October 15, 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 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]

Setup

1. 🟨 Three-ring binder, print your music

THIS WEEK: Punch holes in your music and get it into the binder.

  • You have the binder. The music needs the holes.

  • 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. 🟪 Glitter in the Air (Pink), transcription

THIS WEEK: Nothing new. Lay out 8 to 16 measures close to the original, then add one idea, then copy and paste that idea with a slight revision.

  • Same assignment. You said you will come back to it.

  • 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)

3. 🟩 Valse-ballet, Op. 62 (Satie), m. 8

THIS WEEK: Spot measure 8. Hands alone, then speed build it.

  • Right hand alone first. The three-note chord is the hard part.

  • Left hand is five, four, two, one. You can cross out the D and play just one and five.

  • Then add one note of the right-hand chord to the left hand, then two, then all three.

  • Speed build it once it is clean. The expression is what the speed is for.

  • Hold the pedal down through the whole measure. The bottom note is a dotted half, so it carries.

  • Write the pedal marking in.

4. 🟩 Valse-ballet, Op. 62 (Satie), mm. 33-36

THIS WEEK: Learn measures 33 to 36.

  • New section. Four measures.

  • Hands alone before hands together.

5. 🟩 Valse-ballet, Op. 62 (Satie), mm. 1-32

THIS WEEK: Speed build the whole of measures 1 to 32. You pick the speeds.

  • Set your own from and to in the Speed-building tool.

  • This replaces the three separate ladders. It is one run now.

  • Listen to the recording below once a day, as much as you can. It is mostly for the timing: it is faster than you have been playing it, and it is elastic rather than strict.

  • When a spot still breaks at the next speed up, do not restart from the beginning and do not shrink to that one measure. Add one measure before it and run that.

🎧 Valse-ballet, the recording to listen to https://open.spotify.com/track/4Bd1ljeE9S7YAMQp4QwcH0

Repertoire, continued

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

THIS WEEK: Spot every red marking on the first page. Each one three times in a row correctly, before any other work on this piece.

  • The trills. Start the trill slower, speed up, slow down. Then connect the tail into what follows instead of stopping on it.

  • Accent practice on the trill, ten times each, then swap which note is accented, then back and forth, then three rotations. Then push the speed.

  • The tie you are not playing. Check it against the music and mark it.

  • Left hand, bottom system, second measure: the bass note is D-sharp.

  • Left hand, fourth system, last measure: check the top note. Circle it.

  • The last two are the same correction. Highlight them.

  • Voicing through the opening: top notes forte, everything under them quiet. It is an entrance, and then an echo.

  • Come off the pedal at the end of the system.

  • Don't change the pedal between measures 7 and 8. Change on the downbeat and mark it.

7. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 17

THIS WEEK: Measure 17. One measure at a time. The brick building starts here.

Brick practice: combine the chunks after one round each.

  • Measures 17 to 28, one measure at a time.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together on every measure.

  • This section is C-sharp major going to the dominant of G-sharp, which is why the double sharps are there. Don't let them scare you.

  • There are patterns in it. Find them before you learn the notes.

  • When two measures next to each other are both done, play them joined together.

8. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 18

THIS WEEK: Measure 18. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

9. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 19

THIS WEEK: Measure 19. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

10. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 20

THIS WEEK: Measure 20. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

11. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 21

THIS WEEK: Measure 21. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

12. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 22

THIS WEEK: Measure 22. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

13. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 23

THIS WEEK: Measure 23. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

14. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 24

THIS WEEK: Measure 24. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

15. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 25

THIS WEEK: Measure 25. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

16. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 26

THIS WEEK: Measure 26. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

17. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 27

THIS WEEK: Measure 27. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

18. 🟩 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., B. 49 (Chopin), m. 28

THIS WEEK: Measure 28. One measure at a time.

  • Same method as measure 17.

  • Left hand, right hand, then together.

19. ⬛️ 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)

  • Lovely (Billie Eilish)

  • 💜Christmas Time Is Here — Charlie Brown duet