As a teacher, I'm supposed to be encourage my students to practice, but I don't. Of course, I subtly hint at it during lessons and I physically write a long list of things for them to practice after every single lesson. However, I am not perfect and I don't expect them to be. I would much rather have them have a good summer or go swimming with their friends than worry that they have to practice. Practicing is very important. It's actually the only way to get better, but at their age, they are still learning how to practice.
Think of practicing like this: you are going to sing in front of the Queen tomorrow and you haven't even picked out a song. If you don't practice, you're going to embarrass yourself in front of the Queen. Which, if I might add, is not something you really want to do. So what SHOULD you do? Practice, right? You end up practicing all night, and you wake up the next morning dazed and nervous. If you had prepared this song two-three weeks in advance, you would be well-rested and confident (as best as one could be before performing for the Queen). Time is up. You can't go back in time.
I don't tell this story to all of my students. Instead, I show them a video by Josh Wright. He talks about how to develop good practice habits and he talks about how successful it can be if students were to try this technique. There are a couple of suggestions he makes:
1. Figure out a time in your schedule to practice. Only you know how much time you have to practice each week
2. When practicing, stick to only working on one page at a time. Don't do more than that. If you're trying to learn a lot of pages in a short amount of time, you can increase it to two pages
3. Divide the song into parts. Focus on one part at a time and perfect it
4. Once you have perfected one part, don't go back to it. Many students practice only the beginning of a song because they keep practicing what they learned. You have to force yourself to practice the next part. And repeat this until you have finished the whole first page
5. Work with separate hands first and then both hands together
And here are some of my own suggestions:
1. Hold yourself to a standard. If you practice for your lesson every week, don't let a week slip by without you practicing
2. Practice what your teacher suggests or gives you. Don't go back and practice material that your teacher didn't tell you to practice. It's counter-productive
3. Practicing for hours is sometimes the necessary way to master a piece. The more advanced it is, the more hours and hard work you'll need to learn it
4. You are not a machine. That is why you have to look at your schedule and carve out specific times to practice. Make this a priority. And schedule it in every single week
5. Practicing is piano playing. Lessons are not meant to be your only playing time. When you are practicing, you are playing by yourself. And eventually, your teacher will not be there in the future to help you. You have to become independent.
I hope this helps many of you! There are so many ways to develop good practice habits and it starts with implementing just one of these suggestions. Start slow, and take your time. Hold yourself accountable. And you will start to see yourself progress much faster.
Here is the link for Josh Wright's practice video if you want to check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th5ljgUP9lg
I also have two blogs of my own that I write in all the time. I write about lifestyle, and everything under the sun about music and teaching!
Cleverlybegun.wordpress.com
Pocketfuloflearning.wordpress.com

My name is Lia Hwang, and I’m a full time piano/double bass/English teacher and part time blogger. I started my blog with the purpose of writing about whatever I wanted. I didn’t know it would turn into so much more. It has become a community and I’m so lucky to help other teachers + parents learn more about music. Nothing was easy for me, but I wouldn’t trade teaching for the world.

Practicing at home. These words tend to fill most parents with dread, bring up questions of how they can help, or they just really stress you out. And as a piano teacher, that’s the last thing I want! You are a vital part of your child’s education, and I am here to help make your job easier when it comes to getting your student to practice. 

​So, how do you help your child practice? 

1. Make it fun! The first thing to remember is that kids want to do what is fun more than what they *have* to do. We all know this, right? Kids don’t want to wash dishes or clean their rooms, but they’ll jump at the chance to play a video game - or any kind of game - anytime! So, how do we make practicing fun?

• Have a competition. Set the timer and give each of you a task. Your task might be cleaning the kitchen or folding the laundry. Theirs is practicing their instrument. If both of you can finish your task before the timer ends, you get a prize - a video game or a walk around the block or maybe an ice cream cone!
• Reward practice. Set up a sticker chart. Your child gets to put a sticker on each day he or she practices. On the first week, set a goal to practice 4 days. At the end of the week, if there are 4 stickers on the chart, they can get a reward. The next week, increase the goal to 5 days. Once they are consistently practicing 5-6 days a week, you can aim for longevity, so they’d have a goal of practicing at least 5 days a week for a month.
• Be creative! There’s no limit to the ideas you can come up with for making practice fun! Is there a video game your child wants REALLY, REALLY badly? Buy it as a reward for practicing for 30 days in a row.
• Let them give an in-home recital. This is a favorite in my studio! Once a month or so, gather the family around and let your little musician present his or her favorite pieces learned that month. Record it and send it to grandparents! Or, better yet, have extended or out-of-town family FaceTime or Skype to be a part of the big night!

