Do you teach your students how to practice?

[carl-swanson]

I think that, in order to get students to practice more effectively, they need to understand what the ultimate goal should be. That goal should be: getting the piece to performance level. That means: 1) no wrong notes and rhythms, 2)up to tempo, 3)memorized, and 4)musically expressive. I realize that that is a very tall order, but that’s the goal, whether there is a performance coming up or not.

I’ve told my current student(with very limited success ;( ) that each lesson should be thought of as a performance, and that when he practices, he should look at a measure, line, page, or the whole piece, and ask himself what it is that seperates the way he plays it now from performance level. Maybe that thought is the preamble to any further discussion about the nuts and bolts of fixing problems.

[carl-swanson]

I really like Diane’s method of getting the student to focus on the problem areas(where she has the student cut the grand staves into strips, etc.). A vaiation on that might be to make a photocopy of the piece to mark up, and to put a box in red pencil around the exact area that the teacher feels is the problem area. The student would then be told to practice only what is inside the box until it is learned, and then incorporate that into the surrounding measures. The student could also be told that at the next lesson, the first thing you the teacher wants to hear is the part inside the boxes. This exercise might help the student to see the piece, and the learning process, in the piecemeal way we have to see it to learn it.

[rosalind-beck]

Hey Everybody:

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

A variation on that idea, that really helps those who are easily distracted, is to take blank paper, and cut out a space for each practice spot, so you only see what you are working on. You can fairly easily make two for each half of each system, as there are usually not that many on each page.

[carl-swanson]

Do any of you teach your students to make what I call ‘variations’ on the trouble spot? ‘Variation’ means anything that is different from the way it is intended to be played. A variation can be as simple as playing the left or right hand alone, playing arpeggios (as in the Hasselmans La Source) as chords, running sixteenth notes(as in any Baroque piece)in uneven rhythms or accenting every other note or every third note, etc. I think that most students have difficulty grasping the value of ‘variations.’

[rosalind-beck]

Yes, I suggest that the (more advanced) students create their own variations, e. g. playing dotted rhythms instead of straight eighth notes, i. e., dotted eighth-sixteenth and then the reverse, sixteenth-dotted eighth; make triplets out of duples and vice versa;

[laura-smithburg-byrne]

There are so many good ideas here that I hesitate to add my own. I have a few ideas that have worked for me and my students. I draw on my own experiences as a student and a professional to help my students find their way. I look at each student individually as to their motivation and style of learning as well as environmental factors and family dynamics. Being a mother of

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Rather than altering or distorting the music, I prefer to compose exercises to work out the technical challenge. I think it is important to listen to mistakes, assuming they were intentional, so one can hear and figure out what went “wrong” and how to recover from it. I like to think we are making mistakes so we know what might happen in every possible circumstance.

[unknown-user]

Speaking of little tricks, although for piano teaching:

I have a hobby of making belgium chocolate, but it’s a very serious hobby, I have a special room with all professional equipment with over 500 molds to do that, but anyway, I make amusing animal shape chocolate, black, milk chocolate or white chocolate all nicely packaged in cellophane and have a dozen displayed not too far from my piano… For my first half of the lesson I use it mainly for scales, each student has their own special grid with the scales indicated of their level, beside each scale are 5 little boxes that I could check mark one of them whenever the student would get that scale perfectly and at the same time I could follow their progress, a mistake would deduct a point. Depending on their level and number of scales when you would total a certain number of check marks say 100 you get to take home one chocolate animal of your choice, they all had their eyes set on one in particular right from the start, Naturally it was a big incentive, but more so during the halloween, Easter and Christmas. Unfortunately, I can’t do that anymore, gone in other musical paths and less time for teaching, and I can’t remember the details of this system but that was the overall idea but I do remember all the parents would say: “Can I take lessons from you?”.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Maybe I’ll start offering pastries with lessons, only the last time I offered some, no-one would eat any except the father.

[unknown-user]

…so isn’t anybody going to say: “What a fantastic idea Guy!!!”

[laura-smithburg-byrne]

When teaching a student how to practice I think a logical approach that empowers the student to make intelligent decisions in practicing is fundamental. Everyone has little tricks to help students learn difficulties in technical issues. But teaching a student how to focus with an end result in sight is key to success. Mindless repetition when practicing is a waste of time. Focused concentration in repetition trains the mind to function at a higher level and think more critically about what you are doing on the strings. Mistakes are part of the process and everyone makes them. Getting out of your own way and learning why you made the mistakes and trying to improve in your effort is part of the practice.
Most students are young people who are still learning “how to learn and perform successfully” on the harp. When performing under pressure, the more intelligent the practice and preparation the more successful the outcome. I don’t think many of us have time to waste whether teaching or performing. Most students are very busy and have their own pressures to deal with in their daily lives. Again, I

[carl-swanson]

Laura- Everything you say is true. And the pearl of wisdom from Alice is wonderful. The point is, we as teachers are all trying to accomplish the same thing where practicing is concerned. The problem though is that habits are very ingrained and difficult to change. The various little ‘tricks’ that we have all been suggesting here are to help the student break out of those old habits that don’t work. I think that once the student sees the better results that come from using these little tricks, he or she will be motivated to think about practicing in a completely different way, which is what you’re talking about. But if it takes a little game, a practice board to isolate a problem measure, a practice journal, or whatever to get the student on a different track, then the little trick has accomplished it’s purpose.

[unknown-user]

Laura- what you’re saying a bit too theoretic in my opinion, and I’m tempted to say: what comes before? the egg or the chicken? Teaching someone to focus has its limits, people who are not use to “succeeding” in other areas such as school, focussing for them is almost impossible. I have noticed that these students become focussed AS THEY succeed early on in the more basic exercises they must do, otherwise you loose them right away, the more they see positive results the more they believe in repeating a passage and accept your teaching. In other words I don’t believe you get good results through focus first but through initial positive results which will encourage the focus and that could stretched a long way.

[laura-smithburg-byrne]

I believe you are missing my point entirely. You are assuming that I am living in an ivory tower teaching only advanced bright and musically gifted students with perfect hand positions and no double joint issues.
I teach students of all ages, abilities and disabilities and frequently they have issues.
Not every student will become advanced and not every student wants to advance beyond a certain level. That is fine and I am happy to teach anyone as long as they are willing to try. However,

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