I Want MORE Music! The Ultimate Practice Incentive

I am very blessed to have some very hard working students.  There are times, however, when students fall into a sticky-stucky, icky-yucky pit full of excuses as to why they just can't practice (it happens to the best of us.)  I've discovered a resolution that might blow your minds, but will certainly help your students blow you away!

Give your student MORE music!  That's right, I said it, and I do it, and it works.  This Ultimate Practice Incentive might surprise you.  It might even have you rolling your eyes, scratching your head, or saying things like, "Is this teacher CRAZY?!"  While the latter might be slightly true, this has proven to be a successful way to unstick my stuck students and give them a positive and educational practice incentive that parents, students, and teachers are happy about.

Here's what you have to do:

First, have your students create a practice log in a notebook.  Have them decorate it, give them stickers to put on it, just to make it fun!  This practice log should include the following:

Date |  Beginning Time | Ending Time | Total Practice Minutes | Total Minutes to Date

Here is an example of how your students practice log might look:

Date       |  Beginning Time | Ending Time | Total Practice Minutes | Total Minutes to Date
9/16/13           3:10                  3:35                       25                              25
9/18/13           4:45                  5:15                       30                              55
9/19/13           5:00                  5:30                       30                              85

Set a goal for your students, either weekly, monthly, or quarterly (whatever works for you).  Goals should be attainable.  Make sure each student has goals that work for them.  For example, one student might be able to do 400 minutes a month or more, while another might only be able to do 300 or less.  Get into a routine of having them or their parents log their practice minutes  The practice log should be checked by the teacher on a weekly basis.  Give them sticker rewards for reaching a fair number of minutes per week.  After your students have gotten into a logging routine introduce the Ultimate Practice Incentive.

The Ultimate Practice Incentive
Offer musical prizes in the form of, you guessed it! MUSIC!  Make sure the music is fun and engaging. Themed music works well. Also, students love being creative so you can take this opportunity to compose a song as one of your musical prizes.

Here is an example of one of my UPI's:

120 minutes of practice = 1 new Halloween Song
130 minutes of practice = BONUS 2 new Halloween Songs
140 minutes of practice = DOUBLE BONUS 3 new Halloween Songs

You'll have your students out of that icky-yucky pit in no time!

So, give it and try and let me know what you think of this idea or if you have any other Ultimate Practice Incentive ideas.

Jennifer Lorys
Jennifer's Musical Moments

Napkins, Ping Pong, and the iPad: Letting Your Creative Juices Flow

Being a piano teacher is a wonderful gift.  I get to share my love of music with others (oh, and I actually happen to know a lot about it too!)  Jennifer's Musical Moments offers in-studio (at my place) and in-home (at your place) piano lessons.  That means, in essence, I have two studios.  One studio being my place of business, and my other studio being my "Pianist. Will Play for Chocolate" tote bag.  So, while being a piano teacher is a blessing, being a traveling piano teacher can sometimes leave me scrounging for new and inventive ways to teach a concept using [sometimes unconventional] household items.

Here is a glimpse into some of my more recent, on the spot, tools I've used to teach. 

Napkins

I needed one of my students to play an entire piece of music without looking at his hands.  He looked like a bobble head bouncing his head and eyes up and down to check the notes, then check his fingers on the key. I then had an "ah-ha" moment.  The "Napkin Song" was born.  Napkins are perfect for covering fingers and hands.  They are lightweight and they gracefully lay on the hand.  Anytime we need to work on building trust in our eye to hand coordination, the "Napkin Song" works wonders!  

Ping Pong Paddle and Ball

I used this fun activity to show rests (beats of silence) in the music. Rests can sometimes (actually all the time) be challenging for students to do.  Some students simply skip over them as if they don't exist.  One of my students was having difficulty feeling the rests in her song so I immediately came up with an idea.  I needed a percussion instrument (besides the piano), however, there was none, so I found the nearest ping pong paddle and ball and created my own instrument!  I told her every time you have a rest in your music, I will bounce the ping pong ball off of the paddle.  If we don't hear the bounce, that means you were playing and you skipped your rest.  After lots of laughs, and us changing roles as piano player/ping pong player, we successfully accomplished an understanding of the rests in the song, all while making some pretty fun sounding music!  

iPad

The iPad is a common tool for piano teachers to use in teaching students.  I really wanted to incorporate more ear training into my students piano lessons.  I decided to use the family iPad to record excerpts of pieces for the students to transcribe by ear.  The students LOVE this activity.  It's great because they can work on developing their aural skills, not just in the lesson, but throughout the entire week, and once they've accomplished the task of actually deciphering music without written notes, they show their excitement by smiling ear to ear and asking for another tune to tackle.  You can also use the iPad for other fun things like recording the teachers duet of a song for students to practice along, or simply just capturing successful musical moments with your students.  Trust me, they will cherish these musical memories!

Fall Is Coming (Fall is Here)

Jennifer Lorys

Jennifer's Musical Moments

Here is a little song I composed for my four year old student.  It can be used for students three and up. For three-six year olds it can be taught by rote or by note reading (if the student is at note reading level.) For older students who have experience with chordal accompaniment, the music itself can be used as an ear-training and composition tool by having the student create a left hand accompaniment that will work well with the melody! 

Lyrics:
Fall is com-ing.  
What do you see?
Leaves are fall-ing.
What co-lors can they be?

Materials:
1. Fall is Coming (Fall is Here) sheet music.
2. Five leaf cut-outs made of construction paper each with one letter of the musical alphabet written on both sides.  (The colors I used are red, brown, orange, yellow, and green).  Choose which letters you would like to focus on most.

Instructions:
1. Sing the song, two or three time through, and create hand movements to go along with it.
2. Play through the song, teaching the student either by rote or note reading. (For fun, once the student learns the song well, the teacher/parent can add an accompaniment to play along with the student).
3. After playing the song, have the student pick a leaf of his/her choice. (For extra fun, throw the leaf in the air to imitate it falling from a tree!)
4. Have the student play the letter of the chosen leaf on the piano.  For an extra challenge, have the student find each key of the chosen letter from high to low.  This will imitate the leaf falling down from a tree as well.


Do you have other fun ideas to add to this activity?  Can you share some other fun Fall activities for you and your students to do?