Practice Habits: Parents Need Them Too

Welcome to Green semester of Let's Play Music!  Your child is excited to start using the piano and class time is super fun. 

In the first two weeks, your kid is a superstar.... and THEN....  

You might be tempted to let your child slip into lazy practice habits. It goes like this:

"My son is doing fine. He can DO everything the teacher wants him to play, so I think it's fine that he actually only practices once each week. We just get all of the practicing done in one sitting, because it's so easy for him."

"My daughter doesn't spend time at the piano every day, but I saw her in class on lesson 5 and I think she's the best one in class. For her, practicing as-needed is good enough. She feels confident."

The first parent mentioned that her son had met all of the teacher's expectations.  Yes, he can hold his bubble hand.  Yes, he's quick with keyboard geography and his kit-kat keyboard.  Is that the end of the assignment? No!

The Goal of Daily Practice is Daily Practice

In the first several weeks of Green semester, one of our biggest goals is also to establish a daily practice habit.  

As we get into more complicated Green lessons and some challenging Yellow lessons, the students who started out with once-weekly practice really struggle!

My son used to be doing fine in class, but now he's frustrated. He's upset if he can't play everything perfectly on the first day. Get in the habit of practicing daily, so he learns to reach goals over time, not all at once. Once weekly habits set unreal expectations for instant perfection. Establish the daily habit BEFORE the challenging material comes.

My daughter is suddenly frustrated with playing songs that use all 3 chords. She used to be confident in class. Students who get used to 'cramming' for lessons will be frustrated in a few weeks. Playing piano requires building up muscle memory, which requires repeated specific motions. Ear training also takes repeated exposure. You can't CRAM to become a musician! Changing quickly between chords can't be crammed.

Parents: We Need Habits, Too

Establishing a practice habit can be a tricky thing, but this year is the best time to build a solid foundation for both of you.

Obviously the students are working toward building a habit of practice, but I find that, as a parent, I needed to build a habit of supporting practice.  How can we remind ourselves to do our daily supporting role in these early weeks?

Here are four basic strategies, suggested by Gretchen Rubin in her book, Better Than Before, that help solidify a new habit: First Steps, Monitoring, Scheduling, and Accountability.



First Steps/ Getting Started

The strategy of taking the first step essentially means eliminating excuses that hold us back from getting the thing started.

Some personalities enjoy when first steps are big and dramatic: I'm going to go on Biggest Loser and lose 300 pounds! Because it's dramatic, it's fun and exciting to throw yourself into big projects, but ...

Piano will fit easier into real life if we start small, and LPM is designed to help you start small: I'm going to help my child get to the piano every day this week. I know we only need 5 minutes... I can find 5 minutes to spend with him. That's do-able.

Here are few more ways that just getting started can save your habit:

My child doesn't practice because he likes to cram. The goal of daily practice IS daily practice. Help him make a plan to get to the piano bench every day. Once he's on the bench, chances are he will enjoy playing through his pieces. Ever find that it's hard to get your shoes on and get out the door, but once you're jogging, you realize you're having fun?   

My child is so far behind, he doesn't want to practice. Bite of small chunks to make practice happen.  Suggest practicing just part of the list, or just one tricky song or one tricky bit of one song, instead of the whole list. Keep practice to the recommended short time- don't let it become unbearably long. Give lots of positive praise: You said you would practice with a smile for 10 minutes and you did! You stayed really focused the whole time and now you're a little better than you were at the beginning! Great job today. 

Monitoring

The strategy of monitoring/ tracking doesn't require change, but it often leads to change.  Self-measurement brings self-awareness, and self-awareness strengthens self-control!

In order for this strategy to help, REFRAIN from waiting until class day to mark the practice log. We tend to give ourselves more credit for good behavior than we deserve. I'm pretty sure you practiced this five times, I'll just sign your book. 

Not surprisingly, monitoring alone can really help in other arenas...like dieting. Without committing to a specific change, you'll probably make better choices just by knowing you have to consciously acknowledge and track what you eat! If you want to give it a try, check out My Fitness Pal.

If monitoring suits your personality, make a chart for home and mark off days when practicing (and other chores) are done. 

You thought I was talking about a chore chart for my kids, didn't you? I wasn't! I make a chart for myself and give myself credit for cheerfully reminding/ supporting/ encouraging the kids to do their practice and chores! 

Calendars can be especially fun because you'll create a STREAK for yourself. I've been a cheerful piano supporter for 22 days straight...I can't break my streak now! 

In my classroom, students create a streak for themselves by feeding their practice snakes. Each week, if they practiced and did homework, the snake grows by one body part. Everyone is excited to see their snake grow all the way across the wall and down to the floor.  You could create a practice snake at home and let him grow every day if you like.


Scheduling

Scheduling is a tried-and-true strategy.  You'll get important tasks done because you scheduled time for them.  Scheduling works well for your child, too, so they have predictability and routine in these early weeks when practicing is a new skill.

