Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Course, Book 1: Learn How to Play Piano with Lesson, Theory and Technic: Lesson * Theory * Technic, Comb Bound Book

Alfred's Adult All-in-One Course #1

by Willard A. Palmer, Morton Manus, Amanda Vick Lethco

Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Course is designed for use with a piano instructor for the beginning student looking for a truly complete piano course. It is a greatly expanded version of Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course that will include lesson, theory, technic and additional repertoire in a convenient, "all-in-one" format. This comprehensive course adds such features as isometric hand exercises, finger strengthening drills, and written assignments that reinforce each lesson's concepts. There is a smooth, logical progression between each lesson, a thorough explanation of chord theory and playing styles, and outstanding extra songs, including folk, classical, and contemporary selections. At the completion of this course, the student will have learned to play some of the most popular music ever written and will have gained a good understanding of basic musical concepts and styles. Titles: Alouette * Alpine Melody * Amazing Grace * Au Claire de la Lune * Aunt Rhody * Auld Lang Syne * Aura Lee * The Bandleader * Beautiful Brown Eyes * Blow the Man Down! * Blues for Wynton Marsalis * Brother John * Caf? Vienna * The Can-Can * Chasing the Blues Away * Chiapanecas * Cockles and Mussels * The Cuckoo * Day is Done * Dueling Harmonics * The Entertainer * A Friend Like You * Go Down, Moses * Good King Wenceslas * Good Morning to You! * Good People * Got Those Blues * Greensleeves * Happy Birthday to You! * Harmonica Rock * Harp Song * Here's a Happy Song! * He's Got the Whole World in His Hands * I'm Gonna Lay My Burden Down * Jericho * Jingle Bells * Joy to the World! * Kum-ba-yah! * Largo (Dvorak) * Lavender's Blue * Lightly Row * Little Brown Jug * Liza Jane * London Bridge * Lone Star Waltz * Love Somebody * Lullaby * The Marine's Hymn * Mary Ann * Merrily We Roll Along * Mexican Hat Dance * Michael, Row the Boat Ashore * Money Can't Buy Everything * My Fifth * Ode to Joy * On Top of Old Smoky * O Sole Mio * Raisins and Almonds * Rock Along * Rockets * Rockin' Intervals

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Reference, Self Help, Textbooks, Education, Crafts

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 1994

About the author

Willard A. "Bill" Palmer (1917 – April 30, 1996) was an American music scholar, educator and composer.

Dr. Willard Palmer wrote nearly 800 published works, including an accordion method, several piano methods, a method for Hammond Chord Organ, a guitar method, hundreds of solo pieces and many choral works for the Alfred Music publishing company.

Reviews

[Imi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This method book cover to cover was exactly what I was hoping for so far. I followed it cover to cover, and found it really comprehensive. There are also a few pieces I've really liked and will keep coming back to. List below with dates I first started them:

Favourite Pieces :
- 19/09/18: 'The Harp Song' (p.61)
- 19/09/18: 'Beautiful Brown Eyes' (p.65)
- 26/09/18: 'Alpine Melody' (p.69)
- 17/10/18: 'Blow the Man Down' (p.89)
- 15/11/18: 'Cafe Vienna' (p.94)
- 05/12/18: 'Lullaby' (p.95)
- 27/02/19: 'Chiapanecas' (p.120)
- 13/06/19: 'Scarborough Fair' (p.135)
- 24/07/19: 'The Entertainer' (p.140)
- 07/08/19: 'Amazing Grace' (p.142)
- 26/08/19: 'Over the Rainbow' (p.144)
- 15/11/19: 'Singin' in the Rain' (p.148)
- 17/10/19: 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' (p.156) - This piece was the last one in the book, and it was so, so difficult! Spent so much time on it. And it's turn out it was harder than most of the pieces early on in the next level book...

[Mike Parkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decided to try my hand at learning the piano as an adult, after seeing my daughter take lessons and getting a keyboard at our house. I chose this book as my manual, and I’m very happy with my choice. The book advances progressively in difficulty, and provides a good amount of theory and information on musical notation as you go. I was very pleased with the wide variety of songs – not just classical, but also many in the folk, blues and traditional genres (my edition has a few differences from the song list shown here, but most are the same). While each song has a specific learning objective, many are enjoyable to play in any context. The book also introduces chordal accompaniment with the left hand, focusing on the I, IV and V7 chords in some of the more common keys.

