Practicing & Playlists
Students are slacking on playlist
I need someone to touch base with. Most of my students are coming to the end of level 2 and are in the middle of the accompaniment book (I added this during the summer) and can do easy improv. That blues scale goes a long…
Discontinuing lessons with non-progressing student
I have to have “that” conversation to discontinue lessons. I currently teach a lovely little boy (8 years old) who is just not progressing. It has a lot to do with lack of coaching at home but also low muscle tone I think. He has…
Advanced students and the playlist
I think it’s time for me to allow my most advanced students (they’re near the end of Level 5) to prune their playlists. Does anyone have a list of songs you require your students to maintain, either because we will continue to build on them…
Keeping students practicing during break
Due to personal reasons, I will be taking a month off of teaching. Any tips I can pass along to parents, so students don’t lose ground during the break? Perhaps a 30-day challenge. Play every day for 30 days. A composition a week…and each class…
How much to review with transfer student?
How would you suggest handling a transfer student from another teacher who left off in Level 4, yet has had a year and a half break? Start at the beginning with Dreams? My gut feeling is telling me to do that. Review all the previous…
Playlist adherence help
I have two sibling students who are 5 and 7 respectively. They are midway through Foundation 1 and love playing and have no problem practicing. However, they rarely check off their playlist even with encouragement and rewards/consequences from their parent. At lessons it is this…
Play it Forward technique by Mark Merritt
I am loving using this “Play It Forward” technique with my students. Thank you Mark – it serves to really help my students. I am teaching and utilizing it with my son and it works very well. We are using the original playlist where you…
Warm-up Song
Using Chester Chills Out as an ongoing warm up exercise is appealing to me. One advantage is keeping the song alive over a long period of time. It can be played fast/slow, white/black notes. After level one, the next step is to take the advancing…
Top 40 Playlist
I have several students in Levels 4 and 5 whose playlist number is high – in the 60-80 song range. They have now outgrown the Playlist Management 1-4 book, and are struggling to adapt to not only keeping all these songs alive but also writing…
Play It Forward Practice Strategy
Dear Friends, I am spending 1/2 of a class time to introduce all my students who enter level 3 to start splitting their practice time into 2 sessions: Current Project and Playlist Project. With the Playlist Projects, I am introducing the Play It Forward (from…
