Practice-o'-Lantern

I'm the type of person that tries to find creative alternatives to standard procedures, especially when there is a point to be made. I carved this pumpkin with the perennial music teacher's one-word command, and set it beside the studio door. Though it garnered a lot of giggles, my students actually are practicing more, though I am sure it has more to do with upcoming performances and new pieces than with this pumpkin.

My studio grew!! I believe I am teaching no less then 40 hours of piano lessons every week now, even over 45 hours/week when my own children are practicing their full time daily. This hour a day and sometimes more with my own three children is really intense, but I am finding that consistency and playing practice games are really paying off. Oh, and getting enough sleep at night. Good night.

Hilarious Introduction to the Metronome

The metronome is a very handy tool for measuring a regular beat, guiding practice, giving yourself very strict standards for your pulse and also scaring the living daylights out of your cat. A friend forwarded me this funny video. I have never listened to it with the sound on, but just watching it made me laugh.

Metronome use does help your practice! A student of mine recently had two lessons on two consecutive days. He plays Abram Chasin's Rush Hour in Hong Kong from Three Chinese Pieces and on Monday it sounded okay- he got through it with some minor hesitations. We had a lesson on it, and the next day he came back with a completely different Rush Hour. He was playing energetically with flashy dynamics and had rock solid pulse. "Please tell the rest of the world your secret to such success!" I exclaimed, " To make that much progress in 24 hours is really something!" "I practiced with the metronome," he replied. Then five days later he performed it beautifully in recital.

I shouldn't guarantee that same success, I suppose, but wow, I know it sure has helped me control and organize my practice. I can set a goal for myself and strive to make it, gradually bringing up my tempo in an orderly way. And all of my students who have practiced with the metronome have certainly reaped the benefits. Too much metronome practice can take away the natural breath of the piece, so an understanding of the natural flow of the piece is also important.

Need to buy a metronome? I recommend a quartz metronome and not an annoying beepy digital one. I like a metronome that has all the original numbers series like 6o, 63, 66 through 208, etc. (and not every number there is from 30-300. )

The pendulum kind that the cat attacked in the video above is fun but they tend to break and are not as reliable. Maybe I begin to see why.

Music Education #8 What Parents Can Do for Beginners

When students are beginning, what can parents do to maximize their success?

Help them by setting a schedule, a plan to work at the keys everyday, and set learning goals for every day, every week in order to complete the assignment. The teacher should be setting realistic assignments, and hopefully giving good practice outlines. Give cheer and direction to each practice, show love by giving full attention to young beginners. Remark on and praise progress!

In Practice: "What does the assignment book say about that? Learn page one? OK let's shock the teacher. Probably she just thinks you'd barely get hands alone or whatever. What do you say we try to memorize the whole first page hands together?! That means you could do line one today, then you have three days for the rest, then a day or so for review..."

What specific things can I teach my beginning child so that the teacher can move forward unhindered with my child?

Total knowledge of the keyboard note names: ABCDFG.

In practice: "OK! play all the Cs! Great! How fast can you play all the Gs high to low? Play all the DEFs with the left hand, all the ACEs with the right hand. Name your finger numbers! Play a low F with the left hand 4th finger! Play a high B with the right hand second finger! That was faster than yesterday! Wow." Fast paced and cheerful is best, not lingering too long on any one exercise.

Knowledge of Staff lines and spaces: Treble and Bass Clefs

In Practice: Make a grand staff on your floor, [see previous Music Education posts] use flash cards introducing two or three new notes a day, ask questions about the notes in the music. Memorize with your child the names of the treble clef lines and spaces (EGBDF and FACE respectively) as well as bass clef lines and spaces (GBDFA and ACEG respectively)

Tip: help the student focus on the assignment given and if the student hears or sees new pieces to try, keep a running "wish list" for your child to look forward to. Teachers like to hear about student favorites!

Hats off to moms and dads! Parental integration in practice is so incredibly important to most young beginners and can really add a sweet dimension to a relationship when children see their parents really proud of them and excited about their success and potential. I had no idea about what this was all about until I had my own kids. Wow. As my brother said, initially the child's success depends probably more about what parents a child has than the innate musicality of a child. I didn't think of putting it so bluntly, but am starting to see things his way....

Music Education #4 Getting Through Repetitive Practice Cheerfully

Here are some more practice tips I am discovering while practicing with my very littlest ones:

Getting a piece learned and polished takes a lot of repetition, and consequently takes some wise strategies so little kids don't feel like practice with Mom is deadly dull. These may take a few minutes longer, but the quality of practice goes up- it's worth it.

1. Break the desired section down into tiny, reachable goals. For every perfect repetition, draw a tally mark. For five tallies, reward him by drawing a train car on a large, durable sheet of paper. Let him choose the kind of train car it should be. Soon you will have a sprawling freight train (hopefully you are OK with line drawings) replete with tank cars, aquarium cars, circus cars, box cars, basketball cars, volcano cars... (yes, spewing lava.) I suppose this would work for little girls, too, though they might prefer you to draw jewelry on a princess or something like that, depending on the little girl. The handy thing about this is you can decide what a tally stands for.

