Episode 47 - Making it up

Piano, finally

Welcome back! In this episode of Piano, finally, I talk about a week of not-much-practice, school restarting, and musical surprises—including a band at a diocesan staff day that, while technically solid, wasn’t quite my style.

🎭 On Stage
If you're in Sydney or the Blue Mountains, tickets are now on sale for the Blue Mountains Musical Society’s production of Come From Away, on at Springwood later this month.
Tickets: https://www.bluemountainstheatre.com.au/what-s-on/season-2025/come-from-away/

🎼 Streaming Spotlight
I caught Yunchan Lim’s phenomenal performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Carnegie Hall via Stage+. As the youngest winner of the Van Cliburn competition, he delivered 80 uninterrupted minutes of brilliance—and possibly some sneaky B-roll camera work.
Watch on Stage+: https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJGE9I

🎧 Podcast of the Week
This week’s recommendation is Musicianship Mastery by David Lane—formerly The Musician’s Toolkit. Now back to a weekly schedule, the show focuses on practical musicianship skills. Highlights include why memorisation matters and an inspiring interview with Michael Hall on blending Western classical and Indonesian music.
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/musicianship-mastery-with-david-lane/id1661500413

🎹 New Gear – Nord Stage 4
Yes, I bought a Nord Stage 4—a top-tier stage piano blending organ, piano, and synth engines. I’m halfway through a great course by Marc Larochelle at MyKeysToMusic. The Nord’s 384 built-in programs have nudged me toward improvisation—something I hadn’t seriously explored before. Turns out, just playing around with sounds can be surprisingly useful.
More on the Nord Stage 4: https://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-stage-4

🥁 Review – Roland TR-6S Drum Machine
Never clicked with metronomes, so I turned to the Roland Aira TR-6S drum machine instead. It’s musical, easy to use, and blends well with piano practice. I picked mine up from Turramurra Music—though they’re currently out of stock.
Roland product page: https://www.roland.com/GLOBAL/products/tr-6s
Where I bought it: https://www.turramusic.com.au/products/roland-tr-6s

🎶 Progress Update
This week includes Spindler’s Canon again—now with a drum machine hand clap—plus two Andrew Craggs pieces. The Mozart is com

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Chapters

1. Opening (00:00:00)

2. Welcome (00:00:15)

3. Podcast - Musicianship Mastery (00:02:49)

4. Essay - Making it up (00:04:47)

5. Review - Roland Aira TR-6S (00:10:21)

6. Closing (00:13:30)

7. Progress (00:14:40)