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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Welcome to show number one hundred and one! Thanks to everyone who stuck around, and a special thanks to Bill Hilton for mentioning the milestone in his newsletter. Over the next hundred episodes, I'm introducing two new sections: what I've been looking at and listening to for general musical education, and an in-depth look at something I've learned during the week. I'll still occasionally review equipment like the Yamaha Montage M8X when it arrives to pair with my MODX M6.
What's been playing Over the last few weeks, I’ve added new tracks for the upcoming choir concert. Singing in the choir has forced me to learn music I'd never normally consider, like the K-pop Demon Hunters track Golden. I've also been enjoying The Whitlams' Blow Up the Pokies, kd lang's Barefoot, Tainted Love, and Moon River.
On the piano side, I attended a brilliant concert in Newtown featuring improvised music by Mark Isaacs and performances by my piano teacher, Devi Mammak. She played her own compositions, along with Beethoven and Chopin, and finished with a wonderful interpretation of the second movement of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata played in the style of Chopin. If you're around Sydney in September, try to catch these Wednesday evening concerts in a great acoustic space: https://events.humanitix.com/host/eight-o-clock-sharphttps://www.emus.space/events/2026-09-02-88x8-mark-isaacs-and-devi-mamak/
I also saw Lucas and Arthur Jussen brilliantly perform Francis Poulenc's Concerto for 2 pianos in D minor with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. We also heard selections from Poulenc's Les Animaux Modèles and Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome. Conductor Stéphane Denève even brought an original 78rpm record of a nightingale to play on an era-appropriate gramophone during the Respighi piece! (Catch the broadcast on ABC Classic FM on 18 November).
Listen widely It’s common to stick to safe, comfortable music, but being adventurous pays off. Whether through choir repertoire, SSO concert series, or podcasts like the ABRSM's Start Here and the ABC's The Music Show, there are countless ways to discover incredible new pieces and artists. For less than the cost of an album each month, you can access almost everything ever recorded, so get out there and listen widely.
Learning - What's new I've started a new online course from Thinkspace Education by Guy Michelmore called How to Write a Great Melody. I'm not planning to become a composer, but it’s a fun way to understand the process. So far, we've analyzed melodies like Baby Shark and Schindler's List.
Progress I'm working towards the November piano recital. This week, I practiced the right-hand melody for Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here on the synth and worked on the Purcell-based piano piece Trumpet Tune.
If you'd like to contact me, email me at david@pianofinally.show or visit www.pianofinally.show.
The contents of the podcast were entirely generated by David Reidy, but that these show notes were created by Gemini.
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.
Opening
Welcome
Recent listening
Essay - Listen widely
Learning
Closing
Progress
Episode101:
G'day everyone, I'm David Reidy. Welcome to Piano Finally, a podcast by an old bloke who's discovering music because he got around to learning the piano. Finally. Welcome to show number 101. It feels good to get number 100 out of the way and perhaps get back into a normal rhythm. Thanks to everyone who stuck around. A big thanks in particular to Bill Hilton, who mentioned the milestone in his newsletter and had some nice things to say. I'm very grateful and have no doubt that his mention was responsible for the jump in download numbers. I've mentioned Bill's YouTube channel and his other endeavours on the podcast before, and with the new direction I'm planning for the show, more about that in a moment, you are no doubt going to be hearing a lot more. So what am I planning for the next 100 episodes? I'm still learning a lot about music from week to week. Sometimes it's about keyboard technique or a way of deciding how to play a piece of music. Other times it will just be something of interest about a piece of music or a musician more generally. So I'm going to start including two new sections in the shows. What I've been looking at and listening to for a general musical education and a more in-depth look at something I've learned during the week. These segments won't be in every show but when I learn something I'll pass it on I won't try and teach it but I'll point you in the right direction if it piques your interest too I'll still do the occasional review of equipment or books but my purchasing has slowed down because there's not much that I still need except for books you can never have too many books When the Yamaha Montage M8X turns up you can be sure I'll review it along with the MODX M6 that I already have. I want to wait for the pair and then talk about them together. This evening's job, it's currently Friday, is to get the MODX working with Cubase so I can record more easily. The current arrangement has the Yamaha keyboard in a different room to the Kawai and the Nord, so I can get some practice in without having to wait an hour for the piano room to warm up. A different room means that the keyboard isn't near the audio equipment, so I need to record it on a laptop via USB audio. If I get it working, I'll include a segment on how to do it in an upcoming show, and if it did work, you'll hear it in the progress section. Over the last few weeks, I've added a fair number of new tracks to my listening, mainly because the set list for the next concert has come out, and I didn't know some of the pieces. There will eventually be practice tracks for all the numbers, but they're not all available yet, so I used Apple Music to get the original versions of the tracks. I'm happy to report there's nothing that I don't like. There was one song in the last concert that is close to the top of my list of songs that I really don't care for, and although a part of it reappears in the new concert, it's not in the