Better Practice Blog- One Minute To Becoming A Better Music Teacher
One Minute To Becoming A Better Music Teacher
“When you assume that people know what’s expected of them, you are creating an ineffective form of bowling. You put the pins up but when the bowler goes to roll the ball, he notices there is a sheet across the pins. So when he rolls the ball, and it slips under the sheet, he hears a crack but doesn’t know how many pins he knocked down. When you ask him how he did, he says, I don’t know. But it felt good.” - Ken Blanchard, The One Minute Manager
Do your students know exactly what constitutes a good practice session compared to an excellent one? Or bad? Are their bowling pins (goals) clearly visible to them as well as you, the teacher?
Many people become unmotivated when they cannot see clear and measurable goals for their actions. Blanchard likens the situation to a bowling game: would bowling still be fun if there were no pins? What about golfing at night, in the darkness? Why would people be motivated to do things that don’t have a clear purpose?
This is a logical train of thought - and yet, so many students still do not know how to define the quality of their practice. They can usually judge to the extent of the same, “I don’t know, but it felt good.” But how many pins did they hit? Did they miss any, and why? They wouldn’t be able to tell you.
1. Set clear goals
So, we have to help set up the pins for them. Make them very clear and very visible, so that even before they throw their ball down the lane, they know what they’re aiming for. It seems like most students practice with one very vague goal: to “improve”. We’ve got to get more specific to make the most of practice time. What’s the goal for this week? Do you want to bring up the tempo - and what BPM is your goal? Do you want to memorize a piece - and which pages/passages need work? Once students have measurable standards to reach (or not reach), they can start objectively rating their practice sessions and see what their weaknesses are and how they can improve.
2. Self reflect and rate each practice based on goals
Students should constantly be engaging in self-reflection of their practice - but you can read more about that here. Instead, how can we set standards to rate practice?
Recordings
Some teachers use recordings. At the end of each practice, the student will record what they worked on. If the recording is flawless and something they would purchase, it was a great practice. Maybe the recording is okay, but nothing they would buy. Or, maybe the recording is painful and embarrassing to listen to. This is a great way to rate improvement, especially since your harshest critic comes out when listening to yourself played back.
Rating Scale
In Better Practice, students have to rate each practice at the end on a 5 point scale from Awesome to Meh. Of course, these adjectives are very subjective and students may just choose what they feel like. It’s important to set standards for a rating scale so you know everyone is rating accurately, and so they know what they need to work on when they rate themselves lower. Here’s an example of a defined scale:
- Awesome: I can play it perfectly 3 times in a row.
- Good: I can play it once perfectly, but not 2 times in a row.
- OK: I can get through it, but with mistakes in rhythm and pitch.
- Fair: I can’t make it through the whole thing but am still working on it!
- Meh: Teacher, I need help!
Checklist
Another way to rate practice is with a checklist of all the things you should be checking for in your practice. With this, it’s easy to see where you need work and how much you’re improving. Here’s an example (ultimately, you want all of these answers to be zero or Y):
• I stopped/paused ____ number of times.
• I had ____ uneasy, almost-missed parts.
• I missed ____ notes. (Even the ones you quickly corrected! Don’t lie to yourself!)
• I forgot ____ expressive notes (dynamics, tempo, etc.).
• (Y / N) There is feeling in this performance.
(Also answer the following if this was a run-through):
• (Y / N) I would buy this recording! (Do you feel good when you hear it? Do you want others to hear it?)
• (Y / N) I know this song through and through. If, tomorrow morning, I were suddenly placed in Carnegie Hall with a full house, I could perform it and deliver a standing-ovation-worthy performance.The number one pitfall of practice is not having clear goals to work toward. Help your students first set clear goals for the week (the more specific, the better). Give students very clear standards for what makes a practice session good or bad, and everything in between. As you keep this up, students will naturally learn how to critique their practice from the eyes of a professional and be able to make the best of each practice session.