Practice

I think I may have written about this before in a previous life, but it’s always a good one to pull out and renew now and then. I was provoked into thinking about this in more depth this week when a young student asked how he could encourage a student of his (adult) to practice in order to achieve his grade 7.

It’s always an interesting thing to unpick, that of practice of course, but also that of teaching the older student.

So let’s break things down. There are two very different questions at play here:

1. How do I encourage my student to practice ?

2. How do I help my adult student with practice ?

So how can this be broken down: Firstly, from experience, lack of effective practice is universal, children, adults (even me, I love to play the bits I can play but not the bits I can’t). Secondly what is it that practice is meant to achieve? That might sound ridiculous, as it’s meant to achieve ‘improvement at my instrument’, well of course it is, but it’s a bit like running a marathon when you’ve just learned to walk, you can’t possibly think you can do 26 miles the next day, nor will running 26 miles badly for weeks on end make you a better runner.

For ANYONE practice needs to be broken down. It also needs to be explicit.

Imagine a room full of toys, toys all over the floor, lego mixed with meccano, mixed with dolls and playdoh…invite your toddler in (or even your mum!) to tidy it away. What an overwhelming task! They don’t know where to start, it is chaos, there is loads and there is no structure. That is exactly what practise looks like to someone who has never been taught it.

My first advice is always to have a notebook for the student (anyone over the age of 16 can write their own notes). In this notebook, write in explicitly what you want them to practice ie: bars 4 - 8 in piece A using the finger pattern I have given you, or listening for the pitching, or aiming to get the transition over the break as smooth as you can. Be clear what it is they are needing to improve and show them how to do it. You can even record the correct way of playing the passage on their phone.

Don’t just say ‘Practise the Brahms’. That means nothing to anyone other than perhaps you who have critically assessed where it needs improvement and how. You may verbally give this information to the student, but in the early stages of learning, that is like being given instruction in Spanish when you’re learning German.

Make sessions short but achieveable. In the notebook, ask them to tick for each day they practise the bits you have set out. Obviously you can have more than one or two practise points, but make them explicit. If you can, find a technical exercise or scale that links to the issues they are having, arpeggio patterns or certain key signatures etc.

This will give them a sense of achievement and is also manageable for child or adult.

I also encourage scales and arpeggios. I ‘hated’ them as a student myself, but as a teacher I see their importance, not just for key familiarity, but for dexterity, for flexibility, for encouraging even tone etc etc. If you share these points with your students, they will also get why they are doing it rather than ‘teacher says I have to, and they’re sooooo boring.’

The second point is that of the adult student. Adult students may well have a very different agenda to that of a child. They also need a different approach with their learning as you, and more so, they, will likely not see the improvement as fast as they want or hoped for. Obviously as an adult, life gets in the way. They may set out with all good intentions but then stuff happens at work, at home, with the kids etc and this part of their life gets very neglected.

I do think it’s really important to have a good two way rapport with your adult students, ask them what their aims are. Remember for a lot of adult students, they may well not be after grades, but just want to keep their minds and brains busy or it might be an escape for half an hour a week from a ridiculously busy life. Practice for these students has to be even more manageable as they won’t have a supportive parent making their dinner or washing their laundry so they have time to practice. Bite sized chunks are the way forward. Obviously they may feel that achieving their grade five or performing somewhere is what encourages them to do the practice, so don’t dismiss that either, a focus is as good as a goal. But be realistic with them. I always talk to my adult students about them being kind on themselves. I point out the much smaller achievements even if they take longer and I really celebrate them.

So to recap:

1. Be explicit.

2. Write it down and play it for them if necessary.

3. Keep points short and be clear ‘why’ they are doing it.

4. Manage your and your students’ expectations.

5. Get them to keep a log/diary/tick chart.