Piano, finally

G'day, everyone! Welcome to show number ninety-seven. In this week's show, I discuss getting back to learning scales, the changing way society approaches learning music, and last week's pretty special Sydney Symphony Orchestra concert.
Progress Update I had my piano and voice lessons on Monday. Finding time to practice the piano has been a bit of a challenge lately, so progress is slow, but the singing is coming along nicely! I can now reach some notes that were previously out of my range. Our choir is more than halfway through the repertoire, and we are now doing full run-throughs of some numbers as we are only two months away from the performances.
Review - Scales I have two excellent reference books that list all the piano scales: https://amzn.to/4whjbsm https://amzn.to/48Ms6ln Instead of reviewing them, I wanted to share the approach Devi, has suggested for my practice. Playing scales straight up and down is pretty boring, so adding variety makes the repetition much more bearable. I'm focusing on C major and G major across two octaves. Aside from getting the fingering right, the main focus is on keeping a strictly even tempo and getting exactly the same loudness for each note. I'm also practising them staccato in both hands, using contrary motion, and—quite trickily—playing staccato in one hand and legato in the other.
Essay - Tradition There is a long tradition of learning and playing music, stretching back thousands of years—from the songlines of Indigenous Australians to the singing bards in Homer's Odyssey. But times and traditions are changing. I used to buy a new CD every week and chat with the staff at the local classical music shop. Today, for less than the cost of one CD, I have access to almost everything ever recorded via Apple's classical catalogue. I am curious to see what new traditions will emerge around modern music listening.
SSO Concert: The Planets Last weekend, I attended the Sydney Symphony Orchestra concert at the Opera House with Nigel Westlake's percussion concerto, When the clock strikes me, performed brilliantly by Rebecca Lagos. We also heard Charles Ives' Unanswered Question, followed by Holst's The Planets. The Holst piece was particularly interesting because it was a "Symphonic Cinema" performance. You can find out more here: https://www.sydneysymphony.com/events/symphonic-cinema-the-planets
Closing We have an extra rehearsal for a charity event next Saturday, where we will be singing A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman. I'm also hoping to check out a second-hand music score shop I found in Sydney. Contact me at [email protected] or visit www.pianofinally.show.
The contents of the podca
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Welcome to show number ninety-six! In this week's show, I'll discuss money and music, and let you know about an amazing free resource I've found on YouTube. You may have noticed that the last show came out a day early, and the week before that, there wasn't an episode at all. That was because I was called out to help with the St Vincent de Paul van. Sometimes, other things just have to take priority!
In it for the money I was listening to the Music Show on the weekend, where a quote by Stephen Sondheim was mentioned. When asked what the difference between a musical and an opera is, he answered, "A musical is a way of making money and an opera is a way of spending it." This got me thinking about the influence money has on how we approach music. Comparing productions like Opera Australia's Turandot and the musical The Book of Morman, the audience experience is very similar, but the financials are not. The opera relies heavily on government funding to stay afloat, while the musical breaks box office records. Opera is marketed as elite entertainment, meaning it doesn't really have to go out and sell itself to a wider audience.
How does this affect us as piano learners? It is likely the reason why exam syllabus books almost exclusively feature classical or classical adjacent pieces. Piano learning relies heavily on hundreds of years of musical tradition instead of having to promote itself from the ground up.
Hal Leonard Choral My SATB (Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses) choir encourages practising outside of sessions, but finding a proper SATB score for a song can be tough. Luckily, the music publisher Hal Leonard has six different YouTube channels where they show the score of a piece of music perfectly synced with a high-quality performance. The choral section has genre playlists containing hundreds of videos, making it very easy to follow along with the score and learn the music. It is an amazing resource! https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hal+leonardhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f37Uf5Apj9w
Progress and Closing It is going to be a busy week with voice and piano lessons, school debates, and choir rehearsals. Because of this, very little piano practice got done this week. This week I'm including Daniel McFarlaine's Titans, recorded using the Kawai NV10, with the Kontact Claire Piano emulating a Fazioli grand piano in concert mode, via Cubase 15 and a Mac Mini Pro.
