Trevor Flemings is a pianist, teacher, and active interdisciplinary performance artist based out of Toronto. Trevor is a recent graduate of the Masters of Collaborative Piano program at the University of Toronto, additionally receiving a Bachelor’s of Piano Performance from the University of Regina.
Originally from Sydney, Nova Scotia, Trevor grew up in rural Saskatchewan, where they discovered a love for developing community connections through art and education. From their studies, Trevor has developed a particular interest in keyboard pedagogy, the collaborative repertoire of art song, choral music, new music and improvisation, as well as experimental sound/performance art. Through both performance and pedagogy, Trevor has developed into an eager and inquisitive interdisciplinary artist, seeking to share their love for music and community.
In the learning environment, Trevor places a simultaneous focus on creative thinking and discovery learning, while also developing a strong foundational knowledge of technical ability, Western Classical music theory, and the wider history of music. In this way, Trevor endeavours to meet students where they are, imparting both strong foundational skills and knowledge, as well as a positive lifelong relationship with the arts through whichever musical journey students wish to take.
Get to know Trevor…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: Gardening, Watching Horror Movies, Baking, Improvising, Video Games, Needle Felting
Musical Influences: Björk, Kristin Hayter, Olivier Messiaen, Nicole Lizée, Fiona Apple, Tanya Tagaq, Anohni
Favourite Food: Tofu
Least Favourite Food: Cinnamon Candy
Favourite Music: Post-Tonal Solo Piano, Post-Romantic Art Song, Alt. Pop, Punk, Noise, Rap
Favourite Album: Puberty 2, Mitski
Favourite Movie: Suspiria
Favourite Musical theatre/opera: Candide
Best Quote from your teacher: “Every mistake is another door opening, you can close it and try again or go through and see what it sounds like!”
Favourite quote: “It’s probable that in the artistic hierarchy birds are the greatest musicians existing on our planet.” -Olivier Messiaen
Favourite Book: The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
Latest Homework from Trevor
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Assignments for the Week of January 22nd, 2025
Hakim
Technical Exercises – Continue practice on D Major scale – 1 octave stepping hands separately and together
- Focusing on stepping down our scale, especially in the left hand
- Still practicing as solid blocked hand positions hands separately, so your left hand is feeling confident hands together!
Bartok – Practicing fully hands together, making sure you are able to confidently play through both #7 and 8
- #7 – Noticing changes in our rhythmic pattern (measures 1-4 different from 8-11)
- #8 -Watching out for F# in our key signature. Changing hand positions at measure 9 – shifting our hand from an E minor position down a step, to a D Major position (F# shifting from RH finger 2, to RH finger 3)
The Calico Cat
- Practicing hands separately all the way to the end! Focusing on RH measures 9 to the end.
- Practicing hands together up to measure 9.
- When practicing hands together, watch out for when our hands are playing together (measure 1 beat 1) versus when they are responding to each other (measure 1 beat 4 LH responds to our RH eighth notes). Counting out loud will help understand exactly how they fit together.
Clara
Technical Exercises – Continue practicing our C Major scale hands separately and together
- Practicing with a legato, staccato, and detached articulation so we are feeling comfortable and ready to jump into a new scale next week!
- Try using a metronome to see what your most comfortable speed is, then challenge yourself to increase our speed while staying comfortable and relaxed in our hands.
Lesson Book – Allegro in C Major
- Similar to our scale, checking our most comfortable speed with our metronome at home, then seeing if we can increase our overall speed.
- Goal speed: 80-85 BPM all the way through
- Break things into smaller groups of measures – focusing on tricky spots where our left hand is holding our speed back, practicing hands separately until the left hand is as comfortable as our right hand.
- Make sure we are noticing our right hand legato markings!
Melody in G Major – Hands separate practice only, focusing on our left hand more than right
- Our pattern is constantly changing, going back and forth between changing lower notes and our D in finger 1. If you need to write in any finger numbers or note names that is totally fine!
- For our left hand, practicing very slowly while saying note names out loud in small chunks. Make sure you are able to confidently play through measures 1-4 (at least!) while saying note names out loud.
- Our left hand is quite busy in this piece, so make sure we are feeling loose and relaxed as we play. Turning our hand like we are turning a door knob as we rotate back and forth is a good way to stay relaxed!
