The previous 2 posts have focussed on the problems that parents and teachers have in getting kids to review. In this post, parents and teachers were invited to wave a magic wand, to find their own ideal solutions for music teaching.
The teachers have their say
- Parents remember to fill in the 50-times charts (intended to make sure that review happens regularly). No more “Oops, forgot about the 50x charts,” which seems to be double-speak for, ”We can’t see the point of that!!”
- I would like to convince other educationists that we all need time to review.
- Instil understanding and patience in both the parent and the child and that they would practice their review pieces with precision.
- Students and PARENTS who aspire to work on each piece for as long as it takes to make is really easy, and then who happily play each piece daily to the best of their ability.
- Being able to say things that make it more interesting, stimulating. Saying things that make it fresh again. As if it were a brand new learning experience, where the brain is curious again.
- I would give patience to learn & practice slowly.
- Give me anything that makes review exciting.
What parents wanted.
- My child would listen to the teacher’s suggestions, come home, remember, then do in order she suggested.
- I would love to have some way of increasing my children’s attention span and willingness to do as they are told.
- I’d like my child to be self-motivated, in another words, more passionate about playing (I notice he is more passionate after a good concert or performance).
- To have my child totally engaged and focused when it is practice time. It would cut the practicing time at least in half.
- I need more fun music games to hold interest and more fun ideas to keep the material fresh.
- Having more fun with review while still learning and improving quality of playing.
- A simple way to make it fun and interesting.
- Willing child, rested parent, both concentrating, clear about assignment and goal.
- My child would willingly do review with good focus and high musicality, with minimum prompting so we can progress to that week’s assignment.
- Motivate the child to want to review, and review well, with 100% effort, all the time.
- More practice hours in the day to enable this to be un-pressured. All the time and concentration in the world.
- Having a rotating list of review pieces to work on each week helps. Also if the child knows which review pieces have to be prepared for the next group lesson. More group classes doing review pieces is a good motivator.
- In a magical world at the beginning of every practice my child would say “Before I start my working piece can I play through my book 1 pieces and show off my straight bowing / beautiful tone/ (whatever we are working on) in every piece?”
- More guidance and practical advice on how to work positively on specific learning points. General advice is great, but specific would be fab – so for book 1 – what are the learning points – how hard to try and what should be aimed for. Is a structured weekly plan useful or is it better to play day by day?
Tomorrow, in Review – Making it Fun, Gets the Job Done, your questions will be answered.