If you haven't already, have a conversation with your child to create a PLAY PLAN to decide when practicing will happen. Don't forget to plan a back-up time, because we all know that conflicts happen. Practicing might also fit into your family's definition of order. We don't eat dessert until after we have dinner, and we don't do playdates until after homework and practice is done.  It might look like this:

Accountability

For many of us, we are more likely to follow through when we know someone else is aware of our efforts, cheering us on, and keeping tabs on us.

Love it or hate it, your Let's Play Music teacher is aware of how much practicing your child is getting done.  If you've been wanting to develop a good practice habit, joining class is a wonderful gift.  You've got a loving, knowledgeable coach on your team. She's checking in on you weekly and willing to help. 

If accountability helps you achieve your goals, tell yourself, I'm going to make a goal to support my son in practicing every day, because I know Ms. Teacher is going to be checking up on me!

Who Practices, Anyway?

Yes, this post is focused on helping YOU, parent, develop a new habit (supporter, reminder, cheerleader) in preparation for helping your child develop his own new habit.

Are the assignments at the beginning of Green semester super easy? Yes! That is intentional to help both you and your child get over the barriers to getting started.

Over the course of the year, your child can take more responsibility for completing and tracking his own practice, but it happens gradually and he'll need you there supporting, reminding, and cheerleading whenever he struggles with his routine.  When he does eventually take over, it will be a sweet reward.

- Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Practice Tip: Adjusting Expectations

Piano practice time will sometimes be frustrating.

No student or parent will tell you they graduated from Let's Play Music without having SOME times when it was a little tough to get motivated, stay on task, and get all of the week's practices in.

But, overcoming these struggles is part of what we're teaching in LPM! In this post, I want to share one tip for parents to help relieve some of the frustrations that arise.

Adjust your Thinking

Maya Angelou said it this way, 

"What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain."

When I find myself frustrated in interactions with my child, I step away and take a moment to examine my thoughts. 

I notice frustration arises in me when I have a story about how things should be going, and about what my child should be doing...and the story is not the same as reality! 

There's a big gap between what I expect and what is real. The disconnect between my story/belief and my reality is what starts all my inner turmoil. 

Today I'll give you some ways to bridge that gap in your thinking so you can let go of frustration and start to change what you don't like. 

Step One: Lose the 'should'

Take a minute, and think about what you expect and what you believe SHOULD happen at practice time. Notice the word should. If you find yourself thinking of how things should be, then you've zeroed in on the narrative that runs in your thinking. This story is how you expect things to happen.  

Write down a few ideas of what you really expect to see at practice. Your list will be individual; you have your own expectations and your child is different from any other!

Sometimes, things go as you believe they should. Sweet joy! Your mind is at ease.

Other times, things go very differently than how you believe they should, and that's frustrating. Notice I didn't say how you WOULD LIKE, or prefer, or hope. That's a little different.

Step one is all about accepting reality.  Sure, you would like your child to be the one to remember to practice and to initiate practice time every day.  But is that what is actually happening in your home?  If you honestly expect it and it doesn't happen, you will get stressed out!

ASSIGNMENT: Make a list of things you catch yourself thinking should happen, 

and then compare it to what really happens.

Step Two: Flip It Over

Okay, this may seem strange, so just trust me for a minute.  

What if you went down the list of what REALLY happens, and you imagined that as your new narrative. What if you went so far as to make reality what should happen?!

Yes, she should need reminding to practice, because building a practice habit takes years of repetition.

Yes, she should get frustrated, because this is going to be mentally strenuous, and yes, I expect her to whine because she's not very practiced yet at expressing her frustration.

Yes, I expect her to want to be the expert, because she'll want to be proud of her knowledge and independent. She hasn't learned yet how to fit in advice from mom with her desire to feel accomplished.

Yes, I expect her to get distracted and fatigued and try to create diversions, because her mind is accustomed to easier things, and I'm trying to push her out of her comfort zone.

Each time reality happens, you can say to yourself, "I'm so frustrated! This is not how things SHOULD happen!" or you can say to yourself, "Yeah, this is about what I expected."

At this point, nothing has happened differently, but do you FEEL differently? 

When you let go of your attachment to thinking that things should be going a certain way, do you feel more relaxed?  Less stressed?

THAT'S what I'm looking for. You are thinking about the frustrating situation in a new way, and you're mentally ready to do something productive.

ASSIGNMENT: Read through your list of how things really play out.

Practice saying, YES, this is what I expect to happen.

Evaluate: How do you feel when you approach this situation with the new expectation?

Step Three: Hopes and Goals

Now you may be mentally calm and prepared to approach practice time with acceptance. 

"But Gina!" you're saying, "If I let go of my expectations of how things should be, how will we ever make progress?"

Good point, reader.  I don't wish for you to become complacent with reality, I just don't want you to be surprised by it any longer.  