Assignments for the week of January 15th, 2025
Hakim
Technical Exercises – Continue practicing D Major scale
- 1 octave hands together, especially focusing on stepping down in the scale
- Practice as solid blocked hand positions, and stepping legato, staccato, and detached
Bartok Exercises – Working through #7 and 8
- Make sure you are confident of starting notes/hand positions
- Watch out for changing hand positions and new key signature in #8
The Calico Cat – Practicing hands separately to the end
- aiming to have measures 1-9 somewhat comfortable hands together already
- make note of the pattern in our hand position changes, our RH is focusing on an A minor hand position throughout the entire piece!
- Counting through dotted quarter rhythms in measures 9-14
Bizville – Continue practicing our LH “groove” in the first phrase, watching out for large leaps between B flat and F!
- Practicing our rh on its own, making sure you can confidently clap and count our RH rhythm in the first two measures
- Try fitting our first two measures hands together – watch out for when our hands line up when we count through
Clara
Technical Exercises – Continue practicing our C Major 1 octave scale
- Hands separately and together
- Practicing with legato, staccato, and detached articulations
- See how quickly you are able to comfortably play through this scale hands separately, and hands together. Check with a metronome to see what your top speed is!
Lesson Book
- Allegro in C Major
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- Continue slow hands separate practice all the way through, watching for patterns and things that repeat
- Once you are fully comfortable hands separate, break our music into smaller chunks (2-4 measures) and practice slowly hands together
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- The Juggler
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- Practice playing all the way through hands separately
- Counting out loud to keep track of all of our rests! This will make fitting hands together even easier for us
- If we are feeling comfortable hands separately while counting out loud, practice hands together while counting out loud very slowly
Assignments for the Week of December 4th, 2024
Hakim
Technical Exercises – G and D Major scales 1 octave – practicing hands separately
- Practicing as solid groups of fingers (RH groups of 3 and 5, LH groups of 5 and 3) and stepping through
- Saying note names out loud as you play, making sure you know which sharps you need for each scale
- (G Major – F#, D Major – F# and C#)
Bartok – #7-9
The Calico Cat – Beginning to work hands separately
- Focusing on an A minor 5 finger hand position moving up and down the keyboard.
Bizville – Finding layers in each hand – focusing on our Left hand “groove”
- Focusing on B flat in the left hand, jumping between octaves – Make sure you know which octave you start in
- Figuring out where each main beat in your measure is!
Clara
Technical Exercises – C Major scale – one octave hands separately
- Practicing as solid blocks of fingerings and stepping through – saying note names out loud.
Lesson Book – pages 68-71 – focusing on reading rests while playing
- Thinking of our rests as beats of silence where we listen, instead of stopping and pausing at rests.
- Acknowledge any rests as you play (breathing on the rest or saying “rest” out loud are easy ways to keep track of them)
Assignments for the Week of November 20th, 2024
Hakim
Technical Exercises – Continuing work on C Major 1 octave scale
Adding in G Major 1 octave scale this week – continuing to practice as solid blocked chords and then stepping through. Using the same fingerings for G Major as C Major (groups of 3 and 5 fingers) Scale Fingerings – Hakim Nov 20
Bartok – Working through exercises #4-7
- Starting hands separately, observing the shape of the line as you step through (not worrying about note names at first, just watching for steps up and down the staff)
- Once comfortable hands separately, put hands together – practicing stepping through while keeping an even tempo/speed.
Celebration – Cleaning up and making sure you are able to keep energy going throughout the entire piece!
- Watching out for places like measure 4 to 5, making sure you are able to jump back into our starting position without hesitating.
- Making sure we keep the same bouncy and short staccato articulation measures 1-3 in both hands! Don’t let your right hand hold onto notes, keeping everything nice and short.
Clara
Technical Exercises – Continuing to slowly practice C Major 1 octave scale hands separately, playing as solid blocked chords of fingerings (groups of 3 and 5), and stepping through.
Lesson Book – Continuing to work through pages 59-62 hands together.
Bartok – Starting new set of reading exercises, working through exercises #1 and #2a (focusing on C 5 finger positions in both)
- Read through one hand’s line of music without playing – looking at the direction we are stepping, notice when we step away and return to the same note!
- Find starting notes, then playing slowly hands separately on the keyboard watching for steps up/down (we only move by steps in these first few exercises)
- Moving on to say note names out loud while playing hands separately.
- Once fully comfortable hands separate, adding hands together and practicing while saying note names.
Assignments for the week of November 13th, 2024
Hakim
Technical Exercises – Working through 1 octave scales starting on C – hands separately and together.
