October 14, 2026 (4 of 8)

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. 🟩 Technical Requirements for Piano, Level 4 (RCM), B-flat major arpeggio, hands separately

THIS WEEK: B-flat major arpeggio, right hand and left hand. Correct notes and fingering.

NFPER focus: notes, fingering.

  • What you played today was a G minor arpeggio in second inversion. Check the music before you play.

  • The B-flat major arpeggio starts on finger 4: four, two, one.

  • When you cross under you do not have to hold on. Letting go is fine if the stretch is big.

  • Two octaves.

  • Everything has to be memorized for the exam.

  • Exam session: November 28 to December 10.

2. 🟩 Technical Requirements for Piano, Level 4 (RCM), E-flat major arpeggio, left hand

THIS WEEK: E-flat major arpeggio, left hand. Connect it.

  • More time on the cross, so it joins up instead of breaking.

  • Two octaves.

  • The right hand was much smoother once you connected it. Do the same thing with the left.

3. 🟩 Technical Requirements for Piano, Level 4 (RCM), broken chords

THIS WEEK: All of the broken chord items.

  • All of them, not a selection.

  • Check your finger numbers against the music on every one. That is where today's went wrong.

Theory

4. 🟩 Celebrate Theory, Level 5, Unit 2 (RCM)

THIS WEEK: Unit 2. Do as much as you can in the time.

⏱ Max 7 minutes per practice session.

  • Unit 1 is finished.

  • It is in Newzik. Print it out and put it in your binder.

  • Stem direction: below the middle line the stem goes up on the right side, above it the stem goes down, and on the middle line you choose.

  • An enharmonic equivalent is one sound with two names. C sharp and D flat.

Musicianship

5. 🟩 RCM Online Ear Training

THIS WEEK: Same assignment. Melody playbacks only.

⏱ Max 8 minutes per practice session.

Done for the week after 3 sessions.

  • You do not have to go as fast as the examiner plays. Right notes beat the right rhythm here.

  • When you hit a wrong note, pause, work out where it goes, then play it. That is exactly what you did today and it is the way to do it.

  • After the third session the button appears and the assignment comes off your list.

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

THIS WEEK: Pages 68 to 74. One page a day.

Practice type: Learning.

  • Page 67 is done.

  • You move on from a page when you can play it through with no mistakes: notes, rhythm and expression, all of it.

  • Press Done for the Week after page 74.

7. 🟩 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests, Level 4 (Berlin and Markow)

THIS WEEK: Set 10, one day of the set per practice session.

  • Sets 8 and 9 are done.

  • 6/8 is compound meter. Two beats in the bar, three eighth notes inside each beat, three plus three.

  • Press Done for the Week when the set is done.

Repertoire

8. 🟪 Ballade in C minor, Op. 100 No. 15, from 25 Études faciles et progressives (Burgmüller)

THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Same sprint practice, with the wrist popping forward on every long note.

RCM Level 4, Etude 1

  • We did not get to it. Same assignment.

  • Two rules, every time. Start each new pattern slowly to check your position, then speed up. And the wrist pops forward the instant you press the long note.

  • Don't pause and then play the long note. Know what you are going to do, then do it.

  • Round, curved fingers on all of it.

  • Ask Mama to watch one session so she knows the rules too.

[INSERT SPRINT PRACTICE IMAGE]

9. 🟪 Minuet in D minor, BWV Anh. 132 (Anonymous)

THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Hands alone.

RCM Level 4, List A · from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach

Practice type: Review.

  • We did not get to it. Same assignment.

  • You are starting to forget it a little. Hands alone is how we maintain it.

  • The three gentle slow-downs are still there: end of m. 4 into m. 5, the first ending at mm. 5-8, and the first ending at m. 16.

  • Gentle means quieter and a tiny bit slower at the end of a phrase. Settling into a chair, not braking.

10. 🟩 Masquerade, from Fancy-Free (Niamath)

THIS WEEK: Fix all the black pen, and play once through per practice session, hands alone.

NFPER focus: expression.

RCM Level 4, Etude 2

  • The expression is the job: beats 2 and 3 of the left hand accompaniment softer, so beat 1 comes out on its own.

  • That does not mean playing the bottom note louder. It means playing the other two quieter.

  • Don't hammer beat 1 either. It should settle, not land.

  • Right hand in mm. 6 and 7: both notes staccato and both softer. That is the end of the phrase, so it softens.

  • Don't speed up at m. 17.

  • Hands alone is maintenance, so that you are not playing it through every time.

  • Your articulation and pedal are going to score well. Consistent expression is the last hurdle.

11. 🟩 Sonatina in G major, Op. 36 No. 2, III. Allegro (Clementi)

THIS WEEK: Find every place the main theme comes back. Start four measures before it and keep going four measures after, with the metronome.

m.m. 50, one click per downbeat.

RCM Level 4, List B

  • Find the return points yourself. There are three of them.

  • The problem is steadiness, not notes. You speed up every single time the main theme comes back, and that is what the metronome is there to catch.

  • Before you begin, hands in your lap, think your sixteenth notes and decide how fast they go. That is your tempo. Then start.