You'll approach practice time with the narrative, "Yeah, this is what I expected. Right now, practice time is challenging both mentally and emotionally for me and my child."

You know the facts. You know the reality. You're not afraid.  Then you say, "Okay, this is my reality. What am I going to do to make it better?"

Maya Angelou said when you don't like a thing, change it! You have to expect reality, and brainstorm what you'll do to improve it.

Embrace Reality:
When I sit with Zelda to practice today, I expect her to start whining as soon as I ask her to play with both hands together. I won't get flummoxed when she does, because it's exactly what I expect.

Find a Postive Action:
What can I do to change that?  Maybe I'll give her a pep talk beforehand and see if that helps. 

"Zelda, I noticed yesterday you were really nervous about playing both hands together. Is that the toughest part about practice today? Yes? I am really pleased when I see you try hard things, and it's okay if it doesn't turn out perfect- we just have to try.  Today when we get to that song, will you play it through TWO times? Yes?  Now, I know that when things get tough, it's very tempting to whine or cry a little. I'm going to be watching to see if you can try TWO times on that song without crying. Maybe you can take a big breath, or you can make a serious face...what can you do besides crying when something is tough? If you can do that, I'll be excited. That will show that you're growing up! Okay, ready to warm up?"

Celebrate Progress:
Well, Zelda still fussed and complained about the assignment but it was less than yesterday, so I think we're making progress. And I stayed calm, because I had realistic expectations of where we are and where we are going.

We don't have to throw away the ideas from your expectation list, we just move them to a new list called hopes and goals.

ASSIGNMENT: Visualize how you would love to see practice go and write a list of hopes and goals. Check-in periodically to see if reality is getting closer to your goals. What actions can help you get closer to the goals?

Parents, too!

You'll notice my expectations and shoulds were all focused on how I expect the children to behave.  Let's not forget that self-talk and narratives also include the expectations we have of ourselves!  

Go through these 3 steps again, considering how you already expect yourself to behave. 

Do you feel like giving up when reality does not align with those expectations?

Or can you use these steps to be kind to yourself, acknowledge the struggle and give yourself room to grow toward your hopes and goals?

Don't be complacent. Change what you don't like. If you can't change it, change how you think about it.

Helping your child learn to practice is worth it. Don't give up.

- Gina Weibel, M.S.

Let's Play Music teacher

P.S. If you'd like to use this type of thinking process to turn around frustration in other relationships and activities in your home, you'll enjoy The Work, by Byron Katie

Truman Walker: A Let's Play Music Foundation for Success

Every year, more and more young musicians graduate from Let's Play Music and go on to further musical pursuits. We love checking in to see what these young people are up to and today we caught up with superstar Truman Walker, winner in the 2012 LPM Composition Contest.

Meet Truman Walker
Truman took three years of Let's Play Music lessons with teacher Tina Gosney in Eagle, Idaho. After graduation, he continued to study piano lessons with local teachers Launette Shaw and then Suzy Clive. Truman says, "Suzy is a very accomplished pianist and an amazing teacher who has taught me a lot. Let's Play Music helped me with the basics so that I could learn really quickly when I started with Suzy and started learning more classical music."
 
Truman learned that when working on specific piano pieces, attending master classes with different experts like Brandon Stewart, Andrew von Oeyen, Dr. Renato Fabbro, and Jason Lyle Black  really helped him master his work and prepare for competitions.

Truman's consistent work and training has led him to success in several fun and challenging venues, including:

2013 Apple Blossom Festival Music Competition, Payette, Idaho - Junior Division, First Place. Original composition, Good King vs. Evil King.

Treasure Valley Music Teachers Association Sonatina Competition
      - 2014 - Level 4 - First Place
      - 2015 - Level 7 - First Place
      - 2016 - Level 10 - First Place
        
2016 Meridian Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition, Junior Division (10-14 yrs), Second Place, performing Concerto No. 8 in C Major by W.A. Mozart


2016 Spokane Piano Competition
-Baroque/Classical Division - First Place, Performing Sonata in E Major by Domenico Scarlatti
-Modern/Impressionist Division - First Place, Performing Bagatelle No. 10, Op No. 5 by Alexander Tcherepnin
   

Question and Answer with Truman

Gina: How do you imagine things might have turned out differently for you if you did not do LPM, if you had just gone straight to your piano lessons?

Truman: Music wouldn't be as fun. I wouldn't have been as excited for just piano lessons. LPM helped me learn how to love music and express myself. LPM helped me do things I wouldn't be able to do, like compose songs. Now I have composed five piano pieces and performed them at different recitals and events.
 

Gina: Do you ever get discouraged or bored or tired when you are practicing? 

Truman: YES! But I get over it by thinking about why I love it and what I want to accomplish. I also think about how practicing makes my pieces turn out better, and that gives me motivation to keep trying. I practice 2.5 hours every day.  I have to think about my goals a lot so I can keep working hard.

