Practicing & Playlists

Hello. How would you handle this? I have an older student ( age 15) in a group with another boy. The student in question picks things up super quickly. Leaves a lesson with complete grasp and understanding of all new pieces. Quick learner. He is…

• Last updated 2 months ago
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Hey teachers — I want to open up a conversation about something we’ve all been taught in our training, and something I’ve been saying to parents for years: “Have your child practice at the same time every day.” It’s clean, simple advice. And I understand…

• Last updated 2 months ago
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I think sometimes students do mindless repetition for practice without breaking it down in such a way that the brain retains the piece. I had a student today who struggles with remembering her pieces so we just slowly went through a series of questions and…

• Last updated 2 years ago
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Please read this post with the mindset that a student is playing too fast and you CAN’T slow them down they are great students and they totally on board for the long term relationship they don’t have any other problems other than slowing down (…

• Last updated 3 years ago
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A new adult student with a small amount of previous experience told me that it’s hard for her to watch her hands because she took a beginning piano class in college with a teacher who insisted that students never look at their hands and would…

• Last updated 3 years ago
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I have an adult student asking if there’s anyway to slow down the audio songs in order to play along with them. She’s in Level 6 and would love to play along with the Gaz, and others but esp. the Gaz. Maybe something corp. adds…

• Last updated 3 years ago
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Here is something that every one of my students have above their pianos. Obviously if your students are in the lower foundations, intervals, counting would not be needed but I find it a great tool to help remind them what boxes need to be ticked.…

• Last updated 3 years ago
• at home practice, audio recording, Audio recordings, audio SHMs, best practices, BH, both hands, deliberate practice, enhancing practice, external speaker, external speakers, hands together, how to practice, HT, managing practice, managing practice time, play along, playing along with audio, playing with audio tracks, practice, practice guidelines, practice habits, practice ideas, practice routine, practice time, separate hands, SH, slow practice, speaking instructions out loud, teaching how to practice, together right, trouble with hands together, using audio recordings, using audio tracks, voice, writing intervals

Metaphor I came up with today while coaching a student, expanding on the notion of working slowly to learn quickly. Student wasn’t speaking instructions. I reminded. Student resisted, said it’s harder. I said, you know what? You’re right. It’s harder to do two things at…

• Last updated 3 years ago
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Funny sometimes the things that we need to teach/share with our students. This week we talked about performing without ‘giving away’ the fact that you had a stumble. After the conversation, one of my students played “Sit by My Side” with some imperfections BUT didn’t…

• Last updated 3 years ago
• errors, handling mistakes, improvise through mistakes, keep going through mistakes, mistakes, playing through mistakes

I’m curious about the psychology behind the brain’s ability to increase the speed of muscle memory (play a song faster), but its struggle to decrease the speed of the same task. Anyone? Not an expert neurological answer, but: Speed comes with familiarity and comfort. Slowness…

• Last updated 4 years ago
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