Last week, we introduced Carol Dweck's concept of Fixed vs. Growth mindsets and how to encourage a growth mindset in students. But it’s not just the students who need to watch out for this - you, the teacher, can practice this too. You might be thinking in a fixed mindset and not even know it! As a … Read More

People react differently to obstacles and failures, and that fact is especially apparent when you teach. Some students may react negatively to challenges, attributing their failure to themselves or feeling like they’re incapable of understanding a concept. Others may react positively to a challenge,… Read More

Do you close your studio for the summer but want students to keep practicing over break? Let Better Practice’s smart engine help you and your students stay productive - whether it’s a month or three, students will stay up to date and not lose any skill that they worked on previously. How does it wor… Read More

Spotlight: Violet and Hazel both have practice streaks of over 1558 and 1685 days (as of April 23rd) - that’s over 4 years of practicing every day! Can you imagine practicing every single day for a year? (Yes, like that New Year’s resolution that you abandoned in the 2nd week of January.) Really pi… Read More

Teachers play an important role in the lives of their students. Many young people are shaped by their instructors from a very young age and you can see the effects of that shaping quite clearly. In terms of music, teachers are responsible for teaching their students how to play their instrument and … Read More

There are people who practice a lot and don’t improve much, while others seem to practice half as much progress quickly. What’s their secret? How are they different? What are you? Well, ruling out the exception of superhuman music prodigies, the latter are the ones who how to practice effectively. W… Read More

As the next academic year looms ever closer, it might be a good idea to start thinking of the types of activities you can plan to inspire and motivate your students, both new and returning. Every teacher has been there: your students come back after vacation unprepared, disappointed to be back in sc… Read More

Every student is different, thus every student is motivated by different things. Some are motivated by stickers and prizes - others, not so much. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make it easy for us teachers. Here, we will briefly explain the 6 types of motivation (brilliantly laid out by Royale Scuderi … Read More

Practicing on vacation is an often-debated topic. Many emphasize the importance of mental and physical rest (at least for a short time), while others don’t see traveling as a reason to stop practicing and improving, especially if they love doing it. Maybe you got a big gig that unfortunately falls r… Read More

Sometimes students go into lessons really wanting to learn. Others are put into lessons by their parents. Many are totally new to music and lessons in general. Why should you have these conversations with your student? Without these conversations, you and your student’s goals may be misaligned, they… Read More

This is a continuation from last week's article: How To Make A Habit Stick. Make sure you read that first to understand the steps we use below! This week, we'll explain and provide examples on how you can use these rules to create good practice habits. Use this worksheet to create your habit plan us… Read More

For a typical music school, 80 percent of students are youths. This means families are involved. Families are invested (in their child's growth but also... financially). They are the ones who pick up, drop off, sit through lessons, figure out the assignments and make sure their kids practice during … Read More

Whether it is to fulfill a life-long dream, relieve stress, or pursue an interest, more adults are taking music lessons these days. Teaching adults can be a completely different journey from teaching children; there are many differences, some of which are handled by the method books you choose, but … Read More

The advance of technology has gotten a bit of a bad rap lately with the killer robot movies and technology-is-going-to-take-your-jobs mentality. I’m not saying those aren’t legitimate fears (it’s already becoming all too real) - but there are ways to leverage what’s available and appealing to the yo… Read More

My music students aren’t motivated. How can I get them to be? Well, instead of looking to build their motivation, why don’t we look at it in terms of energy? Motivation is really linked to how much energy and momentum the student is feeling. If a student just aced a song and they’re really proud of … Read More