Gina: Wow! 2.5 hours. What does that practice routine look like?

    

Truman: Ms. Clive has helped me break my practice sessions down into 7 parts. First, I review my goals for the day and list what I want to finish during that practice session. Second, I play through some of my repertoire so I keep my pieces fresh. Third, I work on technique by doing Hannon exercises or "power fingers" to strengthen my fingers, hands and arms. Fourth, I do scales to learn and memorize key signatures. Fifth, I play through LDS Hymns so I can help with the music in my church congregation. Sixth, I practice sight reading and work on musical theory workbooks. Seventh, I get to work on memorizing and playing my major piano pieces that I am preparing for performances, competitions or just for fun to challenge myself.  
 

Gina: How do you go about writing a song?  

Truman:  First I think of one main idea and the key signature I want to use. Then I think of things that sound original and I piece them together and smooth them out to make a song. I have written pieces about family trips we've taken and other things. I have also written a song for my older sister who accidentally hit a wrong chord in her piano practice one day. She liked the chord and asked me to write a song using that chord as the main idea. That was fun.

 

Now I have written 5 pieces. After the LPM composition, I continued to build on that song and it helped me win $50 at the Apple Blossom Festival. Here's a piece I composed called Living Water.
 

Gina:Can you tell me about one of your musical memories?

 
Truman: One Sunday night when I was 9 years-old, our family was sitting together in the piano room listening to me play. They started asking me about how I write songs and how the music comes to me. Then my older brother, David, and sisters, Anna Mae & Katelyn, started playing a game with me. They would give me an idea, like 'standing next to a waterfall' and I would play a mini-song for them that created a feeling like they were experiencing the idea they came up with. We did this for about an hour that night and it was a fun memory for our family.

Interview with The Piano Guys: Practicing, Composing, and Great Friendships

There's a fun new group making something new by blending classical and pop music. They call themselves the Piano Guys, and if you haven't heard them before, today's the day you'll discover your new favorite YouTube channel! Read on to find out what the Piano Guys have to say about practicing, performing, and the importance of choosing good friends.

L to R: Al van der Beek (music producer/songwriter), Jon Schmidt (pianist/songwriter), Steven Sharp Nelson (cellist/songwriter), Paul Anderson (producer/videographer)

LPM: The Piano Guys gained popularity from the really fun piano and cello renditions of popular songs on your YouTube channel.  Do you think of your music as classical or pop music? Why did you decide to merge the two?
 
Al: Our music includes both genres. Classical music is the root of all music, so it fits perfectly with today’s pop music. We hope that by combining the two it will help introduce classical music to the younger generation in a way that is more accessible by combining it with songs they hear every day on the radio. 

We also hope that we can win over some classical purists by showing them that pop music can be pretty cool too. 

LPM: It must be working...several of your YouTube videos have over 20 million views, which makes it clear that young people are definitely loving your music and videos! How do you think the study of classical music helps you as musicians and performers?

Al: There are many benefits to studying classical music, or any music for that matter. Music provides people with a means of self-expression and a great way to connect with others. It builds confidence and teaches discipline. 

Classical music has always been cool and you can hear it sprinkled in almost every genre. We always put the video link to the entire classical piece we used in our mashups so people can enjoy it in its true form.

LPM: Playing music isn’t always fun. Sometimes practice can be frustrating. Whether you can’t quite get the sound you want, or you can’t quite master the fingering on a certain passage.  Let’s Play Music students want to know: what do you do when practice time is frustrating? Or maybe you don't get frustrated now that you're an adult? 
 
Steve: I can totally relate to this. I have ADHD which has been a great blessing, but has always made practicing extra challenging for me. Some people can go hours and hours without taking a break. I can go 15 minutes before I need to take a break! So as you can guess, I take lots of breaks. :-) I’ll answer an email, do 20 pushups, say a prayer, make a phone call, run a lap — something that is short and productive, but restarts my stamina for practicing again. This works for me because my retention improves as I stop and start each time. But this wouldn’t work for everyone. The key is finding what works for you. Experiment.

Read up on what others do (hey, like you’re doing right now!) Don’t give up!! If stamina isn’t the issue but frustration is, change it up — switch from a passage that is troubling you to something else that is a little more enjoyable and then come back to it — for instance, I like to play something by ear, hone my speed pizzicato or percussion prowess, or sharpen my improv chops. 

Music shouldn’t be about perfection. It should be about progression. And joy. 

LPM: You guys "play around" with music. We like to ‘play’ in Let’s Play Music too! In your videos you're banging on different parts of the piano and everyone looks to be having a ton of fun. Is this what your jam sessions are like? What do musicians do when they hang out together? 

Paul: Yes, we definitely have fun with making music, but it's not all fun and games. There are many days where it's just really hard work, but we never give up! One thing that helps is our relationship with each other; even though we have different personalities, our goals are the same: to uplift and inspire others. 

