Teach Suzuki YouTube Channel now live!

Have you seen the new Teach Suzuki YouTube channel? I uploaded a video that talks about the importance of a consistent and regular review program, and the video sets out instructions for three possible review plans.

Check out the video, and be sure to hit the like button, leave a comment, and subscribe to the new Teach Suzuki YouTube channel. Click here for more.

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

The Rule of Four Game: Building a Good Practicing Habit

Rule of Four Game

We like to play squares of 8 in my studio, where the student plays a game of moving from square one to square 8 by playing a specific passage or instrumental technique 8 times correctly. I learned about this game from Philip Johnston of (insidemusicteaching.com, formerly known as "The Practice Spot"). I describe the game in a previous article (How to Beat a Speeding Ticket).

For my younger students, I have modified the game into the "Rule of 4." I fold a piece of construction paper into four squares. To negate the phrase that we "practice until we get it right," I reinforce the concept that a student should practice once he or she gets it right. The student needs to play the passage or technique correctly before even being allowed to "enter" the game.

Once the student plays correctly, I place a game piece or other marker on square number 1. Now the student must play once again correctly in order to advance to square 2. If a student misses, then the student moves back a square. Problems typically occur between squares 2 and 3 as the student becomes cockier at that point and does not concentrate or pay attention as well. When the student finally advances to square 4, the game is over for the day.

We added a special rule regarding square 4, because so many students really fell apart at this point due to loss of focus and concentration. If a student misses the attempt at square 4, then they get moved back to square 1! And I do not hesitate to add "pressure" when a student tries for square 4, because adding pressure seems to wake students up again and help them finish the game.

Recently one of my younger piano students made up a really cute game board for me, as pictured above. I would like to share her decorative artwork for each square and the middle between the squares.

Practice once you get it right!
Goal is four correct times!

This little square in the center reminds the student of the purpose of the Rule of Four Game: to practice once you get it right. The student's goal is to play it four times correctly.

Square 1: Yay!

The student has to earn the right to place the marker on the first square by playing correctly. Once the student achieves that, the game really begins. Now that we "have it right," we can practice it to reinforce the new skill.

Square 2: Just Two More!

Square 2 reminds us that there are just two more squares to go. Sometimes students have trouble moving on to square 3.

Square 3: Don't Stress! 

Square 3 can be stressful, as the student may struggle to pay attention and concentrate! My artist student reminds us "not to stress"! Students need to be careful at this point because if they misstep, they must start all over!

Square 4: You Can Do It!

I hope that you and your students and children can enjoy this game as much as we do. My student seemed to have even more fun when she worked on the art project! I bought her sign and another sign from her sister so that I would be able to own the game for my studio.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2016 by Paula E. Bird

Quick Practice Tip: Bits & Pieces Day!

I am officially declaring today to be "Bits and Pieces" day. I hereby give everyone permission to practice with this technique. Here's how it works.

Pick ten things that need practice attention. These things might be some tricky measures in a repertoire piece you are learning or perhaps an entire phrase in a song. Parents, one of these things might be that one line in a Suzuki song that always seems to lag behind the others. You know the line I mean. It is the line where your child seems to make a mistake every time or forgets one or two notes and needs reminding. For example, the third part of O Come Little Children or Long, Long Ago, or the middle part of Aunt Rhody or May Song. It is the part that your child learned last or that has been repeated the least number of times overall.

Got your list of ten places? Now work those places. Really perfect them. Do practice perfect repetitions. Do factorial repetitions (see my previous post about factorial repetitions).

One absolute rule about bits & pieces day is that you are not permitted to play any piece from beginning to end. You are only allowed to play bits & pieces.

So what is the purpose behind a bits & pieces day? I recall one Suzuki teacher explaining to a parent how best to practice. The teacher advised that playing through an entire song should be reserved for the rare occasion; this type of playing should be reserved like "dessert." This is the end stage. Just playing through a song beginning to end repeatedly does not help a student to learn how to practice well or to perform "in the moment." Instead, I find that seemingly endless repetition practice of playing a piece beginning to end helps a student to learn how NOT to focus. Unless the student is given a specific assignment to pay attention to or focus on during the performing of the piece, such as finding vibrato notes or adding certain dynamics, the student learns how to play the piece so well that they go into "autopilot mode." This is when the student plays as well as they ride their bike. They are playing but they are not paying attention to what they are doing. They have tuned out. This is the time when bad habits slip in. The bowing gets messy, the fingers get lazy, and things start to sound a little fuzzy around the edges.

A bits & pieces day on occasion reminds us of the purpose of practicing, which is to find and isolate problems and to find solutions that correct the problems. Playing a piece from beginning to end is not practicing. Finding bits & pieces to strengthen or correct is practicing at its finest.

Performing a place has its place in a practice routine, but this should not be a daily technique. Instead, give bits & pieces a try. Use this technique more often than any other.

Happy Practicing!

Practice Rut? Expand Your Thinking!

