In order to get the best results, it is important to realise how the Diary can help you, acknowledge ways it doesn’t help you, and adjust it to fit your needs.

 

In this Article I will outline the different ways teachers and students can use the Practice Diary.

 

The most important thing to remember is that the Diary is a flexible resource and that you can, and should, improve upon it so that it serves you in the best possible way.

 

Teachers

 

The main purpose of the Diary is to teach students how to practice music so that when the time comes for them to be independent from a teacher they know how to keep pursuing learning and playing by themselves.

 

The most important aspects of the Diary are that of reflective learning and making sure all aspects of music are getting the right amount of attention.

 

You will find that some students love using the Diary and they fill it in religiously while others barely look at it.

 

Whether your student fills in the Diary or not, it is still a useful resource in the lesson and just by keeping track of exercises and writing in it, your students will eventually come to see how it can support their learning… the information you give is better absorbed because they are hearing it and seeing it.

 

For some students, that’s all they need and they will remember what has been covered and find a rhythm in their practice that suits them.

 

What is important is that you use the Practice Diary to keep track of your students’ progress.

 

If they are reluctant to do the reflective work, spend the first part of the lesson discussing similar questions to the following:

 

• How do you feel about what you have or haven’t achieved?
• Are you excited about learning?   Do you feel demotivated?  Do you feel you are moving at a steady pace?
• What activities did you enjoy most this week?
• Which exercises were difficult or frustrating?
• Do you have any questions for your teacher regarding these?
• Are you experiencing any barriers toward playing music?
• If so, are they environmental or emotional or do they have something to do with your timetable?
• What could you do to overcome these barriers?

 

and simply write a paragraph for them in the space provided.  When you revise these reflections at the end of the Diary, they will see the benefit doing regular reflective work.

 

Another tactic is to get them to write in the reflective space, spending 5 – 10 minutes of the first part of the lesson doing this.

 

Just be sensitive to the literacy level of your student and always offer to help them.

 

It can be quite embarrassing for adults to have literacy problems, many do and many don’t admit it, so please bear this in mind when using the Diary with your students and support them as much as you can.

 

If your student simply doesn’t want to use the Diary, you use it to keep track of what you are currently doing in your lessons with them.

 

Circle exercises and write down comments during the lesson, so that in the next lesson it is easy to pick up where you left off.

 

This saves a lot of time trying to recall where you are with a certain student and if you have many students, using the Diary really makes teaching a lot easier and efficient.

 

Explain to your students that the more information they can provide for you (i.e. how much time they spent on exercises, how often they practiced, what they practiced, reflective work etc) the more you can guide and help them and the faster they will be able to learn and the more value-for-money they get.

 

This may encourage them to use the Diary.

 

You can also experiment with pre-planned practice schedules or discuss with them ideas they think would work best for them and keep track of these in the Diary.

 

Don’t be disheartened if this resource doesn’t get used the way you intend it to be.  Everyone is different and everyone has their own way of doing things.

 

Use the Diary to illustrate how each of your students learn and help them to realise what works best for them.

 

That way, they will have a lot more chance of success.

 

Students

 

I am a list kind of person, so the Diary works well for me.  I have used it for about five years now and will probably always use it because it helps me to:

 

• Understand how I best learn music.
• Keep track of ideas, practice times and pages of books or scales I am up to.
• Calculate how much time I have spent on my own music during the week.
• Problem solve.
• Reflect upon my progress and much more.

 

I know that a lot of people are not “list” people and never will be and that’s fine.

 

You can use the Diary any way you wish and it’s just really helpful for your teacher and you to work together using this resource, writing down goals, achievements and keeping track of what you are focusing on.

 

Just remember the more you guide your own learning, through reflective practice, the better your relationship to music and your teacher will be and the easier it will be for you to eventually become and independent learner.

 

The Diary isn’t meant to be a resource you have to use forever.

 

By using the Practice Diary for a period of time you will eventually develop the mindset you need to ensure your future learning encompasses all the aspects of music necessary for you to succeed.

 

Many people fail to continue with music because they don’t understand their own processes and have false expectations of themselves and the learning process.

