Fitting In Music Practice, as homework and other commitments increase Options

[SueHM]

Well you can incorporate some full run-throughs of all his pieces into the schedule, but make sure most of the time is spent on problem-solving rather than "polishing the shiny bits".*






*(the one useful thing I took from a ghastly book called The Practice Revolution, or some similar title - other people will shortly come along and tell you that it is a brilliant must-read!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) )

[tonedeafmum]

...

[Listener]

MNW, as he's a naturally early riser (he actually wakes rather than you having to shake him), early practice might work, although don't forget your well-being in the equation.

But why not trial the various excellent ideas given here over the coming weeks/months and see what works for him?

Also, although you may eventually devise a timetable, you should view it as the ideal, and not get concerned if everything doesn't get done one week (or even any week).

... though I don't say this to my own pupils, 3 or 4 practices a week should ensure reasonable progress. [I lead them all to believe that they should practise 7 days a week - that way I usually get about 5 practices in! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ]

I love that!

[andante]

I would be wary about making bedtime later. Other people telling you their child only needs to go to bed at 9.30 is not necessarily helpful. My daughter is 11 and still goes to bed between 7.30 and 8pm except for gym night. She gets up at 6.30 as we leave for the bus at 7.30 and she needs her sleep and always has. I found the elder two suddenly didn't need as much sleep when they were about 13, so she might have a later bedtime soon.

They don't get in from school until 5.15 as they have a long journey by bus, and by the time she has had her tea, done her homework and some music practice it is bedtime. I try to make sure Friday Sat Sun both lots of music practice happen, Tuesday is piano lesson night, so bassoon has to be done before the lesson. Monday and Thursday I'm happy if one or the other gets done. She's in year 7 and so there is quite a lot of homework, but she just gets on and does it, and if time is short a non urgent piece of homework might have to wait until the weekend. Piano practice takes quite a long time these days as she is working towards grade 6 (July?) but I tell her to decide before hand what she wants to achieve. eg getting lines 4 and 5 perfect in a piece. Playing them through once achieves nothing, as previous posters have said.

She has plenty of time to do her own thing weekends and holidays, and the odd night when the teachers have been kind on the homework front. I'm tempted to let her drop the gym sessions 3 hours Saturday and 2 hours Wednesday, but she hasn't asked to and I really don't her to give up on healthy exercise, particularly as bassoon lessons at school seem to fall into PE most weeks.

[Mad Tom]

There are 168 hours in the week, and that is not going to change.

That (over the 80 or so years that we can all expect to live these days) is a finite resource, but it is enough time for most of us to do ANYTHING we might want to do, but not for EVERYTHING that we want to do.

There are limits to how efficiently you can organize your life and it is stressful in itself to have a schedule that means every day is run at full throttle with no slack time or contingency for the unexpected.

When we get overcommitted (as DS seems to be) some things we enjoy (or that we do because we believe them to be essential or important) have to be sacrificed. The alternative (for those of us that are merely talented and hard-working and not super-genius polymaths) is to do nothing well.

[MusicalNitWit]

So far a thread where every post has been useful and informative! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) Thanks Guys.

Looks like I need to rethink the way a practice is conducted, allow DS (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) to decide where he feels he needs to improve and put my foot down about the bassoon exam. As it is, although the pieces are not perfect he is nearly there and with lots of practice could do it at the end of this term. But, the last thing I want is him playing these wretched songs for 6 months. I cannot take anymore of Teddy Bears Picnic! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[BerkshireMum]

He is not allowed to be a part time chorister. Everything I have written about his timetable is set in stone so these are the hours we are working with. He wants to do the exams, not me at all, but it doesn't matter if he was sitting exams or not he would still need to practice.

Choristers finish in Y8. Can he get effective practice done at 6:30am? He doesn't have breakfast until he gets to school at 7:30am and we wouldn't fit in breakfast at home as we are on a tight schedule to get up and out.

He doesn't need to start at 6.30. He'll be getting washed and dressed, sorting out his bag, etc as he now does at 6.50. He'll practise once he's up. BerkshireSon got up twenty minutes before us for years once he'd started secondary school. He'd get up at 6.40, wash, dress and get his bag ready. When our alarm went off at 7am he'd start 45 mins practice on either piano or clarinet (he alternated). Breakfast around 7.50, which I would get ready for him, and out at 8am.

I realise your son doesn't have as long as 45 mins to practise, but the principle is the same. The point is - does your son WANT to do this? We had a talk with ours about how much he was doing, and HE decided the schedule. At the end of year 7 he realised he needed to drop something, and gave up recorder and scouts. I never had to get him up once at secondary school, because he was keen to do his music. Others we knew who were into swimming or ice skating had a much earlier start time (our nearest ice rink is 18 miles away) and similarly got themselves up.

I'd be wary of doing a schedule for your boy without letting him have some input. Talk to him about it - what does he think would work? Does he need to drop something? The behaviour problems you've mentioned might mean he is already stressed, but doesn't realise it. As Mad Tom says, no-one can do everything. Best of luck!

[tonedeafmum]

So far a thread where every post has been useful and informative! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) Thanks Guys.

