Practice sheets

Just popping in from my crazy schedule of teaching all 3 of my kids piano now - ak! - to share what  I do to help my kids practice.  We are getting into the groove of having a lesson on Saturdays, and then I give them a list of what to practice on their own for the week.  I have been brainstorming how to make this easier on the kids - I've had notebooks, but they get lost, so today I went on Pinterest for "piano assignment sheets" and came up with a lot of great ideas, but nothing was just right for my middle child, so I made it based off the awesome examples I saw, and laminated it so I can write on it with a dry erase marker:

He's a HUGE Horrible Histories fan so I added some pictures from the books for him :)

My two oldest are lucky enough to have keyboards in their rooms, so I slapped a command hook up on the wall and punched a hole in the top so it could hang right where he could see it.

Here's a lovely round-up of brilliant practice chart ideas from around the web.  Happy practicing!

Sweet rewards

Having a baby is marvelous, but it can muck up my morning lesson routine when said baby needs a nap but is fighting a nap and I have to rock the baby instead of the piano.

Luckily, WonderGirl has a lot of review songs in her brain, so I can make her a list and rush off to baby-tend. Today I thought I'd sweeten the deal and give her chocolate chips to eat after every song. And 2 bonus chips because she'd stepped in and practiced with the Dude when the baby got fussy during his violin lesson.

Do you sweeten up practice time when things get chaotic? I'd love to hear your tricks!

Practicing made easy

We all have that ideal, right?  Our cherubic child waltzes to the piano without a single reminder from us and spends the next hour practicing their pieces section by section until they are perfect.  It's not a bad goal, but we have to understand learning to practice takes practice.  I have my masters in performance and I still have trouble practicing!  But aside from raising our voice and losing it when they are being distracted and unproductive, what do you do?

Mix it up!  Get them playing without them realizing they are actually learning!  There will be days where they are curious and focused, but for the days they aren't, here's a list of ideas to bookmark and use on the fly.  I'll be adding to them as I come up with them (and as you suggest your winning tricks!)

Check it.  Give a checklist of pieces to play with boxes to mark off, not a set time.  Visually they feel accomplished and they get everything done faster without the whine.  Other variations are to have them make a checklist of what they played and show you afterward (you can give them boundaries - such as to pick at least 5 songs, etc.)

Something different.  Take a vacation from their normal music and give them something new, easy and familiar to play.  You can download tons of fun free sheet music on the web, including here.  They take a break from their regular music but they are exercising their sight reading and self-teaching muscles!

Beat the clock!  Give them a timer - something they can see.  If it's short, you can see if they can play everything before the timer runs out.

Randomizer.  Put the things you want them to play - pieces or individual sections of a piece on slips of paper and then into a hat.  When they've played everything, practice time is done!

Make a fort!  Have the help you build a fort big enough to be able to play in and send them in.  It's labor intensive, but a treat for them - you can even use it as an incentive i.e.:  "If you do your chores, play really well today, etc., tomorrow you get to have a music fort!"

Have a snack.  Don't have a lot of time, patience, etc.?  Practicing doesn't always have to be a huge feast of time - some days it's just best to have a lite day - a practice snack.  Play something just once, just do a few favorite review songs, etc.  Wouldn't you prefer them to got at least some music in than nothing?  Any time invested regularly helps!


Change of scenery.  If your child plays a portable instrument, send them into the bathroom so they can see themselves and enjoy the acoustics.  Or outside if the day is nice.

Record it.  Give them a tape recorder (does anyone still have one??) or another kind of recording device (a smartphone iPod touch, probably) .  Designate a piece for them to record, with the instruction that they'll be playing the recording for you or the whole family over dinner.  The goal is to get it as clean and mistake-free as possible.

Stick it.  Give them a sheet of stickers and they get to put one on themselves for every time they play a certain something - a hard section, a review piece, etc.  Take a picture of the creative aftermath!

Skype.  One thing WG loves is showing her Gamma what she can do, so the promise of getting to play something on Skype for her motivates her to get something polished.  Plus Gamma cheers SUPER LOUD.    It's very gratifying.