 

This is why I developed the Diary.

 

• It tracks your motivation levels,
• Teaches you how you learn, and
• Gives you a realistic picture of what is happening for you in terms of your goals and what needs further work.

 

Don’t worry if the Diary in its current format doesn’t work for you, instead, think about what will help you to learn and try to put that into a useful format.

 

You may come up with a more brilliant version than what has been offered!

 

Remember, if you have any questions, please leave your comment below.

 

Comments don’t automatically go onto the blog, so if you are worried about confidentiality, you can just let me know that you would like me to answer your query personally.

 

 

 

 

Since I began writing this blog, it seems that my music career has become a lot busier and I’m really happy about that (though a little tired).

 

I’ll be honest with you.. I did start this Project with the idea that, with some work, I could possibly make some extra money to pay that extra bill but that hasn’t happened yet.

 

Maintaining this blog is a lot of work, and there is still so much more I could be doing to make it bigger and better but alas, like many of you I’m a little time-poor and practicing has got it’s priority, along with my family and my teaching business.

 

Often I ask myself, why am I doing this?  Why put on that extra pressure with no monetary reward?  And the answer is loud and clear.

 

Writing this blog for you is propelling me further into my music and that’s exactly what I want.

 

It is, in fact, exactly what this blog is about – inspiring music.

 

Since starting this project I have picked up more students, started gigging both in a band and solo, practiced more and made new music contacts both over the internet and in the real world.

 

I also love the fact that I can share my teaching and learning experience with you and hope that you are learning to love the music you are making too.

 

Every time I think about stopping, I simply can’t because there is some intuition inside me that tells me there is a lot more to come of this new experience (blogging) than I can ever imagine at the moment.

 

It has the same feeling for me as music always has.

 

I have often wanted to give up music, telling myself it’s a waste of time, I’m not good enough and nothing will ever come of it.   However, it turns out that music has ended up providing a great life and a living for me.  Who can complain about that?

 

It’s all been worthwhile but I could never have guessed when I first started in what direction music would take me.

 

I think that this is something to remember in your darkest musical moments.  Just stop and imagine giving it up.  What would you do instead?  Play computer games?

 

No, for me, it’s really important to trust that inner voice that tells you to keep going even when you are tired and fed up.  In fact, that’s a really good sign that things are actually happening.

 

So, this blog will keep going and I’ll do my best to bring you useful and entertaining articles.

 

I always love to hear your comments and ideas and you can post them right here!

 

 

It’s not a pleasant feeling to think you have to give up your dream or desire because you think music is not suited to you.

 

The good news is music is suitable for everyone to learn and everyone is suited to learning music.

 

It is a mistake to give up music before you have really started simply because you believe you or your child may not be any good at it.

 

What you may or may not realise is that you might not be getting what you need from your teacher and if you are struggling, finding a teacher who is suitable for you will make learning music or singing a totally different experience.

 

Just remember there is more than one method of teaching music and more than one way to learn music.

 

 

Are You And Your Teacher A Good Match

 

We all have different needs, different ways of learning and different personalities.

 

This means that every one of us has to find the right match in each of these areas if our learning experience is going to be successful.

 

Before you look for a teacher you may like to ask yourself:

 

1.            What do I want from my lessons?

 

• Do you want them to be fun or serious (or a balance of both)?
• What are your goals?  Do you want to take exams, perform, be able to join a band or write your own music?
• How often do you want to take lessons, how long do you want them to be?
• How much are you prepared to pay?  (And remember, it is usually a case of you get what you pay for).
• Do you want to do lessons online, for example, on skype or do you want to do them in person?
• What do you want to learn?  What instrument, How to read music, how to improvise, how to write, how to interpret chords?

 

Try to visualise what your lessons would look like and how you want to feel after them.

 

Ask yourself the above questions and more if you like.

 

The clearer you are on what you want, the more likely you are to attract the right teacher into your life.

 

2.            How do I learn best?

 

This is a big question and you may not know how to answer it.

