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 logs your practice for you — no comments needed.
Press Start from # whatever number it shows. It picks up where you stopped last time.
Press Start, read the assignment, practice.
Tap the kind of practice, then press Done.
Press Next practice item and go again.
Capped items count down and chime. Keep going if it's going well.
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. Technique and repertoire don't have one; those are every day.
Need the metronome, a recorder or the N F P E R. colors? They are in Practice Tools, right under the practice types. Tap one and it opens inside your assignment. Tap Close to put it away.
Some assignments give you a list of speeds instead. Tap a speed, the beat starts, and three in a row or five correct finishes that speed. Work down the list.
Got something to say about an assignment? Paste the line it gives you into the comments and add your note.
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]
Setup
1. 🟩 Three-ring binder, print your music
THIS WEEK: print it and put it in the binder.
Printed music on the stand, iPad off to the side as the practice tool.
That way you are not switching the screen back and forth between the score and this panel.
Repertoire
2. 🟩 Lovely (Billie Eilish)
THIS WEEK: keep working on it and play it for me Tuesday.
No time cap. Open ended.
Change the left hand chords where your friends are not singing, so it is less bare in those spots.
Bring me whatever state it is in. We will look at it together.
3. 🟩 Glitter in the Air (Pink), transcription
THIS WEEK: lay out 8 to 16 measures close to the original, then add one idea, then copy and paste that idea with a slight revision.
Not a timed assignment. Open ended.
Start fresh in a new file and pull over only what you know for sure.
Two ideas is enough. One at a time, then take away or add to it.
Copy, paste, and make the next section slightly different. Patchwork.
It is in F major.
Valse-ballet, Op. 62 (Satie)
4. 🟩 Valse-ballet, Op. 62 (Satie), mm. 1-8
THIS WEEK: work up to ♩ = 84, clean.
Speed building: 60 to 84.
No cap.
Left hand quarter note chords staccato. Pedal down on the downbeat, up on the second beat.
Breathe at the ends of the little phrases, then come off. Keep the tempo steady while you do it.
Exaggerate the crescendo.
Right hand is skip up, step up, skip up, step up. Block it to check yourself. D-flat major.
5. 🟩 Valse-ballet, Op. 62 (Satie), mm. 13-16
THIS WEEK: work up to ♩ = 84, clean.
Speed building: 60 to 84.
Same shape as the first eight, so lean on what you already know.
No cap.
6. 🟩 Valse-ballet, Op. 62 (Satie), mm. 17-32
THIS WEEK: work up to ♩ = 72, clean.
Speed building: 60 to 72.
No cap. Shorter ladder on purpose, this is a big section.
Priority is notes, fingering, position and expression.
Mostly the same content one octave higher in the right hand. Lots of repetition.
Repertoire, continued
7. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), mm. 1-2
THIS WEEK: left, right, together, then pass it off.
Brick practice: combine the chunks after one round each.
Use the N F P E R. panel on every chunk. If you get 3 in a row here, combining them later is far easier.
Left hand broken chords: block them by beat and think horizontally.
Learn the left hand by line and memorize it before you add the right hand.
No cap on any of these.
8. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), mm. 3-4
THIS WEEK: left, right, together, then pass it off.
9. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), mm. 5-6
THIS WEEK: left, right, together, then pass it off.
10. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), mm. 7-8
THIS WEEK: left, right, together, then pass it off.
11. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), mm. 9-10
THIS WEEK: left, right, together, then pass it off.
12. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), mm. 11-12
THIS WEEK: left, right, together, then pass it off.
13. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), mm. 13-14
THIS WEEK: left, right, together, then pass it off.
The trill is on D-sharp. Trill from the note above.
Trill practice: alone, slow to fast and back to slow. Then simple left hand notes with it, then simple patterns, then the real notes. No steady beat needed. Treat it as a meditation.
14. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), mm. 15-16
THIS WEEK: left, right, together, then pass it off.
15. ⬛️ 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