September 4, 2025

Goals through December:

RCM level 5

  • May 2026 in-person

  • Virtual anytime - January?

Collaboration with Flute?

  • Dustin would find music and do coaching

Composition

  • Project?

Group class

Performance class

Recital

🎨 Color-Focus Practice (NFPER)

At the top of your music, write NFPER using the following color system:

  • N – Notes – correct pitches and accidentals (🟥 Red)

  • F – Fingering – consistent, effective finger choices (🟧 Orange)

  • P – Position – hand shape, posture, and keyboard geography (🟨 Yellow)

  • E – Expression – phrasing, dynamics, articulation, tone, etc. (đźź© Green)

  • R – Rhythm – steady pulse, accurate timing, and rests (🟦 Blue)

âś… If you're only recording audio, just use NER.

Step-by-Step Practice Flow

  1. Identify a section to record

  2. Record your section once — video is best, but audio is fine too.

  3. Listen back with one color/goal in mind.

  4. As you listen, mark your music using that color anywhere it needs improvement.

  5. Repeat for each remaining color, one at a time, until all five have been addressed.

  6. Choose a small “spot” section from your markings to fix.

“Spot” until it’s solid — meaning:

  • âś… 3 times in a row correctly, or

  • âś… 5 total correct repetitions, then move on.

  1. Focus on one or two colors at a time while practicing that spot.

  2. Use the troubleshooting checklist below if you're stuck.

🔧 Troubleshooting Tips

🎯 If you’ve tried to fix something three times in-a-row and it’s still not working, don’t just repeat it — troubleshoot:

  • Do you need to slow down?

  • Should you practice hands alone?

  • Could you make the spot even smaller?

  • Would technical exercises help (staccato, accents, etc.)?

  • Do you need to think ahead more clearly?

  • Do you need blocking practice?

Sonatina in G Major op 168 No. 2 Allegro moderato by Diabelli

Deux Rigaudon by Jean-Philippe Rameau

đź’šImprovisation Assignment:

  1. Choose several different improvisation methods for the highlighted review pieces below.

  2. Start with a small sections first and go bigger if you want to!

đź’šBeethoven Sonatina Anh. 5 no 2 (L. 5, B)

  1. Color-Focus Practice (NFPER)

    1. mm. 1-16

    2. Mm. 16-27

    3. Mm. 27-42

  2. If you can’t get to all sections in one practice session, rotate the sections at the next practice session until you get through all of them.

  3. Combine sections on the next time around to make them bigger.

đź’šFantasia in E flat Major by Georg Philippine Telemann (L. 5, A)

  1. Hands alone practice by memory. Work up to playing with the metronome.

đź’šFour Star Sight-reading and Ear Tests Level 5 (tests PDF)

  1. Prepare Set 1

    1. When you do the sight-playing examples, keep in mind that Dustin does not expect you to remember

đź–¤RCM Technical Requirements Level 5 in Newzik

đź–¤Basic Rhythmic Training by Robert Starer

  1. Prepare no. 115

  2. Measures 1-4 - study in your mind first, then clap and ta.

  3. Same thing for measures 5-8

  4. Then put them together!

đź–¤Celebrate Theory, Level 4, Unit 8

đź–¤Sight-reading: Czerny Op. 599. Left off at No. 64

  1. BEFORE YOU BEGIN: FOCUS

    1. Keep a pulse no matter what and no matter how slow.

    2. Don’t fix mistakes in realtime.

    3. Let notes go if needed and look ahead to the next landing point.

  2. Paused:

    1. Bartok: Mikrocosmos, No. 6

    2. J.S. Bach, 6 Preludes, BWV 939-943, No. 4

  3. Finished:

    1. BĂĽrgmuller, 25 Etudes, Op. 100

  1. Sonatina in F Major, op. 168, no. 1. I. Moderato cantabile by Anton Diabelli (L. 4, B)

  2. Air in B-flat Major, HWV 471, by George Frideric Handel (L. 4, A)

  3. Clementi, Sonatina in G Major, Op. 36 No. 2: Movement III (L. 4, B)

  4. Etude in E Minor op 65 no 42 by Carl Albert Loeschhorn (L. 4 Etude)

  5. Masquerade by Linda Niamath (L. 4, Etude)

  6. Clowns by Kabalevsky (L. 3, C)

  7. Arabesque op. 100 no. 2 by Johann Friedrich BurgmĂĽller (1806-1874) (L. 3, Etude)

  8. Left Alone by Joyce Grill (L. 3, Etude)

  9. Sonatina in A Minor op. 94 no. 4 (L. 3, B)

  10. Sonatina in C Major op. 36 no. 1 by Clementi (L. 3, B)

  11. Musette in D Major BWV Anh. 126, attr. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) (L. 3, A)

  12. Minuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 114 by Christian Petzold (1677-1733) (L. 3, A)

  13. Minuet in G Minor, BWV Anh. 115 by Christian Petzold (1677-1733) (L. 3, A)

  14. Impertinence, HWV 494 George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) (L. 2, A)

  15. I Spy by Melody Bober (L. 2, B)

  16. Canon in A Minor by Cornelius Gurlitt (L. 2, C)

  17. Etude in D Minor op. 82 No. 65 by Cornelius Gurlitt (L. 2, Etude)