Episode 26 - Useful Theory

In this episode of Piano, Finally, David Reidy reflects on his progress as he continues his journey of learning piano. After returning to work and recovering from time off, David shares how establishing a morning practice routine has transformed his ability to improve at the piano consistently. He offers practical advice for fitting music practice into busy schedules and highlights the difference it has made in his playing.

The YouTube segment revisits some of David’s past recommendations, including updates on TwoSet Violin’s sudden return, The Chopin Podcast’s expanded series (now including a deep dive into a newly discovered Chopin waltz), and Stefan Wyatt’s instructional videos for Czerny and Burgmüller exercises. These resources provide inspiration and guidance for learners at every level.

In the essay segment, David discusses the value of music theory in understanding and creating music. He shares how concepts like chord progressions and the circle of fifths have enhanced his ability to learn and appreciate the structure of pieces like Adele’s works and classical canons. Inspired by this newfound knowledge, David reveals plans to experiment with composing his own music.

David also reviews the ANZCA video exam system, breaking down the pros and cons of Video Performance versus ANZCA Go! exams. For adult learners balancing piano with full-time work, these flexible options might be the perfect fit.

Finally, the progress segment includes updates on pieces he’s been practising: Fritz Spindler’s Canon, Louis Köhler’s Etude in G, and Daniel Gottlob Türk’s Bagatelle in F. He discusses his recording process using the Kawai NV10 keyboard and Pianoteq 8 software, offering insights into his setup and sound preferences.

Whether you’re just starting your piano journey or looking for fresh inspiration, this episode is packed with tips, reviews, and encouragement. Tune in to learn, grow, and stay motivated!

You can contact me:

• via email at david@pianofinally.show; 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 are 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.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome
• 0:14 Opening
• 1:37 YouTube - Revisiting previous recommendations
• 4:13 Essay - Useful Theory
• 6:55 Review - ANZCA Go!
• 9:52 Closing
• 10:39 Progress