Sweeten the deal.  My favorite teaching tool is to have them earn a treat from a good lesson or practice session. My go-to is to put 5 pieces of candy, pretzels, etc. on a table where they can see it, and they can have all of them at the end.  But if they lollygag, get up or act out, I silently walk over and eat one then go back to what I was doing.  They can have whatever is left, and if it's a tough day, at least I got a treat in me to cheer me up :)

Put on a show.  Make a makeshift stage out of a blanket to stand on, and have your child assemble an audience of toys.

Accessorize.  I LOVE my friend Becca's awesome post she did for us on the power of beads as a motivating tool and how adaptable it is.  At the end of good practicing and lessons, they also have something tangible to show just how much work they did.

Reward them.  We won't call it bribery because it is really them earning something by working.  I have a friend who gives his kids a quarter for practicing - he says it is because chores are jobs that are expected they do to contribute to the family and those are unpaid, but practicing is something extra.  And his kids have great discipline and are sweet as can be, so I'm sold!  Some days WG really wants to play a certain game or go somewhere fun or do some craft together - and I say she can earn it after music lessons.  Works every time.

Ask them.  What would they like to do?  When a child feels they have control over their situation, they take ownership and are more self-motivated.  And chances are, your creative child probably has some great ideas just right for their learning style.

There's a first time for everything...!

I had WonderGirl do something today I've never had her do before...

She practiced violin by herself.

AAAAAAAKKKKK!!!!

I know, she's been playing for at least 6 months - but I've never had her do it on her own.  Piano, sure, but violin is another beast entirely.  We spend so much time with beginning students playing games to teach the basic techniques that there isn't much they can do on their own - plus it's so easy to slip into bad habits that I like to be there at every step.  And honestly, it's a lovely bonding time for us.  I don't mind it a bit.

But today during the Dude's nap (her usual lesson time) I had to run outside and spray paint some furniture before it gets to cold to go outside (it's getting WAY too close to winter for my liking!) and I didn't have time to practice with her.  So I made her a list of things to practice on piano, then made another short list for violin.  I got the violin out and ready for her and told her to come tell me when she was done.

It went great!  She was thrilled with the novelty of it all, and we got in our daily dose.  I don't think I'll do it again soon, but now that she has at least 4 songs under her belt, she has enough she can review through.  I'm a veteran teacher, but a novice mom, so my official opinion now is that once a student has multiple songs memorized, they are ready for personal practice in moderate doses.

Sniff... she is growing up WAY too fast!

Practicing tip - timers!

I found this nifty science activity via Pinterest and then put it to good use.  It's pretty self explanatory - there's one empty glass and another with water and food coloring, and a piece of paper towel running from one to the other.  Give it some time, and the water walks from one glass to the other!  A loooot of time.... we started this about 2:30 this afternoon and it's about halfway done now.  But that wasn't our initial goal...

I set it up and we eagerly watched the color creep up the towel.  I put it within eye shot of the piano, and had WonderGirl work up two new songs in her book.  When we spied the first drops of water in the other glass, piano time was done!  It was a good 30 minutes of pure, excited practicing time, and no "when will I be done??" questions.  It wasn't up to me - it was up to science :)  I'll experiment with smaller glasses and shorter towels for quicker practicing days - and all different sorts of "timers!"

Summertime practicing

I'm back!! Did you miss me?  I missed you!  We haven't been slacking in the music department, though - WonderGirl regaled the grandparents with her piano skills, and I had 7 shows - yes, seven!! with my bands over two weekends!  It was fantastic and I am super warmed up right now :)

But now we're back and trying to get into the swing of practicing again.  It's not easy after a vacation - especially when it's summer!  There are so many more interesting things to be doing!  I stumbled on this post by a fabulous blogger, Music for Tots that gave me some hope.  Her plan for summer practicing is to give her students easy folk tunes to learn to keep up their note and sight reading, and to learn lots and lots of them.  It keeps them active and having fun!

