Welcome to show number ninety-eight. In this week's show, I'll review Matthew Cawood's latest video, talk about the myth of multi-tasking and let you know how last night's performance went. During my voice lessons on Monday, we found that I can now get to the D# above middle C reasonably consistently, and the E above that occasionally. This week's piano lesson was longer, and we spent a good bit of time on A Mingus Among Us. Thursday night was the choir rehearsal, but the highlight of the week was the performance on Saturday at the International Convention Centre.

Review - Matthew Cawood Matthew Cawood's latest video, How to open any piece of music and just play it, looks at sight-reading. Matthew starts by explaining the difference between sight-reading and learning a new piece. He moves on to the two levels of sight-reading: recognising individual notes and then recognising patterns. He provides a list of things you really should know before attempting to play a piece: the key signature, the time signature, the performance markings, dynamics, and articulations. He also suggests that you should be practising just on the edge of failure to get the maximum benefit. Matthew has a new project, The Practice Room, designed as a community for adult learners.

Essay - One thing at a time Multitasking is a myth. When most people attempt two complex tasks at the same time, the quality of both suffers. When I started singing with the choir, I found myself much better able to name the bass clef notes. Why? Because using my voice is automatic, so all my attention can go into note reading. If I'm at the piano, moving the right fingers on the right keys is already a complex task, leaving little room for analysing notes. The only way to deal with this is to practise so that you only need to do one complex thing at a time. For the piano, getting the correct fingers on the correct keys moves to automatic, and it's no longer part of the multitasking.

Sydney Children's Hospital Charity Ball Performance On Saturday, I was part of the choir performance for the Emerald Ball fundraiser for the Sydney Children's Hospital in the ballroom of the International Convention Centre. The choir's job was to accompany the end of a video presentation detailing the story of a young patient. We sang A Million Dreams over the montage section. After a 4:30 pm sound check and a lot of waiting around, the performance went without a hitch! I even discovered that the choir's event manager, Terry, and I had been in the same production of Oliver back in 1974.

Closing & Progress Next week, I won't be at the choir rehearsal on Thursday as I am taking a group of students to Macquarie University for a science lecture. I am continuing progress on A Mingus Among Us.

The contents of the podcast were entirely generated by David Reidy, but these show notes were created by Gemini.

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