Hi guys - I have a female student aged 16 just about to take her GR6 this November and she is stressing about her A list piece (can't remember what it's called - it's A1 ) She wants every single note to be played correctly (the piece is full of trills) which I keep telling her is unlikely - especially on the exam day! Therefore she struggles to play through any mistakes. Also if she makes a mistake you can see her start to get cross with herself and she starts to hit the keys harder in her frustration which of course means her tone and musical line go to pot. If she could just chill out about it she would play it beautifully.
As I am a general hack/player about town I keep telling her that I play plenty of wrong notes when I'm playing stuff for concerts that I've never seen before but that nobody notices cos I play them with style! She can see the sense in this but still can't stop herself from getting cross! I'm running out of ideas - can anybody help?
Carol

I have a variety of tactics that I apply according to the personality of the individual:

- record her playing to show how the mistakes sound nowhere near as bad as she thinks they do.
- playing the 'how many marks do you get left with' game. Even adults will happily play this. The student starts with 10 marks (or 20 or, in extremis 30 ), performs the piece and looses a mark only for allowing mistakes to affect her fluency and musicality. This little 'game' can be applied to any situation at any age. I start with a 50% target and bump up from there.
- promise chocoholics a choc if they can give a performance whose fluency and musicality is unaffected by mistakes.
- demonstrate how wrong notes are the least important of mistakes.
- unadorned praise the entire time she is playing.
- 'tough love'. This takes 2 forms: 1) tell her to stop being a self-indulgent wimp and get on with it; 2) tell her to stop being arrogant - if I cannot play with total accuracy then she has no chance of doing so.

It usually takes a mixture of these tactics to make the difference.

Good luck with this one. We all hate seeing out students unhappy.

Steve

Remind me never to let you loose on my 6 year old who came downstairs in tears yesterday because after weeks of practising 'the flintstones' on the violin and getting it right, she had one of those off days when you don't hit any of the right notes, let alone in the right order.


If the piece is complete, and would pass the exam if she doesn't stress about it. It is possibly worth asking someone to come in so she can perform it to them. Then put it away for a couple of weeks or so. If she's stressing about it, she probably needs a short break from it.

Also check any areas where wrong notes are causing specific slips - a week of very slow practising could iron out any areas where she has 'programmed' herself to stop.

Good luck

I like the idea of "pressure games" in The Practice Revolution - the idea is that the student practices under pressure, actually creates a pressured situation - and learns to deal with it.

Thanks for your ideas guys
Sarah-flute where can I find out about The Practice Revolution?
Steve I love your "tough love" idea!
Carol

www.practicespot.com

Wow super quick response! Thanks!

Oh yes I've read this before whilst desperately searching for practice inspiration one day!

Ok. Never let me loose on your 6 year old who came downstairs in tears yesterday because after weeks of practising 'the flintstones' on the violin and getting it right, she had one of those off days when you don't hit any of the right notes, let alone in the right order.

Sorry. My irreverent sense of humour again.

Steve

Have seen from various of your posts how much you would like to teach a 6 year old Steve!