I love the Faber 5-Finger Melodies books, and I picked up their PlayTime Piano - Level 1: Rock 'n' Roll (Faber Piano Adventures) a few weeks ago to give the summer some excitement.  We've been having fun with Rock Around the Clock and other tunes that are enticing enough that WonderGirl has motivation to learn them without too much pushing from me.  I'm taking Music for Tots advice and going back and getting more easy music for WonderGirl to play around with!  She also posts some great free sheet music to snag online!!

Oh, and the Faber Chordtime books are no slouch either.  I'm a poor pianist at best, but I was able to play some really well-written and great sounding tunes this past Christmas with the ChordTime Piano Christmas (Faber Piano Adventures).

Tis the season to have fun with practicing!






PS - Are you on Pinterest??  Holy cannoli, what an awesome site!!  I'm here, follow me so I can follow you!

Anatomy Week: teaching older kids

I've been talking about how I do lessons and practicing with my 4 year old, but I want to address older kids.  I've only been a mom for 4 years, but I've been doing this teaching gig for much longer, for 2 year olds up to sixty year olds.  I've learned a thing or two along the way....

Years ago, I attended a masterclass with the famed violinist/violist Pinchas Zuckerman.  In addition to his performing and conduction career, he is a avid educator.  The attendees were a mix of parents and teachers, and  Mr. Zuckerman opened up the floor for any questions they might have for him.  One parent stood up and asked - "How do you motivate a teenager to practice?"

After a good laugh, Mr. Zuckerman said: "You can't.  You make them do it, try and survive those years, and at some point they learn to love it and do it on their own."

I've had a few - VERY few students that picked up their instruments of their own free will and couldn't stop playing.  The rest loved playing, but didn't love the work that went into it.  I honestly don't like practicing either!  But I love the end result, so I muddle through.  And as parents, we know how hard it is to teach our kids to work, but we know it's necessary and we do it anyway.

That being said, practice time doesn't have to be an endless drudgery.  The trick is:

 Make them own it.

That's mainly it.  If they are doing it for themselves, they'll be more invested.  Is that easy to do?  Nooooo.  Is it worth it?  Yes!

Having the student research and choose their own repertoire (from an approved list), finding them friends that play that instrument as well to jam with, finding an honor ensemble they want to audition for, even giving them an audio recorder or video camera and having them be in charge of recording their latest solo as a practice assignment - all kids are different and their goals and motivators are different, but whatever that may be, they all need to want it for themselves to be successful.

And honestly, that goes for just about anything in life.  Which is why teaching them an instrument when they're young is such a powerful teaching tool that goes far beyond making music.  Now if ya'll would remind me of this when WonderGirl turns 13, I'd appreciate it :)  Stay tuned for getting toddlers to sing tomorrow!

Anatomy Week: piano practice

Also check out Practicing practicing.

Me:  It's piano time.

WonderGirl:  YAY!/NO! (it varies on the day, hour and second.  Don't them 'em see you sweat!)

If you haven't noticed the massive apparatus on WonderGirl's head, they are some serious headphones we snitched from Daddy's tech stuff.  We have all our music time when the Dude is napping because it's impossible to keep a 20 month old boy out of a super cool big sister's bizness.  To make sure he STAYS napping, she uses headphones.  I stay close by and she stays on task pretty well, although I can always pull the cord out and ask her to play me something if I suspect monkey business.

1.  Let's make a plan.  First we discuss review (warm-up).  I attack this a variety of different ways.  This was one of her earlier charts, before she had a large amount of review under her belt.

I would verbally give her some instructions- play this part so many times, this part so many times, the who song this many times, etc.  When she finished a whole page, she earned some kind of nifty reward, like a Daddy/daughter date.

Now, she has more review and her ability to focus has improved as well, so there's more to do.  Sometimes I'll make a quick list for her.

