Welcome to show number 94 of Piano, finally! I'm David Reidy, an old bloke getting around to learning the piano. This week, it's school holidays, so we're busy tidying up the house to make a proper music room. I'm also putting in some extra choir practice to learn the bass part for A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman for an upcoming charity event in May. 

Megalong Music Festival, Day Two I'm finishing my review of the Megalong Music Festival, set in the beautiful Blue Mountains. Day two showcased an incredible "Folk and Fancy" program featuring the five festival fellows: Ellen Chuong, Rueben Johnson, Maggie Zeng, Arjun Singh, and Daniel Casey. We also enjoyed performances by talented local musicians Jeremy and Leon Spikmans. The weekend wrapped up with Joaquín Turina’s Escena Andaluza sextet and Dohnányi’s Piano Quintet. The festival is entirely funded by tickets and donations, so if you have corporate connections, the organisers would love to hear from you! Learn more about the festival here: https://www.megalongmusicfestival.com.au/.

Let's do that again At a recent sound check for the Counting Crows at the Enmore Theatre, I watched lead singer Adam Duritz actively tweak how the band performed a song they've played for decades. It got me thinking about how contemporary musicians constantly evolve their work, whereas classical pieces generally sound identical to recordings from fifty years ago. A rare exception is Australian guitarist John Williams and his band Sky—check out their unique take on classical music here: https://music.apple.com/au/album/toccata/1503012912?i=1503012925.

Ryan Abshier and the Moonlight Sonata I review an encouraging video by Ryan Abshier about tackling Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. When the sheet music suddenly looks overly complex, Ryan explains how those intimidating chords can be broken down into simple, repeating numerical patterns, like 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2. Watch Ryan’s breakdown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-4sjhQWKPI.

Progress My new scales and arpeggios book finally arrived from the UK! Devi is overseas, so there are no formal lessons this week. However, I'm making progress on Titans by Daniel McFarlane, practising the opening of the Moonlight Sonata, and singing along to my arpeggios. Have a listen to the practice piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phHuD-3bREY.

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