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You can contact me:
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Some of the links to books and other items mentioned in the podcast may affiliate links for Amazon or other providers. If you use one of these links, a commission may be paid to me at no additional cost to you. Thank you if you use a link. 
All reviews of products, websites and services are unpaid, and no sponsorship has been received for any content on this podcast.

Welcome to episode 95! I'm David Reidy, an old bloke getting around to learning the piano, finally. In this week's show, I review a new book about scales and arpeggios, discuss piano racing, and suggest one of my favourite YouTube creators who is back from a break.
Listener Feedback & Progress I received an email from Chris, an adult piano learner, with some great suggestions for my learning and the podcast. It is genuinely gratifying to hear from listeners, as it's usually just me in the room when recording. In terms of my own progress, choir rehearsals are going well for our July performance. The singing has unexpectedly helped me translate my treble clef reading to the bass clef.
Review: The Piano Scale Book I recently picked up The Piano Scale Book by Ben Andrew, a new release from Hal Leonard. It simplifies conventional classical scale learning using practical, colour-coded keyboard illustrations for fingerings. The book includes digital resources with 87 Synthesia-style videos. If you need to brush up on scales, it's worth a look. Grab a copy here: https://amzn.to/48twBrh.
Essay: It's not a race After watching a Rick Beato video on Spotify's top downloaded tracks, I was reminded how lucky we are as hobbyist learners to not have pressure to meet others' expectations. We don't have strict deadlines, just the goal to get better as time passes. Music for enjoyment shouldn't be turned into a race with no meaningful finish line—a lesson we should keep in mind for both ourselves and younger learners.
YouTube Recommendation: Tom Scott Tom Scott, one of my favourite educational creators, is back with a new series called England. The first episode is a fascinating look at a traditional bell foundry. His videos retain that great low-tech feel and are not AI-generated. Check out his channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TomScottGo.
Progress SegmentThis week features a selection of scales to help with my choir singing, recorded on the Kawai NV10 with Pianoteq 9 emulating a Shigeru Kawai SK-EX grand piano.
The contents of the podcast were entirely generated by David Reidy, but these show notes were created by Gemini.
Send me a text message.
You can contact me:
via email at [email protected]; this is probably the best option
the show website, www.pianofinally.show
Instagram and Threads @pianofinally
and on YouTube 
all the podcast directories - list
here's the RSS feed
Some of the links to books and other items mentioned in the podcast may affiliate links for Amazon or other providers. If you use one of these links, a commission may be paid to me at no additional cost to you. Thank you if you use a link. 
All reviews of products, websites and services are unpaid, and no sponsorship has been received for any content on this podcast.

Welcome to show number 94 of Piano, finally! I'm David Reidy, an old bloke getting around to learning the piano. This week, it's school holidays, so we're busy tidying up the house to make a proper music room. I'm also putting in some extra choir practice to learn the bass part for A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman for an upcoming charity event in May. 
Megalong Music Festival, Day Two I'm finishing my review of the Megalong Music Festival, set in the beautiful Blue Mountains. Day two showcased an incredible "Folk and Fancy" program featuring the five festival fellows: Ellen Chuong, Rueben Johnson, Maggie Zeng, Arjun Singh, and Daniel Casey. We also enjoyed performances by talented local musicians Jeremy and Leon Spikmans. The weekend wrapped up with Joaquín Turina’s Escena Andaluza sextet and Dohnányi’s Piano Quintet. The festival is entirely funded by tickets and donations, so if you have corporate connections, the organisers would love to hear from you! Learn more about the festival here: https://www.megalongmusicfestival.com.au/.
Let's do that again At a recent sound check for the Counting Crows at the Enmore Theatre, I watched lead singer Adam Duritz actively tweak how the band performed a song they've played for decades. It got me thinking about how contemporary musicians constantly evolve their work, whereas classical pieces generally sound identical to recordings from fifty years ago. A rare exception is Australian guitarist John Williams and his band Sky—check out their unique take on classical music here: https://music.apple.com/au/album/toccata/1503012912?i=1503012925.