- Practicing as both solid blocked hand positions and stepping through – not just practicing stepping through quickly.
- Practicing with a legato, staccato, and detached articulation.
Celebration – Working through start to finish hands together – being able to play through without hesitation. Double check where you need to move between sections (like between measures 8-9).
Bartok – Working through exercises #1-6 being prepared to play through any of them start to finish without hesitation – hands together.
Clara
Technical Exercises – Working through our new 1 octave C major scale – only hands separately.
- Playing through as solid blocked chords and then stepping through while still thinking about solid hand positions. Moving horizontally between positions in the same way, stepping or solid blocks.
- Try practicing with a variety of articulations (legato, staccato, detached and dropping from the arm)
Lesson Book – Pages 59-62
- Octopus – Jumping between Bass and Middle C in the LH. Playing our C 1 octave scale in measure 5 as written (only in finger 3) and using our scale fingering we learned (groups of 5 and 3 fingers, changing hand position)
- Copy Cat – RH presenting an idea (melody, rhythm, and dynamics), LH copying. Noticing when our pattern breaks/intervals change.
- Grandmother – starting HS, noticing how our RH in measure 5 copies our LH in measure 1 before trying to add hands together.
Assignments for the Week of October 6, 2024
Clara
Technical Exercises – 5 finger major scale patterns starting on C, G, D, A, E, B, F#, and C# 5 finger scale patterns – Oct 6 Clara
- Finding our hand position based on our pattern of half steps and whole steps
- Stepping up and down each scale pattern, saying all note names – practicing hands separately until comfortable before trying hands together.
Lesson Book – pages 54, 55, 57, and 58 Scans for Clara – Oct 6
- Working on cementing/memorizing home notes on the staff (Bass C, Bass F, Middle C, Treble G), watching out for steps vs. skips around these notes.
- Starting to memorize other notes on the staff (focusing on space notes – Treble clef “FACE in the space”, Bass clef “All Cows Eat Grass”)
Hakim
Technical Exercises – Being prepared to find and play 5 finger major scale patterns (hands separately and together) starting on C, G, D, A, E, B, F#, and C#.
Bartok – Exercises #1-6, double checking and writing down all starting notes – being prepared to play each exercise hands together. Bartok Mikrokosmos Book 1 1-19
Celebration – Making sure you know the “road map” of this piece start to finish for next week! Making sure we aren’t repeating our beginning idea longer than is noted (4 measure groups – 3 measures of our pattern, then 1 measure of our upward sweep idea)
- Watching out for hand position changes at measures 9-12 – using left hand finger 4 to shift to the next hand position as discussed.
Assignments for the Week of December 14th, 2024
Shakira
Technical Exercises – Continue hands separate practice of 1 octave C Major scale
- Practicing as solid blocked groups of fingers so you are comfortable changing hand positions, then practicing stepping through (still keeping groups of 3 and 5 in mind!)
- RH – CDE/123-FGABC/12345
- LH – CDEFG/54321-ABC/321
Shadows – Continue working hands separately and together
- Make sure you know where hands change position (LH changes right away in measure 2 for our melody, RH changes in measure 7 to reach F/G with fingers 2/3
- Thinking ahead in places that might surprise us
- For example: RH measure 2 versus 4 – watching for changing rhythm; measures 5-7 only our LH ends on G, RH stops on F to shift hand position
Owl in the Night – New piece!
- Staying in the same starting position as Shadows (C minor – with E flat) Trying to piece together both hands already for next week (doesn’t need to be fast/”perfect” in any way!)
- Passing ideas/patterns back and forth between the hands
- Watching for steps vs skips in our pattern (as we can see right away in the LH, stepping up and skipping down)
- Already watching for dynamic shapes – when we step up we crescendo/grow louder, stepping/moving down we decrescendo/get softer
Assignments for the Week of November 16th, 2024
Shakira
Technical Exercises
- Finding and playing 5 finger major scales in a C, G, and D position. (Watching out for F# in D Major!)
- Practicing a C Major 1 octave scale, hands separately – practicing as solid blocked hand positions (groups of 3 and 5 fingers), as well as stepping through the whole scale.
Bartok – Practicing reading exercises #1-3 hands separately and together.
- Finding starting notes (FACE in the space for Treble clef, All Cows Eat Grass for Bass clef) and watching for steps up or down as you play through first hands separately, then together.
Lunar Eclipse – Continuing work hands together in our first section.
- Practicing Left Hand on its own so you know where it will be leaping. Double check and write in notes if you need to.
