Practicing with Young Children

In 2018, I discovered WunderKeys, a piano approach for children as young as 4 years old. It is delightful with age-appropriate activities and well-planned graduated progress through the skills children need to develop as they learn about music and playing the piano. Here are some helpful tips to practicing with your young child:

The WunderKeys books are presented in a predictable sequence that makes it easy to practice with your child at home: simply read aloud the pages from the week’s unit of study, follow the directions as described and have fun!

WunderKeys books also include cut-and-play piano games that require coins and a die. The game instructions can be found on the back of each game board. Play the games (both past games and the game that corresponds with the current week’s unit) with your child frequently to review important concepts in an enjoyable way.

When your child starts piano lessons it is necessary to establish a predictable routine for home practice. Spending home time at the piano directly impacts your child’s progress. However, it’s not about “minutes spent on the bench” but rather how those minutes are used.

Here are some helpful tips for helping your young student at home:

1. Leave the WunderKeys book open on the piano. Your child will be more likely to spend time at the piano if her materials are always visible. At this age, solo exploration (looking through the book on her own, engaging with the pictures, making up her own songs, etc.) are all beneficial activities.

2. Find a predictable time of day when you can sit with her and assist her with practice. Preschool-aged children cannot complete effective piano practice alone, so she will need your guidance. Spending short amounts of time at the piano daily is much more beneficial than spending one long session at the piano once or twice a week.

3. Help your child develop a sense of ownership over piano lessons by having her demonstrate what she learned in lessons and then allowing her to be “the teacher”. If lessons are “her thing” she’s more likely to gravitate to the piano on her own accord.

4. Remember, at this age, exploration and enjoyment are more important than accuracy and perfection. Piano practice at home should be a happy “bonding on the bench” experience. While it is beneficial to return to previously-completed lessons, please note that working ahead in the book during the week can result in educational gaps that become problematic in the future.

5. Continue her learning away from the piano. Preschool piano lessons build a foundation of knowledge and understanding upon which all further musical learning takes place. Relate the concepts she’s learning in her books to “real world” scenarios. For example, while folding laundry, have her create a pattern out of socks or, while outside, talk about the low and high sounds she can hear.

6. If you do not play piano yourself, you can still practice the teacher/student duets with your child. Simply chant the lyrics to assist her in knowing when it is her turn to play, help her to find her hand position on the black key groups and practice her part of the duet.

7. Engage in activities at home that build coordination, finger strength, and fine motor skills – play with play dough, practice cutting paper with scissors, work on correct pencil grip, use tongs or tweezers to pick up objects, etc.

Find out more about this program in my studio: https://www.rjohnsonpiano.com/products/introduction-to-piano-group-instruction

40 Challenge 2019

I hope you’ve heard about the 40 challenge. I’ve challenged each of my students to learn at least 40 pieces this year. I have a card for each student on which I record the name of the pieces they pass off. I also have a sticker board where they get a sticker for each set of ten pieces they master.

What does it mean to “learn a piece”?

I’m not expecting memory or having a piece fully ready for a performance. However, the piece needs to be played fluidly (without unnecessary pauses), with correct notes, rhythm and tempo, and attention to dynamics so that it sounds beautiful.

How to prepare a piece? (This could be a separate blogpost. Here it is in a nutshell)

1. Day 1: Spend a few minutes looking over the piece for details that you will be incorporating. This should include time signature, key signature, dynamics, tricky spots (to focus on especially), flow of the piece (repeats, d.c. al coda etc.), articulation (staccatos, slurs, accents).

2. Day 1: Practice one hand at a time with great attention to details.

3. Day 2: Put hands together slowly and evenly with correct rhythm—-it doesn’t matter how slowly at this point.

4. Day 3: Use the metronome to maintain evenness

5. Day 4-7: Determine a final tempo and work methodically toward it, practicing difficult spots more (don’t just always start at the beginning and play to the end!). To work methodically, find a slow tempo where you can play all of the notes with the correct rhythm without mistakes. Then, gradually, increase the setting on the metronome until you reach the final tempo with ease. (This will take more than one day! Be patient. Doing it little by little ensures accuracy)

6. Days 4-7: Make sure you have added all the dynamics

7. Days 4-7: If you know you are consistently missing details such as a sharp or a flat or having difficulty with fingering, take a minute to pencil in the correction or the correct fingering. This would delight me!