bass parts. This is one of the unexpected benefits I found from joining the choir. I end up listening to and learning music that I would never have considered. I would never have considered watching or listening to K-pop Demon Hunters, except that the Huntr/x song Golden was one of the pieces, and it turned out that I really liked it. I haven't taken up listening to more K-pop yet, but it has become a music genre that I won't automatically dismiss. Similarly, in the new set list, there is a track that I hadn't heard before, but which I quite like. I knew of the Whitlams, the band, as well as Gough and Margaret, and some of their music, but I hadn't heard Blow Up the Pokies, which not only is a nice song, but has got a nice message to go along with it. There's another kd lang track, Barefoot, and an arrangement of Tainted Love, and a pile of other tracks that are much more bass-friendly this time, including Moon River, which is a nice change. On the piano side, I went to a concert on Wednesday in Newtown. Over four Wednesday evenings, there will be piano solo concerts played by a variety of artists. And last Wednesday, those artists were Devi Mammak, my piano teacher, and Mark Isaacs. Mark performed in the first half, and it was all improvised. An hour I've never before heard music. It was very impressive. I'm not sure of how you keep track of where you're going when a piece is 15 minutes long and there's nothing written down. Devi performed the second part of the evening with some of her own compositions and some Beethoven and Chopin. I've heard some of her work before and the stories that go along with it, but this time she finished with the first piece she ever started to compose, which took 15 years to finish. It too was great, but my favourite piece was her interpretation of the second movement of Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata, played in the style of Chopin. It's on my list of things I'd eventually like to play, and Devi's version just reinforced that goal. If you're around Sydney and would like to hear some very nice piano music in a space that is acoustically great, the venue is a little-used church, then try and get along. I'll put a link in the show notes. The concerts run throughout September. I also got to a Sydney Symphony Orchestra concert at the Opera House. In fact, some of the show was written in the foyer while waiting to go in. This was an add-on to my subscription, with Lucas and Arthur Jussen playing Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos in D minor. The pre-concert talk was given by Douglas Emery of the SSO, and it was one of the best so far, with lots of examples from the four pieces that made up the concert. These talks are one of the best reasons to go and see the live performances. The concert opened with selections from Poulenc's Les Animaux Modèles before a bit of a break, while two nine-foot Steinway concert grands were moved onto the stage. As this was going to take a little time, the conductor, Stéphane Denève, gave a short talk about the pieces to come, pointing out some of the unusual things that would happen in the last piece. The Jussen brothers played brilliantly, and the piece really showed off their talents. Wonderful as the first half was, I think the highlight was actually the last piece, Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome. This was an incredible piece with the stage packed with the full orchestra, trumpets placed in the rear boxes of the concert hall and the pipe organ. When Respighi wrote the piece, he incorporated a new technological element in the composition, a gramophone. He had heard the first recording of a nightingale, rather than use a digital sample of the sound, conductor Denève brought one of those original 78 records and it was played using a gramophone from that era, just as it would have been in Respighi's time. Being in the room for these performances is unbeatable and a really good reason to try and get out to live events. Even the best recordings can't compete. But if you missed it, the whole concert was recorded by the ABC and will be broadcast and streamed on ABC Classic FM on the 18th of November. It's well worth a listen. Listen widely. I think it's pretty common to develop a bit of a habit when listening to music. If I have to do some marking, I'll usually put on something classical without lyrics, just so there is something to mask the noise from outside. That said, where I live is pretty quiet, mostly bird noises or someone mowing their lawn. If I'm in the car and have run out of podcasts, then it's usually a pop mix from Apple Music. This is comfortable and safe and ultimately perhaps a little bit boring. And so I've really been enjoying the ways I am forced to listen to other music. The choir is the first place. The repertoire is picked by the music director after some consultation with the members and a vote on priorities. so there are often pieces there that I haven't heard before, and some that I've grown to really like. It's still a bit limited. After all, we sing in English, and the pieces have to be suitable for an SATB choir. Also, the choir is mostly people over the age of 30, so I'm not expecting anything really outrageous. Getting a subscription to a concert series is a pretty good way of discovering more pieces. The SSO is a reasonably conservative organisation, but it often includes new contemporary orchestral works and some lesser-known pieces by well-known composers. This weekend, the Poulenc piece Les Animaux Modèles was the first time the orchestra had ever performed it. An even more eclectic selection of music comes from podcasts and the radio. The ABRSM series Start Here covers all sorts of musical genres and made me aware of some that I'd never heard of. Many of them are not to my taste. Admittedly, they're not aimed at old blokes, but I'm still really glad to have heard about them. For an Australian music listener, the ABC's The Music Show is a must. It covers what's going on locally, and covers a huge range of things that are happening in the local music scene. But why bother? It is much more comfortable to stay with the music you know. In the past, this was pretty much the norm, but things have changed, and we have