Think back to the teachers who inspired you the most. Who comes to mind?
For me, several mentors and teachers come to mind.
One was an older swim instructor. As a kid I’d mostly had teen teachers in swimming lessons. When I tried something, they’d say, “Good job!” and it was fun. But an older instructor noticed that I had a scissor kick and latched onto me and made me try over and over again. At the time, she seemed strict and mean, floating in the water beside me in her old-fashioned white swim cap with the chin strap. But if it hadn’t been for her, I would never have had a great whip kick or won races at swim meets. I still have all the ribbons.
Another who comes to mind was a sports coach in town. She recently passed away too soon. Many in our town spoke up about how she had challenged them and made them want to achieve their best. Although I’d never been on any of her teams, hearing about her made me want to be like her.
When you recall inspirational teachers, I bet that you’ll remember someone who believed that you were capable of more than you were giving, who helped you reach a higher level of performance.
As piano teachers, how can we reach this esteemed level of mentorship?
How can we get beyond the weekly assignments and checklists and turning to the next piece on the next page, and the next and the next — to truly plant the seeds of motivation?
How can we inspire our students to give it their best?
To develop goals?
To reach their goals?
Last winter I shifted the focus on my students’ practice, with very interesting results.
1. The “goal” and “how” of practice
For several years now, I’ve been writing minimal practice notes for my piano students. I aim to write more in the music, itself.
In the dictation book, though, I write numbered goals (maybe two each week per piece, regardless of the amount of work it needs).
For each goal, I state in simple terms what we’re aiming for. For example, how many measures to be learned hands separately or together, or a goal to play a section with expression or storytelling. The goal sets the intention.
Then, beneath, I follow up with ‘how‘. This breaks down the exact practice steps that will achieve our goal. For example, I’ll suggest how many measures to repeat and how, usually with a metronome tempo to aim for. The ‘how’ suggests the path to reach the goal.
I try to get student buy-in by asking them to help me come up with these steps.
Prior to this strategy, years ago, I used to write only the ‘how.’ My students’ dictation books were filled with a lot of instructions on what to do, but I found they didn’t always follow them. And I think I know why.
Without the goal, it just seemed like a lot of busy work.
So, I updated my approach with the GOAL/HOW strategy. I noticed an improvement in practice results, because there was now a clear reason for all of the practicing. There was a focus. Something to achieve.
2. Shift of practice focus
But — before we start singing camp fire songs and feeling all rosy, I have to admit that this approach was still a little hit-and-miss. Kids didn’t always read the goal or the how.
The reason my original GOAL/HOW approach wasn’t working as well as I’d hoped was because I was still asking about their practicing separately: I checked how many days or minutes they practiced, and my incentive had to do with, “Did you practice,” instead of, “How effective was your practice?”
Fast forward to last winter. I created a new practice incentive designed to help kids remember to practice with goals in mind and to practice effectively: Practice Pizza.
Practice Pizza offers your studio a shift in focus — away from:
- “Did you practice?” or,
- “How long/much did you practice?” or,
- “How many days?”
And shifting to:
- An evidence-based practice incentive rather than a reporting-based practice incentive.
- Listening to the playing as proof of practice,
- Basically, “Did you focus on our current goals with this piece?” and,
- “Did you practice to reach those goals?”
It all begins with printed pizzas on your studio wall, one per student.
2. Practice Pizza: Fun but also a challenge
Invite your students to join the Practice Pizza challenge. Here’s how to pitch it:
The Party. Let your students know that in 20 weeks, you’re planning a pizza party, and that all students who fill their pizzas with toppings are invited!
Practice goals. To earn toppings for their pizza, they need to practice to reach their practice goals.
Pizza toppings. Each week students reach their practice goals, their pizza gets a new ‘topping.’ If you use the black-and-white version of the pizza, this is a sticker. If you’d rather use the colour pizza printable, they’ll get a pizza topping from my FREE PRINTABLES.
The topping is given at the end of the lesson, after you’ve heard the student’s playing. You’ll know whether or not they’ve reached their goals by the way they’ve played.
Each student is an individual. As the teacher, you get to set reasonable, achievable goals for each one. You have heard and watched them and know what they’re capable of. Student goals get to be specially-tailored. With this practice incentive you may want to nudge their goal a little higher and help them reach it. This is the challenge.
Misses. There are three ‘misses’ allowed. A miss is given if a student has a week when they don’t or can’t reach their goals. With up to three misses, they’re still invited to the party!
That week you colour in one of the circles on the ‘Misses’ section of the poster. With black-and-white pizzas, they also get a circle around the week’s number instead of a sticker. For colour pizzas, you have the option to let them choose a pizza topping that they don’t like, which would only be given on the weeks of a miss. No other student would know what it means, so it’s like a secret code. But when they get that topping, it represents a ‘missed’ week.
