Adult Piano Adventures: Popular - Book 1 | Easy Piano Sheet Music with Timeless Hits and Favorites for Beginners | Popular Piano Songbook for Adults | Faber Piano Book with Classic Songs

This book is Level 1 for Adult Beginners and I was just finishing the Level 1 method book and the first few songs in this book are very good and easy, I am especially fond of My Heart Will Go On which I learned to play on the Ukulele a few years ago. Then I hit the Downton Abbey them and let me tell you, this is my favorite song I have learned to play in the nearly two years of being a Piano Player. It's also one of the most challenging. I've tried many different exercises and songs from YouTube videos but they were either too complex or just the introduction to a song. And while this is an arrangement made for beginners, it is still a complete song, so it has become my go-to song for warming up and what not. It's also a great song to practice isolation techniques because it is a long enough song with enough variety that when you have trouble with chord changes, or whatever, you can easily isolate those measures or notes. Any way, I have only moved on to the song after this, which is also a very good and challenging (but not too challenging) song for the beginner which is There's No Business Like Show Business. But I am no Piano Teacher so, being self-taught, I have no idea if I should have been using this and the Classics book all along or as I did, waiting to complete the Method Book and then take on these. I actually felt the Method Book gave me enough to do so that I didn't need supplementary material. Now I am using the supplemental books as well as reviewing the chapters from the Level 1 book, mostly the Three Minute Technique pages and theory pages before moving on to Level 2. But I highly recommend this book based on the songs I have played and getting the Downton Abbey theme is worth the price of this book if you want a great song that sounds great. I can't tell you how I travel with the notes as I play this one song. It's so Heavenly. And I have never even watched that show!

I am a beginner aged 40 and have been playing for about 6 months.I finished PA 1 and am now working through chapter 7 of PA 2. The songs are beginner which, in this case, is not synonymous with “easy”. Some have taken me a couple of weeks (no business like show business, someone like you and the infamous downton abbey), while others I completed in a weekend. The pieces do a good job of getting your hands moving all over the keyboard. Much more so the PA books. Honestly, after playing some of Popular pieces, the PA book exercises seem way easier. The difficulty is somewhat mixed and im not sure if this an intentional strategy to build confidence going into a harder piece. I do wish they had play-along tracks like they do with the piano adventures. That way i could practice at multiple speeds. They also don't really seem to necessarily correspond with the order of the PA books. All that said, i love that this book includes classical , pop, theater and movie. Its a nice combination of different styles and they are elegantly arranged. I feel like the Fabers have high expectations for their budding pianists but the feeling of finally playing a song through is worth it. I highly recommend the book to add some substance to your playing.

I ended up buying this book as an afterthought alongside their "Classics Book 1" but ended up playing songs from this one much more than expected. It makes for a great change up from a course book (such as Faber's or Alfred's All-in-one) which tend to have rather boring/uninteresting songs in some lessons. It felt great (as an absolute beginner) to play and apply what I'd learned so far in my self study course to songs I recognize and enjoy. Most songs in this book are in the C major key signature and are simplified versions of the original song. I would say that almost all of the songs in this book are within the same range of difficulty/challenge, which means you get a ton of songs to reinforce learning (from another source) without getting too far out of your reach. I highly recommend getting this to supplement a main course book to serve as motivational practice as you progress in learning.

Brilliant book but too hard for listed level

Exactly as described helps him learn

I use this daily then check in with my instructor weekly. It’s great & I love the accompanying videos

I've been playing piano now for a little over 7 months. I've been working with a piano teacher that has been going through different books (Such as RCM 1, Alfred Jazz Book 2b, etc.) and classical music. I've also completed the Faber Adult Adventures 1 book. I feel this book is a fantastic transition from Faber Adult Adventures Book 1 to Book 2. It has a lot of fun pieces that are challenging for a beginner and get right up to the lowest levels of intermediate. Its been a lot of fun learning these and I feel its been very helpful as I continue to proceed through Adult Adventures 2. The main thing I'd say that is that this book really gets you to learn basic chords and basic chord inversions. It'll also consistently get you to move to slightly different 5 finger basic positions within songs. It won't push you to big jumps in hand positions but it will definitely require you to move a little. Due to this I believe other than the very beginning pieces in this book the average new pianist shouldn't start with this until they finish with at least the first Adult Adventures book.

Came packaged great and undamaged. I am currently learning piano and I ordered this to see if I could play some of the music. My instructor is teaching out of the same book/company (Faber Adult Piano Adventures) course number 1. I am 3/4 through the course book. I am able to play a lot of the beginning songs from this Popular Songs book. I know the majority of the music and throughly enjoy it. As the book progresses, the songs get more advanced. There are also good informational incerts throughout the book. It is great to have as I am continuing to learn. Would highly recommend for beginner to intermediate piano players.

Una manera digerible y entretenida para mejorar la lectura de mis alumnos, va de una manera progresiva y te lleva a entender aspectos teóricos a la par. A la gente le agrada escucharse leyendo ya piezas más conocidas. Muy recomendado

Fantastic book for beginners!

Great practice book. Love the fact that they included good music theory. Very helpful

This book requires a significant update. The songs included are outdated and no longer resonate with today's popular music trends, making it less enjoyable to engage with. Furthermore, its content is not well-aligned with the accompanying theory book, which diminishes its overall utility. Regrettably, I do not find it to be a useful resource in its current state.

I started taking piano lessons as a retirement project and am using the Faber series of books on my own. The songs in this book are a bit dated, but still useful for beginners like me and mercifully include the suggested fingering. Some of the comments for this book complain about the lack of information for each song. I found a wonderful resource on YouTube that walked me through each of the songs step by step. Search for the channel "LetsPlayPianoMethods" and then look through his playlists for the "Faber Adult Piano Adventures Popular Book 1". He has 33 videos that go into detail on each of the songs in this book. This is not my content, but I am glad he took the time to go through each of the songs.