 

Consider these options:

 

• Do you learn best in a relaxed environment or under pressure?
• Which of your senses do you favour in learning?  Do you remember something better when you hear it, do it or read it?
• Do you like to experience something first, then break it down later or do you like to spend time reflecting on something before you try it?

 

If you take a moment to think about your best learning experiences and how they occurred you will be able to work out what type of learner you are.

 

Here is a fantastic website where you can take a quiz, find out how you learn and what kind of teaching methods suit you.  I highly recommend it!

 

And for teachers, getting your students to do this quiz can inform you which methods of teaching you can employ to get the best results.

 

http://www.edutopia.org/mi-quiz

 

 

3.             What do I want my teacher to be like?

 

Be honest with yourself.

 

You may be the type of person that responds to a strict environment where the teacher pushes you and gives you grief if you don’t live up to their expectations.

 

Or you may be a person who needs space and time and gentle encouragement and not to be harshly dealt with if you haven’t managed to practice.

 

You may need your teacher to be more of a mentor and give you emotional support in your learning or you may need a teacher who strongly directs your learning and tells you what to do.

 

Try to picture what your ideal teacher would be like and try to get to know exactly how you would like them to teach you.

Once you have considered the above points, you should have a clearer idea of what you are looking for.

 

Just by knowing what you want and what you are looking for, a little magic happens.  Life tends to bring you what you imagine.  So just trust in that but also ask people if they can recommend any teachers or put an add in the local paper or explore the internet.

 

When you go for your first lesson, you can give the teacher a clear indication of what you are looking for and they will be able to tell you if they can deliver or not.

 

Also, it’s very, very important just to trust your gut instinct.

 

• Do you like the teacher?
• Did they make you feel comfortable?
• Are confident in their ability to teach? (don’t confuse this with their ability to play, some teachers aren’t the best players but they are great teachers and vice versa).
• Were they professional in their approach?
• Did the lesson seem worth the money you paid?
• Did you learn anything?

 

If the answer to all the above questions is “yes”, I think you have found the right teacher for you.  If your answer is “no” to even one of these questions, it may be a good idea to try someone else.

 

Remember, you may not always get on with your teacher, you may sometimes clash and that’s all part of the learning process.  If this happens you should be able to be honest and talk about these feelings with your teacher and you should be able to resolve them.

 

Building an relationship with your music teacher can really add to your quality of life and will support your learning for a number of years.

 

It’s well-worth taking time over choosing who will teach you and trusting your feelings if you are not happy with your teacher and finding someone else.

 

After all, giving up on music can be a great loss, especially when it makes you a better person!

 

One of the greatest mentors in my musical life has been Kenny Werner.

 

You may, or may not have heard of him but a lot of what I write in this blog supports his teaching style.

 

For those of you who haven’t heard of him, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you because I believe you can truly benefit from his resources.

 

I was first introduced to Kenny Werner’s work when I read “Effortless Mastery”.

 

What I gained from reading that book was an understanding that I already had the ability to play music, and all I had to do was know that and allow myself the freedom discover that music.

 

Of course, technique still needs to be practice along with everything else that goes with the study of music, but it was the way I studied it which would give me results.

 

Here is an example of Kenny Werner’s teaching:

 

Inspirational message from Kenny Werner

“The joy of playing is liberation.

The joy of practicing is concentration.”

Separating these two functions in our minds

solves the age-old problem of freedom versus discipline.

Instead of them being opposed to each other,

they can support each other.

Freedom is a great thing.

But freedom alone can be boring.

I once heard a great Rabbi say that the problem

with the 1960′s is that

people sought “freedom from, not freedom to . . . “

Isn’t that an amazing realization?

Do you get it?

Freedom without mastering form and technique

leads to stagnation and ultimately, boredom.

The true joy of life, the game, if you will,

is learning to find freedom in form,

mastering the forms and techniques involved in one’s art

until they are performed effortlessly,

until the body and mind can perform automatically.

Once those moves are committed to mental and muscular memory,

one may play with absolute joy and freedom.

…

Mastery attracts us because we have

the possibility of mastery inside us.

Study is the act that supports us.

Study is the preparation so the performance can be free and joyful.