She likes to have boxes to mark off since it gives her a sense of accomplishment.  Some days I'll make the boxes to decide how many times she'll play it, other times I leave that up to her.  I find out how much she likes a certain song or not.  (I've noticed she's not a fan of A B Bop... so I always add extra turns on that when I'm doing the picking!)

Sometimes I let her make the list.  She gets to decide, and write out the songs she's chosen (I LOVE watching her phonetic abilities blossom doing activities like this!  The spellings are so creative and thoughtful!)

My only musts are that she practices both her new song, and the one just before it.  This ensures that she won't forget a song right after she passes it off and she has a nice library of songs to play whenever he heart desires.

2. Step back.  It's SO hard as a mom to not get in there, but I have to tell myself I've given her all the preparation she needs, she really needs practice working things out on her own.  I'll walk by occasionally and give her a hug or a compliment, and remind her to play on her fingertips.  Sometimes when I hear her getting frustrated, I'll slip in and help her practice the difficult parts.

3.  Check in.  When the list is all done, she comes and tells me and I usually ask her to play her new piece for me.  I give encouragement and advice, and if it isn't perfect I have to bite my tongue, because I know she'll get there eventually as long as she tries every day.  Heck, her last song took at least 3 weeks of tears and sweat to learn, but when it was finally there, there was dancing and rejoicing.  Worth all of the tantrums I had to work overtime to avert!

And when she's done, we move onto the next activity.  She ends up back at the piano throughout the day to play something familiar, show off to daddy or work on the latest song, but I let her play on her terms then.  Structured time is over, and I think an instrument should also be played.  Come by tomorrow for the anatomy of one of our violin lessons!

Practicing tricks: face graffiti

I got some of the "I can't DO IT!!"-s the other day, and after saying "Serenity now!" a few times in my head, I saw a sheet of stickers.  New rule - for every part played correctly, she got a sticker on her face.  It was so random and unexpected that she started giggling and I knew I had won.  S-U-C-C-E-S-S, that's the way you spell success!!  Woohoo!!

It reminded me a bit of Becca's awesome bead idea, because I was kind of arbitrary about when I decided she'd played enough right to earn a sticker.  It kept her on her toes and out of the crabby zone.

Funny thing - the sticker I put on her chin was of a planet, and as I quickly put it on there and tried to move on, she had to know which on it was.  "It has rings," I said impatiently.  "So it has to be Saturn."

"But Neptune has rings too!  Are you sure it's Saturn??" She asked, and after pulling it off and analyzing it for a bit, declared - "It's blue, so it's definitely Neptune."  It's so fun having a 4-year old resident genius!

Practicing tricks: hat trick

What do you do when practicing the new song is pure torture (on both of you)?

Common sense says when a something is difficult, to break it up into smaller, workable pieces.  The latest song is 4 lines long, so we broke it down by line.  I asked WonderGirl to find me a hat, and wrote 1-4 on little slips of paper and put them in.

She had to wear a hat of her own, of course.

Then, she would pull a piece of paper out of the hat and play that line.  The novelty of the unknown was enough to disguise the fact that she was playing every section multiple times.  

I have to admit, I was surprised it worked - and for two days in a row, even!  Every little bit of trickery helps!

Practicing tricks: 3-armed pianist/violinist

The latest song in WonderGirl's piano book feels like a brick wall.  She's been doing so well, she's actually been teaching herself the last few songs, but all of the sudden, this new song has created a crying, frustrated, angry little girl from what was - well, the exact opposite.  Does any teacher or parent love to hear "It's-so-hard-I-can't-DO-IT-BAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"?  Because I'm not so much of a fan.  I've been taking it easy - focusing on review to get her confidence up, but today it was time to attempt it again.  Almost instantly she was declaring it impossible, and I was about ready to give up as well, when I remembered this video we'd made:



Before she could get too hysterical, I slipped my arm around her waist and declared I would be playing the left hand for her.  The sensation of a half-hug made her giggle, as well as the novelty of playing differently.  Her attitude changed, she was able to make it through the whole song within minutes and was excited to have conquered the "impossible."  Sometimes what we really need is a hug to clear our head.  I know feeling my little girl giggle and hug back helped me check my growing impatience.