more opportunities than ever to be adventurous. Until recently, music was on the radio, some of which you might have pirated, or in your record collection. So your world was mostly prescribed by the tastes of the radio programmers and what you had spent your money on at the record shop. And albums were relatively expensive, so you were unlikely to buy something just on spec. Now, for less than the cost of an album each month, you can access almost everything that has ever been recorded, from the stuff you're comfortable with to things you've probably never considered. I heard a song at a choir concert a few weeks back and had no trouble finding several recordings of it by different performers. It's a great song, but I only knew about it because I got out and had been adventurous. And that's the key. I know there is a lot of great music I have no idea exists right now, knowing that if I keep listening around, there are many wonderful moments to be found, pieces and artists to learn about, that's going to be one of the great joys of getting into music. And so, listen widely. Find some virtual or real places you don't currently visit and have a listen. Get out to local venues if you can to support artists and perhaps discover your next favourite piece. It's easier than ever. And despite all the downsides of music streaming services, it's one way you can make them do good. This is one of the new sections I'll start including in the podcast. It will cover something new that I have learned during the previous few weeks. Sometimes it might be something momentous, but mostly it will just be interesting little things that I have picked up. I think that one of the big pluses about learning the piano, or any other long-term project, is that there is always something new to learn. you just have to be open to the fact that you don't already know everything. So in the last week I've learned how to make practice tracks for the choir sound better I'll save that for a later episode. I learned that teaching music at a year 7 level is quite fun when I covered another teacher's class and I learned that you can use Google Gemini to get settings for synthesizers that sound reasonable at least to my inexperienced ears though they don't really match the music. So I'm learning how to program performances into the MODX. You'll hear the first try in the progress section. But the main thing I have decided to learn has come in the form of a new online course from Thinkspace Education. Guy Michelmore, who I've mentioned in the past, has just put up a new course entitled How to Write a Great Melody. I thought this might be fun to try, as even though I don't imagine I will ever be a composer, it would be nice to understand the process. so perhaps I'll gain a better appreciation of the melodies out there. When I'm listening to the different settings on the Nord or the Yamaha, I often find myself just playing random notes, and sometimes I get something that sounds okay. I have no idea what to do with that past that point, so perhaps this course will give me some ideas. I've only watched the first few videos so far, and it has mostly been looking at some melodies and existing music. That has meant looking at Baby Shark, and Schindler's List. So as you can see, the course is fairly diverse. I've got a group of notes that I stumbled upon when playing with making the Pink Floyd sound on the Yamaha. I'll see where that goes as I move on with the course. I'll include it here to keep you up to date with how the course is going. Coming up, I have a voice lesson this week, but piano lessons are now on break until October, as Devi is off doing exciting musical things overseas. Things have quietened down a bit this week. There's a choir rehearsal on Thursday, and the official opening of the new school building is happening on Friday. That will give me the opportunity to hear some more of the students playing, as they will be providing entertainment throughout the afternoon events. If you'd like to contact me, email us 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 available on Spotify and as 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'll also post an excerpt and link for each episode as an Instagram Reel. If you're learning an instrument or learning to sing, let me know where you are in your journey, what's going well and what are the challenges, how are you managing your time and what pieces are you enjoying the most. This podcast is produced on the lands of the Dharug and Gundungarra peoples, lands that always was and always will be traditional Aboriginal land. They were the first musicians in this place and their song lines stretch back tens of thousands of years. I pay my respects to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people listening to the podcast. And so until next week, I hope your piano stays in tune and you enjoy your time at the keys. There are currently four pieces of music that I am working on properly. This year's piano recital is going to be in November, so I've got a bit of time to get something ready. Devi asked me what I would like to play, and I said that I'd like to do two pieces, one classical and one pop. I haven't decided what they'll be. I'll wait and see how much progress I make. If I do get a pop piece up to performance standard, Devi has said I can take the Yamaha along so I can play it with the right sounds, rather than as a piano piece. This week, I got a chance to work on Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. Devi's advice is to learn the right hand melody really well, so that I can be a bit freer with the chords. The version I have is pretty simple, but it's a good starting point, with the aim being to add in some more notes once I'm comfortable. The piano piece is Trumpet Tune, the piece based on Purcell. It's what I use when I'm trying out sounds on the synth keyboards. The piano music was recorded using the Kawai NV10, with a Kontakt Claire piano, emulating a Fazioli Grand Piano in concert mode. The software is Cubase 15, running on an M4 Max MacBook Pro. The Pink Floyd track was recorded directly from the Yamaha MODX-M6 keyboard via USB audio, using the settings suggested by Google Gemini for the song's verse. Thank you. you
