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.
Official tracking started Monday, October 19.
🟩 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, two octaves
THIS WEEK: Hands together, two octaves, speed building from 108 to 144.
Speed building: 108 to 144.
Two octaves now, up from one, and hands together.
Drop the natural weight of your arm into the keys instead of pushing them down. That is what made the sound clear.
Firm fingertips, loose wrist.
Keep the torso in motion. The stiffness in your fingers starts above them.
Let go of the mistakes while you are speed building. You are forcing your muscles to do something they are not comfortable with yet, so a scattering of mistakes is part of it. Aim for most of them correct and get to the top of the ladder.
The exception: the same mistake three times in a row. Then stop, slow down, and look at the fingering or the position.
Start again from the bottom the next day.
Short nails. They are part of the stability.
Theory
2. 🟩 Celebrate Theory, Level 1 (RCM)
THIS WEEK: As much of the whole workbook as you can get through.
No page target. You move fast through it, so go as far as you want.
Practice explaining it out loud, to the mirror or to Griffin.
Pop quiz next lesson on anything in it: what a half rest looks like, broken against solid blocked form, what the top and the bottom number of the time signature each tell us, the Italian term for loud, the English for crescendo, the brace and the grand staff, ledger lines, accidentals, tonic, and a group of four half steps in a row.
Reach out with any questions as you go.
Musicianship
3. ⬛️ Basic Rhythmic Training (Starer)
Still on hold. Nothing to do on this one yet.
4. 🟩 Piano Adventures Sightreading Book, Level 3B (Faber), pages 20 to 27
THIS WEEK: Pages 20 to 27. If that is too much, you do not have to finish it.
You finished through page 18, so this is a little more than last week.
Take more time to scan the whole thing before you start. Look for the repeats and the places that trip you.
Say the rhythm silently before you play it.
Then read the other markings: the pedal, the forte, the piano, the decrescendo.
Play the repeats, the way you already do.
If one is too easy, change the mode. Play the E minor one as if the key signature said E major.
Repertoire
5. 🟩 Bourrée in D minor (Graupner)
THIS WEEK: Memorize it, one system at a time.
RCM Level 1, List A.
Not going on the review list after all. We are memorizing it instead.
One system at a time, hands together. Play it with the music, then close the music and play it.
Then open the music and find where it went wrong, and fix it in your mind without playing.
Close it again and try. Then move on.
The second half is the harder one, so it gets more of the time.
If one hand loses its way, let that hand go and keep the other one moving. The memory usually comes back.
The same mistake three times in a row is the signal to stop and zoom into that one spot.
You can also record yourself with the video or audio tool, then listen back with the music and mark where you paused.
6. 🟩 German Dance in D major, Hob. IX:22 No. 2 (Haydn)
THIS WEEK: Hands together, and make both left hand chords short.
Left hand, measures 5 and 6, 13 and 14, and 21 and 22. The second chord of each pair is coming out longer than the first. Both short.
Everything in the piece is short and prancing, not just those.
Memorize that section 1 is in D major and section 2 is in A major. Going to the dominant is what the composer is doing there, and knowing it will bring the memory back if you lose your place.
Measures 17, 18 and 19: keep the left hand in one position on the keyboard. You are going down and then back up, and you do not need to.
You are in a good spot to be practicing hands together now. Keep doing some hands alone as well.
Send me a video of a section any time. Just tell me the measure number.
7. 🟩 Angelfish (Anne Crosby Gaudet)
THIS WEEK: Start learning it. Hands alone first, then hands together.
RCM Level 1, List B.
New piece, and it fills your List B slot.
Two treble clefs, and the clef changes in a few places. Check before you play.
There is an 8va. Watch where the right hand sits and where the left hand crosses over.
The fingering is what makes it smooth and connected, so use what is printed.
Pedal only where it is marked. Those are her own markings.
The ritardando gradually slows down.
Learn as much as you can hands alone before you put it together.
8. 🟧 Please to Meet Me, piano arrangement
Mine. We carry on with the dictation at the next lesson.
That is the group version, kept sparse the way you play it. The solo, more embellished version comes after you are confident on this one.
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)
List B: Angelfish (Anne Crosby Gaudet)
What you still need
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.