Ryan Abshier and the Moonlight Sonata I review an encouraging video by Ryan Abshier about tackling Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. When the sheet music suddenly looks overly complex, Ryan explains how those intimidating chords can be broken down into simple, repeating numerical patterns, like 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2. Watch Ryan’s breakdown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-4sjhQWKPI.
Progress My new scales and arpeggios book finally arrived from the UK! Devi is overseas, so there are no formal lessons this week. However, I'm making progress on Titans by Daniel McFarlane, practising the opening of the Moonlight Sonata, and singing along to my arpeggios. Have a listen to the practice piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phHuD-3bREY.
If there is something you'd like me to talk about, drop me an email at [email protected] or visit www.pianofinally.show. 
The contents of the podcast were entirely generated by David Reidy, but these show notes were create
Send me a text message.
You can contact me:
via email at [email protected]; this is probably the best option
the show website, www.pianofinally.show
Instagram and Threads @pianofinally
and on YouTube 
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here's the RSS feed
Some of the links to books and other items mentioned in the podcast may affiliate links for Amazon or other providers. If you use one of these links, a commission may be paid to me at no additional cost to you. Thank you if you use a link. 
All reviews of products, websites and services are unpaid, and no sponsorship has been received for any content on this podcast.

G'day, everyone. Welcome to Piano, finally, a podcast by an old bloke who is getting around to learning the piano, finally.
Review: Megalong Music Festival, Day One
In this week's show, I start reviewing the Megalong Music Festival. The concerts take place in the Megalong Valley Community Centre, a concrete block, metal-roofed building which is used by the local scouts, the pony club and for other community events. It was definitely not built as a concert venue, but the hall is small, seating a bit over a hundred people, so the lack of concert hall acoustics doesn't matter.
This year, the professional musicians included Jacqui Cronin, Frank Celata, Timothy Nankervis, Asmira Woodward-Page, and leva Jokubaviciute.
The concert was named A moment in time and consisted of seven works. The selections were made to complement Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fin du Temps. Other pieces included Alex Turley's Zero Sum Game, Arvo Pärt's Fratres, Jessica Meyer's I only speak of the Sun, Miriam Hyde's Toccata for two, and Caroline Shaw's Entr'acte.
Quartet for the End of Time was written during the Second World War and had its first performance in a German prisoner of war camp. It is written for clarinet, violin, cello and piano.
Listen to the Messiaen recording: https://music.apple.com/au/album/messiaen-quatuor-pour-la-fin-du-temps/1452201290
Megalong Music Festival Website: https://www.megalongmusicfestival.com.au/
Essay: Consistently distracting
Taking a day off from the swimming pool on Good Friday made Saturday's swim a little harder than usual, which got me thinking about how advantageous it is to consistently stick to a routine. I consistently swim just over a kilometre each morning. So, why can't I do the same for piano practice? 
At the pool, there is nothing to do other than swim, but when I sit down at the piano, I can always see that there is something else that needs doing, like dusting the Kawai. My idea for a solution is to move the piano so I can't see the other jobs. My medium-term plan is to turn the smallest bedroom back into a piano room and consistently shut the door.
Progress & Coming Up
We spent most of the lesson on Monday concentrating on Titans by Daniel McFarlane once again. The music was recorded using the Nord Stage 4 with settings based around the Astoria Grand piano, inspired by a video by Douglas of dsoundman.
+Watch the dsoundman video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phHuD-3bREY
The contents of the podcast were entirely generated by David Reidy, but these show notes were created by Gemini.
Send me a text message.
You can contact me:
via email at [email protected]; this is probably the best option
the show website, www.pianofinally.show
Instagram and Threads @pianofinally
and on YouTube 
all the podcast directories - list
here's the RSS feed
Some of the links to books and other items mentioned in the podcast may affiliate links for Amazon or other providers. If you use one of these links, a commission may be paid to me at no additional cost to you. Thank you if you use a link. 
All reviews of products, websites and services are unpaid, and no sponsorship has been received for any content on this podcast.