April 12, 2025 (Lesson 6 of 8)

PRACTICE PLAN!

  • ❤️FIRST PRIORITY

  • 💛SECOND PRIORITY

  • 💜THIRD PRIORITY

  • 💚FOURTH PRIORITY

RCMCP Level 2: Spring 2025

  • List A: Minuet in A Minor by Purcell

  • List B: Rhyme Time

  • List C: A Ditty of Yimeng Mountain

  • Etude: Bird in the Bebop by Wynn-Anne Rossi

💚Keep going with your new practice journal! Good work.

recital 🎹💚A Ditty of Yimeng Mountain (2. C)

  1. measures 9 - end:

    1. m.m. 54, 60, 72, 80, 86, 92

  2. measures 1-8

    1. m.m. 60, 80, ,92

  3. Memorize

Traditional music often tells a story — and this one comes from a mountainous region in China, where folk songs were passed down through generations. This arrangement keeps that spirit alive while reimagining it for piano.

recital 🎹💚Bird in the Bebop by Wynn-Anne Rossi (L. 2, Etude)

  1. See red pen for expression and orange pen for the swing.

  2. See the video!

Wynn-Anne Rossi writes music that introduces young pianists to jazz, rhythm, and improvisation. In this piece, she combines the idea of birdsong with bebop — a quick, bouncy jazz style that took off in the 1940s. It’s jazzy, joyful, and full of personality.

recital 🎹💚Minuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 114 by Christian Petzold (1677-1733) (L. 3, A)

  1. Measures 16 - count three beats - don’t rush the LH half note

  2. Spot measures 16-17 for correct timing.

  3. Measure 30:

    1. Start with RH, beat two only - play C-B with down-up wrist pretending the trill is there.

    2. Then add the trill RH only: Keep it slow and keep the wrist down until the last note.

    3. Then add LH with the RH step 1

    4. LH + RH step 2

    5. Then HT beats 1 -2

    6. Then HT beats 2-3

    7. Then HT full measure.

  4. Measures 22-24 LH detached notes.

  5. Last meausre of the piece, slow down gradually and hold the last left hand note longer.

  6. Memorize

Once thought to be by J.S. Bach, this graceful minuet was actually written by Christian Petzold. Found in the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, it’s one of the most beloved beginner pieces — simple, elegant, and full of Baroque charm.

💜RCM Technical Requirements Level 02

(Approx. 8-13 min each day)

  1. Please trim your nails. :)

  2. No accents in scales - practice with and without metronome and focus on smooth sound - no accents.

  3. Broken chords: B-flat major, LH, 2nd inversion, finger 2 on B-flat.

  4. Do at least 5 minutes of focused technique each day. Rotate the items in the diagram.

💛Four Star: Level 2:

(Approx. 7-10 min each day)

  1. Prepare Set 1

  2. Sight-reading:

    1. Pay equal attention to the notes and fingering (sometimes fingering can trick you into thinking the notes are different than they are!)

  3. Practice playbacks in steps:

    1. Identify the tonic or dominant (always for level 2)

    2. There are 5 notes total in the examples.

    3. The perimeter is within a pentascale of the key.

💚Interval & Chord Recognition

  1. Major 3rd, Minor 3rd or Perfect 5th

    1. Play the interval ascending and descending once.

    2. ‼️10 audio examples are found in “Four_Star_02_Tests” in Newzik. Select the media button and the audio is titled “Interval Training”

  2. Major or Minor Root Position Triads (blocked / solid)

    1. Play several of these each practice session.

💚Sonatina in G Major, Anh. 5, no. 1. II. Romanze, attr. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) (L. 3, B)

  1. Spot all the green sections each practice session.

  2. LH rolled chords:

    1. RH 3 eighth notes - slow down

    2. LH approach the chord with motion.

💚Minuet in A Minor by Purcell (2, A)

Four measures at a time: with and without metronome 76 per quarter note.

💜Rhyme Time (2. B)

Treat this like a sight-reading assignment and review once a day until back in your fingers.

🖤THEORY Level 3

  1. Pause

🖤Musette in D Major, BWV Anh. 126, attr. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) (L. 3, A)

🖤Sonatina in G Major, Anh. 5, no. 1. Moderato, attr. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) (L. 3, B)

🖤“Sight-Reading 2B”

(Approx. 3-5 min each day)

  1. Continue from page 37 of 90 (of the PDF)

  2. Be sure to move forward through mistakes - don’t correct them until you finish the exercise - then fix them in your MIND first before you try the entire thing again.

  3. PRACTICE SIGHT-READING NO FASTER THAN M.M. 50 PER QUARTER NOTE.

REVIEW PIECES:

  1. O Christmas Tree

  2. Etude in F Major, Op. 190, No. 27 by Christian Louis Heinrich Köhler (L. 2, Etude)

  3. 💚A Ditty of Yimeng Mountain (2. C)

  4. 💚Minuet in A Minor by Purcell (2, A)

  5. 💚Rhyme Time (2. B)

  6. 💚The Snake by Renée Christopher (L. 1, C)

  7. 💚Andante in G Minor by Georg Philip Telemann (L. 1, A)

  8. 💚Detectives by Christine Donkin (L. 1, Etude)

  9. 💚💜Angelfish (L. 1, B)

  10. 💚Celebration by Ann Crosby Gaudet (L. 1, Etude)

  11. 💜💚💚 The Calico Cat by Helen Marlais (b. 1966) (Prep B)

  12. 💚💚💚Freddie the Frog by Anne Crosby-Gaudet (b. 1968) (Prep B)

  13. 💚💚💚Allegro in C Major op. 1 no. 4 by Alexander Reinagle (1756-1809) (L. A)

  14. 💚💚💚A Skating Waltz by Boris Berlin (1907-2001) (L. A)

  15. 💚💚💚What’s That Noise by Martha Mier (b. 1936) L. A)

RCM LEVEL 1 EXAM: May 29th 11:01 am

List A: Andante

List B: Angelfish

List C: The Snake

Etude: Detectives

Recital May 19th: 3 pm (or 1 pm if possible)

Angelfish

Detectives

The Snake

Andante

Celebration