We violin teachers know this is a common trick for violin lessons too - one person takes the bow and the other takes the fingers.  It's a welcome change of pace for a lesson, as well as helping the child focus more on one thing.  Do you have your own bad-mood busters?  I'd love to share them (and use them myself)!

Learning spaces

image via

One of Mr. Suzuki's great ideas was the foot chart.  A young student starts by standing on a mat that has their feet outlined in the correct positions for standing and playing the violin - genius!  Not only is it something personalized to them, but it also gives them a clear definition of their learning space.  Have you ever tried to teach your child in your own home and they kept collapsing on the couch or diving away from you for a toy?  Since I teach my WonderGirl in our living room - the same place where she wrestles with her brother, watches TV and builds castles with legos - the concept of the foot chart is essential.

I've modified it a tad to work with her diva nature...

This is a $9.99 piece of Ikea heaven.  When it's time for a lesson, the red carpet comes out.  For the first few lessons, she'd forget and try to wander off, but she knew exactly where to come back to when I reminded her.  It's her special place, our violin place, where she can focus despite the familiar surroundings.

she's kissing a llama.  obviously.

When it comes to piano, she always uses her purple chair.  It's not as exclusive, since she also eats every meal in it, but it's still something she insists on that makes a big difference.

How do you create a learning space in your home?

Post-vacay playing and mashmallows

This is a magical, magical bag.  You know how a child will eat all the marshmallows out of their Lucky Charms before they get to any of that "healthy" cereal?  This solves the problem for the kid in you!  A bag of nothing but cereal marshmallows!  I found these in Iowa at a wee Mennonite grocery store that separates bulk items.  Oh, the possibilities for rewards/bribery!!!

Take a few weeks ago.  One of my students had just come back from a very well-documented vacation to Disney World (at one point I had to stop checking their family's blog - it was torture!) and his mom was thinking we should skip the lesson because he hadn't had a chance to practice during the trip.  I completely agree with the no practicing part - by the way - I'm no Tiger Mother - and a vacation should be exactly that!

Anywho, instead of skipping, I thought it would be good to have a bit of a lesson anyway to slip him back into the piano by making sure we warmed up his good technique.  A week or so off the piano, and it's all about sagging wrists and flapping fingers.  We started at the beginning of the Alfred Technic book and played through all the old warm-ups and etudes.  It was good practice, but made even better because I grabbed my sack of these dehydrated marshmallows and put one of the back of each of his hands at the beginning of each song.  If he could make it through the whole piece without a marshmallow slipping, into his mouth it went.  I've never seen a 7 year old so alert and attentive in a lesson...

At the end, he was slightly keyed up (the marshmallows are small, and though they're mostly sugar, I'm pretty sure he didn't ingest close to the lethal amount) and ran downstairs to his mom to declare he'd just had the Best Lesson Ever.   And I agreed.  It was simple, it was all review, but it was also very productive and a great way to remind him of all those pesky technique things I'm always hounding him about.  I'm totally filing this away for my kid's post-vacation practice and lesson sessions.  Of course... this means I need to start planning some vacations...

P.S.  You don't have to find a Mennonite grocery to get some of these.  Search for "dehydrated marshmallows" and the internet won't let you down.  I found some for you here! 

Practice time in Fort Rox!

Our afternoon schedule involved piano practice, making a fort and watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  We decided to save some time and combine the first two.

My forts/tents are usually a disappointment, but this one was awesome!  I took 2 music stands and put them on either side of the piano, then a microphone stand behind her chair.  One sheet clothes-pinned to all three, and then instead of using two more sheets, I used the sheer curtains we've just had to take down from her room (the Dude wouldn't stop playing in them - he broke the curtain rod!) and used clothespins to attach them to each side.  Voila!  We actually had some sun today, and it felt great to have it shining through her fort walls.

