Episode 93 - Consistently distracting

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.

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Transcript

Episode093: 0:00

G'day everyone, I'm David Reidy. Welcome to Piano, finally, a podcast by an old bloke who's getting around to learning the piano, finally. Welcome to show number 93. In this week's show, I'll start reviewing the Megalong Music Festival, think a bit about consistency and distractions, and look at a way to listen to what you're playing. If you're new to the show, I hope you find all that interesting. And if you're a regular, I hope you're enjoying the content too. If there's something you'd like me to have a look at or talk about, drop me an email at david at pianofinally.show. I'm not writing at the Opera House this week. Instead, I'm at one of the well-kept secret locations in the Blue Mountains, the Megalong Valley. This is one of my favourite spots to visit, and is unlike anywhere else around here. It's the valley to the west of the Jamison Valley, which is the valley that gets all the tourist interest. The Jamison is mostly untouched and contains the Three Sisters and other sites. It also had methods of transport for getting in and out of the valley that don't involve hundreds of stairs. The Megalong, on the other hand, is a farming area enclosed by tall escarpments. The drive-in through the forest is wondrous, but quite unsuitable for tourist coaches, which might explain its somewhat secret nature. It is, however, well worth the trip from Sydney. It's a great spot to eat, with local farms providing the ingredients to the food outlets in the valley. If you're visiting Sydney and travelling up to the Blue Mountains, which are the most visited tourist destination in Australia after Sydney itself, then add a trip to the Megalong Valley to your itinerary. And if you're into music, you should definitely be coming to the mountains. There's music everywhere. I was planning on reviewing the Megalong Music Festival all in one go, but I've just been to the first concert, and I think there will be enough to talk about to do each day separately. So this week, I'll just cover the first concert, and in the next episode, I'll review concert two. The concerts in the series 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 many other community events. It was definitely not built as a concert venue. That said, it really isn't a problem. The hall is small, seating a bit over 100 people, so everyone is so close to the musicians that the lack of concert hall acoustics doesn't matter. Seating is plastic chairs and the front row is close enough to the musicians that you can follow along with the music on the music stands. The concerts are part of a mentoring program for young musicians. This year, five young music makers were able to take advantage of the opportunity to work with professionals. The pieces throughout the concert were performed by different combinations of the musicians, with the professionals covering the more challenging pieces. I'll speak more about the young musicians next week. And who are the professionals? Jacqui Cronin is from the Australian Opera Orchestra and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Frank Celata is a clarinetist who teaches around the world as well as performing. Timothy Nankervis is a cellist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Asmira Woodward-Page is a violinist and the organiser of the festival, and she also has taught internationally. And leva Jokubaviciute is a pianist who specialises in chamber music and who performs around the world. Timothy, Asmira and leva are all back for a second year of the festival. The first concert was named A Moment in Time and consisted of seven works for various arrangements of piano, violin, viola, cello and clarinet. There was a lot of Australian composed content and Asmira explained at the beginning that the selections had been made to complement the main piece of the concert, Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fin du Temps. The first piece, Zero Sum Game by Alex Turley, had the instruments battling for dominance throughout. Arvo Pärt's Fratres for Piano and Violin followed. The strings got a chance with Jessica Meyer's I only speak of the Sun, which is based on a poem by Rumi. leva and one of the young musicians then teamed up for Miriam Hyde's Toccata for Two, a piece for four hands on one piano, which was a fun piece and also saves on having to freight in a second piano. Hayden's Op. 77 was paired with Caroline Shaw's Entr'acte which was inspired by the Hayden work There was a short intermission followed by the Messiaen piece 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 and during its eight parts each instrument gets a solo movement or a piano duet, so it really gives each member of the ensemble a chance to show off a bit. It is a really interesting piece, and one that you don't get to hear very often. It's not what I would have expected from a piece written in such circumstances. I will link to a recording in the show notes from Apple Music. It has Messiaen himself at the piano, and Etienne Pasquier, the cellist who played in the POW camp premiere. It was a great concert. The musicianship was outstanding, the location is