But study with the assumption that greatness

is already present within you.

Imagine you are allowing that greatness to emerge

more and more by practicing your art or sport.

 

Every time I read Kenny Werner’s work I am inspired to practice, but practice with great love and concentration.

 

This has allowed me to continue enjoying my music at what ever level I am at.

 

And I think this is the most important thing to remember… It is no use believing you will be happy with your music “when you reach a certain stage”, because you won’t.  You have to be happy in your music NOW, even if you are the most basic of beginners.

 

• letting go of the ego
• being present and enjoying the simplicity the moment, and
• and allowing yourself freedom in your practice of music.

 

Here is the link to a great teacher who is sure to inspire your music and turn your world around.

 

http://kennywernerlive.com/

Although his lessons are simple, they are in depth and some will take you a lifetime to accomplish… but there’s no harm in that!

 

 

As you know, I have had trouble getting to the piano lately and so, the last practice challenge I posted was about just committing to 5 minutes practice per day, which I have done and will continue to do.

 

You also know that I implement all the challenges I give you too, and it has really improved my learning and progress on both keyboard and singing.

 

I just wanted to reflect on this particular challenge of consistency and let you know it worked extremely well.

 

Here is what I discovered.

 

• Because I made the commitment to myself of only 5 minutes per day practice, I felt guilty if I didn’t keep that promise to myself.
• By managing to practice (even if it was only for 5 minutes) every day I still made progress and kept on feeling good about my learning.
• Consistency is the true key to progress.
• I feel I have kept in touch with the instrument and myself.
• Much of the time when I sat down, even when I didn’t want to, I found myself staying at the keyboard for a longer period of time than I intended.  This practice time wouldn’t have happened had I not made that initial commitment.

 

 

I think this is one of the most powerful tools you can use to inspire practice even when you really don’t feel like it.

 

 

For any of you who implemented this, I’d like to know how you went.  Please leave a comment and let us know.

 

 

Lisa

Singing makes you feel as good as exercise does.

 

So, if you believe you can’t sing you are missing out on one of life’s great pleasures.

 

Sadly, the belief that “I can’t sing” seems to pervade our society.

 

However, it is one of your basic human rights to sing because singing is the ultimate form of self-expression and one of the best ways you can be heard.

 

In fact, it was Stevie Wonders’ song “Happy Birthday to You” that ultimately won the campaign to have Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday declared a public holiday, illustrating the power of song and the human voice.

 

And here’s the good news…

 

IF YOU CAN TALK, YOU CAN SING!

 

Don’t ever listen to comments about tone deafness because, as you will find out, this is one of the greatest myths about singing.

 

Throughout this month, I’m going to be writing about the process of learning to sing and in this first article we’ll talk about some of the things that may be stopping you and try to put some of those “demons” to rest.

 

1.            “Everybody used to tell me to shut up when I sang, so eventually I just stopped singing all together.”

 

I feel so sad when someone tells me this because what it amounts to is a child not being heard and not being valued.

 

As the child grows into an adult, they often become unconfident with music and with their ability to express themselves generally, and this can become a real life problem.

 

I’m not saying that learning to sing can heal this confidence problem all together but it certainly helps because it provides an outlet for the “child” (who is still living within the adult) to finally be heard.

 

I have to keep a box of tissues in my studio, because so many of the people I teach end up in tears on their first lesson simply out of the shear relief and joy of finally of making a sound, of finally being heard for who they are and overcoming one of their greatest fears.

 

2.            “Do I have a good voice?”

 

The answer to this question is simple.

 

“Yes!”

 

Everybody has a wonderful voice as long as they are authentic, however, authenticity can often be difficult for any musician to achieve, mainly because of fear.

 

Again, authenticity is about being seen and heard for who we really are.  It’s not about sounding “pretty” or fitting into a specified category.

 

Authenticity is about getting in touch with the your true individual sound, accepting it fully and not being afraid for it to be heard in all it’s glory.

 

I spent a good part of last month writing some in-depth articles about authenticity and what you need to practice to achieve it and you can access them here.

 

Warning! – these exercises may be confronting and you may not want to do them at all but they work.