8. Second week (if needed): Continue working toward final tempo if needed and details from lesson.

Repertoire choices—Flexibility

I have tried to provide each student with some options that are achievable in a week or two if they are practicing regularly and purposefully (Remember that I recommend at least 5 practice sessions a week that are the length of their lesson).

I have also adapted the count for some pieces. For example, five students in my studio learned concertos this year. These pieces are usually about 20 pages long—-a large, impressive accomplishment. They received credit for 5 pieces in the 40 challenge for learning their concertos. For some students, hymns are very easy and I have counted either 2 or 5 hymns for 1 piece in the 40 challenge. Other students get 1 for 1 on the hymns if they find them more challenging. Another example of adaptation is one student who wanted to review some old pieces. She reviewed 2 pieces to equal 1 piece on the 40 challenge. I record recital or festival pieces the week of the event.

What does it accomplish?

Hopefully it inspires students to focus on details in their pieces, motivates them to expand their repertoire and to have pieces “ready” at their lessons. I love seeing the excitement when I ask if they have something ready for the 40 challenge and they readily turn to a piece that they want to share with me.

The reward?

There might be some ice cream in the future. This group seems to enjoy ice cream and the social aspect of the accomplishment is a motivator!

Deadline?

June 1 (in preparation for June 5/6 recitals).

Practicing!

During a recent class lesson, my students had a lively discussion about what was most effective in making progress at the piano. This discussion was based on a study by Noa Kageyama (source below).

I gave them five cards with one idea on each one. They had to decide which two would make the biggest difference in their becoming a great piano player?

1. Practicing longer

2. More repetitions

3. Increasing the number of times played correctly

4. % of times part is played correctly

5. How many times a part is played incorrectly

According to the study, practicing longer didn’t lead to higher rankings. The students caught on pretty quickly that one could be efficient and accomplish the same amount in less time if they were smart about their practice.

Getting more repetitions had no impact on a pianist’s ranking either. We decided that just doing it over and over could become mindless if you don’t have a specific goal in place. Plus, if you’re not concentrating, you might just be repeating mistakes, which leads to the next point:

The more times a part was played incorrectly, the worse their ranking tended to be. Clearly, repeating mistakes is a big mistake!

Interestingly, the number of times they played a part correctly in practice also had no bearing on their ranking. We decided that if they play a part correctly 100 times, they aren’t in a position of improving themselves. One has to work on the hard and tricky parts and master those parts to get better. (Playing your recital pieces over and over for the entire practice time isn’t effective practicing).

The percentage of correct practice trials did seem to matter. The greater the proportion of correct trials in their practice session, the higher their ranking tended to be. So, if you play a tricky part 5 times, but only 1 times correctly, you are still making a lot of mistakes. But, as you improve from day to day, maybe you play the section 5 times and you get 4 our of 5 correct. Then the next day, it is stable at 5 out of 5 for a 100% mastery of the section.

Noa Kageyama’s study noted 8 practicing tips that the top performers ALL did. I will list them and encourage you to incorporate these in your practicing:

• Play with hands together early in practice

• Add dynamics and phrasing early on

• Have thoughtful practice. You can be silent while you study the music.

• Don’t play errors. Stop prior to making and error and study the spot

• Address errors immediately.

• Identify the precise location and source of the error. Rehearse it and correct it.

  (If you study your lesson assignment page, I usually write down specific spots to master during the week!)

• Vary the tempo. Practice slowly, medium, and at performance tempo when you are able. When you come to tricky sections, methodically work slowly until you have learned it and then bring it up to tempo.

• Target passages (not the entire piece) were repeated until the error was corrected and the passage was stabilized, as evidenced by the error’s absence in subsequent trials.

  The students also shared some great ideas with each other from their own practicing habits.

• One student wrote goals for the practice session on a yellow sticky note.

• Another student put check marks on the lesson assignment book to show that he had practiced a certain assignment.

• Some students talked about prioritizing what was the most important thing to accomplish. For example, if a memory deadline date is approaching, that is an assignment that has to be completed on time.

• The older class talked about how it was nice to have something to look forward to after a practice session such as being able to play basketball outside or to have a treat.

• Others mentioned that taking a little break in the middle of the practice session helped them to stay alert and accomplish more.

Finally, we drew cards from a bowl that had various practicing ideas for trouble spots and discussed or demonstrated them. We will continue doing this at lessons.

Sources:

1. Practicing the Piano by Nancy O’Neill Breth

2. (https://bulletproofmusician.com/8-things-top-practicers-do-differently/).

3. Students in my piano studio