September 19, 2026 (60 min - in-person)

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 Tools panel below. It logs your practice for you — no comments needed.

  1. Press Start here. It picks up where you stopped last time.

  2. Read the assignment, press Start, practice.

  3. Tap the kind of practice — learning, spotting, memorizing, polishing, run-through or review — then press Done.

  4. Press Next practice item and go again.

Capped items count down and chime. Keep going if it's going well.

Got something to say about an assignment? Paste the line it gives you into the comments and add your note.

Also in the panel: a metronome, a spotting counter, and recording.

Log only what you actually did, on the day you did it. Five minutes is a real entry. Logging starts October 1.

🟩 on track · 🟨 needs extra attention · 🟪 didn't get to it at the lesson · 🟥 priority · ⬛️ don't practice this one

[PRACTICE TOOLS]

Repertoire

1. 🟩 Glitter in the Air (Pink) — transcription

Open ended. No timer on this one.

  • Pick up where you left off and re-find what you were doing.

  • Make sure the staves, beams and notes belong to the staff they should.

  • Where the left hand cannot reach the chord, move one or two notes up into the right hand. Click the note, use cross-staff, and put it in its own voice.

  • It is in F major.

Aim for something close to the original first, then start altering it along the way — that is what made Haunted House better than a straight copy.

Valse-ballet, Op. 62 (Satie) — four chunks, same six steps in each. Learn the bass notes first; they are clear cut and they carry the piece. Work the steps in this order:

  1. Left hand bass notes — learn and memorize.

  2. Right hand melody — learn and memorize.

  3. Left hand upper stem chords — learn and memorize.

  4. Right hand with left hand bass — memorize.

  5. Right hand with the middle voice chords — memorize.

  6. All together.

No caps on these four. Press Start and let it run as a stopwatch, so we can see how long one chunk actually takes you. There are no measure numbers printed, so count from the beginning.

2. 🟩 Valse-ballet, Op. 62, mm. 1-4

All six steps.

3. 🟩 Valse-ballet, Op. 62, mm. 5-8

All six steps.

4. 🟩 Valse-ballet, Op. 62, mm. 9-12

All six steps.

5. 🟩 Valse-ballet, Op. 62, mm. 13-16

All six steps.

6. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin) — page one

Open ended for this first week. Two measures at a time: left, right, together.

  • Where the left hand is broken chords, break the texture apart and think of it horizontally, blocked by beat.

  • Learn the left hand by line and memorize it before you add the right hand.

  • The trill is on D-sharp. Trill from the note above.

  • Trill practice: alone, slow to fast and back to slow. Then add simple left hand notes with the trill, then simple left hand patterns, then the real left hand notes. You do not need a steady beat while you do this. Treat it as a meditation.

Small chunk at a time, and do not move on until you have mastered the one you are on.

7. ⬛️ "Unpopular"

A movie piece, still on the table for the future. Nothing to practice yet.

Up Next

One of the Gymnopédies or the Gnossiennes (Satie), if you want to stay with him after the Valse-ballet.

Review List

Review once a week with your music at a medium tempo.

Level 7

Sonata in C minor, Op. 17 No. 2, III. Prestissimo (Johann Christian Bach) (List B)

Consolation, Op. 30 No. 3 (Mendelssohn, 1809-1847) (List C)

Chickadees (Etude)

Halley's Comet (Telfer, b. 1950) (Etude)

The Piano Man (Billy Joel) (Popular Selection)

Level 6

Aria in G major (Telemann) (List A)

Sonatina in F major, Op. 168 No. 1, III. Rondo (Diabelli) (List B)

Waltz in A minor, Op. posth., B. 150 (Chopin) (List C)

River City Blues (Mier, b. 1936) (Etude)

💚River City Blues (Mier, b. 1936) (Etude)

💜River City Blues (Mier, b. 1936) (Etude)

Princess Mononoke (Etude, Popular Selection)

Level 5

Sonatina in G major, Op. 36 No. 5, III. Rondo: Allegro molto (Clementi) (List B)

Sunset in Rio (Springer) (List C)

Dance of the Dragonflies, Op. 76 No. 7 (Rohde) (Etude)

Harmony of the Angels, Op. 100 No. 21 (Burgmüller) (Etude)

Level 4

March in D major, BWV Anh. 122 (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, 1714-1788) (List A)

💚Air in B-flat major, HWV 471 (Handel) (List A)

💚Sonatina in G major, Op. 36 No. 2, III. Allegro (Clementi) (List B)

💚The Happy Farmer, Op. 68 No. 10 (Schumann) (List C)

💚Old French Song, Op. 39 No. 16 (Tchaikovsky) (List C)

💚Dream Catcher (Crosby Gaudet) (List C)

Foggy Day Blues (Springer) (List C)

Folk Dance, Op. 39 No. 7 (Kabalevsky, 1904-1987) (Etude)

💚Masquerade, from Fancy-Free (Niamath, b. 1939) (Etude)

Level 3

💚Harlequinade (Krebs, 1713-1780) (List A)

Sonatina in C major, Op. 36 No. 1, I. Allegro (Clementi, 1752-1832) (List B)

💚Song of the Twilight (Nakada) (List C)

💚L'Arabesque, Op. 100 No. 2 (Burgmüller, 1806-1874) (Etude)

Ungraded

Rêverie, L. 68 (Debussy) (recital)

Reflection, from Mulan

Haunted House (Holly Humberstone) (recital)

💜Christmas Time Is Here — Charlie Brown duet