The Slider

Here's another way to practice a small section of music.  You can use this method for no more than one line, one phrase, or one "circle" (refer to the article "Circles" to learn why a circle is two measures).

Once you select the small section you are going to practice, you will need a piece of paper, or something the size of a piece of paper like a magazine or small binder.  This will be known as "The Slider".

Place the slider over your music so it completely covers the line you are going to learn.  Now slide it to the right just enough so that it uncovers the first count of your line.  The reason I say first "count" instead of first "note" is because sometimes two eighth notes or three triplets make up one count, and it can cause pauses in your rhythm if you learn each of them separately.  So, we learn one count at a time - in both hands.  Of course, if the piece is really difficult, learn hands separately, even while using the Slider.

Now play the first count perfectly three times.  If you get it perfect on your first three times, great!  If it takes you 9 or 10 times to get three perfect ones, then so be it.  Be patient and make sure you have it really perfect.

Once you are comfortable with the first count, move the Slider to the right just enough to uncover the second count.  Then play both the first and second count until you can play them three times perfectly.

Then repeat the process - moving the Slider to uncover one count at a time, and playing everything you have learned up to the Slider perfectly three times.

Ta Da!  You have one line, or section of your music perfect!  When you come back to practice tomorrow, review what you learned today, and then go ahead and get another line perfect.

Here's another trick you can do with the Slider.  It can help you memorize your line of music.  This time start with the entire line uncovered, and the Slider to the right side of the music.  Play the line (of course, without mistakes).  Then move the Slider to the left so it covers up the last count.  Play the line again.  Move the Slider again to cover one more count.

You will have to remember one more count each time you play through the line until the Slider finally covers the entire line, and you can play it memorized!

Happy Practicing!

~Connie~
The Piano University for Kids

What's an MPA??

After teaching piano lessons for over thirty years, I have heard a boatload of excuses for not practicing.  One that used to baffle me was when a student would tell me they "forgot" to practice.  I have discovered that "forgot" isn't really what they meant.  Students don't go through some sort of brain cleansing that removes the knowledge that they are taking piano lessons.  Practicing is always somewhere in their mind - sometimes in the very back, farthest corner of their minds.  But it's there.  I believe that a student will range from intentionally trying to escape practicing, to intending to practice, but the day just somehow gets away from them without it getting done.  The same person can feel differently about practicing depending on how difficult their assignment is, their mood, their health, what other activities are available, their relationship with their teacher, their parents, the environment, etc.

Some students have their practicing set firmly on a schedule.  They may practice exactly at 4:00 pm every day.  There is a trigger that reminds them to practice.  What is that trigger?  The time 4:00.  Other triggers can be used, like an alarm, to strengthen that reminder.

Some students who have a firm practicing schedule base their triggers on an event - like getting home from school.  It might not be the exact same minute every day, but as soon as they get home from school, the first thing they do is practice.

These are examples of the two main triggers we can use to remember to practice - TIME or EVENT.  Only I'd like to call them MPA's:

Motivation for
Practicing
Activation

(They are just more fun to say).

So...  here are some ideas for MPA's that might help your practicing get done.  Or at least they might be fun to try.

First of all, parent and student need to both agree to and commit to which MPA to use, and follow through with it.  (I know that sounds obvious, but if you make some sort of formal agreement, it will make it more binding).

TIME

Decide on a time that works best.  Take a good look at your schedule - maybe on Mondays' it's 3:30, Tuesdays it's 4:00, and Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are 4:30.  Once you decide on your time to practice, set some sort of alarm to remind you.  Remember - the alarm is king!  When it goes off, you don't get to wait, negotiate, or terminate!

DAILY EVENTS

It's best to choose an event that happens every day.  For example:

Eat breakfast

Eat dinner

Arrive home from school

Brush teeth

You could practice before or after any of these events.

Younger children have shorter attention spans, so sometiems it easier to break up their practicing into several very short sessions.  They could practice for three minutes after breakfast, school, and dinner.  

UNPREDICTABLE EVENTS

If you are the creative type, you can really have some fun here.  Here are some ideas to get your mind rolling.

Word of the Day

Write words on index cards that are fairly commonly used in the student's day.  You could start with a stack of about twenty.  At the beginning of each day, the student randomly selects a card.  When they hear that word spoken by a sibling, friend, or even on TV, they have to go practice immediately.  

Variation 1:  They practice for only five minutes - but every time they hear the word of the day.

Variation 2: Once you have used a word, pick a new word immediately.

Ring Ring

Every time the phone rings, it's piano time!

Pick a Card

Use a regular deck of playing cards.  The student must pick THREE cards.  If they pick an Ace through a 10, that is how many minutes they have to practice.  (Ace = 1).  If they pick a face card, it's a zero!!  Imagine that - there is a possibility that all three of their cards will be face cards, and they won't have to practice at all that day!  Of course, there is also the chance that they will draw three 10's and have to practice for 30 minutes.  Based on the age and attention span of the student you can adjust the practice times, or play it several times a day.

Variation 1:  You can create your own deck.  Older students may even want to make their own cards!

Variation 2:  You can combine this with another trigger.  For example, every time the phone rings, they have to pick a card.

Want Something?

Most kids ask their parents for things every day.  They ask for information, "Mom, what's for dinner?".  They ask for permission, "Mom, can I go over to Emily's?" They ask for treats, "Mom, can I have a popcicle?"

Well, Mom, if your answer is going to be yes - how about you make it worth a certain number of minutes practiced?  Information could be easy - like 1 or 2 minutes.  But bigger things could require as much as your student's age/ attention will allow.  

I really like this one because it's teaching them that they can work to earn things.  But that's just me.

Of course, the student may figure out that if they quit asking for things, they won't have to practice.  Then it's time to pick a different MPA.  

