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

[MusicalNitWit]

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)

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[Susie]

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

This really is an excellent thread. Brilliant idea flobiano. I hate giving my pupils tests where I mark the scales as E(xcellent), G(ood), S(atisfactory) or P(oor) - although some pupils need the boot up the b** to galvanise them. I shall spend a bit of time thinking how I'll incorporate this into my scale tests in future.

[Arundodonuts]

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.

I'm doing something similar to hammer home the Grade 6 scales.
I attempt to play each scale (maj, min harmonic and melodic) perfectly 3 times in succession.
I give each one a score of 2 numbers (e.g 2/3 - means 2 attempts required to play successfully and then managed to play it 3 times in succession).
If a scale gets a 1/3 it goes on the back burner. All other scales are reviewed the following day. After a period of several days I should have managed to get a 1/3 for all scales.
I then start again reviewing all scales.

[Clari Nicki1]

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.

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Sorry... hope you didn't think I was suggesting OP's child so go to bed later- just that I was lucky that my child didn't need much sleep as she is often practising at 8:30pm- 9pm! Mind you- I didn't think I was lucky when I had a baby who didn't sleep night or day!!!
I understand that children, like adults, need different amounts of sleep!

[andante]

No I didn't think that really, just that someone who had questioned whether their child was going to bed too early would read several posts all saying 9.30 was right for about that age, and my point was that my slightly older child still needs their sleep, and that it's not that uncommon.

My eldest as a baby refused to have more than 15 minutes nap twice a day if I was lucky, but from about 10 weeks slept 14 hours at night. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) I also know parents who have children that never slept through the night until they started school or later. Children vary hugely with sleep patterns, and it's difficult when they come in from school and say their friends stay up until 10 pm to be firm.

[miffy]

Perhaps the instrument he finds hardest or takes the longest, in the morning while his concentration is fresh?
Scale-wise, particularly for the higher grades where he has more, 1major, 1minor, and the matching arpeggios each day, but therefore playing each several times until they feel really comfortable.
Pieces - for a 4 line piece, why not play 1 line a day, but 4 times, rather than 4 lines once?

[MusicalNitWit]

Perhaps the instrument he finds hardest or takes the longest, in the morning while his concentration is fresh?
Scale-wise, particularly for the higher grades where he has more, 1major, 1minor, and the matching arpeggios each day, but therefore playing each several times until they feel really comfortable.
Pieces - for a 4 line piece, why not play 1 line a day, but 4 times, rather than 4 lines once?

If only they were four lines! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[MusicalNitWit]

An update: DS is going to have to board all the choir nights as of next term. A long story but that's the way it is and is for the best in other aspects of his schooling. So that means we have Sat/Sun and 30 mins on a Wednesday. Will he make any progress? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[andante]

Yes, if it's really structured practice (as opposed to playing things through), it's probably a lot more than a lot of children manage. He has quite long school holidays too doesn't he?

[MusicalNitWit]

Not too worried about the piano or double bass but I am concerned about the bassoon because it is a tough old instrument to blow and I think it's easier with little and often. Oh well...

[SueHM]

Will there not be any opportunity for him to practise in school either in a practice room or in his boarding house? What do full-time boarders do about music practice? 3x/week practice may not be ideal, but it is better than nothing. You could perhaps do two short sessions on each of the weekend days morning and afternoon, making it 5x/week. If the problem is lugging the bassoon around at school, is there anything useful he can do in terms of practising fingering patterns, breathing exercises? Even just reading through his bassoon music and imagining himself playing it will do some good (I know, big ask for a 10 year old...)

[MusicalNitWit]

Good idea about reading the music SueHM - will that work for me? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

The problem is that when boarders have music practice he is in choir rehearsals and after school he is in the Abbey. I don't feel enough emphasis is put on practice when he is around but the school is excellent in other ways.

I was already thinking of twice on Sat/Sun focusing on different things each time.

[SueHM]

I believe there is evidence that thinking your way through a piece is neurologically the same as actually playing it in terms of reinforcing the neural connections - but you have to establish those connections in the first place before this will work! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[Solari]

I believe there is evidence that thinking your way through a piece is neurologically the same as actually playing it in terms of reinforcing the neural connections - but you have to establish those connections in the first place before this will work! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

My teacher says that practicing mentally can be immensely useful. It can be painfully boring trying to recall which fingers are doing what, and hitting which key for the piano and remembering the analasys you did as to what chords are which etc, so it can only be done properly in small doses, but it definitely helps me - it quickly identifies parts of a piece that I don't have memorised securely.

[Banjogirl]

I think the truth is that at the lower grades you can get away with less practice than might be considered normal for a limited amount of time. But eventually the lack of practice will catch up with you. There won't be time to cover more than a very basic or exam focussed repertoire and once the pieces become longer and more difficult, and the scales more numerous, there just won't be time to cover everything satisfactorily. You can't fit a quart into a pint pot! A number of people have agreed that their child practises less on the instrument on which they're not imminently doing an exam, but this only works if exams are taken at different times.

But having said that there are people who seem to make progress with less practice than you'd expect. Normally subsequent instruments are 'easier' in that the player can already read music and understand rhythm and so on. We've had the secenario of children apparently making very rapid progress without much work but it isn't sustainable and sooner or later more time will be needed.

I know your son likes the bassoon and the double bass but needs the piano. I can't help feeling that your best route might be to concentrate on the piano plus one of the others and keep the third instrument 'for fun' for the time being. I know someone who got to grade eight on the double bass in under three years in his late teens (he had three other grade eights) so there's plenty of time to catch up later on.