2026-2027 Events
October 17-18, 2026 — Group Classes
December 5-6, 2026 — Group Classes
January 24, 2027 — Performance Class & Guest Artist Workshop
February 27-28, 2027 — Group Classes
April 10-11, 2027 — Group Classes
May 22, 2027 — Student Final Recital
How to Practice
Use the Practice Guide below. It logs your practice for you, no comments needed.
Press Start from # whatever number it shows. It picks up where you stopped last time.
Press Start, read the assignment, practice.
When you are finished, press Done.
Press Next practice item and go again.
Capped items count down and chime. Keep going if it's going well.
Some assignments finish. Those carry a Done for the Week button. Press it when the job is done and the assignment comes off your list. Technique and repertoire don't have one; those are every day.
Need the metronome, a recorder or the Section-Work colors? They are in Practice Tools. Tap one and it opens inside your assignment. Tap Close to put it away.
Got something to say about an assignment? Paste the line it gives you into the comments and add your note.
Log only what you actually did, on the day you did it. Five minutes is a real entry.
Log every practice session from today. Official tracking starts Monday, October 19, the Monday after our first group class. Logging now is how we get the kinks out.
🟩 on track · 🟨 needs extra attention · 🟪 didn't get to it at the lesson · 🟥 priority · ⬛️ on hold, don't practice this one · 🟧 mine, not yours
[PRACTICE TOOLS]
Technique
1. 🟩 Technical Requirements for Piano, Level 5 (RCM), parallel scales, pages 7, 8 and 9
THIS WEEK: All the parallel scales on pages 7, 8 and 9.
⏱ Max 5 minutes per practice session.
Practice type: Polishing.
Accent practice first: accent every other note, then switch which note gets the accent.
Then one pass at a normal speed with the metronome.
This is review. You did Level 5 last year, so one round and we move to Level 6.
At the very end of a scale you are landing on the nail. Stay on the pad.
Theory
2. 🟩 Celebrate Theory, Level 5, Unit 3 (RCM)
THIS WEEK: Pages 42 through 49.
⏱ Max 15 minutes per practice session.
Practice type: Learning.
Press Done for the Week when page 49 is finished.
To read a triplet's value, go one step larger: three sixteenth-note triplets make an eighth, three eighth-note triplets make a quarter.
The dominant is always named as major. In a minor key the five chord itself can be minor; the word dominant still means the major one, which is where the raised seventh of the harmonic minor comes from.
3. ⬛️ Celebrate Theory, Level 4, Unit 8 (RCM)
On hold.
Musicianship
4. ⬛️ Basic Rhythmic Training, No. 115 (Starer)
On hold.
5. ⬛️ Sight-Reading: Czerny, Op. 599, from No. 64
On hold.
Repertoire
6. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 1-4
THIS WEEK: Right hand alone, left hand alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Practice type: Learning.
Brick practice: combine the chunks after one round each.
Three correct in a row, or five correct in total, for each hand and then together.
Metronome ♩ = 100, 3/4.
Always play through to the downbeat of the next measure.
Add position and expression once notes and fingering are secure. Expression here is a sticky staccato, not legato.
Once all four chunks have a round, the guide combines them into two, then into one.
7. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 5-8
THIS WEEK: Right hand alone, left hand alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Practice type: Learning.
Metronome ♩ = 100, 3/4.
Three correct in a row, or five correct in total.
8. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 9-12
THIS WEEK: Right hand alone, left hand alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Practice type: Learning.
Metronome ♩ = 100, 3/4.
Three correct in a row, or five correct in total.
9. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 13-16
THIS WEEK: Right hand alone, left hand alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Practice type: Learning.
Metronome ♩ = 100, 3/4.
Three correct in a row, or five correct in total.
Include measure 17 when you play this chunk. The chunk is numbered to 16 so the brick practice builds in even groups, but play to the end of 17.
10. 🟩 Sonatina in F major, Anh. 5 No. 2 (Beethoven)
THIS WEEK: From the top, with the metronome, goal is expression.
⏱ Max 5 minutes per practice session.
Practice type: Review.
Metronome ♩ = 69 per eighth note.
Start at the top of the piece and stay with the metronome.
Any note or fingering error, go back one measure and fix it, then carry on. Don't start over.
Get all the articulation.
This is to keep it in your fingers so you can sit down and play it for someone.
11. 🟩 Listening: L'Indifférente, from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin (Rameau)
THIS WEEK: Listen to both recordings while watching the music.
⏱ Max 6 minutes per practice session.
Practice type: Learning.
Mark a pencil check where you hear the harpsichord taking time with the rhythm.
Mark the piano version with a different color or a different symbol.
Mark anything else that stands out.
Eyes on the music, not on the player.
Press Done for the Week when you have done it once.
12. ⬛️ Prelude, Op. 39 No. 19 (Kabalevsky)
On review, on hold. Don't practice this one for now.
Review List
RCM Level 5
Sonatina in F major, Anh. 5 No. 2 (Beethoven) (List B)
Prelude, Op. 39 No. 19 (Kabalevsky)
Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach)
L'Indifférente, from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin (Rameau)
