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.

Something wrong with the guide? Open the video tool, record yourself explaining it, and press Send to Dustin. It emails me a link straight away.

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.

Official tracking started Monday, October 19.

🟩 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), two octave scales, pages 7 to 9

THIS WEEK: Same assignment. The two octave scales, pages 7, 8 and 9. Close-loud once, then final tempo with the metronome.

⏱ Max 5 minutes.

We did not get to it. Same assignment.
Two ways to practice them, and that is the whole assignment.
Before each one, sit for five or six seconds and picture the position, the notes and the fingering. Then play it. That is how you build first time correct.

2. 🟪 Technical Requirements for Piano, Level 4 (RCM), tonic triads, broken and solid, pages 11 to 14

THIS WEEK: Same assignment. Tonic triads, broken and solid, pages 11 to 14. Fix the fingering and keep the left wrist from riding high.

⏱ Max 5 minutes.

We did not get to it. Same assignment.
On the way down is where the fingering slips. Left hand, finger 2 where you have been playing 3.
Crawl into the next position instead of shifting in and out.
For the exam the goal is first time through with no note or fingering errors, and even sound and tempo.

Theory

3. 🟪 Celebrate Theory, Level 5, Unit 2 (RCM)

THIS WEEK: Same assignment. Check pages 22, 23 and 24 for the pink pen corrections. Then finish the unit.

⏱ Max 7 minutes per practice session.

We did not get to it. Same assignment.
Add the missing bar lines, and a double bar line at the end.
Where you are unsure of a time signature, label the beats underneath first. That is what the corrections are about.
There are a few pages left.

Musicianship

4. 🟪 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests, Level 4 (Berlin and Markow), ear test playbacks

THIS WEEK: Same assignment. Melody playbacks out of the tests, with Mama. And clap backs.

We did not get to it. Same assignment.

5. 🟪 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests, Level 4 (Berlin and Markow), Set 10

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

We did not get to it. Same assignment.
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.

6. 🟪 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests, Level 4 (Berlin and Markow), Set 1

THIS WEEK: Same assignment. Redo Set 1. One day of the set per practice session.

We did not get to it. Same assignment.
You did this one a long time ago, so treat it as new.

7. 🟪 Piano Adventures Sightreading Book, Level 3A (Faber), pages 87 to 95

THIS WEEK: Same assignment. Pages 87 to 95. One page or more a day.

We did not get to it. Same assignment.

Repertoire

8. 🟩 Ballade in C minor, Op. 100 No. 15, from 25 Études faciles et progressives (Burgmüller), mm. 31-57

THIS WEEK: Keep the ending crisp and strong. Do not run out of energy before it.

RCM Level 4, Etude 1.

The accent practice worked. Those two sections sound good now.
The end sounds like it is running out of batteries. Save something for it and gear up.
Short and crisp at the end. Pop, pop. That is what makes it exciting.

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

THIS WEEK: Same assignment. Hands alone at m.m. 88, still focusing on sticky staccato. Then hands alone without the metronome, thinking about the tempo.

RCM Level 4, List A.

We did not get to it. Same assignment.

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

THIS WEEK: Set up before you start. Hands in your lap, think the opening, then play.

RCM Level 4, Etude 2.

Do not start the second I ask for it. Take the time.
Long enough to lock into the piece and hear the opening in your head.
Put yourself in the masquerade first. That is what makes the listener listen.

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

THIS WEEK: Measures 65 to 68 and measures 49 to 52, very strong except the repeated top notes.

RCM Level 4, List B.

no faster than 88 per eighth note.

Both sections are the same music, so the same job twice.
All the strength and all the aggression in the notes, except the top notes that repeat. Those stay softer.
Left hand strong too, and no slowing down.
Once this week, at least once, play the whole thing through with the music at that slow tempo.

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

THIS WEEK: Hands alone, then hands together once through, at a slow to medium tempo.

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

m.m. 54 per quarter note.

Maintenance only. You have known this one a long time and it is in good shape.
The point is keeping it in your memory, so once through is enough.
We fine tune the uneven measures a couple of weeks before the exam, not now.

13. 🟩 Joyous Etude (Bober)

THIS WEEK: 16th notes as even as you can make them, and the blue pen in measures 2 and 12.

RCM Level 5, Etude.

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

The unevenness in the 16th notes is very noticeable and it takes points straight off a score.
First try just being aware of it and locking in. Da, da, da, da, even.
If that does not fix it, use accent practice. You do not need rhythms or sprints for this.
In the blue pen measures, two 8th notes on the first beat: the second one is weaker. Play it less rather than accenting the first.
That leaves you room to crescendo up to the top.

14. 🟩 Prelude, Op. 39 No. 19 (Kabalevsky), mm. 16-17

THIS WEEK: Measures 16 and 17. Hands alone, then hands together, for the expression.

RCM Level 5, Etude.

m.m. 46 per quarter note.

🎥 Prelude, Op. 39 No. 19 https://youtube.com/shorts/rSf4RxRNgJY

Throw the wrist down on the accent. That is the downbeat of 17.
The notes right before it are strong as well.
The left hand in 17 is the spot that goes wrong almost every time. Isolate it.
Watch the music while you do it.

15. 🟩 Prelude, Op. 39 No. 19 (Kabalevsky), mm. 8-12

THIS WEEK: Measures 8 to 12. Every E flat stronger than the one before it.

New this week.
Measure 9 is forte with a crescendo on top of it. That is a big sound.
Stay strong through measure 10. It does not say diminuendo until 11.
Measure 12 is the opposite. Piano.
Right hand alone first, then put it together. Lots of contrast.

16. 🟩 Sonatina in G major, Op. 168 No. 2, I. Allegro moderato (Diabelli), chord labeling

THIS WEEK: Label as many left hand chords as you can in measures 1 to 16.

New this week. Use the extra printed copy for the labeling.
Root quality, not functional chord symbols. Uppercase letter for major, lowercase for minor.
Measure 1 is G, measure 2 is a, and block each one to hear it.
Measure 3 is the dominant seventh. The left hand is missing the third and the right hand has it.

17. 🟩 Sonatina in G major, Op. 168 No. 2, I. Allegro moderato (Diabelli), mm. 1-16

THIS WEEK: Learn measures 1 to 16. Hands apart with the left hand blocked, then hands together blocked, then as written.

RCM Level 5, List B.

New this week. It is on your iPad and there is a paper copy coming.
Block the left hand chords first so you know what they are.
Only the first movement. This is Classical, so the theory you know applies: strong beat, weak beat.
The ornament in there is a turn. Note above, note, note below, note.

Setup

18. 🟧 Binder dividers

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

19. 🟧 Practice technique cards

Cards for your cup, one practice tool per card. I am making more of these.

Level 4 Exam Program

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

Exam session: November 28 to December 10.

Go through your whole guide and memorize the names of your composers. An examiner may ask to hear the Clementi by name.

Joyous Etude, the Kabalevsky Prelude and the Diabelli Sonatina are Level 5 pieces, 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?