October 20, 2026 (60 min · in-person)

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 writes your practice down for you, no comments needed.

  • Tap the first assignment on your list.

  • The timer starts by itself. Read it and practice.

  • When you are finished, press Done. It saves your time and opens the next one.

  • Need to stop for a minute? Press Pause.

Lost? Press My Assignment List at the top to go back.

Log only what you actually did, on the day you did it. Five minutes is a real entry.

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.

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.

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, page 9

THIS WEEK: Page 9. The parallel scale first, then the formula pattern scales. Accent practice first, then the speed ladder.

⏱ Max 8 minutes per practice session.

Speed building: 116 to 138.

  • Page 9. A-flat major, parallel scale.

  • Then the formula pattern scales, major and harmonic minor.

  • Same method as last week: accent practice first, then the opposite accents, then staccato, then legato.

  • Left hand wrist is the one to watch. It drops on the thumb. Let go after 5, 4, 3 instead of hanging on.

  • Rest the wrist up on the thumb.

  • Keep the start of each note tiny, especially when you speed it up.

  • Eight minutes is the cap so this doesn't eat the session.

Theory

2. 🟩 Celebrate Theory, Level 5, Unit 5 (RCM)

THIS WEEK: Print Unit 5 and do all of it.

  • Unit 4 is finished. This is Unit 5.

  • You print it. It does not need to be in color.

  • Intervals: size and quality, written with accidentals.

  • Keep asking what the relationship between the two notes is.

  • Line to line or space to space makes it odd. Line to space makes it even.

  • Press Done for the Week when the unit is finished.

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. 12-17, spotting

THIS WEEK: Spot measures 12 to 17 with Section-Work. Three in a row, or five correct.

NFPER focus: notes, fingering, position, expression, rhythm.

Practice type: Spotting.

  • Use the Section-Work tool. All five colors are on, or take one at a time.

  • Three correct in a row, or five correct in total.

  • This is the first place it came apart at the lesson. Everything before it was a solid, steady tempo.

  • Which color you start with is up to you. It depends how fast you want it done.

7. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 29-33, trill

THIS WEEK: Right hand melody and trill very slowly, left hand very soft. Switch the fingering every time.

⏱ Max 3 minutes per practice session.

  • Every day.

  • Right hand slowly, with the trill.

  • Left hand underneath it, very soft.

  • Switch your fingering every time through, then pick the one you want.

  • The left hand wants to run ahead. Keeping it soft is what holds it back.

  • One hand being behind the other is normal. This is how you fix it.

8. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 33-34

THIS WEEK: Measures 33 and 34. Two measures at a time. The brick building starts here.

Brick practice: combine the chunks after one round each.

  • Two measures at a time, measures 33 to 52.

  • That is the last section of the piece.

  • A lot of trills in here. Go slowly enough to play them.

  • When two chunks next to each other are both done, play them joined together.

9. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 35-36

THIS WEEK: Measures 35 and 36. Same method as the first chunk.

  • Two measures at a time. Slow enough to play it right the first time.

10. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 37-38

THIS WEEK: Measures 37 and 38. Same method as the first chunk.

  • Two measures at a time. Slow enough to play it right the first time.

11. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 39-40

THIS WEEK: Measures 39 and 40. Same method as the first chunk.

  • Two measures at a time. Slow enough to play it right the first time.

12. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 41-42

THIS WEEK: Measures 41 and 42. Same method as the first chunk.

  • Two measures at a time. Slow enough to play it right the first time.

13. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 43-44

THIS WEEK: Measures 43 and 44. Same method as the first chunk.

  • Two measures at a time. Slow enough to play it right the first time.

14. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 45-46

THIS WEEK: Measures 45 and 46. Same method as the first chunk.

  • Two measures at a time. Slow enough to play it right the first time.

15. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 47-48

THIS WEEK: Measures 47 and 48. Same method as the first chunk.

  • Two measures at a time. Slow enough to play it right the first time.

16. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 49-50

THIS WEEK: Measures 49 and 50. Same method as the first chunk.

  • Two measures at a time. Slow enough to play it right the first time.

17. 🟩 Invention No. 4 in D minor, BWV 775 (Bach), mm. 51-52

THIS WEEK: Measures 51 and 52. Same method as the first chunk.

  • Two measures at a time. Slow enough to play it right the first time.

18. 🟩 Sonatina in F major, Anh. 5 No. 2 (Beethoven)

THIS WEEK: From the top with the metronome at m.m. 88 per eighth note.

⏱ Max 7 minutes per practice session.

Practice type: Review.

  • Metronome m.m. 88 per eighth note. A little faster than last week.

  • Same assignment otherwise. Just keep working through it.

  • When the timer goes off, mark where you stopped and pick up there next time.

  • Any note or fingering error, go back one measure and fix it, then carry on. Don't start over.

  • Playing it a lot at that slow speed is what ingrains the movements and the expression.

  • We will put the speed up again next time.

19. 🟩 L'Indifférente, from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin (Rameau), mm. 1-16

THIS WEEK: Measures 1 to 16 again. Learn the left hand trills with the right hand.

  • The trill sections first. Then move forward.

  • Hang on the first note in the left hand so the hands don't collide, then bring the left hand in straight after.

  • Every ornament slow and soft. That is how they get clean.

  • Left hand has ornaments too. Practice those the same way.

  • The dotted quarter can start on the note above, like a singer.

  • The fingering we wrote in at the lesson is in the music.

  • Untidy on purpose in places. That is harpsichord performance practice, not sloppiness.

  • The two recordings are below if you want to hear the style again.

🎥 Isidora Kuzmanovic https://youtu.be/ftBDhpnfd88

🎥 Ingmar Lazar https://youtu.be/f6EJEIQ-xt8

20. ⬛️ Prelude, Op. 39 No. 19 (Kabalevsky)

  • On review, on hold. Don't practice this one for now.

Review List

Review these with your music. You don't need to get through all of them in one session.

RCM Level 5

  • Deux rigaudons, from Suite in E Minor, RCT 2, by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) (List A)

  • Fantasia in E-flat Major, TWV 33:35, 2nd Section, by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) (List A)

  • Sonatina in F Major, Anh. 5, No. 2, attr. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) (List B)

  • Lyric Pieces, Book I, Op. 12, No. 2, Waltz, by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) (List C)

RCM Level 4

  • Air in B-flat Major, HWV 471, by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) (List A)

  • Sonatina in F Major, Op. 168, No. 1, I. Moderato cantabile, by Anton Diabelli (1781-1858) (List B)

  • Sonatina in G Major, Op. 36, No. 2, III. Allegro, by Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) (List B)

  • Etude in E Minor, Op. 65, No. 42, by Carl Albert Loeschhorn (1819-1905) (Etude)

  • Masquerade, by Linda Niamath (Etude)

RCM Level 3

  • Musette in D Major, BWV Anh. 126, Anonymous, from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach (1725) (List A)

  • Minuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 114, attr. Christian Petzold (1677-1733) (List A)

  • Minuet in G Minor, BWV Anh. 115, attr. Christian Petzold (1677-1733) (List A)

  • Sonatina in A Minor, Op. 94, No. 4, by Albert Biehl (List B)

  • Clowns, Op. 39, No. 20, from 24 Pieces for Children, by Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987) (List C)

  • Arabesque, Op. 100, No. 2, by Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller (1806-1874) (Etude)

RCM Level 2

  • Impertinence, HWV 494, by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) (List A)

  • Etude in D Minor, Op. 82, No. 65, by Cornelius Gurlitt (1820-1901) (Etude)

Other

  • Yesterday, by John Lennon and Paul McCartney