If you have some other ideas  for MPA's, please share them in the comments!!

Happy Practicing!

"Circles" Step Two

In "Circles" Step One, I talked about how to break up the piece into small sections of only two measures and draw a circle around it.  Then we looked for circles that matched, or nearly matched.  After doing that, there are usually only four or five "circles" that need to be learned.  If you practice one "circle" per day, you would learn the entire song perpectly in just under a week - just in time for your next lesson!

Now I will teach you exactly how to practice a "Circle".

First of all, you have to block out the rest of the music and only learn that one circle.  This kind of focus is really the whole point of this method of practicing, so if you let your attention wander to the rest of the piece, you are defeating the purpose.

Now you are ready to follow these steps to get your "circle" perfect.

1.  Practice the Right Hand alone until you can play it two times in a row PERFECTLY.

2. Practice the Left Hand alone until you can play it two times in a row PERFECTLY.

3. Practice hands together:

• Get all the notes perfect two times in a row.
• Keep all the notes perfect and add counting the rhythm out loud while you play it - 2 times perfectly
• Keep the notes and rhythm perfect and add in getting all the fingering correct - 2 times perfectly
• Keep notes, rhythm, and fingering perfect, and add in dynamics - 2 times perfectly
• Find the metronome speed that matches how you just played it.  Play it once with the metronome.
• Move the metronome up a notch or two (no more than five numbers, ie 60 to 65). Play it once at the new higher speed.  
• Move the metronome up another notch or two four more times.  Play it once at each new speed.
• Now close the music book and play your "circle" from memory three times.

Ta da!!!  You're done with that circle.  It is learned.  It is perfect. And it is even memorized!  

I know this looks like a lot of work, but it probably took me longer to type it out than it does to actually do it.  This whole process should only take about two minutes. The circle is so short (only two measures) that it only takes five to ten seconds to play through it.  

So if you practice for twenty minutes a day (the amount I recommend for my own students), you will be able to learn TEN circles every day.  If you are in beginning music books, you can probably learn ten pieces per week.  Your teacher will be absolutely beside herself with joy!

HAPPY PRACTICING!

CIRCLES Step One

The most common method I teach for practicing is called practicing "Circles".  I call it "Circles" because it all started when I would draw circles around a small section of my student's pieces and told them to only practice that one circle until it was perfect.  The assignment was to practice only one circle from each piece per day.

The results were amazing!  I had a beginning student in the Level 1 Method Books.  She was passing off two or three pieces each week.  I taught her this new way to practice.  She was already in the habit (reinforced by her parents) to practice for twenty minutes a day, so she had to keep learning circles until her time was up.  She passed off FOURTEEN pieces the next week!  And most of them were memorized!

This is the basic foundation that I teach almost all other practicing skills on.  There are some exceptions, but we will cover those in other articles.

So... let me explain how to practice "Circles".

Step One

Identify the Circles and Patterns

Here is an example.  This is a piece from a Level 3 Hal Leonard Method Book.

The first thing to do is draw a circle around the first two measures.

Then look for anywhere in the rest of the piece that this "circle" is repeated exactly the same.  Since you will have learned this circle perfectly the first time it appears in the music, you can skip practicing it when it comes up again.  Draw dashes through it diagonally.

Remember - it might repeat again - so check the ENTIRE piece.

Now look for "circles" that are almost the same.  This one has the same notes and rhythm, but the hands are switched - the melody is now in the Left Hand, and the harmony is in the Right Hand.  So even though it's a little different, it will be really EASY to learn because you've basically learned it already!

OK...  Now draw a circle around the NEXT two measures in the piece.  I have used a different color so it's easier to see what I'm talking about.

Now look through the rest of the piece to see if it repeats EXACTLY, or ALMOST the same.  It does not, so we draw a circle around the next two measures.  I circled these in green.  When we search for a repeat, we find one at the very end of the song, so I dashed it out with green.

That only leaves two measures, so we draw a circle around them.  I used orange this time.

Now look at how many "Circles" we have to practice.  There are five.  If we practice one every day until it is perfect, it will take us five days to get this entire piece perfect.  Just in time to pass it off at the next lesson!



I will demonstrate how to practice the circle to get it perfect in following articles...


HAPPY PRACTICING!! 

First Rule of Practicing

I have had all kinds of piano students.  I've had those who passed off their assignments every single week and progressed really fast.  I've also had those who didn't ever practice because they didn't even have a piano at home.  Of course, most students are somewhere in between those two extremes.  


I talk to the parents quite often about what is and isn't working at home with regard to practicing.  I have learned something quite interesting.  The piano students who are almost always prepared and move ahead faster than average all have one thing in common.

What that one thing is may surprise you.  It's not talent.  It's not focus.  It's not better practicing skills.  It's not coming from a musical family.  It's not getting help from mom or dad.  It's not which method they are learning.  It's not how much they enjoy their assignments.  

Are you sitting down?  Because the one thing that my successful students have in common is so simple, you may be shocked.

It's having a schedule!

Yes, it's that simple.  The parents tell me that they have a routine for the kids that includes practicing.  That routine is different for every home and every student.  Whether they practice in the morning, afternoon, or evening, they had basically the same routine every day.  

I recently had a conversation with a student that went something like this:

Me:  You did such a great job!  I can tell you really practiced this week.

Student:  Yeah.  I have to.  I come home from school and can take a break for a snack, but then I have to read for twenty minutes and practice the piano before I can do anything else.  Even watch TV!!

Based on my previous experience, this student will be one of the top achievers in my studio - just because he has practicing built into his routine at home.

I know it may seem too simple to have much of an impact, but I've seen so much success with it that it is definitely worth the effort of a try!