Do your students practice? Do they know how to practice? Are you sure they’re doing it effectively and efficiently? In this episode I talk with Michael Richey of the Tennessee Music Academy about how the main goal of a piano lesson is to teach a student how to practice! We talk about introducing a piece, beginners, transfer students, motivation, student readiness, and he gives us 5 tips:
- Frequency over duration
- Planning
- Tempo and length
- Always play artistically
- One time is not enough
Love this! Any tips for when parents decide that you aren’t instructing your students to practice “correctly”? ie telling them playing through the whole piece three times, not looking at notes from teacher on how to practice, etc?
Honestly, I don’t tolerate that. They are paying me to do it, so if they want to do it their way, then good luck! I would just say something like, “Based on my years of experience and training, I’ve found this approach to work best. I would appreciate your help in this matter, helping _____ to build effective practice habits. You’re welcome to sit in on the lesson to see how great it’s been working!”
Because my lessons are practice my notes will be important and natural for students and parents to follow. My notes are basically step by step of the lesson, listing measures to group together and what order to practice them in and different combinations with notes about expression, etc. I remind parents that even if they have had another teacher require something different or if they took piano, that more research is available and there is a much more reliable approach to practicing than sight reading and decoding the music 2-3 times a day for 5 days. This results in unmusical, uninspired playing.