It is easy to get into a practice rut. Your practice sessions with your child become routine, and your interest wanes.  You lose your enthusiasm for the number of repetitions that your child’s teacher thinks are important (Ten times a day? Really?). Even professional musicians suffer from this problem and have to work to discover the fun that can be found in practice. I have a solution: expand your thinking.

I know. It sounds like that tired cliche, “think outside the box.” But really, that is what is required. Here are three examples where expanding your thinking produces something entertaining and interesting.

Squares of Eight

I borrowed this idea from an article I read at http://practicespot.com. If you have not visited this site, there are many free articles and theory tools that you will find useful and interesting.

The purpose of the “Squares of Eight” game is to teach the student the best way to master something and what quality effort is involved. The game also provides the student with an interesting and fun way to do repetitions. I want to demonstrate to the student how important correct repetitions are. You have heard the old adage that “practice makes perfect,” but in reality “practice makes permanent,” and that is the true lesson that I want a student to learn and take away from this game.

Before we begin the game, the student and I identify a particular passage or finger exercise that we want to improve with practice. In the squares of eight, I take a piece of paper and fold it in half. Then I fold it in half again, so that the paper has been quartered. Then I fold it one additional time; the paper is now evenly divided into eight squares. I number each square sequentially from one to eight. I put a small game piece (a poker chip or a small piece of candy will also work) on square number one.

The student plays the passage or exercise. If the student plays correctly, the student then advances the game piece to the next square. The student plays the passage or exercise again. Now the game becomes interesting. If the student does well, the game piece is moved ahead. But, if the student does not play the passage correctly, the game piece gets moved back a square. We continue the game until the student finally reaches square 8.

As a teacher I find it amusing to watch how different students work through this game. Some students keep “banging their head against a wall” by doing the same thing over and over without ever addressing the issue. I have to offer more guidance in these cases. Usually though a student soon figures out that a slower and more careful repetition will net a positive result and advance the game piece further ahead. In other words, the student learns that slow and steady nets quicker practice results.

Then we play with this game and “expand our thinking” to keep the game interesting. One student drew a race track that wound among the squares and used a little match car as a game piece. Another student turned the game into a pirate story that had various obstacles to successfully navigate to reach the treasure in the last square. Another student nicknamed the squares to represent the difficulties that each square represented. For example, square number four was the “habit breaker” and square number six was the “habit maker."

The Scary Story

Here is another example of expanding your thinking. In this example, the student was learning how to navigate some of the tricky places in “Humoresque” in Suzuki Violin book 3. I stuck some colored highlighting tape on each tricky place to make it easier for her to isolate the passages that needed extra attention and repetition. The student would also see the areas to come, and the colored tape would “foreshadow” the areas before she played them, reminding her to take her time and be careful. The different colors also helped the student to get a picture in her head of the piece’s logical structure, which would help her with her memory.

We used yellow, purple, blue, pink, and green tape and one teensy bit of red. To make the practice sessions even more interesting to think about, we gave each colored area a name. The yellow tape referred to the patch of “Yellow Yucky Yuccas.” The purple place became the “Purple Pools of Poison.” The blue tape spot became the “Blue Bogs of Bubbles,” and the green tape became the “Green Gorge of Ghosts.” We also have the "Pink Patches of Prickles." The little red tape spot became the “Red Rose of Ramputa,” which was isolated in the middle of the purple spot to remind the student of a particular grace note place.

When the student plays the song, she concentrates on making her way through all the treacherous spots with exotic names. We giggle about the names and use goofy voices like TV announcers in a wild animal documentary. We added a “swaying bridge” over the “Green Gorge of Ghosts” to imitate the swaying motion that the bow uses to make the string crossings.

Do the Opposite

Sometimes a practice rut can be overcome by expanding your thinking with a different or opposite expectation. For example, I have trouble on a particular Bach Allegro movement. I have always had difficulty with this particular movement because it stretches my tiny hand in an uncomfortable way. There is nothing I can do except practice it enough times so that it eventually improves. I noticed that my frustration was increasing, so I decided to do the opposite with my expectation. Instead of making music of it, I turned it into an etude.

Gasp!

Yup. I turned that fine piece of music into a thing of drudgery. Instead of frustrating myself about making the piece sound beautiful, I altered my expectations. Some might say I lowered my expectations.

An interesting thing happened as a result. I started to improve. I still have some trouble playing it but not as much trouble as I did before. I am still not ready to make music out of the exercise just yet. I want to keep working on this etude project a while longer before I decide to add the additional complexity of a musical expectation. My goal is to continue with this “exercise” throughout January.

You can invent your own opposite expectation whenever you encounter a practice issue or frustration by first identifying what your expectation is. Then figure out a way to change that expectation.

I provided three examples above of ways that you can expand your thinking. These are just three ways that popped up this week during my teaching sessions. Take a look at what you are practicing this next week and consider whether you can use any of these ideas to shake things up a little.