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9 Practice Tips
Whether you’re a brand new beginner or a seasoned musical veteran, practicing is necessary for advancement and enjoyment of any instrument. Listen below are 9 practice tips that have helped me and many of my students.
Practice 5-6 times a week
One of the most important aspects of practicing is consistency.
Practicing every day is a much more effective way to build skills and technique than to over practice and cram the day before your lesson. The human brain is such an amazing instrument in itself; it remembers what you practiced the day before, allowing youtube build upon previous efforts and play better each time you practice!
Make practice fun
Don’t turn practicing into a chore. Practicing should be fun! Make sure that you (or your child) plays something fun for part of your practice session. Make a game out of playing the hard things a little bit better every time you practice it. Practice the hardest thing(s) first. When you feel a sense of accomplishment after practicing, you’re more likely to stick with it, as no one likes doing the same thing for months while not improving.
Remember, a sense of accomplishment after practice is a powerful motivator
Attend the first several lessons
This is especially crucial for parents! Attending the first several lessons is of the utmost importance, especially if you have never played the instrument before and/or your child is under 11 years of age. Parents are an EXCELLENT second set of listening ears, offering valuable help and support! Use this to your advantage. This is also a lovely bonding experience, as I know several of my students, especially early on in their musical development, loved having their parents there. The first few lessons can also be nerve wracking for young students as it’s a new experience. Having a parent present can help banish such nervousness and set the tone for later lessons. If you’re ever unsure what of needs to be practiced, attending lessons is so integral in staying in the loop!
Take Notes
Have you ever gone to a lesson and everything made perfect sense, but when you pick up your instrument the next day you don’t remember any of it? You’re not alone. This is why it’s so important to write things down while they are fresh. It also helps if you write the notes so that it’s in your own words to avoid confusion or overly technical jargon your teacher might have throw in. If you’re a young musician, ask a parent or guardian to take notes for you. For young musicians, this only aids in building the bond between practicer and parent.
Even better if your note taker is also your practice buddy!
For young musicians, parents can assist as note-takers and even become practice buddies.
Chunk it
Chunking is an educational technique endorsed by the American Psychology Association. It involves, “the process by which the mind divides large pieces of information into smaller units (chunks) that are easier to retain in short-term memory.”
Chunking is an EXCELLENT tool to use at every stage in a musician’s journey. I still use this technique to this day! When you break down difficult passages into smaller, playable chunks you are training yourself to play it correctly. Once you have perfected several chunks you can add them together and VOILA! (no, not the instrument) you have now perfected a new section of a previously impossible place in your music!
Encourage Exploration
Let your child explore the instrument and make their own music. Musical curiosity
is a precious resource. There have been many studies that show how play aids in learning. Encouraging exploration and experimentation helps not just with musicality but also with technique building, now and in the future.
Practice productively
Practice doesn’t have to be a marathon. The better quality of practice you have, the less quantity you’ll need. Being mindful when your practice becomes less productive is good in not only fighting against burn out and frustration, but also will help curb potential injuries. Whenever you start to feel unfocused or highly fatigued, it’s time for a break. Shorter, more focused practice sessions will also be more productive than a several hour long practice session.
Establish a Routine
Routine is your secret ally in creating and nurturing any aspect of life, but especially in music. If practicing is always an after though or only done when convenient, it will never happen to any degree of consistency to produce excellence and improvement. Just like creating the habit to brush your teeth (hopefully multiple times) every day was difficult at first, so might creating your practice habit.
Find the best time of day for YOU to create music. Everyone is busy and has a unique schedule and lifestyle. Decide and create what works best for you. You might find certain times of the day work best for your mental concentration, or even before or after other activities. Don’t hesitate to ask your teacher for help or suggestions. Their only goal in lessons is your success! Their expert advice will help you tailor a practice session to your needs and goals.
Listen
Active listening is a cornerstone of musical development. Listening to music is such an integral part and actively contributes to musical growth. Immersing yourself into your pieces will only help accelerate your learning. However, make sure you create a balance between listening and practicing. Practicing shouldn’t be solely listening.
Learning to broaden your musical horizons through listening is also very important!
Engaging in active listening enhances your musical awareness and inspires you to chase after new musical inspiration, making you more aware of what might come next in your musical journey.
Happy practicing!
