PIANO MAESTRO S/R APP

By now all of you have received a link to download Piano Maestro.  If you haven't downloaded the app, do so ASAP.  We will be giving assignments from this program each week for the students to work on.... You do need an IPAD to work this.  If you do not have an IPAD, I've purchased a few off of KSL classifieds.  Make sure you get a 2nd generation of newer.  The 1st generation doesn't have an operating system that will support Piano Maestro.  Have fun watching your child practice!  THEY WILL NOT WANT TO STOP!

PERFECT PRACTICE TIPS

Practicing in Sections

In this post I'm going to review the main points I seem to be going over and over in each lesson hoping they will sink in. When you approach a difficult piece the only way practice it is to Divide and Conquer!

1.  Stopping mistakes before they start. When you practice in easily digestible sections from the very start, you are cutting your learning time in half by not making huge mistakes from the beginning. IS THE FINGERING, NOTES AND RHYTHM HOLE IN ONE?

2. Set Daily Goals. Make a goal to focus on one problem section a day and get it down really well. Be reasonable with yourself and limit your focus to 1, 2, or 4 measures at a time. Play as many repetitions, slowly, with your best concentration, as the section needs to improve. Mindless repetition just for repetition's sake won't help you improve. Review what you've done the next day of practice and then move on to fix the next section that needs attention.

3. Three Times in a Row Perfectly. You will know each section well if you will make it a rule to play it 3 times in a row perfectly (including no pauses!). Remember, a pause is a mistake! Fix it right away, otherwise you will keep pausing at the same spot. Keep it smooth!

4.  Sectional practice gives you safety spots, or good starting points. A safety spot will be your salvation in a performance if you somehow lose your way. Practice starting at the beginning of every main section. These are your "safety spots." The more difficult the piece, the more safety spots you need, even every 4 to 6 measures. If you can do this you know the piece very thoroughly.

5.  Don't skip hands separately! If you can't play the piece or section hands separately, you don't know the piece well enough to perform it in a contest. Even up to the day of the performance, practice hands separately, LH first. It is common to think you know the piece, only to have the memory fade during a performance because you didn't know the LH well enough. Then practice hands together.

6.  Start slowly, then build tempo. When learning, the perfect tempo for you is the tempo at which you can play with NO pauses or mistakes. Above all, GET THE FINGERING perfect,  along with playing the notes and rhythms correctly. You are not playing correctly if you have a sloppy fingering that doesn't work well. You will pay for sloppy fingering in time you'll have to spend later to unlearn it and then relearn the correct way. 

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT INCENTIVE CHAIN-PUNCH CARD

Parents,

I will be starting a new incentive program using beads for my younger students and a punch card for the older... The children will be rated each week 1-5 (see below) on their practice at lessons.  No more teacher looking at practice sheets!  Students will still mark the sheet and keep a tally of their own practice record.... I will know how well they practiced by their execution of the assignment in each lesson..... Here are the criteria:

1=Student was completely unprepared and likely did not practice much at all during the week. Progress may be lost. Supervised practice is necessary. 

2=Student may have practiced a bit, but was unable to demonstrate a minimum 50% of their assignment at the lesson. Progress was limited this week. Supervised practice is strongly recommended.

3=Student practiced, but could not demonstrate a mastery of the assignment. Home practice habits may need to be reviewed or the student may have failed to complete the assignment by forgetting written work, leaving a book at home, or forgetting to read the assignment instructions and could not demonstrate the instruction in the lesson. Progress may be limited.

4=Student practiced, completed the assignment, and demonstrated a satisfactory understanding of the entire assignment in the lesson. This was a job well done! The student will progress quickly.

5=Student not only practiced the assignment, but went beyond and played even better than I expected. Student may have looked ahead or practice more than was assigned. Student will progress VERY quickly.

Each student will want to achieve a 5 each week...  There are 15 weeks in the Fall Semester x 5 =75 beads or punches possible....After each lesson be sure to ask your child how many beads they strung or holes punched. 

This will be exciting for all students who practice because their reward will be a $10 amazon gift card for having either 65-75 beads or holes punched at the end of Fall Semester...(just in time for Christmas!) I will keep their bead chains at my house, teens will be responsible to carry their own punch cards.  

REMEMBER PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, BUT PERFECT PRACTICE WILL BE THE GOLDEN TICKET FOR AN AMAZON GIFT CARD!