Misses due to trips and illness. Sometimes there’s a miss due to a family trip or student illness. At first some kids may not like getting a miss because of a trip or illness, but here’s the reasoning: The pizza party is in 20 weeks. To keep all kids moving towards it together, a little circle keeps them up-to-date and all set for the party at the same time. Knowing this, they’ll have an easier time accepting it.
Also, when they check out each other’s pizzas, help them avoid judging kids who have circles. You might say, “Well, we don’t know if it’s because they didn’t practice. They might have been sick or away. We don’t know.” And after most of them have circles, this scrutiny will disappear.
Misses due to practice. Sometimes a student will get a miss because they didn’t practice effectively or reach their goals. This is based on how they play. When a students doesn’t reach their practice goals, handle their circle very gently.
At the end of the lesson when it’s pizza time, say something like, “I get the feeling that maybe you didn’t reach your goals this past week.” In these moments my students would usually nod and agree. Then we’d give them a circle and come up with a new resolve to reach the goals over the coming week.
This is the moment when we get to be the mentor who helps our piano students to reach higher.
How misses motivate better practicing. With misses, amazing things can happen! The week following a miss, I’d notice a huge improvement in the quality of my students’ practice. They’d pull up their socks and do the work, because I had called them on it. And they were now super proud of their preparation!
I tried to be fair and honest with my feedback. I wanted to be the teacher who believed that my students were capable of achieving more. And helping them know how to achieve more.
In our Practice Pizza challenge every student made it to the pizza party. Most had some circles along the way, but they were all motivated to reach their goals and practice with intention.
Overall, the quality of practice soared. My students were meeting my challenge not only to practice but to be mindful as to how they were practicing.
3. Practice Pizza Party
The pizza party was a long term goal which required weekly effort. My students were very motivated by this practice incentive. They talked about it often. It captured their imaginations and there was no question that it was having a positive impact on their practicing.
I prefer practice incentives that are individual and not competitive. This made my studio like a team. We were all happy to work towards the party together.
And then…the week of the party arrived!
To decorate, I hung up the pizzas outside like a string of flags. They looked pretty and festive!
An email survey helped me to find out what toppings the kids liked (and didn’t like). We got the pizza shop to cut the slices in two, kid-sized.
After the pizza, we played games.
We played Musical Chairs. The first round, there was a chair for everyone so they could get used to the idea of walking with music and sitting when the music stopped. I had cued up music like the Imperial March from Star Wars, Rossini’s William Tell Overture and Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor (and many more) and each round of the game brought a new epic tune. Some of the kids would exclaim, “I’ve heard this before!”
Out on the lawn we played Simon Says. The acting Simon stood on one side of the yard and would clap a rhythm, sing a note or interval or do an action (they came up with the rhythm, note, interval or action on their own) . The rest stood on the other side of the yard. With, “Simon says,” all who followed the instructions successfully would take a step forward. If Simon didn’t say and someone did it anyway, they took a step back. The first person to reach Simon got to be the next Simon.
Ready to motivate and have fun?
Some of the most difficult things a piano teacher is faced with are:
- Convincing students to put in their best effort,
- Getting students to remember to follow practice instructions, and
- Getting students to practice effectively.
The key to becoming a motivational teacher is to always be searching to find ways to get students to ‘buy in’ to practicing with intention.
Practice Pizza is an excellent focal point to motivate students to practice effectively. Perhaps it would be more ideal for children to practice purely for the joy of making music, with the notion that the music alone should be enough to keep them practicing diligently. For some of them, that day will come!
But until then, in my experience, students have a more positive outlook on practicing when there’s a challenge that is fun. With Practice Pizza as the proverbial ‘carrot’, many wonderful and musical things can be accomplished in 20 weeks.
I hope you’ll give it a try!
Some hints on the colour printable.
Print one pizza page for each student. You will not need to print a full set of toppings for each student.
You may want to print more pages of pepperoni than the other toppings.
You may want to print the toppings on sticker paper (which peels). Regular paper can also work. With regular paper, you may use double-sided tape or regular tape curled back on itself (sticky side out) to apply the toppings to the pizzas.
At the beginning of the 20-week challenge, you may ask your students what their favourite toppings are and cut out larger sections of paper for them, making sure there are a total of 20 toppings per student. They may then cut out the individual pieces at home and bring them back to the studio and keep them in an envelope or baggie until they earn them.
When cutting out toppings, you may leave a bit of the “cheese” colour showing around the edges.
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Video of the Week
Bones, Bones…Old Bones! (Elementary, Prep A). Every child can be a hero in this piece, being the discoverer of old bones! While the music centres in the middle of the keyboard and staff, it gives the Elementary piano student a chance to play the LH away from the middle C position. Dynamics enhance the storytelling, as do details like staccato and legato. At the end, the RH travels up the keyboard with notes in octaves that are easy to learn by rote. The eSheet comes with two versions: with and without lyrics. Available as the studio-licensed Bones, Bones…Old Bones! eSheet!
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