Practice Environment 6

(checklist 6 of 6 from the article A Healthy Practice Environment)

Instead of an article, this month I would like to pass on a series of checklists to help you and your student examine your practice process.  Practice is the most time consuming part of learning the instrument, and the part that happens without any teacher supervision, so it is worthwhile to re-evaluate from time to time to make sure you are on the right track.

What can we do to change our practice routine a little? (Part 2)

• Involve listening in your practice time—listen to your CD for the part you are working on
• Include “messing around” time as part of practice.  Let your student experiment with the instrument just to see what kinds of sounds it can make, or fiddle around trying to poke out the melody to a song they like
• Have a silent practice—neither parent or student can talk (maybe charge 1 M&M for each lapse into speech!)
• Practice without the instrument.  Hum or sing your songs, practice hand movements or posture on your lap or on an invisible instrument, do your reading assignment by saying the letter names rather than playing them.

  Try to mark one thing from this section that you want to add to your practice environment!