This is a recap of a session that was presented at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, IL on December 17, 2009. The session was live-blogged on MusicEdMajor.net, and you can view a replay of the live-blog by visiting the Midwest landing page.
As music education students, we spend a large number of hours of our life practicing our instruments. However, we also recognize that this will likely not be the case for our future students, may of whom will not be planning on pursuing music as a career. This, however, does not mean that their practice habits should be ignored; these students are just as capable of performing great music as those who want to pursue music as a career. This presentation focused on strategies for increasing the productivity of student practice time.
Goal-Based Practice
One of the important principles that the presenters stressed was the need for goal-based practice. Setting goals for practice allows students to have benchmarks that are tangible and clear, which creates a significantly easier practicing environment than just sitting down with no plan. In addition, having students set goals for themselves allows them to experience self-evaluation, another extremely important skill.
What Can We Do?
As educators/directors, there are tons of ways we can help establish effective practice habits in our students. Here are just a few ways teachers can go about instilling productive practice habits in their students:
- Be clear in our instruction-84% of teachers say that they instruct their students on how to practice, but only 60% of students say they receive instruction. The point is not getting across!
- Alternate between slow and fast rehearsal tempos, rather than starting slow and gradually increasing speed. Research shows alternation in rehearsal tempo leads to a more rapid increase in performance tempo.
- Record and evaluate! This doesn’t just mean recording your rehearsals and listening to them later on your own (although this is a great strategy). Play the recordings for the students, and allow them to self-evaluate. Sometimes hearing yourself play can motivate you to fix errors that you hear.
- Use aural models where possible (singing what you want to hear, playing recordings, etc.). Research proves it is more effective. If you can, establish a “lending library” so students can check out CD’s to listen to on their own.
- Model your rehearsal around a practice session. If you find a passage that needs work, use practice strategies such as simplification, mental rehearsal, and varying tempo with the full ensemble. Be sure to point out that these techniques are just as effective in individual practice.
Two Types of Practice Strategies
The presenters highlighted the fact that there are two types of practice strategies, each vital to the success of a performer:
- Playing Strategies-These are practice techniques that are utilized through performance. Playing strategies include simplification, mapping, and varying tempo.
- Non-Playing Strategies-These techniques can be utilized without an instrument, and are sometimes more effective than spending time repeating the same passage over and over on the instrument. These techniques, including score study, mental practice, and using a notebook to track progress, can usually be used anywhere, and can foster greater music-making upon return to the instrument.
This session was extremely informative, and highlighted many research-based strategies for improving the productivity of student practice time. Thank you very much to Bill Bauer, Stacey Kolthammer, and Matthew Schattt from Case Western Reserve University, for sharing their thoughts on the topic!
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Photo Credits: Front Page Image – Gil Searcy, Student – Cehwiedel
Disclaimer: This post is a summarization of the thoughts/ideas presented by those leading the session. All thoughts/ideas are the intellectual property of the credited clinicians, and are in no way intended to represent original content developed by MusicEdMajor.net.
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