February is an exciting and busy month to be a DVMTA teacher! Cavalcade rehearsals are in full-swing and students are loving these Broadway hits. February is also a time of preparation as teachers prepare their students for events like Awards in Excellence, Achievement Day, or a studio recital.
It’s an exciting musical journey to help a student learn a piece. Most students can learn a piece to about 80% of competency, including mostly notes and rhythm. But to take a piece closer to a 100% mastery, students must make the last 20% effort to get it ready to perform. The following are tips I’ve learned from other teachers and from experience that help students get their pieces performance ready. (Some ideas are from Allysia van Betuw, creator and host of PianoTV)
Divide the music into logical sections.
A big mistake students make is practicing their piece by playing it start to finish and calling it done. Students should do deep section-by-section work to really refine a piece. They should dive into the harder passages right from the beginning instead of avoiding them.
Keep the piece fresh.
Students should switch up the way they practice a piece so they can avoid getting bored. This helps them know their piece in different ways. This could include practicing the last section first and working backwards. Other ideas could be playing the piece very slowly, hands separate work, mastering one small technical challenge, changing the articulation by section, changing the rhythm by section, playing the LH loud and RH soft then switching, etc.
Give attention to the details.
Sometimes students play on auto-pilot. They play through their piece start to finish without really thinking and they forget the musical details. Encourage students to avoid practicing mindlessly and to listen to themselves. Help your students to analyze and comb through the music to notice the phrases that need shaping, dynamics that are missing, or articulations that aren’t being played.
Stay engaged.
Playing the piano is a left and right brain activity. Encourage your student to come up with creative games, challenges, and goals that will help them improve. Students can listen to recordings of their piece by different artists to help them with their own musical interpretation. I like to write reminders in the score for students as well as circle notes, accidentals, or any other details that will help them remember.
Do full run-throughs.
Of course, full run-throughs are important. Students should balance focused, section-by-section work with deliberate run-throughs start to finish. Run-throughs help students to assess their performance and identify mistakes or places where they hesitate to go back to work on.
Diligently practice without mistakes.
Of course, mistakes are inevitable, but to polish a piece, students should diligently strive to play their piece with accuracy. Every time a student makes a mistake, the student is practicing the mistake. Have the student spend time playing the correct way at least 3 times so that it outweighs the mistake before moving on.
Each piece a student masters helps them get better and gives them confidence. Good luck to each of you with all the great things you are doing with your students!
Tammy Shorts
DVMTA President 2022-2024
Read the full February 2024 Newsletter
It’s an exciting musical journey to help a student learn a piece. Most students can learn a piece to about 80% of competency, including mostly notes and rhythm. But to take a piece closer to a 100% mastery, students must make the last 20% effort to get it ready to perform. The following are tips I’ve learned from other teachers and from experience that help students get their pieces performance ready. (Some ideas are from Allysia van Betuw, creator and host of PianoTV)
Divide the music into logical sections.
A big mistake students make is practicing their piece by playing it start to finish and calling it done. Students should do deep section-by-section work to really refine a piece. They should dive into the harder passages right from the beginning instead of avoiding them.
Keep the piece fresh.
Students should switch up the way they practice a piece so they can avoid getting bored. This helps them know their piece in different ways. This could include practicing the last section first and working backwards. Other ideas could be playing the piece very slowly, hands separate work, mastering one small technical challenge, changing the articulation by section, changing the rhythm by section, playing the LH loud and RH soft then switching, etc.
Give attention to the details.
Sometimes students play on auto-pilot. They play through their piece start to finish without really thinking and they forget the musical details. Encourage students to avoid practicing mindlessly and to listen to themselves. Help your students to analyze and comb through the music to notice the phrases that need shaping, dynamics that are missing, or articulations that aren’t being played.
Stay engaged.
Playing the piano is a left and right brain activity. Encourage your student to come up with creative games, challenges, and goals that will help them improve. Students can listen to recordings of their piece by different artists to help them with their own musical interpretation. I like to write reminders in the score for students as well as circle notes, accidentals, or any other details that will help them remember.
Do full run-throughs.
Of course, full run-throughs are important. Students should balance focused, section-by-section work with deliberate run-throughs start to finish. Run-throughs help students to assess their performance and identify mistakes or places where they hesitate to go back to work on.
Diligently practice without mistakes.
Of course, mistakes are inevitable, but to polish a piece, students should diligently strive to play their piece with accuracy. Every time a student makes a mistake, the student is practicing the mistake. Have the student spend time playing the correct way at least 3 times so that it outweighs the mistake before moving on.
Each piece a student masters helps them get better and gives them confidence. Good luck to each of you with all the great things you are doing with your students!
Tammy Shorts
DVMTA President 2022-2024
Read the full February 2024 Newsletter
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