The Value of Practice, pt 2

Practice Misconception #2: Students will be self motivated to practice and know how to schedule it on their own.
Truth: Humans of all ages can struggle investing in the process that leads to outcome, especially over time. Motivation ebbs when things become challenging or there are competing interests. Motivation can definitely waver when schedules are busy. Few personalities come with good discipline already on board and for those who do show strong focus and stamina at the start, they need that quality nurtured. Discipline is a skill that is learned and young students are just beginning to develop all of their skills and habits.

It is often difficult to find time to practice
and yet it is the most important thing your student will do.

For students who may not have hectic schedules, they, too, are just setting out on the path to developing this important life skill and they also need assistance. What can you do?

Make practice routine, expected and prioritized.
Normalize it!

Avoidable Pitfalls

AP #1: Avoid allowing practice to be "one more thing" to do. 
One way this can be done is to attach practice to another process. We all have our routines. When someone wakes up in the morning they have a routine they typically follow. Grab a glass of water, go for a run, grab a shower, breakfast . . . Instead of having five or six separate tasks, it’s all lumped together into one routine. It all gets done with less stress and fatigue because it’s always been done this way and is a set and expected routine. A habit!

The same applies to practice. If it isn’t scheduled, if it’s just one more thing to fit in, especially when students are mentally or physically fatigues, it will be stressful and undesirable to do. However, if it is rolled into another routine--attached to something else—the stress of having to “fit it in” goes away and a positive habit develops and positive habits carry students during challenging times or periods of low interest-which all are perfectly normal in anything we do!.

Attach practice to another process.

Example routine: I come home from school, grab a snack and sit at the keyboard for twenty minutes on Monday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, I come home from dance, have a snack and sit at the piano for twenty minutes.

Practice is attached to the post-event snack in this scenario and can also be considered part of the back-at-home routine.

AP #2: Avoid having an inflexible practice schedule.
There is no reason practice must be scheduled at the same time everyday or even done in one sitting if that doesn't work for your student. Find the schedule that works best, knowing it might need regular tweaking. There is also no reason to feel badly if things don’t go to plan one day. What to do?

Simply re-commit to the routine the next day.
One day is easily recoverable.
Two or three days becomes the start of a habit.

Going out of town is outside of normal routine and typically won't negatively impact a home practice routine. If for one reason or another, the practice schedule falls apart for more than one day at home, simply re-commit, knowing it might require a bit more dedication for awhile to rebuild and get back on track. Never give up! Life is about the journey and there's a lot of opportunity at every turn.

AP #3: Avoid doing a week's practice in one day or a couple of long sessions.
What matters most is that practice happens regularly. The more often a student sits at a keyboard, the more likely they will be successful. Every night when we sleep, our brains are logging memories from the day. Neural pathways are being built and strengthened. The more we can engage in this process during the week, the better.

Ten minutes daily is far more beneficial
than an hour on the weekend.

In addition to what happens when we sleep, breaking up learning throughout the day also yields better dividends. The brain most effectively builds neural pathways with learning followed by rest. Then not too much later repeating the process. This is why I strongly recommend students review their lesson assignment later the same day of their lesson and don’t count their lesson as practice. (Practice prior to lesson is also a great idea!) 

When memorizing music, it's often wise to do your heavy work early followed by short "reminder" run throughs interspersed throughout the day. Correct practice is vital to this neural process, but we’ll talk about that in another post.

I have seen countless times the immensely positive effect of regular practice & parent/sibling assisted practice.

Wrap Up Reminders: Those students who have support excel tremendously and get through the expected periods of wanting to quit. I have also seen that many students benefit from this one on one time with a parent or sibling in other ways and enjoy it. Students who have consistent help not only progress at a faster rate, they do so with more joy in the process.

I don’t expect any student to become a concert pianist. Concert pianists make themselves. But I do expect my students to be given every chance, and to take every chance, to discover their capability.

Every student is an individual. Some students are self motivated (this is a rare personality at young ages!), some students have several years behind them, some students come to learning at an older more “put together” age, but even these students benefit from parental/sibling involvement at some level. Involvement in this case might be in the form of positive encouragement, ensuring practice happens, answering questions or being aware if any frustration or issues that arise and letting me know.

The help a student student receives on the days
I am not with them is critical!