We are different than most groups we hear about; we actually like hanging out with each other when we aren't with our families. Most venues are surprised that we will all use the same Green Room on tour instead of having our own separate rooms. We are constantly talking with each other sharing thoughts and ideas on how to become a better husband, father, and business partner. Who your friends are can really make a difference in your life, so pick good ones! 

Steve: Remember also to play as much, if not more, than you practice. Go find some friends to “jam” with, perform at a senior living center one day, in your church or school talent show, form a band, a string quartet, play weddings, play bar mitzvahs! Play at your brother’s friend’s cousin’s aunt’s birthday party! Then you are honing your performance skills along with your practice skills — and you’ll have fun because you’re sharing your talents and bringing others joy, the purest purpose of music! A shared talent grows much faster than a secluded talent. 

LPM: You guys love to travel and put pianos in crazy places! Which video was your favorite to film?

Paul: Yes, we get really excited about making videos in crazy locations and believe it keeps things fresh for us, especially in writing new music. So, some advice we can give is to look for things that create passion with your music. Change it up once in a while and try new things, stay out of your comfort zone as much as possible, and be willing to work really hard!

Each video has some really incredible memories attached to it, but the ones that stand out right now would be the most challenging ones. Most recently, filming Fight Song/Amazing Grace in Scotland! Of course, filming at the Wonders of the World was really exciting also, like The Great Wall of China, and Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio.

From what we have seen, challenges are the greatest gift when it comes to filming and writing music!
 
LPM: Let’s Play Music trains students to hear music in their heads, like Beethoven did!  How does ‘hearing it in your head’ help you to be able to make the music you want? 

Jon: When you are hearing the music in your head, the hardest part is accomplished.  Once you hear something, then you just have to find the matching notes on the piano.  

This is something you can have fun with.  Have someone play happy birthday on the piano.  Ask them to play a wrong note intentionally.  If you can hear the wrong note, then your ear is good enough to be able to play notes you hear in your head or anywhere for that matter.  And your ear will get better and better as you practice finding notes.  Start with single notes.  High, medium and low.  Then try finding 2 notes at a time.  Then the lowest note in a chord,  the highest, a note between highest and lowest.  Then tackle a phrase in a song.  Find the melody part, then the bass part, then as many notes between the melody and the bass as you can pick out (don't worry if you can't find all of the "in-between" notes at first). 

You will get better at this with every phrase you learn.  You will get to the point where you can hear several phrases and be able to play it back on the first try.  This is how I learned to play by ear.  If I heard something cool I tried to learn it by ear: melody, then bass, then some notes in between.  You don't need to have perfect pitch for this (I don't).  You just need to be determined, and have a "can do" attitude.
 
LPM: Let’s Play Music students focus a lot on chords, chord theory, improvisation, and ear training.  How does your knowledge of theory help you compose and improvise?

Steve: I LOVE theory. Is that totally weird? Or geeky? I’m cool with that. :-) There’s just something so energizing about learning the fundamental language of music. Yes, you can be an extremely talented and successful by-ear musician knowing no theory. Many have proved this. But there are tremendous advantages of “music literacy.” I use it EVERY day. 

It’s like cooking — theory gives you so many ingredients to work with at the onset of a culinary creation. And more than that, it teaches you the “recipes” that many “cooks” have used in the past to make something sound delicious. After a while of cooking others’ recipes you learn what elements go well together and you begin creating your own dishes. And you can go even further by experimenting with new combinations — new spices and garnishes to season your composition. 

Theory has helped me many times to wok my way out of writer’s block. When we were potato-mashing up Disney’s “Let It Go” with Vivaldi’s “Winter,” I wanted to write a bridge that utilized a sequence to travel from one key to another. I used my theory knowledge — specifically tonicization — to figure out what key to start on and how many cycles it would take to arrive back to my home key. 

TOTALLY GEEKY, right? But way cool. And fun. 

Theory often pushes people away because at first it can seem lame. It’s like when you’re studying grammar. The study of the mechanical aspects of sentence structure is not top on my list of things to do on the weekend, but writing suspenseful short stories, lyrical poems, imaginative fiction, or motivational speeches all can soar on the time-testing principles of grammar. You just have to wade through the beginning parts of theory and grasp it as best you can, remembering that the granite building blocks comprise the     opportunities to create majestic castles!
 
LPM: Your 'Cello Wars' is a fantastic mix of five Star Wars songs, rearranged to tell your story, and 'Moonlight' is a piece that Steven composed, based on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and 7th Symphony.  For all the new composers out here:  how do you compose based on an inspiring song you like?  Right now, over 1500 LPM students in the US are in their final year, and working on writing their very first piano compositions!  What advice do you have for students about writing and creating music? Is there a secret recipe for you?

Steve: Thank you so much! Starting with an inspiring song or a song you really like is such a great baseline for composing. Arranging becomes composing when you authentically infuse your personality, ingenuity, and creativity into a song. We love experimenting with a melody and a chord pattern to turn them both on their heads. 

