Piano, finally

Piano Finally is a podcast by an old bloke who is learning the piano, finally. I cover the process of learning the piano and music theory as an adult learner. I also review piano books, hardware and other materials from an adult learner's perspective.

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Piano, finally

Episode 87 - All By Myself

February 22, 2026 • David Reidy • Season 1 • Episode 87

0:00 | 17:00

Welcome to show eighty-seven! It’s a busy week catching up with an ex-student launching a music career and managing a packed choir schedule.

YouTube: Bardcore I explore "Bardcore" this week! Hildegard von Blingin' orchestrates modern songs with medieval instruments, while The Miracle Aligner translates hits into ancient languages like Latin and Attic Greek. https://www.youtube.com/@Hildegardvonblingin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7jOobdrdGo https://www.youtube.com/@the_miracle_aligner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtt78SW-mgg

Essay: All By Myself I contrast the intense, solitary focus of Yunchan Lim performing Bach with the collaborative joy of Clyde Lawrence learning a Toto song on YouTube. It made me realise how much more enjoyable practice is when shared, as I've recently discovered in my three-hour choir rehearsals. https://www.stage-plus.com/video/vod_concert_APNM8GRFDPHMASJKBSS3ICG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q105dgG2720

Review: All These Pretty Things I caught Tracey Yarad's fantastic one-woman show at the Blue Mountains Theatre. She weaves her inspiring life story with original piano music, supported by a great jazz and blues opening act from Mataya Young. https://www.bluemountainstheatre.com.au/what-s-on/past-events/2020-events/all-these-pretty-things-tracey-yarad/

Progress I'm refining chord progressions, "Sea Song," and "Moonlight" Sonata. I've also added Monday voice lessons to my routine!