We're making the transition to reading music, and it can get poor WonderGirl in a tizzy lately.  So today, I decided to have her go through all of her old songs and review them so she could get her confidence back up.  Playing in her own special fort didn't hurt either :)

Sunday inspiration: Duh

This picture has nothing to do with the content of this post.  But doesn't it just make your day??

Time Invested In Practicing Pays Off For Young Musicians, Research Shows

We all know this, but when you add fancy numbers to it, it helps the resolve.  Save this article for one of those days when you're not sure if it's worth it.  (Spoiler alert: it is!)

Lesson/Practice Snacks

One daunting part about teaching my own kid the piano is the consistency.  When you have a private teacher, the weekly lesson is something concrete that you are committed to that forces you to keep up at least that part of your schedule.  Since I'm the teacher - and I'm also the mom to more than my piano student child - carving out our lesson and practice times can be a challenge.  We have a spot on our week devoted to a lesson, but of course, life happens and that time gets whittled away frequently by doctor's appointments, the flu and hysterical little brothers.

Our solution:  have a snack.  Some days we just can't devote a decent amount of time to a full-blown lesson or practice session, but that doesn't mean it has to be all or nothing.  If we don't have time for a lesson but have five minutes here or there, I tell WonderGirl it's time for a lesson snack and we sit down to do a few drills on her latest song together.  Or if I need to take care of something unencumbered for a few minutes, I tell her to have a practice snack and work on one piece (or piece of a piece).  Scientists say it takes 21 days to form a habit, so a bit of piano every day - even a snack - helps contribute to turning WonderGirl into a piano junkie!

Piano hacking

Here's a plus side to not owning a real piano - you'd NEVER do something like this to one!  In one of our stacks of teachery stickers from the dollar store (in the school supplies section) I found these two thumb stickers.  How perfect is this for middle C position??  Where do the thumbs go?  On the thumb, woohoo!

Also, I used a dry erase marker when we first started to name some of the notes, but I kept losing it.  But we always have crayons everywhere - and they rub off cleanly on their own, or with a little Windex.  So now at the beginning of a lesson, WonderGirl gets the job of writing the names on the notes. It's good practice, and she gets the thrill of doing a little mom-sanctioned graffiti.  Do you have any hacks for the piano?

Practicing practicing

“It's a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get”. Arnold Palmer

It turns out children don't come out of the womb knowing how to practice.  They need to be taught to play the instrument, and then they have to be taught how to how to play it on their own.  I came to that realization as a young college student when the parent of a 3 year old student lamented to me that she'd send Suzy to her room with her violin, but she just wouldn't practice.

Now that I've had a 3 year old, that seems a bit daft.  I couldn't even get WonderGirl to get herself dressed without her forgetting what she was doing mid-task and meandering off wearing nothing but underwear and one shoe.  We have to teach kids to use a toilet, blow their nose, brush their teeth, hold a fork, so it makes sense that teaching practicing is just one more skill to put on our agenda.

Right now I'm in the process of teaching WonderGirl (age 4) to practice the piano, and we're having luck so far, remembering these simple rules:

• She has no concept of time.
• She needs a list.

It's my fault, partially.  When I say "In a minute," I can mean anywhere from 10 seconds to tomorrow.  So requesting she play for 15 minutes is basically asking her to sit on the piano bench and play with her hair.  I have a pad with charts that we use with Elmo on it, so it is thereby motivationally awesome.

Since she's usually practicing during the 1 year old's naptime, I have her play with headphones.  I give her specific instructions of what to play (i.e. "this page 3 times, then that page 3 times, then all together 4 times, etc.") and mark each box off with each time played, and when that's done, she needs to unplug the headphones and play for me (and a few stuffed animals) a concert of what she worked on.  When she has filled a whole page up, she gets some kind of reward.  I've only had one student that worked better with a set amount of time - every other student liked being given a checklist.  Including yours truly.

The trick is - she did everything I asked, and when she's done with that - she's done. Less whining, more playing, then off to the next adventure of the day.  So woohoo, teaching the art of accomplishing - accomplished!! (for now;)