1
S2E1•April 17, 2024•43:38
Practice Part 1: Beginners
Teaching students what to practice is easy. Teaching them how to practice? That's the hard part. In this first of a two-part series, Jessica and Janet focus on building healthy practice habits with beginning string students—before bad habits take root.
PracticeBeginnersHabit FormationHome Practice
Episode Overview
Practice makes permanent—so how do we ensure our youngest students are practicing in ways that build skills rather than reinforce mistakes? Jessica and Janet kick off Season 2 with a deep dive into establishing effective practice habits from day one.
What You'll Learn
- Age-appropriate practice expectations for beginning students
- How to structure practice assignments that students can actually follow
- Involving parents without requiring them to be musicians
- Common practice pitfalls and how to prevent them
Key Takeaways
The practice habits students develop in their first year often stay with them throughout their musical journey. Investing time in teaching how to practice—not just what to practice—pays dividends for years to come.
Show Notes
- We discuss Posture Boomerangs - two examples are here for you to share with students. Alternatively, consider having students create their own as an assignment and upload them to your LMS.
- Chris Gleason's terrific podcast, Beyond ArtLess, can be found here. Specifically, his episode with Dr. Molly Gebrian and practice strategies can be found here.
- Jessica uses MakeMusic (formerly called SmartMusic) for practice accountability (remember - it's not about perfection; it's just to get kids to unpack those instruments and play play play!)
- Janet's "hill that she will die on" is that music is part of the core curriculum as part of ESSA legislation. Leyla Sanyer in season one discusses it as well. A quick overview from NAfME can be found here.
- Janet's musical greeting card assignment summary is here. It includes step by step directions, a rubric, a sample parent letter about the assignment, and more!