❤️🎻
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How I Tripled My Studio During the Pandemic
Tips for Music Studio Expansion
The pandemic presented numerous challenges for businesses across various industries, especially private music studios. However, with a combination of strategic planning and creative approaches, I managed to not only sustain my studio but triple its size during those unprecedented times. In this blog post, I will share the key steps I took to expand my studio and achieve this growth. From establishing a studio policy to leveraging free advertising methods, these strategies played a vital role in my studio’s success.
Establishing a Studio Policy:
One of the fundamental steps I took towards expanding my studio was establishing a comprehensive studio policy. This is often overlooked when building a studio as most teachers are primarily focused on teaching and the communication that happens in the lesson. However, a studio policy serves as a clear communication tool that outlines various aspects such as lesson costs, expectations, equipment requirements, book recommendations, health and safety procedures, and cancellation policies. By providing students with a well-defined studio policy, I streamlined communication and eliminated the need to reiterate expectations. The time invested in creating a detailed studio policy paid off by creating a structured and streamlined onboarding process which lead to a confusion free learning environment.
Time and energy invested into a clear studio policy is the gift that keeps on giving.
Finding Free Ways to Advertise
While advertising is essential for any business, most teachers do not have an advertising budget, especially during the pandemic. I prioritized exploring cost-effective alternatives. I advertised on regional and national teaching databases, but the most successful avenue for growth was advertising on a local music store’s website. Any place you can advertise for free is a perfect place to start! If there is a list of local music teachers in your area, see if you can join it! I previously had relied off of word of mouth to bring in most of my students but during the pandemic, as I wasn’t meeting as many people, I had to create an online presence. Joining said online teacher’s directory went a long way. I am still reaping the benefits of being listed online many years after. My studio has been full for three years and I have a wait list. Just letting people know you’re teaching and have available spots can go a long way, both in person and online!
Any place you can advertise for free is a perfect place to start!
Make lessons enjoyable, educational, and personal
Even if you have great marketing and visibility, if your lessons are not engaging, and dare I say, FUN, you won’t have as many repeat customers. To stand out from other music teachers and studios, I focused on making the learning experience enjoyable for my students. Music should be a source of inspiration and delight, especially during challenging times. Of course teaching online made it challenging to pull out new activities that worked well in person, but not online, teaching online can be just as fun and productive if you understand the new set of challenges, which made it doubly rewarding whenever I had to teach online!
Make sure that you have created a fun pedagogical progression for your students! If another teacher has great online resources, use them!! You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but you do need to present your students extra opportunities and assignments for growth.
Your personality also goes a long way in making lessons fun. Picking engaging repertoire aids in fun lessons, but a healthy teacher/student relationship produces the most musical growth, regardless of technique and knowledge the teacher has. As an educator, your main goal is to create a fun and safe learning environment, where children and adults can work on things and make mistakes, which are integral to the learning process. Whether it’s through your imagination and storytelling that captures their imagination and engages them in music, or your human connection and relationship you need to build with each student, your personality becomes the catalyst for transforming ordinary lessons about intonation into musical adventures that the student readily embraces.
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to offer your students more.
Knowing your Niche
Many musicians do many things well. Most private teachers have at least one degree and several years of teaching experience. You need to know what it is that you want to teach as that makes you stand out from a teacher who is merely teaching for financial stability, or as a hobby.
Do you love teaching 3-5 year olds? Do you only like teaching advanced students? Do you shine when teaching specific genres or techniques? Do you like teaching one instrument, more than one instrument, or enjoy teaching group classes? Knowing not only your teaching philosophy, but also your own strengths as a teacher will aid in setting up and expanding a studio. I narrowed down my niche during the pandemic to fewer musical genres and age ranges. This helped me teach more creatively and enthusiastically when I wasn’t worried about keeping a 4 year old’s attention during an online lesson.
What do I enjoy teaching the most?
Personalized Lessons
Every student wants to feel seen and heard during their lessons. To provide the highest level of personalized attention, I made the choice to only teach private one-on-one lessons and made it a priority to acknowledge and appreciate each student’s progress and efforts. I strive to teach my students how to listen and learn at home, not just in the lesson. By actively listening and teaching students to listen while providing constructive feedback, I created a supportive and nurturing atmosphere. Many of my teachers throughout my musical learning career taught in such a way that made it seem that there was only one correct way to do lessons, or one correct repertoire list to play.
