Music Practice Tips

For a few years when I started teaching, I thought “This is a sinch, all I need to do is turn up to their lessons, hear them play, offer tips, teach a couple of new techniques every now and then, and I get paid for this. Fantastic!” However, as I progressed, I discovered that I really needed to do a little bit of work for my students, and even just a little bit of work will help them progress much faster and make things more interesting for me.

As I said, I used to just rock up to lessons and expect the student to have done something and have something to show me. That really isn’t the best way to teach, because you’re making no effort for the student, so why should the student take any effort for you? Taking a few minutes each week to make some notes will pay off, as the student will see that you’re making an effort for them.

Two-Fold Notes

The way I make notes is two-fold. First, I plan out some ideas as to what I want to do during the lesson, and how I want to structure it. Some of the things I think about in structuring it is the attention span of the student (are they able to spend 30 minutes on one thing, or would it be better to break it up into 3 blocks of 8 minutes?), and what they’re working on. If they’re working on something for a performance the next week, then I’m more likely to spend longer on preparing them for that, where as if that’s not a pressing issue, I might want to introduce a new concept. I also plan out some ideas for some relief stops, things to do that are completely different than what we were just doing. This might be something like talking about the weekend, or the footy, or perhaps playing a piece of music, or possibly playing a game of some sort. Anything to put their mind on a different track so that when we come back to the instrument, they’re focussed again.

The second part of my notes are made either during or after the lesson. It includes anything that they worked on, what problems they had, what I asked them to do during the week, and also anything that they mentioned during the lesson that might be worth remembering. For example, in one lesson recently, a student of mine mentioned that she was going camping on the holidays. I asked whether it was up north or down south, and she said south. I made a note of this in my notes (I use a PDA to keep my notes, as I can then store them safely on my computer), and when she comes back after the holidays, I’ll ask her how her camping trip was.

This sort of thing helps the students to understand that you care for them, and are thinking of them during the week, and helps encourage them to practice during the week to work for you. If they’re working and progressing faster, you’ll have more fun teaching them, and it’s less likely that the parents will be on your back about their child not progressing.

Do you take notes when you’re teaching? Do you take notes about other things not mentioned here? What about some ideas for planning your lessons?