3.            “I’m tone deaf.”

 

As I stated earlier, there is no such thing as tone deafness.

 

The reasons some people find it difficult to hear a note and then pitch are:

 

• (And this is the biggest one….) They haven’t yet learned to listen fully, and
• They haven’t tried to do it enough times.  (This harks back to the first statement, “Everybody used to tell me to shut up…”)
• Sometimes they are confused about the different timbre of sound.  For example, they may not be able to mimic the pitch when they hear it on the piano but they can mimic a pitch when they hear another voice do it.  This is often very easy to overcome.

 

Here is a wonderful video that gives you some explanation on what it means to truly listen and five exercises you can do to improve your listening ability.

I have taught many students who have not been able to hear a note and mimic it with their voice.

 

The first couple of lessons are spent on just trying to tune into one note, and providing the student has patience and a real desire to sing, they eventually end up being able to perform entire songs, a set repertoire and even perform in front of an audience.

 

Learning to sing and learning music is a fascinating, personal experience for everyone who does it and the purpose of this blog is to share those experiences, provide you with information and support you in that learning experience.

 

I have been teaching singing for about fifteen years now and if you would like to know more about my personal journey in music you can read about it here, warts and all!

 

Remember, if you’d like to talk about any of the points raised, please leave a comment and if you don’t want the comment published, just say so and I will answer you directly…

 

 

 

Music is an emotional, physical and mental activity.

 

When you are practising an instrument or singing, you can observe your responses to learning on these levels and use your insights to formulate the best way for you to progress.

 

The Music Made Easy Practice Diary is like a map and documents your learning experience helping you to stay motivated.

 

When you use the Diary you will create your own learning map and with this you will be able to navigate your music journey, giving you a greater chance of arriving safely at your various destinations.

 

If you are going to adjust the template, please make sure you consider these essential points.

 

 

1. A list of exercises

 

I have included some of the exercises I use for my students. There are various others and you will likely have some of your own to include.

 

The exercises which will always need to be practised, such as rudiments and scales, should actually be printed in the Diary.

 

These exercises are practised at different levels, for example faster or with more complex technique, but they are a constant in the routine, no matter how advanced a student is.

 

It is useful to put the exercises into one of the five main categories of music but you may need to change these categories depending on the instrument you are teaching.

 

For example, if you teach percussion, harmony would not be one of the main aspects your student needs to learn.

 

By dividing exercises into the main music aspects for your instrument you are making sure that the learning taking place covers foundations and are constantly being maintained.

 

Of course, some activities do have the capacity to exercise more than one area of music at the same time.  For example, scales with metronome is not only a technical exercise, it is also a harmonic and rhythmic exercise, so it is up to you in which category you wish to place it.

 

2. Space for individual exercises

To ensure the Diary can cater to individual needs and varying skill levels, each category of exercises has some blank space where you can write down additional activities depending on student needs.

 

Having space for this means the Diary is a flexible resource and can be used from beginner to advanced levels.

 

 

3. Tutorial notes

How many times have students said that they would know how to practise after a lesson but once they got home they were not able to because they forgot how?

 

We forget 70% of all newly learned information within the first 24 hours .  That’s why revision is such an important part of teaching and learning.

 

Using the Diary to make notes from the lesson gives the student clarification on how to do exercises when they are practising at home.

 

You can also use this section of the Diary to write the names of other resources or dates of concerts and any other relevant information your student needs.

 

The fact that these important notes are kept in one book means you and your student can look back and know what happened in the last lesson, giving you a better idea of how to continue in the next lesson.

 

4. Reflective journal

Encouraging your students to reflect every week on what is happening for them in music ensures you are helping them to develop self-evaluation and problem-solving skills.

 

Try to encourage your students to do this work as deeply as possible.

 

Their reflections give you insight into what is happening emotionally for them and will aid you in supporting their learning more effectively.

 

Some students may have difficulty reflecting but you can help them with this during the lesson by discussing points they have brought up and asking relevant questions.

 

I think it is also important that students know that they won’t disappoint you and get ‘in trouble’ if they don’t practise.

