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]

Start Here

1. 🟩 Print your theory units

THIS WEEK: Print Preparatory Units 6 and 7 and put them in your binder.

I texted them to you 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: Still open from last week.

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 6 (RCM), Scales

THIS WEEK: Complete Unit 6.

Practice type: Learning.

No time cap on this one.
Even where it looks easy, don't skip anything. This is the part you said you have not really learned yet.
Ascending and descending, and what a C major scale actually is, all the way from C to C.
Press Done for the Week when the unit is finished.

4. 🟩 Celebrate Theory, Preparatory Level, Unit 7 (RCM), Triads

THIS WEEK: Complete Unit 7.

Practice type: Learning.

No time cap on this one.
A triad comes from the scale: the first, third and fifth degree.
Know the difference between a broken triad and a solid triad.
I am going to ask you to write it down at your lesson, not just say it.
Press Done for the Week when the unit is finished.

5. 🟪 Keyboard Spelling Challenge, page 14

THIS WEEK: Nothing this week. I am still rewriting this one.

Page 14 is printed and you have it.

Musicianship

6. 🟥 Basic Rhythmic Training (Starer), Nos. 51, 52 and 53

THIS WEEK: Three correct in a row, or five correct in total, on each of 51, 52 and 53.

NFPER focus: rhythm.

Set the beat to m.m. 50. That is your speed limit, not a target. It will feel painfully slow. Stay with it.
Open Section-Work and it is already set to rhythm for you. Notes, fingering, position and expression are crossed off.
Clap the beat, which is the small down-stem line. Ta the rhythm, which is the top line.
For a tie, don't say the second note. Hold through it.
Where the eighth rests sit, make a sound on them until you feel where they are, then think it silently.
Keep going through a mistake. Stopping is the only real error.
Get this at home and you whip it off in three tries at the lesson.

7. 🟪 Note Reading Flashcards

THIS WEEK: Keep going. We did not get to these at the lesson.

⏱ 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. Run the wrong pile 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.

8. 🟨 Solfège Reading (Knowles), No. 6 page 12, and pages 15 to 17

THIS WEEK: Redo No. 6 on page 12, then learn pages 15 to 17.

NFPER focus: notes.

Set the beat to m.m. 84, one note per beat.
Open Section-Work and it is already set to notes for you.
Pages 15 to 17 are the upper neighbor: the note one letter above a landmark. D sits above C, A sits above G.
That is why you memorized the alphabet forward and backward.
When you say the wrong letter, let it go and keep moving. You got better at that today.

9. 🟩 Solfège Reading (Knowles), pages 18 and 19

THIS WEEK: Prepare pages 18 and 19.

NFPER focus: notes.

Same beat, m.m. 84, one note per beat.
Extra reading while you have no playing pieces yet, so that when the pieces start the reading is already easy.

10. 🟩 Piano Adventures Sightreading, Primer, pages 4 and 5

THIS WEEK: Read pages 4 and 5 straight through, without stopping.

This book is on loan. Don't write in it.
Sight-reading means once you start, you do not stop. Keep going through anything that goes wrong.
Watch the finger numbers. They change, and they tell you where to put your thumb.
Slow. Around m.m. 60.

11. 🟩 Piano Adventures Sightreading, Primer, pages 6 to 11

THIS WEEK: Prepare pages 6 to 11: correct notes, correct tempo.

These you learn rather than read cold.
I will ask you to play one or two of them next lesson.
Slow. Around m.m. 60.

Technique

12. 🟩 Fall board hand drop

THIS WEEK: Five drops each hand on the closed fall board, every day.

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

13. 🟩 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, every day.

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.
No time cap.

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.