- When adding hands together, remember that we are passing the idea back and forth between our LH melody and RH C minor triad pattern.
Assignments for the week of September 28th, 2024
Shakira
Practicing – Planning out short chunks of practice (5-10 minutes at a time) – choose 1 thing from our list of things to do and focus only on that.
-Practice reading through a small group of measures a few times, speak through note names, or practice finding 5 finger hand positions from scales, etc.
Technical Exercise – 5 finger scales (starting on C, G, D, A, and E)
-Finding starting hand position from the previous review sheet. Checking which notes are in the hands in this position and stepping up/down. Saying note names out loud as you go. 5 finger scale hand positions – Shakira
Bartok Exercises – Reading through the first page of exercises, double checking note names based on review sheet. (Remember, FACE in the space, and All Cows Eat Grass)
-All exercises in a 5 finger position, moving through only in steps.
-Play through while paying attention to the shape of each line when we “connect the dots” between notes – making sure you are watching which direction the musical line is moving (up/down)
Lunar Eclipse – Finding left hand notes and making sure you are comfortable moving between them separate from the right hand. Try adding both hands together, passing the musical line from left hand note to right hand pattern.
-Making sure right hand is outlining C-Eflat-G using only fingers 1-3-5.
Assignments for the week of September 14th, 2024
Shakira
Technique Exercises: working in C Major (no sharps/flats)
1 Octave C Major scale – Practicing as solid blocked groups of fingers within each hand position, bouncing back and forth between positions. Thinking ahead before moving. Once comfortable with shifting between hand positions fully, stepping through the scale slowly.
C Major solid triads – Practicing finding and moving between C major root position, first inversion, and second inversion triads. Following the fingerings on the attached page of notes. Review Note Page – Shakira
Bartok Exercises – Read through exercises 1-3 (all of page 1), focusing on following the shape and contour of the notes as you read instead of thinking one note at a time. Paying close attention and double checking starting notes for each exercises LH and RH (they will all be parallel motion on the same notes between hands) Bartok Mikrokosmos Book 1 1-19
Lunar Eclipse – Begin working through hands separately at first, until you notice the RH pattern, then working hands together. Watch out for any patterns you notice, double check any note names you aren’t 100% certain of (see attached page of review notes).Lunar Eclipse
The following link is to a reliable recording of Lunar Eclipse for you to listen to:
Preferred Books for Trevor’s Students
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RCM Voice Repertoire
A Comprehensive Voice Series serves as the official resource for voice assessments of the Royal Conservatory Music Development Program. Featuring an outstanding selection of voice literature and supporting materials, this series offers a truly enriched learning experience to help ensure student success. As in previous editions, Resonance encompasses a rich and varied selection of Repertoire, Vocalises and Recitatives that students of all ages and voice types will find appropriate to their musical interests and level of technical ability.
Belting - A
Written for ages 5 and 6, My First Piano Adventure captures the child’s playful spirit. Fun-filled songs, rhythm games and technique activities develop beginning keyboard skills.
Faber & Faber Piano Adventures
The 2nd Edition Primer Lesson Book introduces the keyboard, note values, and the grand staff. Students play in C 5-finger scale patterns, develop recognition of steps and skips, and learn letter names independent of finger number. Musicianship is built through the use of dynamics and coloristic experimentation with the pedal. The book is organized into units which represent the major concepts and skills. As new units are introduced, earlier concepts and skills are constantly reviewed.
Faber Piano Adventures
The 2nd Edition Level 1 Lesson Book introduces all the notes of the grand staff, elementary chord playing, and the concept of tonic and dominant notes. Students play in varied positions, reinforcing reading skills and recognizing intervals through the 5th. Musicianship is built with the introduction of legato and staccato touches. This level continues the interval orientation to reading across the full range of the Grand Staff. The 5-finger approach is presented here in a fresh, musically appealing way.
Belting - A
Written for ages 5 and 6, My First Piano Adventure captures the child’s playful spirit. Fun-filled songs, rhythm games and technique activities develop beginning keyboard skills.
Elementary Rudiments of Music
This series organizes concepts into three progressive levels with an Answer Book. Designed for intermediate to late-intermediate level students, it teaches the basic elements of music theory and complements the study of all instruments.
The Brown Scale Book
This essential resource includes all major and minor scales, triads, arpeggios, dominant sevenths, and chromatic scales organized by key. A favorite for decades, The Brown Scale Book belongs in every student’s library.