 

If you find a student is not practising, try to find out why and help them set realistic goals which may be just playing for five minutes every day.

 

 

5. Comments/Notes

 

Often questions arise during the week, which if not written down, may never get asked by your student.

 

This column provides a convenient space for them to write these down.

 

Basically, this space in the Diary is for your student to write notes for themselves including anything from what page they are up to in a textbook, or what key they practised that day to remembering what to put on their shopping list.

 

Providing them with a space to write these things means they don’t have to leave their practise and interrupt their concentration to write anything down, or worry about forgetting something.

 

6. Practice Outline

This should be filled out approximately every 12 practice breaks (at the conclusion of the Diary).

 

The discoveries you make here will give you a clear outline of what has been achieved and where your students are heading.

 

By reading back through all reflections and notes made in the Diary and summarising what has been achieved, what has been realised and what hasn’t been completed yet or needs revisiting, you will be able to see clearly learning which has taken place, where you are presently and where you need to go in the future.

 

When you have made the appropriate notes on the Practice Outline, tear out this page and place it at the front of the next Practice Diary so it can be referred to for direction in future.

 

This is one reason it is important to encourage students to reflect, because by doing this work they can become conscious of their achievements and be able to see where they are heading.

 

Filling out this page often creates a sense of accomplishment and excitement for the student, providing a powerful motivation.

 

7. Your Practice

 

“In order to grasp the fantasies which were stirring in me “underground,” I knew that I had to let myself plummet down into them, as it were. I felt not only violent resistance to this, but a distinct fear. For I was afraid of losing command of myself and becoming a prey to the fantasies – and as a psychiatrist I realized only too well what that meant. After prolonged hesitation, however, I saw that there was no other way out. I had to take the chance, had to try to gain power over them; for I realized that if I did not do so, I ran the risk of their gaining power over me. A cogent motive for my making the attempt was the conviction that I could not expect of my patients something I did not dare to do myself.” - Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung, p178

 

As teachers, we don’t always practise what we preach but I think we should at least practise.

 

I included this quote from Carl Jung because I think he had made a very important point.

 

How can we expect our students to work and reflect using the Practice Diary, if we don’t have the experience of using it ourselves?

 

In order to create and optimise this resource, I urge you to use the Diary for your own work in order to experience the outcome.

 

You may be happy with it or you may not, but one thing is for sure, you will learn something about yourself and your relationship to music.

 

Most likely you will be positively surprised by the outcomes, as I have myself.

 

If you are not surprised, you will gain confirmation that the work you are doing is leading you where you wish to go.

 

Either way, the Diary gives you cognition of your processes.  If you can truly see what is happening for you, you have more ability to choose your outcomes and if you can do this for yourself, you can help your students do it for themselves too.

 

As teachers, we share our creative individuality and we will all have discovered ways to pass on music.  What is important is that we don’t feel there is only one way to do this.

 

For as much as we are individual and creative, so are our students and  it  is  our  role to interact  and  encourage the  exploration of  the music within each learner, to have fun with them and let them guide us to their own achievements as much as we guide them.

 

Implementing the Practice Diary as a flexible teaching resource, including the above suggestions, provides us with an accessible method of encouraging our students to become independent and active in their learning journey.

 

It means we can be more effective and it makes teaching music easier for us, and learning easier for them.

 

About a week ago, the practice challenge was consistency, to make sure you touch your instrument every day for at least 5 minutes.

 

Well, I have to be honest, I did miss a day.

 

Last night I was very tired and unenthusiastic but I did make myself sit down for five minutes and do the breathing exercise and some free improvisation.

 

This is what I discovered:

 

• I only sat down to do that practice because I had made a commitment to it and I don’t like to break promises, especially to myself!
• This made me see the importance of making commitments and priorities to practice – it does make a difference.
• When I did that practice, I really enjoyed it and wanted to stay at the piano longer, however, it was late and I was very tired.  Had circumstances been different, I would have stayed.
• It felt good that I connected with the piano that day, made me realise how much I really do love it.
• I also realise that consistency is the key with practice and this hasn’t been my strong point in the past.  By just doing that five minutes it made me want to make that commitment for the rest of my learning days.  I can do that!