very special, and it's certainly worth the trip if you can make it. There are plans for the festival to return next year, so I'll keep you informed. Consistently Distracting The swimming pool that I swim at each day is only closed on two days of the year, Good Friday and Christmas Day. so it meant that I wasn't able to get my regular half hour in on Friday. I was back in the pool on Saturday and noticed that it was just a little harder than usual after taking a day off. Starting the day with a swim has become a habit, and it's not a habit that I'm trying to break. The added difficulty on Saturday morning got me thinking about how advantageous it is to consistently stick to a routine. I swim just over a kilometre each morning without much difficulty, but with enough effort that the fitness app on my watch thinks that I'm doing a good job. If you're looking to do something for fitness, may I recommend a regular swim. You don't get hot and sweaty, you can't scroll on your phone, and if you put your ears underwater, you get a nice quiet time. It's also boring enough that you can get a lot of thinking done. This is where I think through my ideas for lessons and this podcast. So if swimming consistently has improved my fitness, I can now cover well over double the distance I could when I first started, consistency should help with everything else. And by everything else, I mean piano playing. When I leave the house each morning, the first stop is the swimming centre. I adjust my wake-up time so that when I finish swimming, I'm ready to head to whatever is next, normally work. This approach has proved successful, so why can't I do the same for piano practice? I think I know why And I think I have a solution But it's going to take some heavy lifting At the pool There is nothing to do other than swim Well there are gym classes and all that But I don't do those When I sit down at the piano I'm still at home And I can always see that there is something else That needs doing There's the washing that needs folding and putting away The top of the Kawai really needs to be dusted And why is the vacuum cleaner still sitting out I don't have this problem when I go for a lesson. Devi's teaching room is well organised, neat and tidy, and there are no distractions, even with the nice view through the windows. But even if there were clothes to be folded or dusting to do, it wouldn't be my clothes or dusting, and so it wouldn't worry me. I think that it is seeing the work that needs to be done that distracts me from consistently practising. My idea for a solution? move the piano so I can't see the other jobs. When I bought this house, the previous owner had a piano in the smallest bedroom. The room is tiny, and an upright piano, a bench, and a bookcase pretty much filled it. I use it as a computer room, which now gets almost no use now that the MacBook Pros are so powerful. If I turn the room back into a piano room, with the NV10 in there, then I wouldn't be able to see the rest of the house and the jobs that need doing. all I would have to do is consistently walk into the room and shut the door. It's a medium term plan. I have to get the existing furniture out and that includes a table that was built in the room and so won't fit through the doorway. But I think it might be a start to developing a more consistent practice habit. I'll let you know over the months how it goes. The music highlight of this coming week will most likely be the Counting Crows concert. I've been listening to the band's music for around 30 years and had a ticket to the concert tour they had to cancel in 2004. The show is on Monday night, but I'll also be at their soundcheck earlier in the day. There will be a choir rehearsal on Thursday as usual. Last week, we spent a lot of the time on songs that had bass sections written for a much more comfortable range. I'm hoping we do get that again this week, as it was a much more relaxing practice. In next week's show, I'll review the second day of the Megalong Music Festival and talk about the amazing young musicians who played at it. I also had a chance to talk with Asmira Woodward-Page about the festival and its future, so I'll expand on that a bit too. 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, piano finally 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 for each episode as an Instagram Reel If you're learning an instrument, let me know where you are in your journey What's going well? What are the challenges? How are you managing your consistency? And what pieces are you enjoying learning the most? And so until next week, I hope your piano stays in tune and you enjoy your time at the keys. We spent most of the lesson on Monday concentrating on Titans by Daniel McFarlane once again. Devi has had me really slow the piece down to make sure that the note lengths match what is written and to help with sections where the left and right hand relationships change. This week I'll include the piece again, but just the right hand. I'm working on keeping all the chord playing the same length. The music was recorded using the Nord Stage 4 with some piano settings that I'm playing around with. Those settings were inspired by a video by Douglas of dsoundman. They are based around the Astoria Grand piano. Thank you.