Practicing Work-Out!

I got this idea from James Hutchins on the Suzuki Parents as Partners Online conference two years ago.  Since then I've used it a lot with my students and want to have it readily accessible to my students this year so I put it behind the front cover of their practice books this year.

Basically, a "workout" is focused practicing using review pieces.  My "workout" page is just a list of the Suzuki violin pieces in books 1 & 2 in order.  You could make your own "workout" page with your own list of pieces that would be easy enough to practice without thinking about the notes.

I assign a time for the workout.  With my own kids, I like to choose a specific time that is on one of our Cube Timers so that they can just flip it over and practice (so easy!!)  For this specific amount of time my students play through their list focusing on whatever it is I've assigned them.  For some it could be playing with their eyes on the highway, for others, it might be keeping your scroll up.  It could be to help posture points, intonation, or focus.  If the student can play the first piece all the way through with the focus point they can move on to the next piece on the list.  They keep playing through the pieces until the timer dings - then they are done with their workout for the day.  They mark where they stopped and start there for their workout the next day.

I love assigning workouts because it really lets a student focus on one thing for 5 or 7 minutes without the student thinking about the notes or bowings.  For Suzuki students, this is a very efficient way to do their review.

If you are a Suzuki violin student/parent/teacher you may download my workout sheet (I laminate it and write on it with a dry-erase marker so that we can reuse it - and have the student mark their spot with a post-it flag.)  You can also make your own list for different instruments or repertoire.  Let me know what successes you've had with your students using a "workout!"

Student Plan - Setting Goals for the Year

For three years now I have included a "Student Plan" in my student's practice books.  This is a paper where we write down goals for the year.  Each year I change it up a little (and hopefully improve it) and I believe that it helps us stay focused on certain things the students, parents, and I would like to accomplish during the year.

The beginning of a new school year (rather than January) is my favorite time for a "new beginning" when it comes to music lessons with my children and students.  We've survived the craziness of summer and are ready to start a new routine with new goals.  

I ask the students to come up with 1-3 goals (they could come up with more if they'd like, but I've never had anyone do that yet.) I tell them it can be anything they'd like that has to do with violin and I don't care.  Some goals the I've seen:

Finish book 2 by the end of the year.
Play in church.
Practice every day.
Improve my posture.
Learn a duet with my sister.

etc.

Throughout the year I consistently refer back to the goals and I try to keep the lessons on track so the students can accomplish their goals.  It's fun at the end of the year to look back and see if the kids accomplished their goals.

This year I also added a section where the parents could write goals they'd like to see.  This could be their own personal goals or something they'd like to see with their child.  The most common of these goals is about happy practicing, or starting practicing without complaining.  I think this is a great way for the kids to realize exactly what the parents expect from them.

New this year is also a section where I, as their teacher, can write some things I'd like the students to work on.  This often has to do with specific posture points or musicality.  One goal I often put is for that I want the student to learn to love the violin.  That would be my ultimate goal for these students of mine.  

I also include a section where they can plan when they are going to practice and listen as well as what we plan to play for the upcoming recital and Federation.

I've always been a goal-setter because I strongly believe that writing down goals is a better way to accomplish something.  I've heard several studies about goal setting online (some of which seem to be false, unfortunately), however, I did read that according to Dave Kohl, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech: People who regularly write down their goals earn nine times as much over their lifetimes as people who don't.

That should be reason enough to spend a few minutes each year creating goals for yourself.  I tell all of my students this to help them get motivated to write down their goals.

What are some things you do to help your children or students accomplish their goals?

Cube Timer Wonder

I've been so delighted with these new Cube Timers that I found recently.  I have had several people request that I put these online and I love how this spices up our practice!

My daughter's teacher just concluded a contest that really helped reinforce smart practicing!  I often roll a die or spin a wheel or just tell my students or children to do an over-and-over spot _____ amount of times.  I often do 10 times per day because I use a bead counter a lot.  If it's a short over and over it may be 20 or 30 times a day.  This contest counted the TIME rather than the repetitions and the great thing about using time instead of the number of times is that the quality of overs and overs is better.

Each student has a cube timer and would practice hard spots in their piece over and over for that amount of time.  My younger daughter only has the attention span to do 1 minute at a time - so we flip the cube to the 1 and it would automatically start a 1-minute timer.  She'd practice her spot for 1 minute and when the timer would go off she'd finish her spot and be done.  (If she needed more time we'd do another minute.)  My older daughter would do her spots for longer - 3, 5, or 7 minutes.  For every minute they did an over-and-over spot they would color in that many numbers on this chart. (5 minutes of overs and overs would be 5 numbers.)  At the end of the summer, every student handed in their charts, and everyone got a prize, but the people with the most minutes got to choose first.

Since the contest finished we have still been practicing using the cube timer almost daily...it's become part of our routine.  My 4-year-old does at least one task for 1 minute using the cube timer each day (this week it's circle bows.)  My 7-year-old uses part of her practice just going over difficult spots in her pieces using the cube timer.  With her I sometimes roll a die to determine how many spots we need to do - and then we do that many spots with the timer.  The biggest success has been with my 11-year-old who practices on her own.  She's using the timer to practice all sorts of spots in her pieces.  Her practicing has gone from playing her pieces over and over to playing spots in her pieces over and over.

What I like most about these cube timers is that they are so easy to use.  I know most timers aren't very hard to use, but it requires pushing buttons and setting or resetting the timer.  With the cube timer, all you have to do is just flip the cube and the timer starts.  There is a digital timer on the bottom if you are curious about how far along you are on the timer.  There is light on the top so you know it's working.

We've been mainly using the 1, 3, 5, 7 timer, but I really like the longer timers as well because you can break a practice session into 15-minute sessions, or use the timer to time the practicing.  I'm also thinking I may use it to time computer time for my kids (30 minutes - no buttons, just turn the timer over.)