practice, teaching how to practice, Jackson Blues, leaving early
Found in: Practicing & Playlists
Ruth P., North Carolina
I am sensing that my most of my students don’t practice ‘well’. While they do take time to ‘run through’ their pieces, they seem to lack the skills of knowing how to practice. For example, with Jackson Blues, they might play it with big hesitations between chords and never really slow it down enough – or ‘leave early’ so they can play it at a steady tempo.
I recall in college that some music majors did this {practice} much better than others. Some who practiced longer were not necessarily practicing well. I think after the holidays I will have a few sessions on how to practice. I’m thinking I will model in class how to 1)read your notes 2)have your play list by the piano 3) have the video ready to refer to. 4) Talk about what to do when a piece doesn’t go well, etc..
Have others done this kind of lesson – or do you have suggestions for getting students in good habits?
On another slightly different topic, I’m finding the playlist chart hard for some children to navigate. It seems it would work better if the dates were at the top rather than the days of the week. Thoughts?
Lori N., Utah
There are many aspects to a good practice session. One is knowing when to take a break or move on to another focus. I have an older student who I have actually had to talk to about practicing too much! Today he came in shaking his head and saying, “I worked on the LH of Jackson Blues for 45 minutes and still can’t get it!” (He actually is progressing quite well with it.) My teacher used to tell me that your brain can only absorb things for 20-30 minutes and to take a stretch, walk around, get a drink and then go back to work to have your practice be most effective. He said you simply don’t learn after a certain amount of focused time without taking a break.
Marcine F., North Carolina
Re: playlist–I highlight the day of the week we have lessons and pencil in the date. It seems to help them visualize things better and helps me see the weeks practice more easily.
Cindy B., Illinois
Another thing to remember – most people think that they need to practice a problem section until they get it right, which has the effect of having practiced it wrong numerous times, and THEN practicing it once, right. Whenever a difficult something or other pops up in a lesson, I take the time to reinforce the practice habit of PRACTICE IT CORRECTLY 3 times for every 1 time they play it wrong. Then you’re guaranteed to be careful to not play it wrong!!
Cheri S., Utah
I’ve talked with my students about going home and using what we learn in class. Everything we do in class is meant to be implemented at home. I am teaching them learning strategies, and then they go home and put those strategies to work. I’ve even said that “practicing” may not be the best word for what we do at home. Maybe we should call it piano learning instead of practicing.
The word “practicing” almost sounds like we are just going over and over on something we already know, playing through songs the teacher has already taught us. What I’ve actually taught them is how to learn the songs. Then they go home and learn them. So, rather than just playing through songs, students would be working patterns out in their fingers and on the keypad, mastering rhythms in their bodies and on their laps, going through the “leaving early” process (which sounds nothing like playing the song), etc. Of course, they also play through songs on their playlists, but, again, if anything has fallen through the cracks, they can apply their learning strategies even to playlist songs.
I’m quite new to SM, but I imagine my students will need to have this conversation pretty regularly.