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]
We are not doing RCM going forward. The plan is repertoire, transcription and some technical work you actually want to play.
You said about 45 minutes a day is realistic with school. That is what this list is built for. A little more on the weekends if you have it.
Repertoire
1. 🟩 If I Am With You, m. 9
THIS WEEK: Pass off m. 9 hands together.
Practice type: Learning.
Brick practice: combine the chunks after one round each.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Left hand alone, then right hand alone, then hands together. Three correct in a row on each.
Rhythm is 16th, 8th, 8th, 16th, 8th. The third note of the measure is the one that slipped.
Play the hands-alone work slower than you think you need to. You learn it faster that way.
Use the fingerings you wrote into your score.
Repeated notes: land forward on the repeat. It gives it momentum so you do not get stuck or tense. Mark the forward-wrist arrow above them.
No cap on any of these.
2. 🟩 If I Am With You, m. 10
THIS WEEK: Pass off m. 10 hands together.
Practice type: Learning.
Same process.
Left hand arpeggio: pop off the top note and land, rather than stretching to connect it. Keep the wrist up on the thumb.
Forward wrist on the repeated notes here too.
3. 🟩 If I Am With You, m. 11
THIS WEEK: Pass off m. 11 hands together.
Practice type: Learning.
Same process.
Before you settle the end of this measure, look at where m. 12 starts. It starts on 1 and 5.
That is the rule for any spot like this: look at where you have to go before you finger the way out. You can always lift and land in a new position, but connect it if you can.
The rhythm here does not sound like what is printed. Decide what you want, change the note value in your score, and write a note that it is deliberate. It is your arrangement.
4. 🟪 If I Am With You, m. 12
THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Pass off m. 12 hands together.
Practice type: Learning.
Same process. We did not get to this one.
There is a treble clef inside the bass staff. The first note after it is G, not D. Count the ledger line off middle C.
The 8va at the end of the measure starts over the E, one octave up.
Ritardando through the end of the measure.
The first part of the right hand is the same figure repeated. Repeat it.
5. 🟪 If I Am With You, m. 13
THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Pass off m. 13 hands together.
Practice type: Learning.
Same process. We did not get to this one.
The grace note is D into C.
For the reach: start with the elbow bent on the B and let your wrist and thumb lead the elbow out. Don't open the elbow mechanically.
You can take that C with the right thumb instead, but it is often more confusing than the reach is awkward. Try the elbow first.
6. 🟪 If I Am With You, m. 14
THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Pass off m. 14 hands together.
Practice type: Learning.
Same process. We did not get to this one.
Ritardando here too, so connecting matters less. 1 and 5 on the octave.
7. 🟪 If I Am With You, m. 15
THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Pass off m. 15 hands together.
Practice type: Learning.
Same process. We did not get to this one, so start it from scratch.
Repertoire, the new one
8. 🟩 La Fileuse, Op. 109 No. 18, from 18 Études de genre (Burgmüller), m. 1
THIS WEEK: Measure 1. Hands alone, then hands together. The brick building starts here.
Brick practice: combine the chunks after one round each.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Measures 1 to 8, one measure at a time. Hands alone first, then hands together.
Notes and fingering only. That is the whole focus.
It looks like a lot of notes and it is not. Almost all of it is ornament sitting on a chord, so take the chords out first and the rest is easy.
Measure 1: beat 1 is D major in second inversion, beat 3 is G major in first inversion. Block each beat solid, then go back and forth between them, then speed that up.
Measure 2: second inversion D major, then root position D major on beat 2. Those are the inversions you already know from your technique.
Block the chords like that and they will help you memorize it as well.
Measures 3 and 4 are a D major scale with a little turn on the way down. No sharps or flats until the very end, so once you know the scale the notes are free.
The little figure is a fragment of the main idea, moved. Burgmüller does that the whole way through.
Every beat of the right hand in measures 1 and 2 uses the circle: down, round, up. Not down and up. When you go fast the circle is what gets you there, and the thumb is a tap rather than a push.
