With some of my students, young and old, I find some weeks, they don't do any practice. Now, with classical guitar, that's fine, I usually go through some theory with them. However, on electric guitar, my teaching is a lot more different, for beginners it just consists of getting the basics down, I'm not really fussed about grades, theory etc. So my question is, what do I do with my students when they haven't practised? I mean, you can go through the pieces, but after so long, they'll just get bored of that, and that's not what I really want. Has anyone else had this problem? I mean, the perfect solution would be that they did practice, but some adults have "too little time" and kids just tend to "forget" no matter what incentive I give them.

COuld you do some aural work, copying and improvising short phrases?

With a more experienced student, that would be fine, however, with less experienced students, I can't really do that.

You can do call and response rhythms on a single note!

With adults, for an hour, this can become boring! Good idea, but I need something more sustainable!

Are you really saying that you are prepared to come up with an hour's worth of new activities every time an adult turns up having done no practice? It may be boring going over pieces again and using the lesson as 'supervised practice', but perhaps they will get the message that they can't progress on to something else until they have mastered the tasks that you have set them. I would expect to spend at least half that hour going over things from the previous week if no practice had been done.

Perhaps you would find something like the AB Jazz Taster Day helpful - it gives lots of ideas for improvisation type activities with beginners.

No, just about half an hour, because yes, I would spend about half of that lesson going through what we'd previously done. I'm not getting paid ridiculous amounts of money just to teach, as private teachers, we need to go one step better, even if the student hasn't done enough practice.

I'm afraid I simply say "Well, we shall have to do the work that you didn't do during the week now."
I never use a harsh voice. I act as if it were perfectly normal for me to demand that the work be done in the lesson if it hasn't been done at home and if the lesson is therefore boring and we don't get on to anything new, that's too bad.

I tend then to break the practice that should have been done into tiny pieces. We do a couple of bars several times over, discuss where and why it went wrong and how to put it right. I suppose I actually use thes lessons to show pupils how to practise - a sort of method lesson. I don't usually have to do do two in a row!

I do exactly the same. I do point out that this is what should have been done at home, but I don't make a big thing about it or get angry, because I don't know the situation at home for that particular student. I do remind them, though, that this is what real practising is all about!

Pretty much exactly the same. If supervised practise is what's needed then that's what you've got to do. I might well do a couple of sight-reading duets - they're often quite fun - or a little aural, just to break it up. Or sometimes I'll play some things, get them to say which they like and why, that sort of thing. But you can't reinvent the wheel.

For a couple of quite able students I 've used this time as a lesson to draw them a little graph showing them where they, as quite musical beings, will get if they do or do not practise. One was quite shocked to see that my sample 'average' child would overshoot her very quickly if that kid practised but she, the 'gifted' one didn't. I didn't do it nastily just as a statement of fact. Message got through though.

Bribary for the children...all mine that 'had no time to practice' (because Julie comes over on a Monday and this happens on a Tuesday etc, etc,) have all practiced everyday since I gave them a chart. The person who practices the most gets a prize. If they bring their books every week, they get a bonus prize. All had books, all had practiced. (I didn't ask to practice everyday - I said at least three times a week but they love it!)

Not sure about the prize idea - what sort of prize are we thinking of?

I'm not in favour of practice charts essentially because they can be faked - although of course it is obvious when they do not appear to have made any progress when they play.

Sometimes it seems to me that children (in particular) fall into a habit of not practising and need something to kick them out of it. They are not necessarily complete non-practisers, just in a phase.

I may be a miserable so-and-so but I don't usually use bribery. Like some of the other posters, I do supervised practice in lessons when I feel that no practising has been done for a couple of weeks. And since I'm working towards exams with a few of them I'm suggesting that we record their efforts - although I'm not going to do anything with the recordings except listen to them in the lesson, it does seem to focus their minds a bit.

I feel quite strongly that practising has its own reward in the improved ability to play the piece and I'm very happy to say really good things and give house point rewards in school for seriously good progress.

Slightly off topic but for the past two years I have recorded my children on a CD as a Christmas present for their grand-parents who live too far away to hear them play their instruments "live". Their grand-parents loved the CDs, my children wanted to do endless "takes" to get it as perfect as possible (so heaps more practising) and they also liked hearing how much they had improved from one year to the next. They have decided this year that instead of recording a few pieces in the month before Christmas they will record every piece when they "finish" it. This should provide a major incentive to polish all their pieces throughout the year.

I did this the first term I taught - and then didn't the next term and many parents and children asked for me to start it again as it helped focus and motivate them! When they have practiced and there is a significant improvement we discuss how this makes them feel and whether they prefer coming to the lessons having nothing or having made an improvement. it's fun - they decorate the chart - it's not the be all and end all. It's just a focus and it works really well for me! I was obviously just messing about calling it a bribe - it's just a reward system and the children I teach respond well to it.

Whe I upgrade my recording department I might consider doing a CD per person - that could be a real incentive.

An idea the recording suggestion has given me...

How about using lessons when little practise has been done to plug a guitar into some music software and layer up some tracks to create a simple compositions. Something like Garageband or a PC equivalent allows respectable stuff to be built up using drum loops, and you could add more complicated guitar lines, while the student puts together something simpler. This can be a good way to slowly introduce songwriting...

And a few ideas based on my knowledge of guitarists...

Or you could discuss how to put together an awesome guitar solo, discuss ones they are familiar, how they are constructed. Much like improvisation, I guess.

