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]
Technique
1. 🟩 E-flat major scale, parallel motion, one octave
THIS WEEK: Right hand alone, then left hand alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Practice type: Learning.
Three correct in a row, or five correct in total, for each one.
Hands together only once right and left are both comfortable.
No speed. Play as slow as you need to play it perfectly.
Flats are E, A and B. Those three are always flat.
Position: you are catching the edges of the black keys. Hold your hand like you are holding a ball and play further in, so fingers 5 and 1 can reach without you reaching with your whole arm.
Theory
2. 🟩 Theory packets
THIS WEEK: Keep going from where you stopped in Unit 1.
Do all the pages in order. The ones that look easy are the ones the later pages lean on.
You said the keyboard in groups of twos and threes was the page that landed. That is the map; the rest of the unit uses it.
Musicianship
3. 🟪 Basic Rhythmic Training (Starer)
THIS WEEK: We did not get to this one. Pick it up where you left it.
4. 🟩 Practice sessions with Griffin
THIS WEEK: Keep going. Two or three times a week is working.
Repertoire
5. 🟩 Bourrée in D minor (Graupner), mm. 1-4
THIS WEEK: Right hand, then left hand, then hands together. Notes and fingering only.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Practice type: Learning.
Brick practice: combine the chunks after one round each.
Level 1 Celebration Series, Piano Repertoire.
Three correct in a row, or five correct in total.
Always play through to the downbeat of the next measure.
Position, expression and rhythm are crossed out. Not yet.
Two wrong tries in a row means change the approach, not try harder. Walk the fingering through in your mind first, or go slower.
6. 🟩 Bourrée in D minor (Graupner), mm. 5-8
THIS WEEK: Same as mm. 1-4. Right, left, together, notes and fingering.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Practice type: Learning.
Three correct in a row, or five correct in total.
7. 🟩 Bourrée in D minor (Graupner), mm. 9-12
THIS WEEK: Same as mm. 1-4. Right, left, together, notes and fingering.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Practice type: Learning.
Three correct in a row, or five correct in total.
8. 🟩 Bourrée in D minor (Graupner), mm. 13-16
THIS WEEK: Same as mm. 1-4. Right, left, together, notes and fingering.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Practice type: Learning.
Three correct in a row, or five correct in total.
9. 🟩 Please to Meet Me, piano arrangement
THIS WEEK: Play what is written, then pencil in what you would change.
From The Phone Booth Sessions, Volume One.
Learn the arrangement as written first, then mark in pencil anything you want added or taken away. Bring it to the next lesson.
Left hand crosses over for the G.
Right hand on the opening figure is fingers 4 then 2.
The line in the lower register is the clarinet part from the recording.
Anything you want to change, you can also record it. Open the recorder inside this assignment, play or say what you want, press Done, then Send to Dustin. A text or a voice memo is fine too.
10. ⬛️ Czerny, School of Velocity, Op. 299 No. 3
Not yet. We look at this next lesson.
These are short technical studies rather than pieces. They build fluency around the keyboard, which is what you asked for.
Next Time
11. 🟧 Your sight-reading book
I'm bringing it.
12. 🟧 Your first improvisation assignments
I'll assign which technical patterns to improvise with, inside the arrangement, so it is clear what to do.
Goals This Year
Know your way around a key, so getting lost is recoverable.
Be able to start from any measure, not just the beginning.
One song at a time: a solo arrangement, plus the technique and theory of that same key.