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.

I'm here! I'm here!

the carnage post-Christmas morning

Are you recovering from the whirlwind that was the end of the year?  Do you have a few New Year's resolutions (like me) about being more consistent with music lessons and practicing?  Well, I fit both of those - plus I resolve to blog more consistently too!

My wedding anniversary is coming up this weekend (number 7!) and it also marks the first anniversary of a conversation I had with my husband on the way home from a wee anniversary jaunt to Iowa (there's a sushi place with a roll that is worth the 3 hour drive, along with some wonderful family to boot.)  As we drove through the frozen Midwest I was talking about blogging and motherhood - and trying to figure out how (and if) I'd teach my own kids after a career of only teaching other people's kids.

Then, as usual, my husband had the perfect solution.  Combine them all together!  He even had the title of the blog figured out too.  He's truly the brains of this operation!  We got home (after a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, of course!) and this blog was born.  I started teaching WonderGirl and shared what I knew plus what I was learning.

Now, every year for our anniversary I make a video for my husband.  I take pictures and videos as much as possible during the year and put them all together to help us remember our blessings from the past year.  As I was making this year's video, I was kind of surprised by how much I had of music in our home.  I've been a professional musician since before the beginning of our marriage and my husband already played a few instruments, but by teaching the violin and piano to WG, the whole family became more musical.  We started playing more together, singing more, and we even made a Christmas album!  The anniversary video is full of us making music, without intending to.

Also, I look at how we started the year - I was too scared to teach WG violin, but emboldened  by teaching her piano, I gave it a shot, and we're ending the year with her already on O Come Little Children!  (for non-Suzuki folk, that's the 5th song in book one!)  I'm feeling incredibly blessed, and I'm lucky enough to have others on the same journey sharing their stories too.  Thank you for listening and giving me the opportunity to grow!

I'll leave you with the video if you want to watch.  And also with a disclaimer - DON'T PLAY WITH FIREWORKS IN YOUR BASEMENT.  I do not advocate it.  I can say from personal knowledge that I now know where our smoke alarm is.

Year 7 from Reva Paget on Vimeo.

Have a musical day!

Jingle Bell time

I've been a little stymied on what to post lately because sometimes it feels like I've written on everything I can think of about music education.  Which I know is false, but I'm also hip-deep in actually just plain doing it. WonderGirl is doing amazing at both violin and piano and I'm a happy mama.

Christmas is coming soon and is a fabulous opportunity to get kids to practice.  Taking a break from their regular music and getting to play familiar and fun songs is great for revving their desire to play as well as sight reading skills.  I'll post the piano books I'm currently using for WonderGirl, but today I have a treat for you violin parents out there - I whipped up a version of Jingle Bells that I've been teaching WG.  She's pre-reading, so I used this easy notiation my mom used to use with me.

Blue notes are A string, E is red, and it's pretty easy to follow.  It's a lovely step to getting a student used to getting outside of their violin box without distracting them too much from developing their technique.  I use this kind of notation along with aural and verbal teaching songs until about the minuets in Suzuki book 1.

I started teaching this to WG last week and she has it memorized by now - it's a very simple tune for just about every instrument.  She's even going to be playing it for her school's Christmas program!  *squee!!*  If you want to see Christmas songs or other song examples in this notation, I'll whip some of those up too.  Have fun!

Rockin' the suburbs

Old McDonald Tune by user9552426

This isn't directly Treblemaker related, but it is musical - and hilarious.  I had some evening meetings for church last week so the husband and WonderGirl put this little ditty together.  They were inspired by this fabulous book Aunt Sarah sent us:

Go to the book website http://www.punkfarm.com for free punk farm song downloads.  Thank you Wisconsin (and Aunt Sarah)!!!


Enjoy!

Violin hacker

All music teachers have little tricks we use to help our students develop certain areas of technique.  I thought I'd share two things I've been using recently with WonderGirl on the violin.  First, these:

These Dr. Scholls cushions are just perfect for violin teachers, and you can find the at any pharmacy or grocery store.  They are small, soft and have a light adhesive so we can stick them anywhere and they come off easily.  I use one for her left thumb here:

It gives her a tactile reminder of where to move her thumb and keeps it from creeping up over the fingerboard.

I also use it on her bow to keep her pinky in check:

The other thing I'm using lately is a Bow-Right:

It's guides her bow and helps her to notice the difference between using her elbow as opposed to her shoulder.  It's a handy thing to use, and it helps to have it there so I'm not constantly harping on her to use her elbow and I can focus on other things.

Do you have any tricks?

Super-de-Duplo

The fabulous Desiree gave me a heads up to this wonderful blog chock full of music teacher helps and theory games.

How amazing is this idea for teaching meter with Duplos??  My mom actually has a game very similar to this that I've been planning on posting since forever, but I haven't taken the time to dig through the basement and find it since our last move.  Using the first Duplo to determine the time signature, you can have your kiddo find proper beats to fill the measure.  And the best part is, on the original post - the author included a free printable with all the notation you'd need!!  The possibilities are endless.  Thanks so much for sharing, Desiree!!!

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!