Best of all is that this series is very popular, and as a result there are multiple videos on the Internet for all of the songs in the book (including a free series of instructional videos for each song), so you can see how you are doing and identify where you might be misplaying a piece. There is also a good discussion group on the “Pianoworld” website. There are a 2nd and 3rd book in this series as well, which I haven’t started on yet.

[KiKi · Rating 5 out of 5]

总算弹完了，很适合新手

[Laura Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy Reading the beginning but found it not as good as Bastien piano basics which is meant for children but it is explained so clearly you can't get it wrong. Found the adult all in one course flawed as it would jump from one technique to the next with little theory explanation on how to play. It also had lots of Blues songs which was not for me. The more you go into the book the more confusing it get towards the end of the book. The book would often skip steps.

[Valentyn Danylchuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect book for someone who wants to learn the piano basics on their own. It gave me enough practice and confidence to start learning from sheet music, so I can continue the same way I learned the guitar, just by playing the pieces I like. I did not even fully finish the book, I plan to return to some exercises, but I already got from it more than I hoped for.

[Ellen DuBois]

Alfred’s Adult All-in-One Course, Book 1 is a well-rounded and approachable method book that I’ve used regularly in my piano teaching. While it’s designed for adults, I’ve also successfully started many of my students around age 12 and up in this book.

The pace is a bit quicker than some other Alfred’s method books, which works well for pre-teens, teens, and adults who are ready for a more mature presentation. Alfred’s Basic Piano Library can feel a little too young for many 12-year-olds at the beginning levels, though I do find Levels 3 and up to be great and appropriately challenging.

What I appreciate most is the smooth, logical progression and the way lesson material, basic theory, and technique are presented together. Concepts are introduced clearly and reinforced in a way that builds confidence and musical understanding.

I often supplement this book with music my students enjoy, especially for younger learners, since the pieces—while serving an important purpose in developing style, technique, and theory—can sometimes fall a bit short on the excitement scale. That said, I’m clear with my students about the importance of fundamentals as their musical foundation, and we do work through the book.

Overall, my pre-teen and teen students, as well as my adult learners, enjoy learning from this series. From a teaching perspective, it’s a dependable, thoughtfully structured resource that I return to often.

As students progress, I often transition them into Alfred’s Piano Book for Busy Teens, which works especially well midway through or after Alfred’s Adult All-in-One Course, Book 2, sometimes alongside it. It kicks up the variety and challenge, which many of my students enjoy.

[Chron Dailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is certainly a good book for the late beginner or for a teacher to use as guidelines, but I breeze through this book or give supplemental pieces to practice with because I think it's a little oversimplified. It keeps to simple traditional tunes, which has merit, but it doesn't necessarily have enough songs to really get the student comfortable with the concepts before moving on. I like it because it includes theory, but even if I'm teaching an adult, I revert to a more detail not oversimplified theory book. I have a degree in music and I just can't bring myself to give my students an oversimplified explanation of music theory. For this, I like to give them Theory Time, but will often skip through that, too, based on how well the student gets the concept with speed and skill. This book has a few wonky exercises that to me are useless and if done wrong could really hurt the student. I skip over these all the time and teach the stretches and exercises I learned in college. In conclusion, this book is a nice place to start, but you should really add in other songs of interest and similar skill level as well as supplement with flash cards, which I think are better than writing letter names on a piece of paper over and over again.

[Anna Guevara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book along with The Piano Handbook by Carl Humphries and much prefer the Humphries book. If you just want to play for fun, this book will keep you occupied, but if the music is a serious pursuit for you go with the Humphries book. This book will have you playing Jingle Bells and When the Saints Go Marching In, while the Humphries will have you playing some easier Bach and Mozart pieces. It really comes down to personal preference and what you want out of playing, but I thought I'd offer an opposing view to this book's near-unanimous praise. For me, I'll get much more out of the Humpries.

[Christian Crowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This may be there best option around for a beginning student. The layout of the book makes it difficult to navigate, or to find a particular topic of interest. The print is very large, which actually contributes to my difficulty in navigating.

This is the first of three levels; I look forward to seeing how the others compare. Each level has an accompanying book of supplementary tunes. It's worth going through the accompanying tune book as you progress through each all-in-one book. I added notes to the pages of my all-in-one book where there is a supplementary tune tied to the lesson.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

Good to learn the basics and great at repetition, but derails beyond the most basic stuff a middle schooler can do. Didn't care for vast majority of the songs nor did I care for the lack of theory. If I went into this knowing ZERO music theory, I would be more confused.

Also how do the authors not have a website where you can access answers and recordings? I guess this book is stuck in a time before the internet. And, no, I will not be getting a CD like they suggest in front cover. I haven't had a CD player since 2013 lol.

