The Piano Column v11 n2
GOAL ORIENTED REVIEWING, PRACTICE SCHEDULES AND ONE-POINT FOCUS; IDEAS FROM THE PAN-PACIFIC CONFERENCE, MELBOURNE.
The catch phrase I carry in my head, post conference is “One-Point Focus” which takes the special point concept a step further. For those of us guilty of such remarks as; “Your wrist is sagging AND your fingering is all wrong AND you made a mistake,” if the one point to focus upon is the wrist, then teacher AND parent must ignore any other irregularities until the one point has been achieved. (Not forgetting to praise when it has). Goal-oriented phrases are therefore vital – to use a specific theme, to focus on one point, to isolate and reinforce skills, to introduce new skills, and to build a repertoire.
It was generally acknowledged that the first few review pieces are difficult for some children but up to teachers to avoid too few chosen for Book 1. Many uses of the South and North Islands, we heard, exist when teachers find ways to circumnavigate the Islands – great for geography also. It was suggested that Book 1 pieces be maintained throughout Book 2, with selected Book 2 pieces (i.e. child’s favourites, lyrical pieces such as Cradle Song, or Bach Minuet…) through Book 3. As Dr. Suzuki says, when children learn to speak, we don’t then say “Okay, no more speaking!”
We were reminded that consistency is important, it being better to do a little practice every day, than two hours a day twice a week, to find the time best suited to both parent and child, to rotate the order in which items are practised to prevent always beginning with the new piece and always running out of time for reading, reviewing, etc., and to NOT be afraid to announce that it is time for music (we offer a choice about going to school?).
It was recognized that practice time can be a time for manipulation of parents by children and one solution which appealed to me was to say; “I don’t want to play the make-up surgery game today” move away from the stress situation, but play the tapes an extra 20 times that day.
Consider making practice sessions more child directed by adopting the Socratic method, “How many times to do this piece?” “How many times until this segment is practised?” It might take 5.
Some time for children to volunteer answers, rather than go rigidly after it, children and adult adults can’t stand answerless questions so experiment with it, in the piano situation whereby are the two monsters” one at each side of the pupil.
Have the child draw up a practice schedule, the only rule being to vary the order of items and present the schedule to the parent before a practice session.
Ruth Page.
RUTH PAGE A.T.C.L., B.A., Dip Tchg, mother of three, had a somewhat unconventional musical background, being, from age 6, a “guinea pig” for a sightreading experiment devised by Val Drew, a Lecturer at Dunedin Teacher’s College. She gained her A.T.C.L. while at Teacher’s Training College and after some years as a primary school teacher, travelled extensively abroad. Contacts with the London Suzuki Group, a strong interest in preschool education and the desire to introduce her own children to the piano at an early age attracted her to the Suzuki Method. She has been teaching Suzuki (piano) in Wellington for 4 years, runs 3 preschool music groups and has two publications, ‘What a Good Idea’ and ‘Many Happy Returns’ (aimed at the preschool level) to her credit, with a book about preschool music groups still at the manuscript stage.
The following is an example of a practice schedule for more pupil directed practice sessions:
PRACTICE SCHEDULES
- For more pupil-directed practice sessions. e.g. Day 1 – the pupil enters numbers 1-6 in the first boxes under each category (Review, Main piece, Reading, etc.). Subsequent days are numbered 1-6; the only rule being that there must be no two numbers repeated under the same category, ensuring that practice areas are approached in a different order each day and thus developed equally.
- One point focus – concentrate on one special point per week, ignoring any other irregularities until that point is achieved. To be used particularly in conjunction with well known review pieces.
- The schedule enables the teacher to equate at a glance, progress with practice input.
- It provides opportunity for self reward. Award a star or sticker to the most improved area at each practice session. Teacher’s sticker goes in the special box at the end.
