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. 🟩 The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises, No. 1 (Hanon)

THIS WEEK: Follow the sprints video and do all four rotations.

⏱ Max 7 minutes per practice session.

Practice type: Polishing.

Sprints: one long note, then three fast short ones. Then the long moves to the second note, then the third, then the fourth. Four rotations.
Plant the finger and play, like pushing a seed into dirt. Don't pull or scrape.
Low wrist to start, then let the wrist move forward to help you.
Round, firm fingertips. Your first joint collapsed every time you went down. A finger that bends at the tip is a tool that bends at the tip.
Relax when you go fast. Soft, not harder.

🎥 Sprints https://youtube.com/shorts/bFvKSsHCtr8

2. 🟩 Technical Requirements for Piano, Level 3 (RCM)

THIS WEEK: Broken triads and broken chords.

Practice type: Polishing.

Crawl your hand across the keys. Don't lurch in and out.
If your thumb is going to land on a black key, be in position for it before you get there. Ask yourself where you are the note before.
Going in and out will sound choppy as soon as you speed up.
Relax your shoulder and elbow. Think chicken wings.
Everything has to be memorized for the exam.

Theory

3. 🟥 Celebrate Theory, Level 4, Unit 1 (RCM)

THIS WEEK: Same as last week. The whole of Unit 1, Getting Started.

Practice type: Learning.

Red this week because it has not been started yet.
It is in Newzik. Print it out and put it in your binder.
If you cannot print it, ask Sophie or Genevieve. If it gets to Sunday and it is still not printed, ask.
Press Done for the Week when the unit is finished.

Musicianship

4. 🟪 RCM Online Ear Training

THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Clap-backs only. Watch the end of the rhythm.

⏱ Max 5 minutes per practice session.

Same assignment.
Clap-backs only. No melody playbacks; those are solid.
Be a pattern detective. First hearing, ask where the pattern is. Second hearing, lock into it.
Start clapping the moment I stop. The gap is where it escapes you.

5. 🟪 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests, Level 3 (Berlin and Markow)

THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Set 10, then press Done for the Week.

Same assignment. We will get to it next time.
Finish Set 10. There is no Set 11.
One day of the set per practice session.

6. 🟩 Piano Adventures Sightreading Book, Level 3A (Faber)

THIS WEEK: Pages 8 to 13.

Practice type: Learning.

One page per practice session.
Your expression on the Sakura day was the best part of it. Keep doing that.
Try for more than two days this week.

Repertoire

7. 🟩 Left Alone, No. 1 for left hand alone (Grill)

THIS WEEK: Fix every pink marker in the music in your binder.

NFPER focus: expression.

RCM Level 3, Etude 1

All of the expression is in pink marker now. Those are the spots.
Take a small breath going into each new section. Just enough, not a pause.
You are accenting some of the downbeats. Deep and strong is right, sudden is not. All of them the same way.
Good progress. We refine the expression now and memorize it after that.

8. 🟩 Minuet in G minor, BWV Anh. 115 (Petzold)

THIS WEEK: Start from three random measures each practice session.

RCM Level 3, List A

Practice type: Review.

Pick the measures yourself, including the second half after the repeat.
The second half starts in B-flat major. Know the key, so that if you freeze you can improvise inside the chord until your memory catches up.
Memorize four ways: by theory, by muscle memory, by finger number, and by sound.

9. 🟩 Sonatina in A minor, Op. 94 No. 4, I. Allegro moderato (Biehl)

THIS WEEK: Start from three random places each practice session.

RCM Level 3, List B

Practice type: Review.

Pick them yourself, including mid-measure.
Curved fingers. Watch measure 30, it is the hard one.

10. 🟩 The Stormy Sea (Gaudet)

THIS WEEK: Speed build from 96 to 116, in three sections.

Speed building: 96 to 116.

RCM Level 3, List C

Practice type: Speed-building.

Three sections: mm. 1-16, then mm. 17-24, then mm. 25 to the end.
Use the Speed-building tool. It is already set for you.
This is 6/8, which is compound meter. Two beats in the bar, three eighth notes inside each beat. A dotted quarter gets one beat.
Don't think about the subdivisions. Think the beat.
Drop into the first note. It keeps the hand relaxed for the first few notes, which is where it gets rushed and squished.
Next week we go to 132.

11. 🟩 Étude in D major, Op. 37 No. 17 (Lemoine)

THIS WEEK: Start learning it. Two measures at a time, hands alone.

NFPER focus: notes, fingering, position.

RCM Level 3, Etude 2

Your new piece, and your second Level 3 etude.
It is in Newzik.
Two measures at a time with the Section-Work tool. See how far you get.
Hands alone, and this is why: there are a lot of legato lifting moments in one hand while the other hand is not doing that. Each hand has to be the boss of its own part before they go together.

12. ⬛️ Solitude, No. 9 for right hand alone (Grill)

Still on deck. This is a Level 4 etude, so it waits until the Level 3 program is finished. Right hand only, same composer as Left Alone.

Setup

13. 🟧 Binder dividers

Dividers for your three ring binder, with a tab for technique and a tab for repertoire. I am bringing them.

RCM Level 3

Your program is complete and it is in the practice guide, under Royal Conservatory of Music. List A, List B, List C and both etudes are all assigned.

Practice Performances

When you play something all the way through for me: no stopping, no fixing, no changing the tempo. Spotting is different — stopping is fine there.

Focus Tracker

💚💚💛💛💚💛💜❤️💚💚💜❤️💚💜❤️🐐❤️❤️💚💚💚💚💚❤️💚💚🐐🧡💚💚💚💚🧡💚❤️🧡❤️💚💚💚💚💛💚❤️ (53 points)

❤️ = 4 POINTS (+ bonus = no reminders)

💚 = 3 POINTS

💛 = 2 POINTS

💜 = 1 POINT

🐐 = 0 POINTS

I Spy Practice Video

[INSERT I SPY PRACTICE VIDEO LINK]

Review List

Review these with your music, one time each week.

RCM Level 3

Musette in D Major, BWV Anh. 126, Anonymous, from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach (List A)

Sonatina in C Major, Op. 36, No. 1, I. Allegro, by Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) (List B)

Lemon Sherbet Rag by Barbara Arens (List C)

RCM Level 2

Écossaise in G Major, WoO 23, by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) (List A)

I Spy by Melody Bober (b. 1955) (List B)

Farewell, Op. 98, No. 4, by Alexander Gretchaninoff (1864-1956) (List B)

Etude in D Minor, Op. 82, No. 65, by Cornelius Gurlitt (1820-1901) (Etude)

RCM Level 1

German Dance in D Major, Hob. IX:22, No. 2, by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) (List A)

This Guy's Disguised by Bradley Sowash (List B)

Cranky Cat by Teresa Richert (b. 1964) (List C)

Far Away by Teresa Richert (b. 1964) (Etude)

RCM Preparatory B

Looking-Glass River by Nancy & Randall Faber

New Shoes by Linda Niamath

Raptors by Kevin Olson

Leaping the Waves with Dolphins by Barbara Arens

RCM Preparatory A

Marching, Op. 39, No. 3, by Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987)

Curious Cat by Teresa Richert (b. 1964)

The Lively Boy