Looks like I need to rethink the way a practice is conducted, allow DS (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) to decide where he feels he needs to improve and put my foot down about the bassoon exam. As it is, although the pieces are not perfect he is nearly there and with lots of practice could do it at the end of this term. But, the last thing I want is him playing these wretched songs for 6 months. I cannot take anymore of Teddy Bears Picnic! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Glad to be of (some) help, MNW - total sympathy on the Teddy Bear Front - for us it was B1's grade 3 piano Elephant - 10 months of it!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ill.gif)

Plug the sight reading - it's great - you never hear the same dreadful thing twice. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[flobiano]

I found it useful to catagorise my scales into 3 groups

GREEN - can play accurately at first attempt (review once a week)
AMBER - can play on 2nd or 3rd attempt
RED - need more than 3 attempts.

I made sure I spent most of my practice times on reds so that they moved up to at least ambers.
And then focussed on making the ambers green
Green ones were practised once a week

Periodically woudl do a review of all to recategorise them.

They pretty much all fall into green now, so I run through them all over a period of 3 days.

I find it helpful to split my practice time into 3 sections:

a third on scales/ tech exercises including long notes
a third on studies
a third on pieces

For pieces and studies I would re-echo what others have said about focussing on the tricky bits. I find it useful to have a goal for each practice and be very clear about what I am trying to achieve. This is something that you son's teacher may help you with.
e.g. rather than just saying "practise this piece" - it maybe " focus on getting the fingering really smooth in bars x,y,z"
I've found that focussed practice with a definite goal will achieve more in 10 minutes than an hour of just playing things through.

[sbhoa]

So far a thread where every post has been useful and informative! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) Thanks Guys.

Looks like I need to rethink the way a practice is conducted, allow DS (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) to decide where he feels he needs to improve and put my foot down about the bassoon exam. As it is, although the pieces are not perfect he is nearly there and with lots of practice could do it at the end of this term. But, the last thing I want is him playing these wretched songs for 6 months. I cannot take anymore of Teddy Bears Picnic! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

I think that rethinking how practice is structured could help.
Playing through everything once is not practice. Can his teacher(s) help with targeting areas to work on?
I start by suggesting to my students that they work on each targeted area carefully and aim to play perfectly 3 times in a row. This can take 5 minutes or much longer depending on difficulty and concentration levels....more concentration can mean shorter practice time. They quickly learn to make the targets reasonable and manageable. Start with small targets and increase if one in achieved very quickly. If it's REALLY not working one day then move on to something else.
Full playthroughs can be included but not as most of the practice time unless immediately before and exam or performance.

[SueHM]

I'd be wary of doing a schedule for your boy without letting him have some input. Talk to him about it - what does he think would work? Does he need to drop something? The behaviour problems you've mentioned might mean he is already stressed, but doesn't realise it. As Mad Tom says, no-one can do everything. Best of luck!

This is important.

I have an early riser who puts himself through a punishing schedule of activities, but seems to thrive on it. If you are truly just helping him to get organised, all well and good, but you need to be super-honest with yourself about where the drive is coming from.

Either he is stressed out and over-committed, or he is struggling in other areas and thriving on music, which is his saving grace....or he's somewhere in between. Only you and he know where he is at on that continuum, and the balance may well shift as he gets older.

[MusicalNitWit]

I must add though that at the moment he only practices on a tues/wed and sat/sun and he doesn't have any matches so finishes at 3:30pm on Wed and 4:30pm on Tues so he is not overstretched yet but he could easily go this way.

[Banjogirl]

So far a thread where every post has been useful and informative! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) Thanks Guys.

Looks like I need to rethink the way a practice is conducted, allow DS (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) to decide where he feels he needs to improve and put my foot down about the bassoon exam. As it is, although the pieces are not perfect he is nearly there and with lots of practice could do it at the end of this term. But, the last thing I want is him playing these wretched songs for 6 months. I cannot take anymore of Teddy Bears Picnic! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Can't he have a new piece?! It's ages until the exams, especailly if he doesn't so his exam until the summer. Home ed boy is doing grade 4 cello this term but, apart from one piece, which he's just maintaining rather than practising, he's still learning new pieces from which his exam pieces will be chosen nearer the time.

I completely agree about doing focussed pratice but children do like to play their pieces through sometimes. That, after all, is where most of the pleasure lies. So I think you need time for both. It would be a shame to lose the obvious pleasure he has from his music making because the schedule is so tight.

[SueHM]

There is a comfortable balance for everyone, and a limit to what we can manage. If he starts to go beyond that limit, then some tough decisions will be inevitable. I think all you can do is wait and see how things evolve - things that seem impossible now may become tolerable in 3 or 6 months or a year's time, and his interests may change too.

Don't be afraid to cut him some slack if the need arises. Child 2 stopped piano lessons after grade 1 when she went up to secondary school (dancing and hockey were the priorities at that stage). It didn't stop her messing around on the piano every day for relaxation. Result - wind forward 5 years, she is a demon sight-reader, stopped dancing and hockey ages ago, restarted piano and went straight in at grade 5 with a distinction. Not everything has to be formally structured to succeed, especially if there are other related activities ongoing.

[andante]

I can so sympathise with the hearing the same tune over and over again. I did Kabelevsky's Clown for my grade 3 piano back in about 1980. My elder daughter learnt it, then my son murdered it for a while and when child 3 started in on it I had to tell the piano teacher I couldn't stand to hear it ever again! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)