1. Have a set time each day just for practicing. From a parent’s perspective, knowing that practice was going to happen at the same time every day made a world of difference for my children! This designated time created consistency and they began progressing very quickly! (It also got them out of cleaning the kitchen after dinner!) From a teacher’s perspective, I’ve seen the same thing. Students who have the same practice time each day practice more consistently and, as a result, make better progress that students who don’t. It’s that simple!
2. Remember that they are kids. This is a loaded statement, isn’t it?! It’s so important to remember, though! I’ve heard a lot of parents say that they want their child to take ownership of their own practice. We as teachers do, too! But that happens at different times for each student. While one student may “get” it and take off on their own at 8 years old, another may not until they’re 14 or 15. Don’t get frustrated or give in! Just patiently remind them to practice. Eventually, they will take ownership!
3. Don’t overload them with activities. This is much easier said than done, I know; but it is SO important! If a student is going to make progress in anything, they have to have time to practice it. As a teacher, I am seeing students more and more stressed by the sheer number of activities they’re involved in. And they’re not able to excel in any of them because they don’t have the time to devote dedicated practice to any one activity. And for families with multiple children in multiple activities, the stress is unbelievable! My advice here is to choose one (maybe 2) activities outside of school. If you have more than one child, it might be best to have a season where each child is involved in only 1 non-school related activity. Of course, your child’s music teacher wants this to be music; but you have to choose what is best for your child.
4. Talk to your child’s teacher. The ideas I’ve shared here are just a sample of the many, many ideas out there for helping your child practice at home! Ask your teacher if he or she has any tips that can help you.

    Now that you have a few ideas for helping your child practice, how do you know what they’re supposed to be practicing? This will depend on your child’s teacher. Ask for detailed instructions. I can pretty much guarantee that he or she will LOVE you for this! 
    As a general rule, I suggest practicing the day after a lesson so that the information is still fresh on the student’s mind. I ask my beginner students to play through each piece 3 times every time they sit down to practice. (3 times a day, 5 days a week is my ideal for beginners.) This is incredibly simple but very effective. Older students will require more time depending on the level and difficulty of the pieces. By about 9 or 10 years old, students should be writing down practice instructions during their lesson time. If they are not, ask their teacher to pass along what was covered during the lesson and how they need to practice at home. 
    Lastly, remember that you, your child, and their teacher are on a team and are working together for your child. Communication is KEY! If you don’t understand what your child is learning, ask to sit in on a few lessons. If you have any questions about how to help your child at home, just ask! Teachers LOVE having involved parents! 
    Happy practicing to you all!

Christina Mathis is a classically trained pianist with a Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance from Judson College in Marion, Alabama. Christina has extensive experience as a church musician, collaborative pianist, & music educator. She has been teaching private piano lessons for more than 25 years & in private schools throughout Alabama for 13 years as a classroom music teacher & choral director. She currently teaches private lessons at her home studio & is pursuing a Master of Arts in Music Education from Liberty University Online & national teaching certification from the National Federation of Music Clubs. Christina lives in Decatur, Alabama, where she is pianist at First Baptist Church Decatur, choral pianist & piano teacher at Austin High School, & staff accompanist at University of North Alabama in Florence. 
​

It’s been a busy spring for me, not only because of my season of gigs here in Boston (and an upcoming trip to Asia), but also because I have been teaching some very special jazz classes at Note-worthy Experiences here in Sudbury.  Each two-hour class was about a jazz legend who has been a major influence on not only my style, but the sound of just about every other jazz musician alive today. The topics for these classes were, in order: Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane.

While these three musicians are all from before my time (Miles Davis passed away one year before I was born), they all share a common thread beyond that of being famous jazz instrumentalists.  They are some of Black music’s greatest innovators. They never stopped developing their styles and they would always find a way to keep their sound fresh. And, they would frequently collaborate with other major artists of the 20th century – some of whom might have seemed like unusual choices at the time.

For example, you may think of Duke Ellington as a Swing Era big band leader and pianist (the peak of Swing was in the 1930s), but he also came out with solo piano albums and small group releases as well.  Take his 1962 album Money Jungle, which is a trio LP (piano, bass, drums) and feels much closer to his bassist Charles Mingus’ free-jazz experiments than any previous album by Ellington would.  That same decade, Duke Ellington would carry his experimentalism to a new level with his Sacred Concerts, which are very classically influenced, but also made the bold move of taking modern jazz to the church.