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Good day everyone. I'm David Reedy. Welcome to Piano. Finally, a podcast by an old bloke who's getting around to learning the piano. Finally, welcome to show 26. Thank you for taking the time to listen. If this is the first time you've heard the podcast, I hope you enjoy what's here. Let me know if you are learning the piano like I am or another musical instrument and let me know how you're going with it. You can contact me at David at piano. Finally show, and if you're back here for more. Thanks very much for coming back. I was back at work this week after time off recovering and things are slowly getting back to normal. I haven't been able to go swimming each morning until this weekend, so I was able to spend the extra time at the piano in the morning. I'm still finding first thing in the morning is the most productive time for practise.
(00:55)
It's always the same time. There's nothing that can push it out of the way and I'm quite awake when I get up. Contrast that with trying to fit practise in after work and there's no comparison. So many things get in the way such as afterschool activities, making dinner and just being worn out. After a long day of teaching, I do still sometimes get to sit down and do some extra practise, but if I've done my practise in the morning, I can treat it as a bonus rather than as an obligation to myself. If you are having trouble getting a practise in at the end of the day, may I suggest giving first thing in the morning a try this week rather than suggest a new YouTube video. I thought it might be useful to do a quick look at what's been happening with some of the channels I have already suggested, so in no particular order.
(01:49)
Here we go. Two Set Violin is was an Australian violin duo whose channel combined serious classical violin performances with comedy. They had over 4 million subscribers on YouTube, but suddenly in October they announced that they were stopping, removed many of their past videos and disappeared without explanation. This week, however, a new video from B two TSM appeared on the old channel, so maybe something is coming. The Chopan podcast has a bit of replanning. Originally it was to be 12 episodes each looking at a different part of Chopin's works leading up to the US Chopan competition next January. Not surprisingly, this has turned out to be a bigger project than the producers expected, and the number of episodes has expanded to 16. Equality is still incredibly high and the level of discussion and more importantly, the musical inclusions make each episode of Masterclass and Understanding Chopin's work.
(02:53)
If you haven't been listening, you really should start. One outcome of their rescheduling and extending the episodes is that they've added an extra episode on the newly discovered Chopan walls, which hadn't been publicly revealed when the series started. It's the new episode seven and it was released this week. I haven't had a chance to listen to all of it yet. Stefan Wyatt's piano tips channel has continued to release more instructional videos to go along with his solo learner books. I have his Journey Exercises book and he now has videos for each of the pieces up to number 30 with the intention of covering all 100 entries. He's also just released a similar book with the Berg Miller exercises and videos on each of them will be coming. These are a great resource for the solo learner without a piano teacher. As Stefan provides performance tips for each exercise based on his years as a piano teacher.
(03:49)
I'll be back with some new suggestions next week, but in the meantime, if you know of any YouTube channels that have content that might be interesting, other listeners of the podcast, drop me an email and I'll check them out for inclusion in a future episode. Remember my email is David at piano Finally show useful theory. Yes, I've been thinking about music theory again, mostly because I've been working through Guy Mitchell Moore's course that I recommended in last week's show. I have finished the first half of the course and I'm finding it quite interesting. Guy has a teaching style similar to mine and I'm enjoying the video so much that I bought his composition bundle as well while it was on sale for Black Fry Month. I've said it a few times before. If I'm going to learn something, I have to understand it and I'm finding that is also true.
(04:45)
When it comes to the music I'm playing, most of the pieces so far are relatively simple. The canon I'm working on is 16 bars long, but really only eight bars because of its structure and the other two pieces are eight bars each, so there's not a lot of room for complexity even so seeing how the music in the two hands relates from a music theory point of view has made it much easier to match them up. It has been even more obvious in the Adele song where the arpeggios in the right hand match the chords in the left hand. That correspondence is straightforward, but choosing exactly which notes to use in the arpeggios is a little trickier trying to minimise the number of note changes from one chord to the next. I could recognise that Debbie's choices of notes sounded better, but it wasn't until I learned about the theory behind chord progressions that I understood why I'm comfortable with the circle of fifths knowing that moving one key clockwise or anti-clockwise means changing only one note in the matching scale, but as was pointed out in the theory, the chord progression 1, 5, 6 4 involves the tonic key, the one clockwise, the five, the anti-clockwise, the four and the relative minor, the six.
(06:02)
So those chords are in the keys that change by only one note or none at all for the minor. No wonder they sound good together. All this learning more theory has got me interested in working out how music goes together in the first place. For a long time, I thought it was just something that other people could do and I would just have to enjoy the results of their work, but I think I'm going to give it a go myself now that I better understand why some things work the way they do and although I still find the way music theory uses numbers to be annoying, where a fourth plus a fifth equals an eighth and eight plus eight equals 15, I'll overlook it in the interest of harmony, which happens to be the next theory topic. I've made a couple of purchases to let me have a go at making some original music. I'll talk about them in the upcoming episodes.
(06:55)
ANCA is the Australia and New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited, a nonprofit body that provides examinations for a wide range of musical instruments and voice. Although ANCA offers traditional face-to-face music exams in both performance and music theory, they also allow for video exams and as those that I'm interested in perhaps, while I'm sure there is merit in in-person exams from a practical point of view, they can be difficult to organise if you're an adult with a full-time job. Of course, the majority of exam candidates are most likely school students and they can be much more flexible with time constraints, but being able to take time off work during the day is inconvenient to say the least, especially when you don't get to choose your leave days. So I've been looking into their video exams. Let me start by saying that I don't think exams are necessary at all in most cases, unless you're trying to get into further study.
(07:51)
If you're like me, however, they're useful for setting a standard you can aim for, but ultimately not needed. I've said to my piano teacher that I'd like to get to the standard where I could pass the exam, but I still haven't decided if I'll actually do it, although it might be interesting and provide some insights I can include in the podcast. There are two versions of the video exams, video performance, and ans go with an exclamation mark. The video performance exams are identical to the in-person exams in terms of the pieces to be played for in total, but they don't include the other exam parts such as technical work, site reading, and oral tests. The four performance pieces must be recorded in one take without breaks or edits. ANCA go with the exclamation mark. Exams also need four performances from the appropriate level lists, but in this case, the performances can be recorded separately and you can upload the last three over a 12 month period.
(08:52)
That starts when you upload your first piece, as they say in the exam guide. This new system means that you can now record as many takes as you need, then enter with your best recording whenever you are ready. This makes a lot more sense to me and if I do decide to do an exam, this is probably the method I'll choose. All the information and syllabuses are available online from the ANCA website, www.anca.com au free of charge, and with a video format. I would assume the exams are available anywhere in the world. There is a fee for the anca go with an exclamation mark. It ranges from $90 Australian for preparatory and $174 Australian for grade seven and eight. In the next episode, I'll review the pieces in the preparatory syllabus for piano and the two books they have with some of the approved pizzas.
(09:52)
Well, that's it for this week. If you'd like to contact me, email is the best way You'll find me at David at piano. Finally show and the website at www dot piano finally do show in both cases. Piano finally is all one word. Let me know where you are in your piano journey. This show is also on Facebook and Instagram and it's available as audio only on YouTube. You can subscribe via any popular iOS or Android podcast application or from directories such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Player fm. So until the next episode, I hope your piano stays in tune and you enjoy your time at The Keys.
(10:39)
Again, I'll include two pieces in this week's progress. The first is Fritz Spindler Cannon, which I've been working on more this week, but the enforced breakin practising has meant that I've lost some of the improvement. I've been working on Dynamics. It's nearly at speed and I can play it reliably nine times out of 10. I'm also working on a couple of other pieces in the Anker Preparatory book, an Etude in G by Lewis, Kayla, and a bag of tell in F by Daniel got Lob Turk. I'll include the bag Attel this week. It's the stronger of the pair. I'm still working on the Adele piece, but I've been concentrating more on the pieces and scales for the past week. The recording was made using the Kauai NV 10 as the keyboard and piano tech running on my new M four Max MacBook Pro. Piano Tech is set up with a new Shigeru Kauai S in classical recording mode.