During Cello wars, the Jedi plays the theme in its original major key, but the Sith echoes in the minor key. 

We love experimenting with rhythm too. In Moonlight we used accents and a driving four-on-the-floor feel to reinvent Beethoven’s masterpiece. When we did our version of “Mission Impossible” with Lindsey Stirling, we rewrote Mozart’s legendary Piano Sonata in C so that it was minor and in 5/4 timing to match the vibe of the MI theme. 

We also love using cultural aspects of music to approach a tune from a completely different direction — like our African spin on Coldplay’s Paradise, Indian spin on “Don’t You Worry Child,” or our Scottish influenced rendition of “Fight Song.” 

We love using Classical themes and chord structures to infuse more material into our arrangements — like when we added material from a Chopin prelude to our  “Kung Fu Piano” tune we filmed on the Great Wall of China. One of my favorite experiments was when we “recomposed” a One Direction tune (“Story of My Life”) based upon the feel of Saint Saens “Aquarium” from his “Carnival of the Animals” Suite. It became this ethereal, storybook-sounding film score that told an entirely new tale. 

Composing rocks. Don’t force it. Let it lead out. Don’t try to be someone else. Learn from others then discover your style, your groove, and your flow. Pray that your music can be of benefit to others and work at it with others in mind. Pour everything you have, everything you are, into it. Don’t get discouraged when it isn’t working. Sleep on it and try again the next day. It will come. Most of all, enjoy the process rather than falling victim to the feeling that you can’t wait till its done. Break a leg! Or, as we say in the cello world, “Break a bow hair!” :-)

A big thanks to The Piano Guys for taking the time to tell us about their creative process and their music. If you haven't watched the videos yet, check them out here. And good luck with YOUR composing!

In A Flash: Reading Notes on the Staff

"The treble clef spaces are easy, you see, 'cuz space rhymes with face and spells F-A-C-E!"  Are you humming along to this catchy tune? That means you and your 3rd year Let's Play Music student are on the way to note reading!

Why did we wait?

This is the final year of the program; are you surprised that we haven't drilled notes yet? In our post on learning to read music the LPM way, I explained that students thrive when they find meaning in the notes they read, understand how notes work intervallicaly, and are learning to audiate as they read before they knuckle down to the abstractness of notation.  Not surprisingly, laying a solid foundation takes two years of ear training and pre-reading skills.

Where are we going?

The goal this year is for your child to read notes with fluency. He will look at the notes and instantly know them. This skill is note-spelling.  "That's F. That's A." Any given individual note on paper can quickly be matched up to its given individual piano key.

The sad news is your child will shortly graduate from LPM. The glad news he'll begin learning lots more interesting and challenging pieces of music. Note-spelling is an important part of learning new music, and we want your child to master it.   In the article on reading music, I explained that being a fast note-speller does not guarantee fast sight-reading of new music.  Musicians use note-spelling to identify key notes in a chunk of music.  Then they use patterns, intervals, and chord shapes to fill in the remaining information for the chunk.  By now your student has had lots of practice with those skills, too.

This is the mix of spelling and intervallic skills I hear from my brain when reading music:  "Let's see…the first note is a D and I jump down a 5th…and then I do a run of baby steps going up…and jump down a 5th again.  Then I have to play.…treble E, and then down a 3rd and baby steps up."  So, I don't actually spell out very many notes but they are critical to know.

If you suspect your child is trying to spell out every note of every new song, put a stop to it! Encourage identification of patterns, skips, steps, intervals, and chord shapes supplemented with a touch of note-spelling to hold it all together and keep it in place.  Some kids are gifted note-spellers, but that skill cannot stand alone.

Do Flashcards Help Reading? 

A parent once asked me, "Why do we use flashcards, anyway? When we read music, notes are not singled out and jumping all over the place. Why should we learn to identify notes like this?" 

I sat down with a piece of new music and vocalized for her HOW I WAS READING IT as I played through.  As I revealed my brain's processing of new music, she realized that the few individual notes that I note-spelled actually DID jump around randomly. Unlike the flashcards, the note being spelled was sometimes embedded into a chord or at the beginning of a run of melody. I took a highlighter and marked only the notes that needed spelling for successful reading of the song and challenged her (and the student) to quickly spell and play them. Now they knew almost everything they needed to play this new piece of music, too!  The exercise looked slightly different but felt very much like using flashcards. 

Want to try it with some new music? Here is a free copy (link) of Bach's Minuet in G and I marked the notes I want you to note-spell in the first 2 lines. The rest of the notes will be discerned from intervals, steps, and skips. Just do one hand at at a time to begin. As you move from one note to the next, ask "What interval do I need to jump? Am I going up or down?"  

Let's Get Fluent

How fast is fluent? How quickly should students be able to identify notes? If a student is sight-reading and takes more than 1-2 seconds to play a note, she is going to struggle. 