Leggierissimo means very, very light.
Pedal changes twice a measure, as the music suggests.
When two measures next to each other are both done, play them joined together.
9. 🟩 La Fileuse, Op. 109 No. 18, from 18 Études de genre (Burgmüller), m. 2
THIS WEEK: Measure 2. Hands alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Same method as measure 1. Chords first, then the ornaments.
Hands alone before hands together.
10. 🟩 La Fileuse, Op. 109 No. 18, from 18 Études de genre (Burgmüller), m. 3
THIS WEEK: Measure 3. Hands alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Same method as measure 1. Chords first, then the ornaments.
Hands alone before hands together.
11. 🟩 La Fileuse, Op. 109 No. 18, from 18 Études de genre (Burgmüller), m. 4
THIS WEEK: Measure 4. Hands alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Same method as measure 1. Chords first, then the ornaments.
Hands alone before hands together.
12. 🟩 La Fileuse, Op. 109 No. 18, from 18 Études de genre (Burgmüller), m. 5
THIS WEEK: Measure 5. Hands alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Same method as measure 1. Chords first, then the ornaments.
Hands alone before hands together.
13. 🟩 La Fileuse, Op. 109 No. 18, from 18 Études de genre (Burgmüller), m. 6
THIS WEEK: Measure 6. Hands alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Same method as measure 1. Chords first, then the ornaments.
Hands alone before hands together.
14. 🟩 La Fileuse, Op. 109 No. 18, from 18 Études de genre (Burgmüller), m. 7
THIS WEEK: Measure 7. Hands alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Same method as measure 1. Chords first, then the ornaments.
Hands alone before hands together.
15. 🟩 La Fileuse, Op. 109 No. 18, from 18 Études de genre (Burgmüller), m. 8
THIS WEEK: Measure 8. Hands alone, then hands together.
NFPER focus: notes, fingering.
Same method as measure 1. Chords first, then the ornaments.
Hands alone before hands together.
Transcription
16. 🟪 Somewhere Only We Know
THIS WEEK: Nothing new. It is on the list so you can see it.
You said it is helpful to keep it in front of you, so it stays.
The transcription is finished apart from the last few measures. We pick it up next time.
Measures 25-32 — bass staff alternative textures. We talked through some ideas; they are not in yet.
Measures 49-53 — add some bass notes.
You wanted more depth in it, from the motifs you are hearing in La Fileuse. That is exactly the right instinct and it is what fragmenting is.
Up Next
Some note reading exercises, since finding the notes is slowing you down.
Review List
Mozart Sonata, No. 11 in A Major, III. Rondo: Alla Turca (recital)
Les Misérables, I Dreamed a Dream
Like Him (recital piece)
Mice on Venus from Minecraft, arr. Sam Hodgkinson (P. Choice)
List C: Foggy Day Blues by Mike Springer (L. 4, C)
Etude 1: Etude in E Minor, op. 65, no. 42 by Loeschhorn (L. 4, Etude)
Solitude by Joyce Grill (b. 1936) (L. 4, Etude)
RCM Exam Archive
Level 4, Practical Test: May 29, 2024
List A: Minuet in G Major by J. S. Bach
List B: Sonatina in F Major, op. 168 no. 1 “Moderato cantabile” by Anton Diabelli
List C: Foggy Day Blues by Mike Springer
Etude 1: Etude in E Minor, op. 65, no. 42 by Loeschhorn
Etude 2: Solitude by Joyce Grill
Level 3, Practical Test: June 2023 (score of 87)
List A: J. S. Bach, Polonaise in F Minor, BWV Anh. 119 (L. 3, A)
List B: Sonatina in A Minor op. 94 no. 4 by Albert Biehl (L. 3, B)
List C: Wild Mignonette, Op. 205 No. 1 by Cornelius Gurlitt (1820-1901) (L. 3, C)
Etude: Burgmuller, Op. 100 No. 2, L'Arabesque (Etude, L. 3)
Etude: Prelude VII by Barbara Arens (b. 1960) (L. 3, Etude)