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.
Ten minutes a day, five days a week. That is the whole ask.
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. 🟩 A major scale, parallel motion, one octave
THIS WEEK: A major, hands alone, until it is easy.
Left hand first, then right hand. One octave, A to A.
Three sharps: C sharp, F sharp and G sharp. Everything else is white.
Tuck the thumb under at E. One, two, three, thumb under, two, three, four, five.
Keep the wrist up when the thumb tucks. Don't let it drop.
Keep your eyes up on the keys, not on your hand.
Do it until it is easy.
Knowing the scale is how you find a tune you heard. The notes are all inside it.
Repertoire
2. 🟩 Lunar Eclipse (Nancy Faber and Randall Faber)
THIS WEEK: Three times through the whole piece, correctly.
Three times correctly, in total. Not three in a row, that is next week.
Short on time? Do what you can. More than three if you have the time.
Piano Repertoire, Level 1, page 21.
You played the whole piece in one lesson. Sit down and do that again.
It is in C minor. There is no key signature, but it starts and ends on C minor.
Mezzo piano means slightly soft. Keep it calm all the way through.
Three beats in a measure, and the quarter note gets the beat.
The pedal changes all the time. Imagine it before you play it.
Look ahead while you are holding a long note.
Do this for me next week and we start a new piece.
🎥 Lunar Eclipse https://youtube.com/shorts/kFUT9rOTZvk
3. 🟧 Plan next week's songwriting assignment from your photographed pages
I read the six free writes and build the chorus starters for next lesson. Nothing for you to do on this one.
The Ten Minute Cap
Ten minutes a day, five days a week. That is the whole ask.
You learned the whole piece in one lesson, so three times through is not a lot of work.
Ten minutes is one run through, properly. Two or three on a day you have more time.
If you genuinely do not have ten minutes, tell your mom and dad and then tell me.
January Performance Class
Three pieces. Lunar Eclipse is one.
Your own song, the one we have been building, is the second.
The third is one more piano piece. We pick it together.
Where It's All Heading
Free write, pull out the words that matter, free write on each of those, build the chorus, find the hook, write the verses, then write the music.
Six free writes are done: Ice Cream, Flint Park, Backyard, Friends, School, Church. Step 3 is finished.
Next is the chorus, and we build that together at the lesson. I have your pages.
Nothing to write this week. That is why the list is short.
This Fall
Six or seven pieces like this one. Quick learns, about a week each.
Lunar Eclipse is the first, and it is learned. Next lesson it needs to be clean.
Keep Your Papers
Blue papers go in your music binder. Back in the binder every time.