We divide the process into two steps. First is saying the alphabet name of the note and second is playing it on the keyboard.  This year I challenge you to identify (say) all 27 note cards in one minute! 

To be fair, you may find this to be way too easy for your child, or incredibly tough. Teachers value the learning process and focus most on the process and continued success. 1:00 to 1:30 is still the reference to aim for, but the real goal is for students to shave a few seconds off their own personal best time at each practice.  Most teachers have an incentive club, like "In A Flash" club, to motivate students to improve their time each week. Your teacher might even offer a prize if you can improve your time by 0:05!

At Home
Most progress with note memorization will be developed during at-home practice. Here are some ideas to help you make great progress:

*On the Road: Like so much of what we're working on, daily work is best. Flashcards are special because they don't need to be at the keyboard! I keep a set in my car and my daughter knows that every time she gets in the car, she runs through the cards once before we turn on the radio.  Maybe you can put a set in your purse and find a way to plant flashcards into your daily routine.

*Less Singing: You'll quickly notice there isn't time to sing "All Cows Eat Grass" or some other verse for each card. Like all the best mnemonics, the song lyrics will slowly fade away from the mental processing as the notes develop a meaning of their own.  Students will start to only use lyrics on tricky notes, and eventually they have learned the note and stop needing lyrics. If your child is hanging on, encourage him to say only one word of the lyric ("grass", "boy", "apart") instead of singing the whole verse. Eventually just say the letter. The song is a means to an end.

*Tricky Pile: When I practice with my daughter, I give 2-3 seconds for her to say each note.  If she cannot, I put that card in a "do-over" pile, which we go through a few extra times that day. This way, she's not focused too much on being timed, and the tricky cards get extra attention.  

*Favorite Four: Some days we will pick out a small group of cards and really master them, flipping through the small pile over and over.  Of course you can use lines or spaces, but I find other groups, too.  For example, F is a note that my daughter always knows well, so we sometimes pick E, F, G, A and drill on just those for 3 minutes.  She learns the notes well by learning how they relate to her well-known F.  We might do the same with treble B,C,D,E since she knows treble C so well.  In the bass clef, we pull out F,A,C and learn to recognize them as the parts of the well-known F-chord, then we pull out just E,F,G,A in the bass clef.  You can choose any small groups you like, and take some time to really see relationships in the notes.  

*Pick A Card: Hold the cards facedown, fanned out. Let your child pick each card to read.

*Road to Success: Lay the cards out in a long line. The student walks along, picking them up and reading them. You can make your own tradition for what lies at the end of the road. It could be the road leading into our out of the practice room, or leading to snack time!  For another variation, have a student at each end of the road, coming toward each other very quickly. When they get to the middle, see who read the most cards!

*Memory: You will need both octaves of cards to be sure you have 2 of each letter. When flipping over two cards, shout out the letters as quickly as possible. They won't look the same- kids will actually have to read them to see if they are the same letter (from different octaves).

*Searching for… Lay the cards on the floor face-up. Say "I'm searching for….A!" and have her find it as quickly as she can, or have two children race.  Or give harder clues like, "the note a third above C!"

*Quiz Mom: Have your child quiz you. Get some wrong on purpose to see if she can corrects you! if she doesn't correct mistakes, say "oh no! I tricked you!" and you earn a point for each time you trick her.

*Sorting: First decide how to sort. I take a sheet of paper and write ABC, and on another DE, and another FG.  As quickly as possible, have her put the cards on their correct piles.  You can change this game by writing words with bold letters, like "GinA is Cool" should collect only G,A and C cards and "Boy BAnD" would collect only A, B, and D cards. The goal is to get the cards into place quickly!

*Wild Card: Beforehand decide one letter is a wild card, and decide to do something crazy when you get to it. It's fun to anticipate when it's coming.  We like to say that when we get to the wild (say, D) whoever notices it first gets to tickle and kiss the other person!

*Duck Duck Goose: This is most fun if you get other family members to play.  Spread the cards in a circle. Everyone walks around them while you say "Duck, Duck…Goose!" Everyone drops down and reads the card in front of them as quickly as they can. Don't be the last one to say anything! Laugh about it, cheer for the fast kids, then stand up and move again. Try to make Dad always sit at the card he can't seem to remember. That's always funny.

*Online Fun: You can drill with MusicTheory.net's online flashcards here or drill play a variety of music games at Tonic Tutor or try the easy-to use topics at Musicards.net. I'd love to hear about other online games you found useful!

*Ipad Fun: Practice with phone and iPad games like Music Tutor or  Noteworks. What are your other favorite apps for practicing note reading? There are dozens out there!

I hope you have some fun working on flash cards and learn to read them in a flash. Please tell us about which games you like, and share photos of your kids playing the games or practicing!

-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Commitment and Consistent Effort at Every Level

So, you've been in classes for a month now, and the shiny newness of practicing is morphing into the actual habit of music practice. Another of our Let's Play Music Core Values is: We expect commitment and consistent effort at every level. 