 

I do make these recommendations to my students but we don’t always practice what we preach.  These challenges are a good reminder for me.

 

It always amazes me the realisations I make, especially upon reflection, from these challenges as well.

 

If you do the challenges, please let me know and leave a comment.

 

 

Wow, how quickly things can change.

 

I feel like I’ve hit the bottom and now am catapulting  back into the sky.  This may have been inspired by a micro flight on the weekend.

 

What a great thing to change ones perspective on life, soaring above the sea watching the dolphins ride waves into shore!

 

Lessons for the week have been quite a few.

 

The only thing in life that’s constant is change so I’ve decided to go with it.

 

I had my first audition this week for a new beatbox choir and it was great.

 

Of course I was nervous, but overall I was pretty composed and what a good experience to put yourself out there. Even better I got in! (I’m not sure that anyone was knocked back from the beginners choir but whose to know lol).

 

I’m a bit nervous about another time commitment but I just think the opportunity is so fantastic that it’s worth pushing for.  I love the idea of being a part of a performing group.

 

We are tracing the origins of blues in my singing lessons and I found a new voice that I didn’t know I had.  It’s deep, raw and real!

 

I was given 5 minutes to compose my own blues, and it actually ended up better than I expected.

 

Just goes to show that when you’re  having fun and not too attached to things they can really flow.

 

In complete contrast to this we revised the first song that I ever worked on and, boy, my head voice range just was not there.

 

Singing is no different to being fit -it is a constant requirement to stay limber and toned. So it’s an ongoing commitment to keep ones voice up to date.

 

My guitar teacher is so sweet, I’m wondering if his patience will wear thin.

 

Apparently I am making quite good progress given the lack of practice so I wonder what I would be like if I actually had more time for it?

 

I’m not able to play guitar and drive a car, unlike my singing warmup tape and touching it every day just doesn’t happen.

 

Not sure how to get through this hump, but am trying to block out time and maybe do more frequent lessons until I’m on my way?

 

Well I must dash it’s late and my other worldly requirements are calling me.

 

Lisa’s Reply

 

Hi Joanna

 

Yes, a very different singing lesson this week.

 

Having two hours to work with you was great, so I enjoyed planning this lesson.

 

The results of our blues session were better than I could have hoped.  However, I did know this exercise would unlock the real “raw” voice within you.

 

This is because the blues is such an expressive musical form, you just cannot go wrong.  It’s also one of the reasons I insist that singers at least learn to sing the blues scale.

 

In a future article I will be outlining some other reasons why I think the study of the blues is so helpful.

 

For those of you reading this, if you haven’t already checked out my article “A Brief History of the Blues“, please give it a read and you will find out what Joanna learned in this lesson.

 

While we’re at it.  Here’s the recording of Joanna’s “Back On Down Blues”:

 

 

It’s going to take a while and a lot of singing to develop your voice, but especially your head voice because we don’t use these muscles as much as the chest voice, or talking voice.  However, its just always good to remember whatever you put into it, you are sure to get out.

 

What we will do is update your practice tape so you have the head voice exercises there as well.  I think we will even share this with our readers!

 

Speaking of what you put into it.  With guitar, you just have to make a realistic commitment to practice.  Start with something you know you can do, like promising yourself to play your guitar at least once a week before lessons.

 

Sometimes when we think too much about the big picture, it paralyses us, and we don’t do any practice.  Remember that on small amount, say  5 to 10 minutes, of focussed practice is better than nothing or a lot of unfocussed, disorganised practice.

 

 

 

 

 

Put up your hand if, as a teacher, you’ve tried motivating flagging students by giving them something fun and easy to play in the hope that it would encourage them to practice. My hand is definitely up and I’m certain that many other teachers have used this tactic with their own students. Although this approach may help re-engage a student in the short-term, it is perhaps not as successful in the long run as we might first think.

