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]

Theory

1. 🟩 Celebrate Theory, Level 1, Unit 3 (RCM), Rhythm

THIS WEEK: Complete the whole unit.

Ties, dots and rhythms are the main idea.
A tie joins two notes on the same line or the same space. Play the first one and hold it through the second. Do not strike it again.
A slur is the same curved line but it goes between different notes.
Be ready to tell me about anything in bold: time signature, bar line, measure, double bar line, final bar line, what the top number means, what the bottom number means.
Quiz on it at the next lesson.
If you get stuck, the unit explains it on the page.

2. ⬛️ Celebrate Theory, Level 1, Unit 4 (RCM), Listening

Not yet. We are skipping this one for now and coming back to it.
It is the listening unit: Peter and the Wolf, and Carnival of the Animals.

Musicianship

3. 🟩 Basic Rhythmic Training (Starer), Nos. 54 to 59

THIS WEEK: Nos. 54 through 59.

Clap two measures first, one and two, then start.
Move through a mistake instead of stopping. Almost like it never happened.
Scan the whole exercise before you begin.

4. 🟩 Note Reading Flashcards

THIS WEEK: Start with two cards you don't know. Go back and forth until you get them three times in a row, or five times correctly. Then add one card.

Add one card at a time and keep going until all of them are easy.
Practice without the metronome first, then put it back on.
Read by landmark. Find the one you already know, then step up or down from it.
Middle C and the ledger lines are landmarks too.

5. 🟩 Solfège Reading (Knowles), page 17 nos. 6 and 7, and page 19 nos. 12 and 13

THIS WEEK: Clap and say them, with the metronome.

Scan the whole exercise before you start.
If you make a mistake, let it go and keep the beat.
When mistakes pile up, stop counting them, look ahead to the next measure and come back in there.

6. 🟩 Solfège Reading (Knowles), page 16 nos. 2 and 4, and page 17 no. 5

THIS WEEK: Say the note names out loud while you play them. Right hand, finger 3.

Forward wrist on every note.
Good posture, feet flat.
Saying it while you play it is the point. Doing both at once is what makes it stick.

7. 🟩 Solfège Reading (Knowles), page 18 no. 9, and page 19 nos. 11 and 12

THIS WEEK: Say the note names out loud while you play them. Left hand, finger 3.

Same as the right hand one, other hand.
Forward wrist on every note. Good posture, feet flat.

Reading

8. 🟩 Piano Adventures Sightreading, Primer, pages 35 to 43

THIS WEEK: Pages 35 through 43, spread through the week. Don't do them all in one day.

Scan the whole thing before you start.
Forward wrist on the long notes, left hand too.
If you make a mistake, forget about it and keep going.

Technique

9. 🟩 Black Key Composition

THIS WEEK: Expand the piece you wrote, and improvise with the same patterns all over the keyboard.

The main focus is doing the forward wrist and the drop pop correctly.
Use different registers. Cross your hands over.
Have it ready to play for me. Maybe at group class too.

🎥 All three movements https://youtube.com/shorts/337R67ofof8

Repertoire