September 25, 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 logs your practice for you — no comments needed.

  1. Press Start from # whatever number it shows. It picks up where you stopped last time.

  2. Press Start, read the assignment, practice.

  3. Tap the kind of practice, then press Done.

  4. 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 NFPER colors? They are in Practice Tools, right under the practice types. 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. The competition starts October 1 — practicing and 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]

Start Here

1. 🟩 Print your theory units

THIS WEEK: Print Preparatory Units 1, 2 and 3 and put them in your three-ring binder.

  • I emailed them to your dad during the lesson.

  • If something I owe you has not arrived, tell me the same day. Not the day before your lesson.

  • Press Done for the Week when they are in the binder.

2. 🟩 Felt pads for the bench legs

THIS WEEK: Put felt pads on the bottom of the bench legs.

  • So the bench slides without marking the floor when you set your distance.

  • Press Done for the Week when they are on.

Theory

3. 🟩 Celebrate Theory, Preparatory Level, Unit 1 (RCM), Getting Started

THIS WEEK: Complete the unit. Answer every question.

  • Some of it is review. Do it anyway.

  • There is a quiz on this next lesson.

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

4. 🟩 Celebrate Theory, Preparatory Level, Unit 2 (RCM), The Treble Staff

THIS WEEK: Complete the unit. Skip the make-up-a-phrase part on page 20.

  • Read the instructions on the page.

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

5. 🟩 Celebrate Theory, Preparatory Level, Unit 3 (RCM), The Bass Staff

THIS WEEK: Read the instructions and complete the unit.

  • This is the one that explains beams and flags, which is what tripped you up in the red book.

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

6. 🟪 Keyboard Spelling Challenge, page 14

THIS WEEK: Nothing this week. I am rewriting this one so it says what it actually means.

  • Page 14 is printed and you have it.

Musicianship

7. 🟨 Basic Rhythmic Training (Starer), Nos. 50, 51 and 52

THIS WEEK: Get 50, 51 and 52 clean, straight through, without stopping.

⏱ Max 5 minutes per practice session.

  • Clap the beat. That is the small down-stem line, and it never changes.

  • Ta the rhythm. That is the top line with the up stems.

  • One measure of silence clapped first, then start.

  • When it goes wrong, two tools: go slower, and make a sound on the rest until you feel where it sits, then think it silently.

  • Keep going through a mistake. Stopping is the only real error.

8. 🟩 Note Reading Flashcards

THIS WEEK: Run the whole deck with a practice partner until every card is correct.

⏱ Max 5 minutes per practice session.

Practice type: Learning.

  • Set the beat to m.m. 44. One card every two beats.

  • Correct cards in one pile, wrong cards in the other. Then run the wrong pile again, and again, until it is empty.

  • B and D are your pair. Pull just those out, drill them ten times, then put them back in the mix.

  • Your partner only needs the answers on the back. They do not need to read the front.

  • All of them correct before the five minutes is up? Press Done and move on.

9. 🟨 Musical Alphabet, Forward and Backward

THIS WEEK: C to C and back, then every letter forward and backward, at m.m. 100.

⏱ Max 4 minutes per practice session.

  • Set the beat to m.m. 100.

  • Start on each letter in turn: up an octave, then back down.

  • Three correct in a row on the ones that fight you.

  • We pass this off next lesson. Three tries.

  • When you slip, keep going. You got faster at that today.

10. 🟨 Solfège Reading (Knowles), No. 2 page 10, No. 5 page 11, No. 6 page 12

THIS WEEK: Three correct in a row on each of the three, at m.m. 84 per note.

  • Set the beat to m.m. 84, one note per beat.

  • Use the NFPER Method button to count your three in a row.

  • Only those three. Nothing on pages 15, 23 or 29.

  • We pass these off at your lesson, three tries per one.

  • Three clean runs at home is the confidence you bring to the lesson.

Technique

11. 🟩 Fall board hand drop

THIS WEEK: Five drops each hand on the closed fall board, exactly as the video shows.

  • Find the bubble first. Round knuckle, firm fingertip, loose wrist.

  • Drop. Then raise the wrist as if a string is pulling it up. Then back down.

  • Stay connected to the fall board while the wrist is up.

  • Watch fingers 5, 4 and 1. They should not fan out.

  • No time cap. Every day.

🎥 Fall board hand drop https://youtu.be/vhL7Pev7Rk4

12. 🟩 Two-set and three-set black keys, drop hand

THIS WEEK: Five drops each hand on the two-set, then five on the three-set. Send me a video.

  • Fingers 2 and 3. Same motion as the fall board.

  • Land and stay put. No sliding.

  • Plant gently, then release the tension after the sound.

  • Send me one video: once left, once right, on the two-set and on the three-set.

  • No time cap.

Next Time

13. 🟧 Your sight-reading book

I am bringing you the Piano Adventures Preparatory sight-reading book, and then we start playing pieces.

How to Read by Landmark

You learned note names with acronyms — Every Good Boy Does Fine, FACE, All Cows Eat Grass. Those work, but they slow you down permanently, because every time you read a note you have to run the whole phrase and then find the letter. So we're replacing them with landmarks.

A landmark is a place you already know that tells you where you are. The Statue of Liberty. The Great Wall. The cross street you recognize on your own block. On the staff, landmarks work the same way: you memorize a few fixed points, then read everything else by its distance from them.

The landmarks we're starting with

Bass clef F — line 4. The bass clef is the F clef, and the two dots sit around that line. "Clef" comes from the French clé, meaning key, as in a key that unlocks the names of the notes.

Treble clef G — line 2. The treble clef is the G clef, and it curls around that line.

Middle C, treble C (space 3, an octave above middle C), and bass C (space 2). Two ledger lines above the treble staff is also a C, and two below the bass staff is a C — the two clefs mirror each other, which makes them easier to remember.

Ledger lines are the extra short lines added above and below the staff. They work in both directions. This is a term I want you to know by name.

Once the landmarks are automatic, you add the note directly above and directly below each one. That's how the flashcard assignment is built — landmarks first, then their neighbors, then outward.

A note that is touching the staff from outside, like D below the treble staff, is still below the staff. Touching is not the same as being on it.