 

My rethinking of this technique has come from a book called Talented Teenagers: The Roots of Success and Failure, an unexcitingly-titled but incredibly informative research report. The contents of this book were the result of a four-year longitudinal study of over 200 US teenagers aged 13 to 17 years, comparing those considered talented (in arts, music, sports, maths and science) with those considered average for their age. It discussed in detail the causes of their success as related to family, school, their personality, their teachers and most importantly, their own motivations.

 

The research says that teachers should strive to find for their students a happy medium between work that is too easy and work that is too challenging. Put another way, if a student’s practice is always pleasurable, he or she will never make any progress; if it’s too hard, he or she will get disheartened and give up. According to the book, “What characterises people who use their skills to the utmost is that they enjoy the hardships and the challenges of their task”.

 

I realise that for most teachers, this is probably not mind-blowing new information, but despite this, I often find it hard to keep in mind when I have a student who shows interest but makes little effort to practice. For these students in particular, repertoire choice is vital and we have to think very carefully about how we’re going to re-engage the student in his or her practice. Do we give them something quite challenging to push them, or do we give them easy stuff so they enjoy their playing again?

 

I’ve heard it said recently that many students (studying piano at least), should probably be sitting exams for grades about two years below their current level, given how long it takes them to master the repertoire of the current grade. A student sitting sixth grade piano, for example, is likely to have little time in a year to learn anything but the six or seven pieces required for the exam. Playing music at this level is, of course, great for a personal challenge, but not the best for building an expansive repertoire. The point about challenging repertoire is this: students need to know that if they persevere when things get tough, they will ultimately turn a threatening experience into an enjoyable one. Ultimately, they’ll get much more enjoyment out of it than if they played something that was quite easy for them.

 

I experienced this just the other week at a lesson with my own teacher, Caroline Almonte. While working through the Allegro theme of the exposition of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata, she put me under enormous pressure to sort out why I couldn’t effectively play the ascending pattern of two-note chords in the RH. She fixed my fingering and broke it down to the smallest hand movements – just moving from one chord to the next, carefully, repeatedly, slowly, legato, hands separately, then together, faster and then staccato as written, before joining it to the next chord and so on. She forced me to do this in a much shorter time-frame than I would usually give to something like this and all I wanted to do was crawl under the piano and hide! It took at least 15-20 repetitions for me to get one phrase right. The next time I played it of course, it all fell apart again. So we started an abbreviated version of the same practice technique again and sure enough, I got it right more quickly. We ended up spending around 75 minutes on this one phrase and I was thoroughly worn out.

 

However I learnt an enormous amount from this experience, just as I hope my students would if I put them under the same pressure. During the lesson, the challenge seemed overwhelming; I was frustrated and annoyed that I couldn’t just play the damn thing! But she showed me that it was most definitely possible to play and that with the right focus, it was also achievable in a short amount of time. This, she told me later, was her primary goal: to make me realise how much I could achieve in a short space of time with seriously focused practice. She was right, and now that I can play the phrase easily and perfectly every time, the originally unpleasant and frustrating challenge is now a fun motivator for more practice.

 

I now realise the value of challenging my students to challenge themselves in every piano practice. Of course playing easy pieces will always be fun and may help to re-motivate a student in the short term, but they won’t achieve anything new and thus the fun will wear off. For talented students, challenges will constantly be required to avoid boredom as, “…one cannot do the same thing at the same level of proficiency for a long time and keep on enjoying it”.

 

Don’t get me wrong: playing pieces purely for fun is an enjoyable and important part of teaching and I do it with my students frequently. What I encourage is giving students a broad base of challenges – some easy and just for fun, some really challenging…also for fun, but perhaps not immediately! Overcoming manageable challenges is highly enjoyable and a great intrinsic motivator for students, just as it was for me with my Beethoven.

 

More about motivation and flow experiences in my next post!

 

Tim Topham, June 2011.

 

Tim Topham is a Melbourne based piano teacher, pianist and accompanist. He writes regularly on his blog about practice, teaching and repertoire and has a particular interest in helping other piano teachers work more succesfully with boys. He has over 10 years’ teaching experience in a variety of fields and is currently studying performance with renowned concert pianist, Caroline Almonte and theory with Louise Robertson-Glasgow.