How Do I Become a Master?

In a recent blog post, I wrote about helping students crystalize dreams for future musical study by taking them to all kinds of musical performances. They have a chance to hear different instruments and styles and discover what they want to do with music. Those performances are also a sneaky time to open this discussion I hope you'll have with your child: "How do you suppose those performers became master musicians?"

Students are relived when I tell them it's way easier than they think. Becoming proficient at an instrument is easy because, first, you don't have to be born naturally great. There's a load off your mind! I'll admit that there are some who learn things more quickly, but the vast majority of us find a new instrument to be a huge challenge.  No matter! Humans were designed to create music.  You can do this.  As long as your feet are pointed in the right direction, you're on track. Hooray! 

The Magic of One Little Stone

The second reason it's easy to become a master is because any progress is still progress.  I send my LPM students home each week with the confident message that they can accomplish the practice assignments by the end of the week. Parents and students are surprised when we learn Bounce and Roll in the 3rd year of class, and at first I ask them to learn only the first line!  That's so little, they say.  Yes, if every day you get marginally better at playing one line, or one tricky measure, or one drill, you're that much better.  After days and days, these little bits add up. Soon you know several songs.  Then you start learning more challenging songs.

Click here for video

Playing a tricky song (like this Debussy piece by 9-yo LPM grad, Truman) can seem as crazy as moving a mountain.  Here's an analogy for you to share with your child: If you wanted to move a huge pile of rocks from the front yard to... the piano room (no excavating tools allowed), it might seem impossible.  But if you take a small stone or two from the pile each day and carry it to the piano room, and repeated every day for three years, you will have moved that mountain!  

The Hard Part

If everyone started from zero and took increments of progress, everyone would eventually become a fantastic musician. What happens? Other things come along and we forget to save time to practice (or help the child practice).  Often moving single stones is too small for our commitment. The day-to-day progress is too boring, not to mention challenging. "Why should I sit and practice for 10 minutes? I'll hardly improve!? What fun is that?" 

The hard part of mastering any skill is consistency to keep at it, even when the progress is incremental.  It takes commitment and consistent effort at every level to master an instrument.  Looking down at the small stone (or listening to the simple song) might seem hardly worthwhile. And maybe boring. And possibly frustrating. "I'm working so hard, and I hardly seem better."

What we must cultivate is the ability to see past the small task asked of us today and recognize the greater whole it creates.  Perhaps the next time your child want to skip practice, remind her of the analogy of the stones- you may even want to keep a jar of stones in the piano room!  

"It seems like today you don't feel like you can do a boulder, but could you do a 5-minute pebble? It will really help the jar of stones fill up."  "Even if you only have 5-minutes, I bet you could help your fingers get better at playing the chords on this page...and the muscles will be that much stronger." 

I adore recitals (read our post) because they let us look at the hypothetical pile or jar of stones and bask in what has been accomplished! Recitals get students motivated and excited to move the next big pile.  These moments prove to the students that the cycle of effort and reward does work.

Body Building

I just realized that my stones analogy may have a little flaw.  If a student forgot to move one stone per day for several months (or years) he could decide to pull an all-nighter and do nothing but move stones until he was caught up on stone-moving.  Can we catch up on missed piano training?  

Well, we can make practices longer and more frequent, but because piano training involves muscle memory and creation of neural connections (read our post), the repetitive days and months of practicing cannot be replaced by cramming.  Long practice sessions usually lead to mental fatigue and limited learning, anyway.

Weight-lifters can't spend two straight days in the gym and expect to build muscles they haven't worked for months! Neither can pianists.  On the same note, just as a body builder takes a day or two off, pianists can do the same.  During your rest day, your brain assimilates your efforts and commits them to memory.

The take home message? If you have 5 or 10 minutes to practice, do it! If you find 5 or 10 minutes later in the day, practice again! It will be more beneficial  than waiting for a day when you have 40 undisturbed minutes.  Those teeny-tiny pebbles are going to be your key to success!

A Life Lesson

Consistent effort in music, school, and life

Let's Play Music is not just about making every child into a superstar (although that's pretty nice). We also believe in helping educate well-rounded humans.  Music lessons offer a perfect venue for teaching the value of consistent effort applied to long-term challenges. The discipline practiced and learned here can be applied to every pursuit your child chooses to embrace. Embrace this teaching opportunity.

A child who learns to reap rewards from her long-term efforts is, not surprisingly, a better student and worker.  Many recent research articles have delved into the benefits of music lessons and found the ways that the mental workouts achieved in music lessons strengthen areas of the brain and improve a variety of skills. 

Music students are better students, scoring higher on tests and getting higher grades in school.  Is it because the music made them smarter or because their music study helped them learn consistent effort? 

Stay tuned for other articles encompassing all of the Let's Play Music Values.

-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher