We’re back today for part two of our practice episode, where we finish talking about how we teach kids to practice. In the last episode, we really only talked about an approach to teaching practice to beginners and didn’t get much into the nitty gritty of actual long term strategies. So today we’ll give you all the things that we use to get kids to hone their skills and take ownership of their playing past the beginner stage. We draw several of our ideas from brain science, specifically from the work of Dr. Molly Gebrian, a professional violist with a background in neuroscience but we also give you some trusted and likely stolen strategies designed to “fit” certain musical dilemmas. Jessica is going to remind us of her latest obsession “evidence-based practice,” then we’ll get into some of Dr. Gebrian’s work and then give you the rest of the “tried and true” strategies we use. We’ll wrap up this episode with real talk where we tie everything together for you!

In the first episode of our second season, we begin our discussion about practice, our philosophies, some approaches and how we expect beginners to understand its value. This is a two part episode, and in part two, we get into strategies for older students.