Piano with Greg Spero · Practice dashboard
What to practice right now
🎯The goal, unchanged: hear a song and play it. The deadline, new: September 11, Long Beach.
L1 Jun 6 · foundation in C
L2 Jun 15 · automatic + ear
L3 Jul 17 · harmonize, all keys
L4 Aug 11 · rhythm, minor & the bass
L5 Aug 16 · two songs & a deadline
L6 Aug 25 · the Golden arrangement
L7 Aug 30 · the pulse
L8 Sep 9 · in person, dress rehearsal
🚀 Sep 11 the gig
① The main assignment
Ambush runs, on video
- 🥷Walk to the piano at a random moment, press play on the track, and perform "Golden" cold. No warm-up.
- 📹Record video of every attempt and watch it back. Playback is where you hear the rushing.
- 🔁Where it breaks, drill that bar on repeat — with the metronome if the timing broke.
- ⏱️Metronome sessions: 4/4, triplet subdivision, accent on 1. Phone out of sight.
- 🔗The full method: Lesson 7 → The five tools.
② What you play
"Golden" — the locked arrangement
- 🎼Verse chords: C · G · D · Em. The D is D major. F♯, not F.
- 🎵Verses 1 and 2: whole notes. Verses 3 and 4 and the choruses: quarter-note pulse.
- ⏸️Four-beat break on the last E minor of the pre-chorus, then the chorus starts.
- 🌉Bridge: Em D D C, then G D D C.
- 🔗Playable version: Lesson 6 → The bridge.
③ Parked until Sep 9
"Blinding Lights"
- 🌙Four chords, looping: Fm · Cm · E♭ · B♭. Same key as "Children."
- ⏸️Deferred again in Lesson 7, on purpose. The rhythm work came first — it's the foundation under both songs.
- ⚖️On Sep 9 we decide together whether it's in the show at all.
- 🚦Don't drill it on your own. "Golden," done confidently, is the priority.
💡You rush — and now you can hear it on playback. Record everything, feel the one, lay back. One chord is still open: G or E minor, settled in person on Sep 9.
Your practice session
10 min
⏱️ Metronome: whole notes → quarters → changes
10 min
Contrast passes: rush on purpose, then dead on
20 min
📹 Ambush runs to the track, on video
10 min
Watch the takes back. Drill what broke.
🔑 One rule: stop on the mistake. Playing through an error rehearses the error. Drill the section, then start the take again from the top.
🚀 12 days until the show. Next lesson Sep 9, 10:00–11:00 AM, in person at The Recording Club. Back in LA Sep 5.