the US terninology, with the help of Google, then I am struggling to understand how a native English speaker cannot survive without Alfred's text books 'translated' from English language to English language - all you have to do, if it is confusing to you, is to pencil in the meaning in UK terminology in the book, or make flashcard dictionary to later refer to. For example when learning about time signatures a word 'measure' came up. So taking into consideration that the author spoke about the total number of beat in 1 measure I deduced that the measure is a bar in UK's terms, and Googled confirmed this. Despite trying many different techniques over the years I was unable to move from the Do-Re-Mi system to C-D-E no matter how much I tried (I do-re-mi'ed from the age of 6 for 10 years of 3 rehearsals per week 2.5 hours per rehearsal. So Do-Re-Mi is like my native mother tongue which is inbeded at the deepest level. What I do to deal with it, is by translating the notes. So if there are people who are not happy about crocthet being called a quarter, which what it actually is, please remember that there are some who have to translate not just notes, but also chords, various scales etc. Actually I have to translate most of this book, because the language in the book is subject specific, and I welcome the challenge - the very reason I decided to play was to challenge myself, and it would be equally challenging had I had the UK English version of this same book!

Muy útil y práctico para las clases de piano, llega en buenas condiciones. El contenido bastante completo. Obviamente viene todo en Inglés.

Ho provato diversi libri per lo studio del pianoforte, tra cui lo Stark, Pianorama e James Bastien, ma questo è assolutamente il migliore. La musica è come una lingua straniera, va ascoltata oltre che suonata e per quasi ogni brano c'è un CD (o youtube, un sacco di pianisti hanno riproposto i brani) che riproduce gli spartiti. Lo consiglio

J'utilise cette méthode en parallèle de mes cours en école de musique. Elle m'est très utile car elle me permets de travailler progressivement : exercices des doigts, apprentissage des accords, enchaînement des accords. Tout cela avec des morceaux simples et progressifs en parallèle des exercices.

The best piano book ever!! It got me interested and I finally started my journey to learn piano with efficiency. I almost finished it, playing almost 1 year.