Weekly Studio Update + New Teaching Space + Feedback from Ben Folds

I've had a mammoth couple of weeks - moving house is no joke! As much as it was difficult climbing the staircase at the old house for your lesson, I'll bet you're glad you didn't have to do it 100+ times in 3 days! The good news is that I'm now well and truly settled in to the new house and the new teaching space and I'm looking forward to having you here again for in-person lessons once guidelines have shifted a little further

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 As I mentioned a couple of newsletters ago, my piano/musical hero Ben Folds is stuck in Sydney, and while he's there I've been supporting him through Patreon, and enjoying the perks of having closer access to one of my idols. Yesterday he held his first Songwriting Masterclass stream, where he gave feedback on user submitted songs. I was lucky enough to be randomly chosen, so I was able to have one of my newer song demos heard by the man himself - a dream come true! Not only that, he gave some really useful feedback, and inflated my ego to the size of Jupiter by calling me "a damn fine craftsman" among other nice things. I'm still floating a bit!

If you'd like to hear my song and his feedback, you can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/Eko5EpUpeVQ?t=928

Things I've been watching/listening to this week:

1. The Killers - Live At Glastonbury 2019 (Full Set) - the perfect soundtrack on Monday morning for finally putting all our books in the bookshelf.
2. THE FEARLESS FLYERS /// Nate Smith is the Ace of Aces - the team behind Vulfpeck with a great funky guitar+horns arrangement. No keys in this one though. :(
3. What's in between Major and Minor chords? | Q+A with Adam Neely - always great to brush up on some obscure theory.
4. What Cardi B Piano Memes Taught Me About Music - more on the process that Charles Cornell uses when creating his meme soundtracks with speech as melody.
5. Dirty Loops - Rock You - I don't ever not watch a new Dirty Loops song. Totally overblown and I love it.
6. Albums beginning with the letter L and M: Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals (Live from Mars), Ben Folds & Nick Hornby (Lonely Avenue), Nelly Furtado (Loose), The Beatles (Love), Outkast (The Love Below), Gwen Stefani (Love, Angel, Music, Baby), Gotye (Making Mirrors).

Be sure to let me know what you've been enjoying lately and if there's anything you think I should check out!