Another Way to do Repetitions

This is a great idea that is perfect for smaller repetitions, like playing a whole piece or large sections of a piece...

Today when we were practicing I felt like my daughter needed to break down her piece into three main parts and practice them 5 times each.  I oversee her practice and help her when she needs it, but she is responsible for doing the bulk of the practicing on her own so this is how we decided to keep track of her repetitions each day.  We put 5 post-it flags on her music and she just moves them for each repetition.  Easy as that.

A Little Practice Buddy

Sometimes it's just a little buddy that will kickstart practicing again. In my case, it's this little Practice Monkey that I got for my Shoppe but any stuffed animal would work.

We use our practice monkey as an audience, a critic, an object for concentration, and a reward for good practicing. This little guy is always sitting around watching for good tone and happy playing. 

Today this little guy is making practice fun. 

Check out this video of our practicing today complete with chocolate on the face. It's over six minutes long. That's with all the parts I edited out. Caroline practiced this section for at least 20 minutes. It was really a tough one for her, but notice she is still smiling at the end of practicing. We also included another little guy we like to practice with. 

Another repetition idea: blocks

Practicing with my 4-year-old has become increasingly difficult. She gets all grumpy and her bottom lip sticks out and she refuses to do anything. Today was actually a good day of practicing so I knew I needed to get stuff done while she was happy. She REALLY needed to practice the C section of Perpetual Motion because she kept slopping through it - never getting it right. I pulled out the trusty bead counter that we use so often and ...what!....rejection!!! She refused. Am I such a pushover that my child gets her own way? Well, I can't force her arms to move and I can always get mad, but what good will that do? So, I'm frantically looking around quickly for something that will motivate her to practice this section over and over. What do I find? A box of blocks!

 

"How about every time you play this section we add a block to the stack? Let's see how high we can make it before it tips over."

Her eyes got wide and she smiled. Aha! I got her. Sure enough, she did the section over and over successfully and really improved the song during that practice session. Sometimes we just need to add a little variation to the routine and it doesn't always have to be a big planned event. I have a feeling we'll be doing overs and overs with the blocks for the next few days.

ABCs

I was practicing with my 4-year-old daughter, and she struggled to do 10 of what I asked her to do. The next time around I told her I would say the alphabet, one letter between each repetition. Before she knew it she had done 26 happily. Sometimes you just have to change things up a bit!

Repetition is Key!

Am I tooting my own horn by telling you {again} how awesome these bead counters are!  Probably!  I've had a bead counter off and on for my 7-year-old.  These last two weeks have been awesome practicing weeks for her because of this bead counter.  She has started the Bach Double and we have been listening to it over and over for at least a month in the car on the way to school.  Each week her teacher assigns her four or five HARD spots in this piece.  I help her the first few times and she is on her own.  Every day she has me flip the bead counter and does every section ten times.  I'm telling you - this little girl will learn Bach Double in lightning speed.  I bet she'll have it memorized before she turns eight (seriously - $100 bucks right now.)

I think she is so successful at learning the violin so fast because we have been doing repetitions on every piece since she started the violin.  I took her teacher very seriously from the start when she said play a spot 50 times per day.  I'll tell you - we did it 50 TIMES every day.  It probably wasn't until the end of Book 3 when we had SO much to practice that I would be a little lenient on the overs-and-overs.  But I believe that she now has a brain that can do overs-and-overs so easily.

So, if you want a tad of advice.  DO THE REPETITIONS!  It's hard at first but then it becomes habit.  It's the only way to really learn a piece well.  Professionals do it!  Nobody is ever too good to play the hard spots over and over!