We had a great response from you for September’s tip on Studio Marketing and here we go again! Fall seems to bring a flurry of preparation for holiday concerts, competitions, recitals and festivals. You prepare your students for these competitions, festivals, recitals and lessons by sending home assignments. But what kind of practice tips work best? Please share with us any secrets that empower and build the kind of arsenal to get your students through.
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I make “count down” charts for my students who are going to be in a competition. When you tell them the Sonatina Festival is in November, it means nothing. But when they see that it is really only a few days away, they get serious.
Students don’t always recognize how well a practice technique works until they experience. I try to remember to “sacrifice” some lesson time to actually practice a passage with them and let them see how much improvement can happen.
I do the same thing as Rebecca. My students have “chips” on their key chains this year and each chip has 2 practice strategies. Each week we take the time to use one of the strategies on their assigned pieces. The following week they explain and demonstrate the strategy for a sticker on their chip. (When all chips are stickered, they get bonus beads on their practice chain.) Then later, when they have a particularly difficult piece or passage I can say ,”practice this using a measure by measure strategy” they know what I mean and they know what to do!
http://hiltonmusicstudio.blogspot.com/2013/07/student-key-chains-for-fall.html
When push comes to shove, I think both me and the student jump into action to get things pulled together. Of course the ideal would be slow and steady progress to really “cement” assigned pieces for performance or competitions. That’s not reality more than half the time. Phillip Johnston’s book “The Practice Revolution” has really given me a fresh perspective on practice tips and ideas to keep things moving. Its easily purchased on Amazon.com and I’d recommend it to anyone looking to keep things moving with practice ideas.
One tip I find useful and fun Is to measure with a ruler the length of “awkward” bits. Quite often , we find that really serious practice of an inch here or half an inch there solves problems easily and with a smile