Alfred Adult All-in-One Course Level 2

Sophia · 2024-05-28T02:50:57+00:00

Well, it seems that this forum is a nice refuge from another place that has too many ads and too much drama lately! I see we already have a nice Alfred 1 thr...

Nightowl

Great progress Sophia. I keep thinking of Santa Lucia when I hear that piece - I'm not sure if one is based on the other or if I'm just conflating two similar pieces? Anyway, you're way ahead of me (and always will be), but I'm happy enough playing Scherzo and have recently begun working on Introduction and Dance. This piece was the basis for Those were The Days - here's a link of the version that plays in my head when I think of this old song:

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Sophia

Very nice! That's the way I remember that tune too. This is the one I'm finalizing:

We watched that concert live on TV at the time and I always thought that Pavarotti looked a bit distracted or even inebriated, the way he was jiggling and consulting his notes. But the singing is impeccable 🙂

Nightowl

It sounds great in Italian, and is a really iconic piece, but now that I've read the lyrics using the subtitles, I'm surprised about how chauvinistic they are! In the context of the story line in the opera there were probably reasons why the character felt like slagging off all women, so I'm not suggesting they should rewrite the lyrics to fit with today's PC world (there is too much of that going on already), but those lyrics are bad.
Every day's a school day for me, on my journey into classical music. 🙂

Sophia

Haha I know right? When I was little my mom used to take me to operas. I didn't understand a word of course and I was bored out of my skull. Then in later years the theater installed an overhead "ticker tape" subtitling feature, so you could follow what was going on. Ok, I confess - I was still bored - but at least then I realized that they weren't just yelling because they sat on something, there was an actual story attached 😆

Nightowl

Well, I'm now playing Laredo - a tune that sounded familiar so I searched on YT and found several videos of different people singing this old folk song, including Johnny Cash. I must have heard this version on the radio when I was very young, because my mother always had the radio on in the kitchen and JC's version was quite popular back then. The pieces in book 2 are certainly more interesting than book 1, and the next song is Pd'A. It felt like I'd never reach this point but now I'm getting nervous about starting that piece, wondering if I'll be able to do it justice.
Meanwhile there is another piece about 50 pages on that is on my wish list to play - a Chopin Etude. It looks really scary but sounds so beautiful when I hear proper pianists playing it on YT.
I feel like things are clicking into place a bit now, and the early pieces in book 2 have helped to improve my sight reading.

Sophia

Nice! I am still learning the waltz. Right now I'm only practicing about half an hour a day... spring has finally landed and it's hard to stay indoors 😁

So between Alfred and the blues course I'm not really progressing very fast right now, but I know I'll be back at it in full swing soon enough again.

Nightowl

I'm now working on Pd'A - a piece that I've been looking forward to for weeks. It's not wildly difficult but there are a few stretched hand positions and jumps involved, so I think it will be a while before I can play the piece competently. It's like I've trodden a long uphill path to reach the point where I'm standing on higher ground and have a much better view on the horizon. 🙂 Sophia is standing on a higher peak, where the views are even better. Others have ascended Everest, but that's not for me. The Chopin Etude towards the end of book 2 is in sight, another distant peak on my journey.

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