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Episode087: 0:00

G'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 number 87. Thank you very much for joining me for the show. If you're a regular listener, then thanks for returning. But if this is the first time you're hearing the podcast, I hope you enjoy What's Here. And if you like what you hear, please consider subscribing. Are you also learning a musical instrument? If you are, let me know how you're going with it. You can contact me at david at pianofinally.show Over the past week, there's been a lot happening. I managed to catch up with one of my ex-students who was trying to make a career as a musician. Over the last holidays, he got to play some fairly large gigs and was happy with how it all went. It's great to see that there are still lots of opportunities for young musicians who are prepared to put in the effort. The choir is in busy phase. We had our weekly rehearsal on Thursday, there's the monthly Sunday rehearsal this weekend, a bass sectional rehearsal on Tuesday, and the regular evening again next Thursday. Apparently it's not normally that crowded, but other commitments meant everything got moved to this week. I hope my voice holds up. In other news, the new driveway has finished setting, so it's nice to be able to park next to the house again and use the cheap overnight electricity to fill up the car. This week's YouTube suggestions are very musical and a lot of fun. Hildegard von Blingen is a Canadian singer and illustrator who produces music in the Bardcore genre. Bardcore is where an artist takes a modern song and then orchestrates it and performs it with medieval or Renaissance instruments and techniques. It's not an attempt to be historically accurate, it's a fantasy production, and the results are great. Hildegard has a large number of tracks available on YouTube and on Spotify, and they are well worth a listen. In some cases, they have changed the words to match the era. The Pink Pony Club becomes an inn. If you know the songs beforehand, this adds an extra dimension to the enjoyment. Hildegard's Bardcore uses modern English for the lyrics, but there is another form where modern songs are translated into ancient languages. The Miracle Aligner is an artist who produces some of my favourite examples of this soft barred core music. I first discovered them from their track Omnes Optant Mundum Regere. Having done Latin for six years at school, and kept up with it a bit after that, I thought it was great that one of my favourite songs is also available in Latin. It was also pleasing that they used the classical pronunciation of the words, not the Italianate church pronunciations that annoy me. and they don't stop there. Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill is sung in early Middle English, and even some ABBA in Attic Greek. All these versions are great fun, and I'd thoroughly recommend having a listen, especially if you're into the music of the 80s, the 1980s, or the BC 80s. There are lots of links in the show notes. All by Myself I often put some music on while I'm writing. It has to be instrumental, as otherwise I find myself adding words from the lyrics, and no one wants to know about Jolene halfway through learning about the conservation of momentum. So I had Yun Chan Lim playing Bach's Goldberg Variations on Stage Plus on the TV while I was writing some physics notes. I watched the beginning of the performance where Mr Lim walks to the piano from the door of the Carnegie Hall stage. He very briefly acknowledges the audience and then sits to begin to play. What struck me was that he did not appear to be enjoying himself. Mr Lim looks very focused and I suppose that playing the entire piece, which has a run length of nearly 90 minutes, is a serious undertaking. I'm sure that he wants to do a good job. After all, the best tickets cost close to $400 each and there are over 2,500 people present. And it's all down to him. I'm sure that the pressure to make sure that everyone goes away from the performance satisfied and entertained by what they've just heard is enormous. And one of those things that every international performer is going to have to handle. But isn't music meant to be enjoyable for the performer too? I want to compare this to a video of Clyde Lawrence working out how to play Roseanne on Peanote's YouTube channel. In the video, Mr Lawrence is surrounded by keyboards of different types and asked to learn to play Roseanne by Toto just by listening to the track. He's alone in the recording studio, but there are others in the booth that he interacts with. He also phones Greg Fillingames, Toto's keyboardist, for some tips after he finishes his attempt. The video is being made for Peanote, so it's going to get a lot of views, which puts some pressure on Mr Lawrence. but he really seems to be enjoying himself and he says as much at the end of the video. I think that a lot of that enjoyment comes from the interactions with the others present. As a piano student, I think it's fair to say that nearly all of my playing is done with me being the only person in the room. I bet that this is the case for most piano students and possibly for a large number of piano players. Practice is important and generally is not something that we share unless it's during a lesson. Asking any musician if they enjoy practice or performance more will usually result in the answer that performing is much more fun, especially when you have successfully completed it. Practice is boring. Performance is fun. Practice is solo. Performance is together. So is the performance more enjoyable because there are others with whom it is being shared? I would have said maybe until recently. After all, practice and performance are two very different things. There are different expectations. I expect that I will get things wrong while I'm practicing. I expect that the tempo will be out, that the pedalling might be off, at least until I am well into learning a piece. And none of that matters. It's only me hearing it, or perhaps Debbie if it's during a lesson, and so there's less pressure. As fulfilling, as steadily improving my playing is, it is still not as much fun as it might be. If there were lots of fun, there would be no problem getting children to practice consistently. But would it be different if practicing was collaborative as well? I've found that it is. I don't play piano well enough to consider joining a group where I would be on keyboards, so I don't know if practicing as a group with friends is more fun than practicing alone, but I'll bet it is. I'm basing my bet on what I've discovered during the choir rehearsals, first the Belong choir and now the new choir that I've joined with Belong everything was new and exciting so not a real test but I'm getting comfortable with the new choir and even rehearsing is fun I'm not sure what the best part of group rehearsals is there are lots of people to talk with and we're all there for the same reason even though everyone's backgrounds are different everyone's strengths and weaknesses are different and yet we're all sharing in making something special I will admit that after about 30 to 45 minutes of piano practice I'm ready for a break and sometimes it doesn't take that long but the three hours of choir rehearsal seems to fly by and the music is more complex than what I'm playing at the piano so it's not because it's easier It turns out that it's not performing itself that's making music more fun it's the sharing and that can be while practicing too I'm wondering if group lessons have a similar feel Would learning together with a small group be more fun than solo? If you've had experience with learning or rehearsing with others Let me know what you've felt Was it fun? Or are there hidden traps I haven't noticed yet? I'm off for six hours of rehearsing tomorrow Though we do get a break for lunch It should be fun I only booked my ticket to this show during the week On Wednesday I received a marketing email from the Blue Mountains Theatre announcing that one of the area's musicians was returning from overseas and would be performing There was a piano in the picture and I didn't have anything else planned for Friday night so I went along The show was all these pretty things by Tracy Yarad. Tracy ran a music school in Katoomba for many years after working as a contract musician in many different venues around the world. She and her husband settled in Katoomba and built their lives there. A subsequent series of events saw Tracy move to New York, where she now lives. How do I know all this? It's the contents of the show. Tracy has composed musical pieces that she intersperses with the story of her life in this one-woman show. The content is honest, funny, sad and ultimately uplifting And the music is great, mostly performed on the piano The content and the language are quite adult in some places But it fits, and Tracey's story is compelling Tracey has toured the performance Including the Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals So it's possible that it will be on somewhere near you As this performance was in the mountains There were quite a number of people in the audience who knew Tracy from her previous time teaching music in Katoomba. The supporting act was Matea Young, who was one of Tracy's piano students. She played a number of her original voice and piano compositions as the opening act. These were jazz and blues based and a nice opening to the show. The connection with Tracy also made them special. It was one night only in Springwood, but I'll put a link to the show in the show information so you can find out more if you'd like. I realised as I was putting this week's show together that both this week's and last week's show names are also the names of songs This wasn't intentional but I'm thinking of seeing how long I can keep the idea going I won't force it I don't intend to go horse riding so I can name an episode Pink Pony Club but song titles might give me some ideas for episode topics. Monday has become music day. I have my piano lesson with Devi on Monday afternoon but now I have added a singing lesson in between finishing work and the piano lesson. Conveniently, the singing lesson location is one street off the route between the two places. The first lesson will be this coming Monday and I'll give you a full report next week. If you'd like to contact me, email is the best way. You'll find me at david at pianofinally.show and the website at www.pianofinally.show. In both cases, pianofinally is all one word. The show is also available on Spotify and is an audio-only stream on YouTube. You can subscribe via any popular iOS or Android podcast application or from directories such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. I also post an excerpt and link to each episode as an Instagram reel. If you're learning an instrument or have joined a choir, let me know where you are in your journey, what's going well and what are the challenges, how are you managing your time, what pieces are you enjoying the most. And so until next week, I hope your piano stays in tune and you enjoy your time at the Keys. I'm still working on the chord progressions And making my way through the next section of C song It's getting to the point where I know the music And I'm moving to getting more comfortable So I can start to get it even and up to speed I'm also still refining those opening bars Of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata My singing is on and off I think it depends on how much speaking I've had to do at work during the day, as to whether those middle C's sound any good. This will make it interesting at the voice lesson on Monday, as I will have been teaching for five one-hour blocks before I get there. Don't worry, I'm not going to add singing progress to the podcast anytime soon. The chord progressions were recorded using the Nord Stage 4 and the Astoria Grand Piano in its sample library. The piano pieces were recorded using Cubase 15, running on an M4 Pro Mac Mini, with Piano Tech 9 emulating a Shiguru Kawaii SKEX Grand Piano in concert recording mode, and the Kawaii NV10 to play the notes. The Thank you.