Piano Practice--Our New Method

I've been teaching Connor and Mylie piano lessons for the past few years now. It's definitely been an up and down experience, I'd say. There has been progress, but it has been in spurts, and the motivation definitely comes and goes.   Last fall, I became very frustrated with what was going on with their practice sessions. They were just going through the motions at each practice session--just putting in their time. They weren't fixing any mistakes, and just continuing to play the same half-hearted way each day until they heard that blessed sound of the timer beeping, letting them know that they were off the hook for at least another day.  By Christmas break, I realized that we were really struggling and hadn't seen much progress in their ability level for quite a while.  I knew that in order for something to change, something had to change!  

I decided I needed to think about the science behind talent, which I have read about and studied in Daniel Coyle's fabulous book, The Talent Code.  I knew that my kids weren't getting into that mode of "deep practice," which is needed for talent to grow and for improvement to increase.  But I still wasn't sure how to get them there.  Thankfully, Coyle has also written a fabulous little book called The Little Book of Talent which is basically a collection of practical tips based on his study of talent.  I decided to read it and see if I could find anything that might be helpful with my piano dilemma.  I read the first several tips, and although they were good, I wasn't finding quite the right things for my situation.  The next time I sat down to read, I decided to pray first and ask that I might be able to receive some kind of inspiration along with the information I needed to help my kids progress at the piano.  This is really important to me, and our loving Heavenly Father understood that.  As I read that night, idea after idea came to me. I finally had to get out of bed and grab my notebook and pen so I could write them down.  Thanks to The Little Book of Talent and some inspiration, I was able to come up with a method that we have been using since January.  Everything has not been perfect since then, but it has been incredibly better, and the rate of improvement has increased dramatically!  So here's what we're doing.

I decided that having "practice time" was just asking for them to go through the motions. Instead, we now have "practice tasks."  Each day, they have a list of tasks that they must complete in order to be done with their practice session.  Rather than "play through this song 3 times," the task is something like, "play two sections of this song, each three times perfect."  That way, they have to be working toward mastery, stopping to fix mistakes rather than just repeating the same ones over and over.  At the beginning of each practice session, I play through each song for them so they know how it should sound when it is perfected (blueprint in the mind to compare themselves to...very important!)  It has been amazing to see them dig in and truly practice, being determined to get it perfect rather than just get through it.  Once each section of the song has been mastered, then they put the song together and work on perfecting the entire thing so they can "pass it off" and move onto a new song.  At this point, they just play the song straight out of the book. They work on three songs at a time, as well as sets of flashcards or scales that also can be "passed off."

Here is how I divided up the songs into sections so they can focus on one section at a time rather than being tempted to just rush through the entire song.  First, I cut the songs into sections that make sense based on the phrasing of the song. At the level we are at, songs are typically 2, 3, or 4 sections.

Then I put the sections into a little ziploc bag. When a section is mastered (played perfectly three times) they put a star on that section so they don't accidentally do the same section the next day.

This may seem a little tedious. I'm not gonna lie, it is. But it is important to me that we spend our practice time better, and it is proving to be a much better way.  I typically sit down in a session and print, cut, and bag about 10 songs from each book we are working in.  From January to now, I have only had to do this three times, so it's really not that bad.

Next, we organize all this in a folder. The bottom picture is an example of a typical day's practice plan. (Note: In this plan, she is working on four songs. This is because we are preparing two songs for a recital, and so we are taking a break from flashcards or scales.)

Finally, a little MOTIVATION was needed. We decided on some incentives, and then made sticker charts to see their progress.  Each sticker represents one song (or scale, or set of flashcards) "passed off."   After twenty stickers are earned, there is a reward.  We decided that four charts would get us somewhere into the summer (we hope), so we made the incentives get increasingly better with each chart. The first chart reward was going out for ice cream or milkshakes. (And it was AMAZING how happy they were with that reward after, honestly, a lot of work.) The second chart was for an outing of ice skating or roller-skating.  Chart number three is for dinner or a movie, and the final chart will be a trip to Lagoon.  After that, we will start small again, and work our way up toward a larger incentive.

Of course, my hope is that somewhere along the way, the motivation will begin to be intrinsic, rather than extrinsic. For Mylie, I'm already starting to see some of that, as she'll go to the piano and play on her own at times aside from her practice. For Connor, I'm still waiting and hoping.

One final fun thing that we have done, is every once in awhile (maybe once a month or so), in place of their typical practice session, we have a "pop quiz day." I select a song that I feel is on their level, but that they have never seen before.  I set down a timer and a dollar on the piano.  They have fifteen minutes to try to play the entire song perfectly.  If they can do it, the dollar is theirs.  If not, they've had some good practice sight reading, and they get out of their "normal" practice, which is a good thing once in awhile.  They have liked that fun addition.

With this method, we don't have any official lessons. They just pass songs off as they perfect them, and the following day, they start a new song. This does mean that I have to be available during their practice time, since almost daily, they make an attempt to pass off a song.  But this is just one more small inconvenience that is worth it to me for the progress.

So, for any of you struggling to teach your own (or other) kids to play the piano, or another musical instrument, maybe there might be an idea in here that would be beneficial to you.  If not, maybe some of the concepts behind developing talent (deep practice, blueprint, chunking, motivation, etc.) may help you in your attempts to develop another talent.  If any of this is really interesting to you, check out Daniel Coyle's books. They are not only interesting, but will change the way you view talent and work to develop your own.