[Theresa Stavola · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m going to finally finish this book. I actually went through a lot of years ago with a teacher. At the time I didn’t like it. I think it was a bit too complicated for me. But going through it a second time was better. I actually used Piano Marvel as a tool with this book. It helped a lot with timing and tempo.
If you’re looking to learn piano I’d recommend this book along with Piano Marvel. A wonderful complement for each other.

[Viktor Lototskyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent course.

[Doris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for an adult piano student. I used it with the help of a teacher, but in a pinch, I probably could have done it alone.

[Norina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed learning piano using this book. My preferred piece from it is Lullaby.

[Nicole Lifelong Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s ok. I found the learning style fairly typical and not as engaging as more modern apps and YouTube. It will be a good reference book but I won’t continue with the series.

[Bojack Horseman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a really great book to get ahold of some basic music theory and to practice a lot with the piano, it flows nicely with understandable and recognized songs and the difficulty on them increasing with the book. Personally it is good for a beginner, but the book has more practice songs than theory, practice is good but for example for me, not havings songs that I really like make the practice more of a chore than anything and the book being most of sheet music songs makes you want to skip some songs and for me after the half of the book the songs do take some big time of your day to start playing them. Nevertheless, the book is great for practice and learning.

I skipped the songs from like page 120. It seems that people really take the time for this book, seems that even people last a year until they proper finish it so I'm in peace with myself since I thought that I was the slowest piano player since I lasted on every song a good amount of hours for the last ones that I did, but yeah it takes work for this book.

[Haley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I played piano for many years as a kid, but stopped for a long time with college (no access to one then, lol) and it was intimidating trying to get back into things. I also felt like I wanted to do it “properly” this time, since I was mostly self taught and only took lessons for a year or two. This was a great introduction! I loved the explanations for technique with pictures, and the music selection was great. I really felt like I learned a lot and was able to get a better grasp on things I wasn’t sure on (warming up, how to hold your hands, higher level music theory) while breezing past the stuff I did know (basic music reading and all the other stuff you get from doing marching and concert band for over a decade, lol).

If you’re just starting out or have been away for a while and want a good reintroduction, this is great! I’ve already gotten the levels 2 and 3 as well, and I’m looking forward to trying the more advanced stuff. :)

[H Gayle Lundeen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Feedback Just on Kindle

The Kindle version of this book will only open on my iPhone, which because of the size makes it semi-unusable. It will not open in Windows on my Surface Pro, which would make it usable, it also won’t open on my Kindle Fire! As I want it to play on the piano and I can not see it when it is on my music stand. The producer should be able to correct this. Googled to see if I could correct the problem and nada.

Very disappointed. Do have the hard copy on order, but I paid $10 to get a head start and it was obviously a waste.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's easy to play the piano with this book.
Today I played one of my favorites songs on the piano (Beethoven's 9th Symphony "Ode To Joy").
It wasn't that bad, I mean to be my first time playing piano and taking the class in English is a big step to me!!!

Tomorrow the teacher will teach us how to play blues with the LH!!!

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given this as a gift and found it a good introduction to piano. I am now considerably better than when I started, but still not great... perhaps I need Alfreds Piano Level 2! It is light though, and perhaps lacking in any depth of theory, but good if you want to just start getting used to playing a few tunes on the piano.

[Rory Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb introduction to piano. Takes about four straight months to complete but takes you through a series of theory and practical pieces to learn the basics of piano.
After completing the book I can now play a number of basic pieces with the grounding to learn much more (Legend of Zelda pieces next!).
Very highly recommended for adult beginners.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn’t a complete novice to the piano but I wanted to actually try reading music this time and this completely filled my expectations.Takes you at a steady pace,learning theory as you go along.Highly recommended 🎹🎹

[Luke Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book for learning piano, it taught me the basics and had some pretty simple to a little challenging songs that I generally enjoyed. I would recommend to any piano players of any skill unless you’re really good then you probably don’t need it

[Evelyn Repass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love learning through Alfred books.

[Kem Đậu phụng]

tôi không biết cách sử dụng nó

[Con Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an ideal book for my students. This is a must for adult learners who have no musical background and want to learn to play basic piano and theory.

[Gấu Mập Ù]

great, thanks

[Ang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teaching myself piano. This is a great series. I have learned a lot and my skill has improved. I really like that the lessons, theory, and technical aspects of playing are all combined.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect for returning students.

[Kai · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best starter book for an adult who wants to learn piano.