Episode Description
G'day, everyone. Welcome to show number one hundred and two of "Piano, finally", a podcast by an old bloke who is discovering music because he got around to learning the piano. It’s been a relatively quiet week musically, consisting mostly of a voice lesson, choir rehearsal, and some evening practice. However, this week’s show is shorter than usual. With fun events happening after work every day next week and finalising all the marking for the term, there wasn't enough time to write the planned essay on what goes on behind the scenes when putting something big together. The new school building was also opened on Friday, complete with open day events and fantastic background music provided by students to celebrate the school's fortieth birthday.
Festivals and Summits This weekend is the AltStrings Practice Summit. While primarily aimed at string players, this free summit for amateur adult musicians has a lot to offer, so I opted for the paid version to access the recordings rather than paying attention at 2:30 in the morning. Also, early bird tickets are now available for the 30th Blue Mountains Music Festival happening next March. Grab them here: https://www.bmff.org.au/.
What's been playing The third season of the ABRSM "Start Here" podcast has surprisingly dropped two new episodes covering Punk and House music. The series is comprehensive and an excellent way to expand your musical horizons. You can listen here: https://shows.acast.com/abrsm-start-here. On ABC Radio, "The Music Show" featured a look back at the career of John Farnham, diving deep into "You're the Voice". Check out the episode here: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/musicshow/john-farnham-whispering-jack/107070578. This ties into a new biography and an upcoming musical based on his life premiering in November. Get tickets to the musical here before it sells out: https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/2026/productions/whispering-jack. Other than that, I'm listening to choir practice tracks like "Barefoot" and "The Day You Went Away" to get a proper feel for the music.
Learning - What's new I've made a bit of progress in the "How to Write A Great Melody" course by Guy Michelmore. I've been using the motif generator to come up with short, one-bar phrases that will form the basis of my next exercises. To get closer to playing familiar pop music, I've been exploring the types of keyboards used in classic recordings. David Bennett recently released "Top 10 Rhodes Songs of All Time", which covers the development of Rhodes pianos. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CV0Jv1Z0To. Pierre Piscitelli also has his own version of Rhodes intros, which you can check out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CimnsB-IHpk. I’ve been using these videos to play with the settings on the Nord and MODX.
Progress at the Keys The Trumpet Tune is coming along nicely, and I finally have the timing of the trills working properly into the next notes. With the right-hand working, I'm starting to bring in the left-hand chords. Excitingly, I'm making a start on a cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". With the Montage M8X arriving this coming week, I've purchased a package of settings based around Pink Floyd's music and am testing them out.
Closing Piano practice will take a back seat this week as I attend the 2027 season launches for the Sydney Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare, plus a read performance of Henry VI Pt 2, the annual Astronomy evening at Macquarie University, and a vocal workshop. If you want to reach out, email david@pianofinally.show or visit www.pianofinally.show.
The contents of the podcast were entirely generated by David Reidy, but these show notes were created by Gemini.
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