  • This is the longest piece you have learned. Recital practice comes after the steadiness is fixed, not before.

12. 🟪 Fröhlicher Landmann, von der Arbeit zurückkehrend (The Happy Farmer), Op. 68 No. 10 (Schumann)

THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Video-record yourself playing it, then watch it back and judge your own movements.

RCM Level 4, List C · from Album für die Jugend

  • We did not get to it. Same assignment.

  • Play it through once exaggerating your movements. Then again smaller.

  • Then record, watch, and you be the judge of which places look and sound right.

  • Watching it back is the whole assignment.

13. 🟪 Joyous Etude (Bober), mm. 13-17

THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Play along with the video. Measures 13 to 17, and measure 15 is the one.

RCM Level 5, Etude

  • We did not get to it. Same assignment.

  • Be able to play it along with the video by your next lesson.

  • The whole focus is m. 15. Get the timing right there.

  • Treat the descending sixteenths as one gesture, together.

🎥 Joyous Etude, mm. 13-17 https://youtube.com/shorts/8DfFQK03W6s

14. 🟩 Prelude, Op. 39 No. 19 (Kabalevsky)

THIS WEEK: The entire piece, one measure at a time, hands together. Expression is the focus.

NFPER focus: expression.

RCM Level 5, Etude

  • One measure at a time, as slowly as you need to play the expression perfectly. If you do not reach the end of the piece, that is fine. Do as much as you can.

  • Don't worry about speed or steadiness. The rhythm of the notes still has to be right.

  • Measure 3 has very specific articulation and we have talked about it twice now. Go slow enough to play it correctly.

  • B-flats, not B-naturals, in m. 7 and m. 11. They are in the key signature.

  • The left hand is second banana. Think of a string instrument going back and forth in the background while the right hand does all the expressive work.

  • m. 9 is where it gets really intense and strong.

  • mm. 17 to the end: check what kind of rests those are before you play them, and count the last two measures out.

  • m. 17 is a descending G minor scale. You know that scale. Use your scale technique instead of starting from nothing, and watch the wrist dropping on the cross.

Setup

15. 🟧 Binder dividers

  • Dividers for your three ring binder. I am bringing them.

Level 4 Exam Program

Your program is in the practice guide, under Royal Conservatory of Music.

Joyous Etude and the Kabalevsky Prelude are Level 5 etudes, so they stay out of the Level 4 program and out of that list.

When You First Sit Down

Close your eyes, put your hands across the keyboard, and feel your way from one end to the other. Two black keys, three black keys, two, three. Flatten your hand out so you can feel the groups instead of one key at a time.

Do that before you practice this week. It is how the keyboard gets into your hands as well as your eyes.

Review Pieces

Level 2

  • List A: Minuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 114, attr. Christian Petzold (1677-1733), from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach

  • List B: Sonatina in G Major, Anh. 5, No. 1, II. Romanze, attr. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

  • List C: Play by Béla Bartók (1881-1945), from Mikrokosmos

  • Etude 1: Prelude No. 4 in F Major by Elvina Pearce

  • Etude 2: L'Arabesque, Op. 100, No. 2, by Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller (1806-1874)

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

  • Etude in F Major, Op. 190, No. 27, by Christian Louis Heinrich Köhler (1820-1886) (L. 2, Etude)

  • 💚A Ditty of Yimeng Mountain (L. 2, C)

  • 💚Minuet in A Minor by Henry Purcell (1659-1695) (L. 2, A)

  • 💚Rhyme Time (L. 2, B)

Level 1 and Preparatory

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

  • 💚Andante in G Minor by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) (L. 1, A)

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

  • 💚💜Angelfish (L. 1, B)

  • 💚Celebration by Anne Crosby Gaudet (b. 1968) (L. 1, Etude)

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

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

  • 💚💚💚Allegro in C Major, Op. 1, No. 4, by Alexander Reinagle (1756-1809) (L. A)

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

  • 💚💚💚What's That Noise? by Martha Mier (b. 1936) (L. A)

Seasonal

  • 💚The First Noel, Traditional, arr. Edwin McLean

  • O Christmas Tree, Traditional

Step-by-Step Practice Flow

  • Record your section once — video is best, but audio is fine too.

  • Listen back with one color/goal in mind.

  • As you listen, mark your music using that color anywhere it needs improvement.

  • Repeat for each remaining color, one at a time, until all five have been addressed.

  • Choose a small “spot” section from your markings — just a few measures or a tricky passage.

  • “Spot” until it's solid — ✅ 3 times in a row correctly, or ✅ 5 total correct repetitions, then move on.

  • Focus on one or two colors at a time while practicing that spot.

  • Use the troubleshooting checklist below if you're stuck.

🔧 Troubleshooting Tips

🎯 If you've tried to fix something three times in a row and it's still not working, don't just repeat it — troubleshoot:

  • Do you need to slow down?

  • Should you practice hands alone?

  • Could you make the spot even smaller?

  • Would technical exercises help (staccato, accents, etc.)?

  • Do you need to think ahead more clearly?