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. 🟩 E-flat major scale, parallel motion, one octave
THIS WEEK: Slowly, watching your wrist when the thumb tucks under.
The wrist does not drop and does not twist when you tuck the thumb. Keep it supported.
It leans very slightly in the direction you are going, and the opposite way coming down.
If it looks still and calm while you play, you are doing it right.
The fingering in parentheses is an option. You can end on 1 or on 3.
This matters at speed, not slowly, which is why we are fixing it now.
2. 🟩 Drop wrist and pop wrist
THIS WEEK: One minute with the right hand, then one minute with the left, up and down the keyboard.
Max 2 minutes.
Drop: think of a string pulling your wrist down. Fingers stay hooked and round.
Pop: same drop, then come straight off the key. Don't scrape it and don't pull back.
On a two-note slur, drop on the first note and pop on the second.
Change the finger pairs: 5 and 4, then 4 and 3, then 3 and 2.
When there is a note in between the two slurred notes, play it while the wrist is still down.
🎥 Drop wrist https://youtu.be/TSK7ZNAaEHA
[INSERT VIDEO LINK — the pop wrist / drop pop video]
3. 🟩 Forward wrist
THIS WEEK: Learn the movement from the video, then use it on the long notes.
It is for notes longer than a quarter note.
Stay on the note, bring the wrist up and forward while you hold it, then let go.
Never go still on a note. Stillness is what causes tension.
🎥 Forward wrist https://youtu.be/WNpTiDBksxo
Theory
4. 🟧 Your theory packet
I am printing you the same theory packet Griffin is working through.
Musicianship
5. ⬛️ Basic Rhythmic Training (Starer)
Still on hold. Nothing to do on this one yet.
6. 🟩 Piano Adventures Sightreading Book, Level 3B (Faber)
THIS WEEK: One a day. Play it straight through without stopping.
Slow and steady. Keep the beat through every mistake.
Do not go back and correct anything while you play.
At the end, hands in your lap. Look at it and decide what to fix.
Then play it again the same way.
One a day is plenty. Two at most.
The point is training yourself to move through a mistake instead of reacting to it.
Repertoire
7. 🟩 Bourrée in D minor (Graupner)
THIS WEEK: Right hand alone and left hand alone, with the wrist movements.
NFPER focus: expression, position.
RCM Level 1, List A.
Notes and fingering are passed. This week is the wrist movements and the expression.
Hands alone until they feel confident, then four-measure chunks.
One measure at a time, as slow as you need, so every movement is actually there.
No pedal in this style.
Single notes with no slur over them are detached. A sticky staccato, not legato.
Two-note slurs are drop then pop. Longer notes get the forward wrist.
If you get frustrated, stop and ask two questions: am I going too fast, and is the section too big.
8. 🟧 Please to Meet Me, piano arrangement
I am writing you a revised arrangement, closer to how I play it on the recording.
We start on it at the next lesson and we can adjust it on the spot.
Learn the recording version first, then we make changes.
9. ⬛️ The School of Velocity, Op. 299 No. 3 (Czerny)
Not yet. Nothing to do on this one until I say so.
Next Time
10. 🟧 Your first improvisation assignments
Still mine to bring.
Royal Conservatory, Level 1
Three pieces, one from each list, plus one etude. The Practice Guide shows the same thing at the bottom of your assignment list.
What you have
List A: Bourrée in D minor (Graupner)
What you still need
List B
List C
One etude
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.