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. 🟩 The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises, No. 1 (Hanon)
THIS WEEK: Three times through, all the way through, two octaves, without stopping.
⏱ Max 7 minutes per practice session.
Metronome ♩ = 69, four notes per tick.
No sprints this week. No short-long rotations.
Don't worry about tidy attacks. Wrist movement and shoulders down are the job.
Wrists always moving down and up, down and up. That was good today.
Shoulders rising is the first sign of tension. Pause, reset, keep going.
It is going to feel a little fast and a little sloppy. That is the point. If it feels comfortable you are not getting faster.
2. 🟩 Technical Requirements for Piano, Level 3 (RCM), pages 7 to 9
THIS WEEK: The scales on pages 7, 8 and 9, the page numbers printed on the music.
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.
Establish the beat before you begin.
Relax your shoulder and elbow. Think chicken wings.
Everything has to be memorized for the exam.
Theory
3. 🟩 Celebrate Theory, Level 4, Unit 3 (RCM)
THIS WEEK: Unit 3.
Units 1 and 2 are both done. Unit 1 we finished together at the lesson.
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.
Two things to carry with you from the lesson. A functional chord symbol is always a Roman numeral; a root-quality symbol is always a letter name plus major or minor.
The dominant triad is always major. In a minor key that is where the raised seventh of the harmonic minor scale comes from.
Even number intervals are line to space or space to line. Odd number intervals are line to line or space to space.
Press Done for the Week when the unit is finished.
Musicianship
4. 🟩 RCM Online Ear Training
THIS WEEK: Move up to Level 4. Clap-backs only.
⏱ Max 5 minutes per practice session.
Level 3 has got too easy for you. That is why we are moving up.
Clap-backs only. The melody playbacks are solid.
You get the beginning and the end right and add something in the middle. Listen for the whole shape first.
Try memorizing the melody so you could sing it back.
5. 🟩 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests, Level 3 (Berlin and Markow)
THIS WEEK: Clap-backs with Mama, out of the test PDF.
The clap-backs in the tests, not the daily sets.
You said yourself it works better with her than on the screen. So do it that way.
6. 🟩 Piano Adventures Sightreading Book, Level 3A (Faber)
THIS WEEK: Pages 13 to 18.
One page per practice session.
Page 13 still needs finishing. Start there.
Keep the expression in it. That is the best part of your sight reading.
Repertoire
7. 🟩 Left Alone, No. 1 for left hand alone (Grill)
THIS WEEK: Keep fixing every pink marker, and now the black pen as well.
NFPER focus: expression.
RCM Level 3, Etude 1
Black pen is new pedaling and voicing.
Change the pedal on beat 3 of measure 12.
More poco ritardando in measure 16.
Every eighth note sings, not just the quarters and the dotted halves. The top note has to come out before you start descending.
A breath between sections is a break in the momentum, not a dry gap. The pedal can stay down.
8. 🟩 Minuet in G minor, BWV Anh. 115 (Petzold)
THIS WEEK: The position of your trill in measure 16, and three random measures each practice session.
RCM Level 3, List A
Drop the wrist into the first note of the trill, which is the note above. Then pop the wrist off.
Freeze when you get to the first position and check it. Round, like a hook, low wrist.
These are not staccato.
Pick the measures yourself, including the second half after the repeat.
9. 🟪 Sonatina in A minor, Op. 94 No. 4, I. Allegro moderato (Biehl)
THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Start from three random places each practice session.
RCM Level 3, List B
Practice type: Review.
We did not get to it. Same assignment.
Pick them yourself, including mid-measure.
Curved fingers. Watch measure 30, it is the hard one.
10. 🟪 The Stormy Sea (Gaudet)
THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Speed build from 96 to 116, in three sections.
Speed building: 96 to 116.
RCM Level 3, List C
Practice type: Speed-building.
We did not get to it. Same assignment. A couple of days this week.
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.
Don't think about the subdivisions. Think the beat.
Drop into the first note. It keeps the hand relaxed where it gets rushed.
11. 🟩 Étude in D major, Op. 37 No. 17 (Lemoine), mm. 1-8
THIS WEEK: Measures 1 to 8, hands together, very slowly. Expression is the focus.
NFPER focus: expression.
RCM Level 3, Etude 2
No faster than 56 per eighth note.
Three things to deal with and they are everywhere: accents, staccato notes and slurs.
Measure 4: the bottom curved line is a tie. Don't play that note a second time.
Very, very slowly. Slow enough to get the articulation right the first time.
Bonus, if you have time: keep learning further on, hands apart, as far as you like.
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