Miles Davis was active as a bandleader for six decades (from bebop in the 1940s to his brief 1991 hip-hop experiment), and his music was the hardest to fit into one short masterclass.  Davis frequently made forays into jazz-rock fusion in the second half of his career, provoking many arguments about how to even define the term “jazz.”

Then there is John Coltrane, who played with Davis frequently in the early days.  Coltrane’s life was sadly cut short at 40, so he never got to hear Miles Davis’ fusion period – however, he managed to fit a large discography into his 10-year recording career.  He was a major developer of the free-jazz style that was popular in the 1960s, when political activism and communal living were a major part of many people’s lifestyles.

It was very hard creating a list of tunes to play on the speakers for each of these classes.  There is so much material to choose from for each artist. And a lot of these jazz compositions (especially Coltrane’s) are so long that there’s no way that I would have time to play the entirety of each recording in class!  But the frequent collaboration-based and adaptable nature of jazz music means that it is important to study each musician’s career from beginning to end.

At each class, I also did an improvised jazz jam session with the Note-worthy students who had come to attend.  Most of Duke Ellington’s tunes were written within a standard 32-bar form or 12-bar blues form, but Miles Davis introduced a jazz tune with only two chords, and John Coltrane wrote some tunes in three keys at once.  It’s always important as a jazz musician to be able to play flexibly through different tempos and chord changes.

In short, this was a wonderful experience and I hope to do more of these classes in the future!

Matt Savage is a piano instructor at Note-worthy Experiences Music Studio. Matt is also an Adjunct Instructor at at Bunker Hill Community College and teaches at the Community Music Center of Boston and at Applied Behavioral Learning Services (an organization near Boston for children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities). Matt gives masterclasses and workshops domestically and internationally (in English and Spanish) as well as private piano lessons. For more information about Matt, please visit Matt's teacher page. 

​One of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, Vladimir Horowitz spoke four languages fluently.  In all four, he chose his words carefully. 

I never forgot a story told to me by his piano technician, Franz Mohr. One day, Mohr showed up at Horowitz’s Manhattan home and found the Master seated at his Steinway D. “I see that you’re practicing,“ Mohr said. With an indignant look, the great pianist replied, “I’m not practicing! I’m REHEARSING.“

For a musician, there are few words that have a more negative connotation than “practicing.” The word “rehearsing” has an entirely nicer tone! Practicing means you’re in the room alone. Practicing means you’re working on the spots that you cannot yet play, not the spots that you already play awesomely. Practicing implies technical drill. It implies sitting for a long time. Like a fat-burning workout, it implies something that could not possibly feel easy or good – otherwise, how could it do the job?

But does it need to be that way? Is it possible to “rehearse” and get to where you want to go?

Imagine, for a moment, a typical rehearsal. You show up at the rehearsal. You arrive a few minutes early. You warm up with scales and exercises. Then the rehearsal begins. You begin to play the music. (Note the distinction: you’re not practicing or performing – you’re playing. You’re making music.)

Alas, at some point you’re going to arrive at a difficult passage that needs attention, and you will have to stop playing. What do you do?

Here is the moment where everyone gets in trouble, especially adult students. You don’t just make a mistake: you say to yourself, “WHY did I make that mistake? What’s WRONG with me?”

At this juncture, the trick is to make friends with the difficult passage.

Imagine you are driving to the home of a dear friend, who lives in some beautiful suburb. The whole car ride you are excited. If you make a few wrong turns, you become only more excited. Then you are reunited with the friend, and there is only joy.

By contrast, imagine that you are driving to the RMV. In Downtown Manhattan. During rush hour. Rather a different driving experience!

Pianists with an engineering background have one advantage. When they arrive at a difficult passage, by nature they dissect the passage and take apart all of the nuts and bolts, then put them all back together again. It is a perfect example of a difficult passage being a friend, not an enemy.

In my early teens I had a relatively severe teacher who required me to practice three hours a day during the school year and six hours a day during the summer. Which I did. The only problem was that I had no idea how to practice. Zero. She even said to me once, “I can’t practice with you!“

It is no wonder that practicing was a prison-like experience for me. I also had physical pain at the instrument, due to my posture, which was another thing that no grownup ever explained to me.

So there are 1,000,001 reasons not to practice. But there are also 1,000,001 reasons to rehearse! And if you feel that, with all the problems of the world, music is irrelevant, the opposite is true: Music is more necessary now than ever before.

These times are a changing and so is Note-worthy Experiences Music Studio!  We have set some lofty goals to improve our blog and bring you more information.  Stay "tuned" (pun intended) for more details soon!  Suggestions on what you would prefer to see here are welcome!

Congratulations Jackson on your final senior solo vocal performance.  Best wishes to you as you continue to sing in college!