2. Hold up ten fingers and say, "You are the farmer. We will repeat this section ten times, and for every perfect time you play this little bit, you will plant a seed." (he plays the little bit perfectly.) "Good job! Ok, you planted a bean seed. Knock down the first finger!" He gently pushes down one of your fingers and you have nine left. After the next section you say, "You planted a watermelon seed!" and he knocks down the second, and so on. It is good for him to knock it down, because it takes his hand off the keyboard, and he has to keep placing it there again so he really gets to know where his hand is supposed to play for that part! Different seeds you could "plant" are tree seeds or flower seeds, etc.. Not only are they learning how to play the piano, they might be hearing about parsnips, dogwoods and hydrangeas for the first time. If it isn't a good repetition, I say, "Hmm, that seed didn't sound like it's going to grow into the strongest tree- let's try again."

3. I set my figurines (the ones that I mentioned in the previous Music Education post), the metronome and any other cars or dollies available on one side of the piano. "Now play it for Mozart... Now, play it for Benny... Now play it for Bach... Now play it with Mr. Metronome," (he has a personality too: he nods and shakes his head and gives hugs. Otherwise, he just clicks.) When they have played the section for each of these entities, they have it pretty well lodged in their minds, especially when the imaginary listeners have been giving feedback. -Yes, Mr. Beethoven is still Mr. Opposite! He encourages them to keep notes that were stuck in their memories incorrectly, and they wake up to what it means to play it perfectly in a hurry!

Music Education #3 Jumping Over Practice Boundaries

I am not just a piano teacher: I am a "piano Mom". That means I oversee my children's practice every day. My kids are young: two four year olds and one age seven, so I do know about the challenges of attitude toward home practice. But we have overcome some difficulties, and I am handing out FREE TIPS on this subject RIGHT HERE!! :)

1. Make it a Habit.

This summer we virtually forgot how to play the piano. It took just a couple of weeks of neglect to forget: our vacation, our lazy days in the pool... So when I brought them into the studio again for practice I met with a lot of resistance for a whole week I tried to be patient and kind, but they were still easily frustrated (sometimes to tears!) or else lacking focus.

My husband was encouraging, though. "They've just been out of the habit of practice," he insisted when I unburdened to him. "They'll be fine when they get back into it." This was true. The first week we practiced every day, reluctantly, doggedly. The second week things went a lot better. They expected to practice each morning, at least 30 minutes daily, (60 for the seven year old- sometimes his practice time is broken up into morning-evening sessions) there was no contention: it was just What We Do. There is a sense of a routine, which for our family is very healthy. Note- if it's late and we're wiped out, we don't push it, but we do try to make it up the next day. Being reasonable is healthy too.

Help them see, if they are having difficulties those first weeks acting on a fresh practice commitment that it's because they are not used to it, that [again] soon things will improve. Also check to see that the practice isn't just "doing time" but that the teacher has given the student clear goals to accomplish and that the student has a sense of this. If they practice a lot, there is clear progress, which is so encouraging! Even with a little regular practice progress can be noted, though it is exponentially better as the hours are increased.

3. Work Hard, Lovingly

Practicing is like owning an apple tree. Invest in it and it produces. If it produces fruit you are so inspired to prune and care for it year-round, but if you don't care for it enough, it does not produce much and your interest is low. It's a vicious circle that quickly be broken by creating a habit of daily practice. In this culture we tend to want to shield our children from hard work and let them play and just be kids. There should be some time for that, yes, but kids really need to be good at something. We as parents have to encourage, help and sometimes push for that. If consistently done in the right spirit of respect and commitment, the support and direction you provide in your child's practice will improve your relationship with your child rather than strain it.

Practically, I found that sitting with my child through the whole session of practice when they are this young is a must, for direction and encouragement. If they get frazzled over anything, I stay calm. I break the work up into small part and insist on quality. Keeping a neutral, gentle voice is important. Praise them for the littlest things. Set tiny goals. (Little kids have little sense of pacing to work for huge ones: they live pretty much in the here and now.) Be "totally surprised" when they exceed the set goals! I think the regular practice regimen has begun to grow benefits in other areas in their little hearts: today I walked out of my room to see them make quite a parade passing by with every cleaning brush, broom, duster and mop I own, and they set to work cleaning the living room!

3. Make it Funny

Recently I adopted the habit of using three figurines at the piano: Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. I pretend they are alive and that two are helpful and always right, but not too quick in supplying the right answer, giving the child a chance to competitively show them that he can get it first before having to be taught by them! The third figurine is Mr. Opposite: Nothing he advises is correct. He especially encourages them to miss notes and praises them for using the wrong fingering. Immediately the students are on high alert to the right and wrong ways of playing their pieces, and they invariably think it's funny! (There is the benefit of a real effort to "stymie the Bad Guy" - sorry Beethoven- as well as the fact that no matter what they do, at least they make someone happy!) They especially like it when Beethoven gets grumpy when they play perfectly. Even older students have said "I'm not too little: please use the figurines with me too!" Making lessons funny has made my children argue about who goes first rather than last. Arguing isn't right in any case, but if they had to argue, I'd take that argument over the other.

God gave you the authority to decide what your children are going to learn, and believing in that authority gives strength and dignity to your position as Parent in Charge of Kid. That, with love and admiring support of your child can bring a new depth and dimension to your relationship as well as progress in their playing.

If you want elaboration or more description on certain details, please feel free to ask for them in comments. I especially like to know if you have suggestions for getting children used to practicing.