September 19, 2026 (60 min - in-person)

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 Tools panel below. It logs your practice for you — no comments needed.

  1. Press Start here. It picks up where you stopped last time.

  2. Read the assignment, press Start, practice.

  3. Tap the kind of practice — learning, spotting, memorizing, polishing, run-through or review — then press Done.

  4. Press Next practice item and go again.

Capped items count down and chime. Keep going if it's going well.

Got something to say about an assignment? Paste the line it gives you into the comments and add your note.

Also in the panel: a metronome, a spotting counter, and recording.

Log only what you actually did, on the day you did it. Five minutes is a real entry. Logging starts October 1.

🟩 on track · 🟨 needs extra attention · 🟪 didn't get to it at the lesson · 🟥 priority · ⬛️ don't practice this one

[PRACTICE TOOLS]

This year I want a bigger sound out of you. You have the weight, the muscles and the technique for it. Use the wrist and come from above the keyboard.

Technique

1. ⬛️ The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises, No. 2 in A major (Hanon)

On hold. Leave it alone until I say otherwise.

Theory

2. 🟪 Celebrate Theory, Level 6, Unit 4 (RCM)

  • Fix the purple pen on page 51.

  • Pages 52 and 53. Identify size first. Think of the bottom note as the tonic of a scale, then identify quality.

Musicianship

3. 🟪 25 Études faciles et progressives, Op. 100 (Burgmüller)

Sight-reading. Continue on from No. 8.

4. 🟪 Mikrokosmos, Book II (Bartók)

Sight-reading. Stopped at No. 52.

Repertoire

5. 🟩 Three Preludes, No. 1 in B-flat major (Gershwin) — print and file

Print the Gershwin and put it in your red binder. You will be working from the blog now, so you want the music open beside it.

6. 🟩 Gershwin Prelude No. 1, mm. 19-21

Spotting. Three correct in a row. Pick your focus in the panel first.

The pause between 19 and 20 is the thing. Once a day is enough.

7. 🟩 Gershwin Prelude No. 1, mm. 7-10

Spotting. Three correct in a row.

  • Pedal exactly as it is marked in red pen.

  • Accents clear in the right hand.

  • No pedal on the first one. Pedal on the downbeat.

8. 🟩 Gershwin Prelude No. 1, mm. 11-12

Spotting. Three correct in a row.

  • Left hand articulation and fingering: 1 on the note after the grace note, then change the 2 to finger 5 so the octave connects.

  • No pedal at all in 11 and 12.

9. 🟩 Gershwin Prelude No. 1, m. 22

Spotting. Three correct in a row. Three things to watch:

  • Right hand staccato.

  • Left hand staccato on the G, accented, no pedal.

  • A little breath right before the 32nd notes.

Erase the pink circle and mark a staccato over the accent and over the upper G.

10. 🟩 Gershwin Prelude No. 1, mm. 26-31

Spotting. Three correct in a row. Focus on the expression.

11. 🟩 Gershwin Prelude No. 1, mm. 32-41

Learning, not spotting. Very slowly, no metronome needed.

Right hand alone, left hand alone, hands together. Five times through that cycle in one practice session.

12. 🟩 Gershwin Prelude No. 1, mm. 42-49

Speed build. Work up to m.m. 116 per eighth note.

Smaller sections if you need them — two measures at a time, right, left, together.

13. 🟩 Gershwin Prelude No. 1, mm. 52-53

Spotting. Three correct in a row.

  • Fingering change in 52.

  • Octaves in 53. General rule for octaves: 4 on the black keys, 5 on the white keys.

14. 🟩 Gershwin Prelude No. 1, mm. 54-56

Legato on the upper notes, hold the lower down-stem quarter notes.

Wrist throws down on beats one and two, and pops up on the half beats. Start with a low wrist and come up gradually at the end of the phrase.

15. 🟩 Gershwin Prelude No. 1, m. 61

Accent practice. Every other note accented, then the opposite.

Three times each hand, then three times hands together. This is what buys you the finger independence, and next time we speed it up.

Up Next

Prelude No. 2, once these are done. Not an assignment yet.

Review List

Rotate these each week.

Level 6

💚River City Blues (Mier) (Etude)

Level 5

💚💚💚Sunset in Rio (Springer, b. 1968) (List C)

Etude 1: Prelude in G minor, Op. 39 No. 19 (Kabalevsky) (Etude)

Etude 2: Harmony of the Angels, Op. 100 No. 21 (Burgmüller) (Etude)

Level 4

💚💚💜Air in B-flat major (Handel) (List A)

💚💚💚Sonatina in G major, Op. 36 No. 2, II (Clementi) (List B)

💚💚💚Sonatina in G major, Op. 36 No. 2, III (Clementi) (List B)

💚💚💚Dream Catcher (Crosby Gaudet) (List C)

💚💚💜Cool Cat Waltz (Pine) (List C)

💚💚💚Ballade in C minor, Op. 100 No. 15 (Burgmüller) (Etude)

💚💚💚Masquerade, from Fancy-Free (Niamath, b. 1939) (Etude)

💚💚💚Solitude, No. 9 for right hand alone (Grill) (Etude)

💚💚💚The Somersault King (Etude)

Level 3

💚💚💚Musette in D major, BWV Anh. 126 (Anonymous) (List A)

💚💚💚Sonatina in C major, Op. 36 No. 1, all three movements (Clementi) (List B)

💚💚 💚Sonatina in C major, Op. 36 No. 1, III (Clementi) (List B)

💚💚💚Funny Puppy (Crosby Gaudet) (List C)

💚💚💚L'Arabesque, Op. 100 No. 2 (Burgmüller) (Etude)

💚💚💚Little Piece No. 7 (Tajčević) (Etude)

Ungraded

Linus & Lucy

Für Elise, WoO 59 (Beethoven)

💚Waltz in A minor, Op. posth., B. 150 (Chopin)

RCMCP Exams

Level 4: June 2, 2023, 11:26 am

  • Masquerade by Linda Niamath (b. 1939) (L. 4, Etude)

  • Solitude by Joyce Grill? (L. 4 Etude)

  • Air in B-flat Major by Handel (L. 4, A)

  • Sonatina Op. 36 No. 2, Movement 3 (L. 4, B)

  • Cool Cat Waltz by Katya Pine (L. 4, C)