Your students need standardized technique, not standardized lesson plans.
Students want to be seen and to feel valued, which not only enhanced their learning experience but also led to positive word-of-mouth recommendations. This personal touch played a significant role in boosting my studio’s reputation and attracting new students.
Word of mouth is a great way to build your reputation. Advertising online is a great way to build your studio.
Expanding my studio during the pandemic felt like an insurmountable task, but by implementing the five points listed above, I was able to triple my studio size during a time when most studios decreased in size or closed up altogether. Establishing a studio policy, finding free ways to advertise, knowing your niche as a teacher, making music fun to learn and showing off your
kooky,totally normal personality through lessons tailored to each student, were key elements to my success as a studio owner.Have a happy music making, studio building life. ❤️🎻
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7 Books for Beginning Violinists
Learning to play the violin or viola can be an incredibly rewarding experience. However, it can also be challenging-especially for beginners! Listed below are books that I have used regularly over the last ten years of teaching.
1. Suzuki Violin Book 1 is a staple in many teacher’s libraries. Even if you don’t teach the Suzuki method, there are many good and fun songs for beginners in this book. One of the reasons I like this book is that it often comes with a CD (or check out Cadenza Strings on Youtube) and has several folk songs as well as songs by other well known composers, such as J.S. Bach, F.J. Gossec, and R. Schumann. Many Suzuki teachers only teach by ear for the first few songs to make it easier to learn technique. This helps emphasizes listening and imitation, a skill which will help with tuning and musicality in years to come.
2. I Can Read Music gives you an excellent foundation by giving you pages of lessons that are broken down into separate Pitch and Rhythm pages. The first lesson only consists of two notes in the Pitch Lesson, and only consists of open A string rhythms in the Rhythm Lesson. This book emphasizes the importance of rhythms early in the learning process and will help you have a rounded violin approach, regardless of age. I have taught this book to 4 year olds through adults!
3. Quick Steps To Note Reading is another note reading book but this one goes quite a bit faster than the I Can Read Music book listed above does. The first two pages are only on the E string, but you use fingers 1-3 right from the first line. This book helps with fluency but I would not introduce this to a student as their first foray into note reading while they’re still learning basic violin technique.
4. No book list would be complete without a theory book! The All for Strings Theory Workbook also has an accompanying lesson book that many teachers also use. I personally only use the theory book as there are very few good beginning violin theory books available. With the other books that I assign students to get makes getting the comprehensive lesson book a little redundant and can also be overwhelming to students. Use whatever works best for you and your students! I know several teachers who love using both.
5. Sassmannshaus is my favorite book for young violinists! The way this book starts with open strings and slowly builds finger strength by adding one finger at a time makes it invaluable for little hands. I use this book with my 4 year old student, who loves the pictures in it! Her parents find the flashcards in the back very helpful in learning and memorizing note names. I also use this with a few students who have different learning disabilities, especially dyslexia as the notes are larger than most violin books. Kurt Sassmannshaus, the author of the book, also includes words. I have a non-verbal autistic student who can’t alway communicate clearly with me, but who loves to sing the words. This has been invaluable in her learning journey.
6. Essential Elements is popular in both private and group lessons. Many teachers in the classroom use this for its versatility across instruments. This book also has an audio option which makes learning the songs easier. These books have a very easy step by step progression, which could almost make it self paced for older beginners. There are a total of three books in this series, from beginner to intermediate. This isn’t a great book for young beginners, but anyone 3rd grade or above can easily handle the setup. There are illustrations of both the fingerboard of the instrument and the violin being held and played which is so helpful. Essential Elements is famous for a “top down” left hand approach, which saves time in the future when students have to play the dreaded 4th finger.
7. Basic Fiddlers Philharmonic Celtic Fiddle Tunes are great for learning fiddling, both solo and in an ensemble! This book gives a brief history lesson before introducing the basic tune with all the letter names written in! When you’re still working on your letter name fluency, this is incredibly helpful. The Basic Tune includes the note name inside of the note head to help with reading. There is also an advanced tune and back-up part to teach part independence.
Whether you are just starting your musical journey or picking it back up after a break, these books are a great place to work on taking your musical journey to the next level.
Happy practicing. ❤️🎻
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