First week of Fall Semester!

We are finishing up our second week of lessons, and I am very proud of my students! They have been very honest with me about their practice times, which means I am able to make a strategy for them to get back into the swing of things.

Every student has a page in the front of their folder that lists the areas and times they need to use for a template of their practice time. Beginners have slightly lower practice times, but they will eventually work up to all the other students. The areas of practice are:

Technique - 5 finger patterns, scales, exercises etc.

Sight reading - the 1st time the student reads through a piece of music. After the first day of practice, these pieces can be turned into assigned pieces

Theory - all students except the very youngest beginners have theory they can work on, and most will be given new theory books next week.

Musictheory.net is a great tool for students. They can use the settings to start out easy, and then they need to change the settings to challenge themselves the more they do. Please let me know if you are having trouble using this website. I can send you a printout of the settings I would do for your student.

Assigned Songs - Most students are in lesson books, so they will have many songs assigned to them. Reading many new songs each week will help them to progress at a faster pace. If they focus on just one piece, or just technique as an example, they will lose the skills of sightreading I am trying to instill. Assigned songs do not need to be perfect. We will have recital pieces soon enough, for the Halloween mini recital, the Christmas Recital and the Spring Recital.

The more variation in the pieces they play, the more they will progress.

THEIR CHOICE! - This is a time at the end of their practice where they can do anything and it counts as practice. I have some who will improvise and not count it as their practice time, but this time is crucial to making piano playing a fun activity for them! Please encourage them to play their favorite pieces, technique or improvise!

MUSIC MONEY!

Many students have been and will be coming home with music money this week. The prizes can be purchased with their money every week during lessons. They earn this money for many things:

1. Writing down their practice time. They need to play at least 5 days a week, and their goal should be to get through every area listed above. Some days they will have more time than others, and that is just fine!

2. For every report they give me for musictheory.net I give them $1 of music money for every 10 questions, as long as they get at least 90% of the questions correct.

3. Having a great lesson! I have had a few students who didn’t think they did a very good job of practicing, but really made progress in their lessons.

4. Finishing hard pieces. Many students have chosen to do the 30 Piece Challenge, but I will also reward them for songs that challenge them.