Final idea (which might inspire some practise) is to work with the student tabbing out the main riffs (or entirity, depending on level) of some track they're rather fond of. This becomes both an aural exercise and a potential incentive to practse: They can them work on something also chosen themselves for the following week, hopefully practising it alongside whatever they're meant to have been doing.


Not a teacher though, so my ideas might be compeltely inappropriate...

I am with the 'go over it again' people here - this is exactly what I do. Cheerfully and with pleasure.

There are a host of reasons why people do not practise. There are a host of reasons why they do not practise for several weeks. Part of my job is to keep them happy and enjoying their lessons. Having said that, my lessons are usually 30 minutes, so this is easy to do.

Me too, but the "cheerfully and with pleasure" bit only lasts for so many weeks, after which a couple of lessons devoted entirely to scales or sightreading usually helps them find some time to practise for the next time!

... and I might be reluctant to continue setting aside a whole hour for someone who habitually did nothing.

The only 'prize' mine get is a star if they do something really well and they all seem thrilled if they get one.

I agree with dcmbarton. The majority of teachers in my experience don`t show people how to practice, yet they complain when their pupil hasn`t. Most pupils idea of practice is just going over and over the music hoping it`ll get slightly better.

Teachers often think they have shown how to practice but they haven` t. I am often more interested in what my pupil is going to do at home, rather than how well they play the music in the lesson, as I won`t be there at home with them.

I play a game with pupils where they go forward spaces (like a board game) when they practice well in front of me and they go backwards when they do pointless or damaging practice. They enjoy it and learn a lot and they win a choc`` bar. (well just a LITTLE extrinsic motivation does no harm)

Does this work with your adult pupils?

Burl

I don't have any adult pupils at the moment, but have always found that adults don't need rewards - just playing seems reward in itself for them.

Nooooooooooo, we DO love getting the occasional stickers...or at least I do! I travel quite a bit for work and genuinely don't have enough time to practise (pity I can't take my harp with me whereever I go), but ever since my teacher started putting stickers in my notebook, I even got up a bit earlier to fit in the practise - and sometimes that means 5am in the morning before I leave for the airport!

I'm not an adult (I'm 17) but I LOVE getting stickers. I don't get them often so when I do I know that I've done very well.

My adult students all seem to enjoy getting stickers...

...and barry does too

Hmm, wannabe rockers don't like stickers I find! Kids, yes, they like their stickers.

Going through pieces that my students haven't practised, is what I do currently, to all the people who are suggesting this. However, I find that the students get bored of it quickly. My incentive is playing a brilliant guitar solo with my favourite backing track then asking them, "Do you want to learn that?" The obvious answer being yes, I reply with, "Then practice lots." I do use other incentives like prizes but it just doesn't work for some reason. But this isn't an issue to do with my students not practising.

My teacher said to me last year that I was the only pupil he has ever had who has always practiced what he has asked them to practise right from the very first lesson but I would be very embarrassed to be given stickers - as Jenny says being able to play something is reward in itself.

One of my students IS a rocker and he likes getting stickers .

< that's b-c getting a sticker

Several years ago in another lifetime I got a job in Youth Training. The whole set-up was a total shambles and the 17 and 18 year olds totally demotivated. I needed a quick way of keeping track of the assignments they completed, ruled a sheet for each module and tests within it. I put a list of trainee names at the side, each time a test was passed and completed they got a sticky dot (to avoid them penning in them themselves). It was not inteded as motivational, mpre as an easy way of tracking progress, but the turn around in the training room was amazing. Stickers do work

Oh they do notmusimum. I'm very fond of giving (as well as receiving!) stickers, and they really make people happy!

You never gave me a sticker!

Can I ask what kind of stickers you use? Special adult stickers?
Oh no, that could be misinterpreted!!

Oh no, I didn't *resolves to give sbhoa a sticker in two weeks time*



I've got all sorts of stickers. Musical ones, smiley faces, ones that say well done, glittery stickers...

Wow! You do love your stickers!

I think Cyrilla comfortably beats me on variety of stickers...

My son's teacher (who also teaches me) has a sticker chart for her younger pupils - to help them acquire the habit of practising. A gold star for those who practice every day, silver for five or six practices in the week, coloured for less than five.

It does help to focus my son on the fact that practice must be done (the other factor is that he's not allowed on the computer until he's done his practise). She doesn't necessarily use it every term.

Adult learner - wannabee rocker hijacking thread here

I love getting stickers not that I get them very often


Lois

well, i have to be the odd one out here and say that, as an adult learner, i think getting a sticker for practicing would come across as very condescending. maybe this is just because i have no problem finding time to practice; but if i did, i think some kind of timetable or notebook would work fine. sure, it might not be particularly exciting, but i find the practice itself is exciting enough--after all, isn't that why i'm putting in all this effort to learn an instrument as an adult, on my own?

My daughter who is 13 has never been rewarded for practise by any of her teachers, and it's never been an issue for her to put in the work, not everyone needs the same rewards.

As I posted earlier, I agree.

Oh, dear . I do hope that my students (of all ages) accept my stickers in the spirit in which they're given - which is NEVER one of condescension... .

It's the way you give them out, by the sounds of things, you probably do it in a friendly manner that suggests you're not condescending them, but actually being proud of them.

Maybe some of us didn't get stickers when we were small so don't mind catching up now (52 going on 10).

Stickers

Special music stickers as recommended by cambiata from The Sticker Factory.