Our 100 Days of Practice Challenge - in the Students' Words

Last time, I shared my takeaways from latest 100 Days of Practice Challenge. My students who have completed their first 100 Days of Practice Challenge have submitted their surveys. Here’s what they have to share on practising for 100 days in a row:

What was the easiest part for you about the challenge?

• The easiest part about the challenge is for when you don’t have time so you can do a very little practice or just listen to your music, also that other instruments that I have play [count].

• Doing finger practices or listening to my pieces on the days I was busy.

• Remembering to practice every day.

• I was allowed to play whatever I wanted.

• Finding something to practice every day.

• The easiest part of the challenge for me was finding a type of music to practice, whether that be theory, listening to pieces, marching band or piano.

• I started the challenge as I was preparing for my exam, so the motivation to practice daily was very strong.

What was the hardest part for you about the challenge?

• Trying to play the piano every day. Especially when you do not feel well.

• Having to practice every day.

• Playing without a break.

• Theory. Definitely.

• Finding different things to practice every day.

• The hardest part was practicing for long amounts of time.

• Sometimes just finding the time!

Has your playing changed since participating in this challenge. If so, how?

• Yes, I believe it has because I am getting things a lot faster.

• I don’t think so.

• Not since the 60 day challenge.

• No.

• Yes it has. It has improved technically.

• Yes, my practices schedule has become more consistent and regular.

• The approach to getting time to practice. It is less “Oh I have to practice,” and more part of the daily routine and have a set time rather than “Oh I should practice.” Also if it is late or I am tired I will still practice and often, “Oh I’ll just do 15 minutes,” becomes 30 - 45 minutes.”

Have you noticed or discovered anything interesting about your musical journey since starting this challenge? If so, what?

• I discovered that we are around music all the time from playing instruments to going outside and listening to the nature.

• No.

• Not since the last challenge.

• I improve best when I spread out the practice of that one thing.

• I have noticed that once I have gotten into a steady routine of practicing it is easier to make time for it.

• Practices are more relaxed but also more productive as I will stay longer on one thing and feel I have to log everything, as I know I will practice again the next day. If I don’t practice I feel I’ve missed something.

Any other comments, questions, or suggestions to make the practice challenge better next round? Or other practice challenges/projects?

• Maybe being able to take a break if they have something major like exams.

• Instead of practising continuously, maybe there can be 1 day of rest.

• Have break days.

• Nope

• I enjoyed the challenge. Even when the exam was over I kept it going. I feel it gives me time/permission to not only work on exam pieces but all other fun pieces. As of today,my 100 days has expanded to 130 days.

My students have decided to continue with either a 60 Days of Practice Challenge or a couple of 30 Days of Practice Challenges (with a break in between). They don’t want to lose their momentum now that they’ve got their practice groove on.

Thank you to my students Haley, Kateri, Henry, Claire, Erika, Edel, and P for sharing their feedback here. I should point out that Edel is an adult student, so it has been a delight to hear about her weekly discoveries in the practice room and with the music meetups she participates in.

Our 60 Day Practice Challenge - in the Students' Words

Last time, I shared my takeaways from my first 100 Days of Practice Challenge. My students who have completed the 60 Days of Practice Challenge have submitted their surveys. Here’s what they have to share on practising for 60 days in a row:

What was the easiest part for you about the challenge?

• Remembering to practice everyday because now it is just a part of my daily routine.

• Keeping track. Finding a way to practice everyday.

• Having the small online practices that still count for something.

• This wasn’t much of a challenge for me because I practice everyday anyways.

• For me, the easiest part of the challenge was probably being able to take a lazy day when I was sick, or not feeling my best.

• By listening to my pieces everyday and by being in band.

• It wasn’t much different from the thirty day and I practice daily anyways.

• The easiest part was doing the hand drills or listening to my pieces because it was something I could do really fast and call it practise.

• Finding any aspect of music to practice, such as music apps, listening to pieces, theory, and drumming.

What was the hardest part for you about the challenge?

• Making sure I don’t skip a day even when I don’t feel like doing piano or when I’m really busy.

• Knowing what to practice. Making it a variety every day.

• Having the motivation to practice on days I’m tired.

• The hardest part for me about the challenge was not being able to take a break. Another thing that was hard was probably at the beginning, thinking “I have so many more days left!”

• The hardest part was trying to get to the piano when you have lots of homework or working up the courage to perform in front.

• Nothing.

• The hardest part was playing everyday because it was challenging to balance school and music. I would have to remember to practise, even on days I was busy, so I can learn my pieces or so I don’t have to restart the challenge.

• Finding time on the piano is a challenge.

Has your playing changed since participating in this challenge. If so, how?

• Not much since the last challenge.

• I feel my playing has improved much quicker than it did before.

• Just learning pieces/trouble spots/scales faster.

• No.

• The same.

• I think that my playing has changed during the challenge, because the more I practiced, the better I got at my songs and scales.

• Yes, I feel that I am getting better and faster at learning new pieces.

• I have been able to learn songs faster.

• I think so because I feel that I’m not stressing to get all of my pieces ready in a short time but I have a week to slowly play my pieces.

• Yes, my practicing has become more focused.

Have you noticed or discovered anything interesting about your musical journey since starting this challenge? If so, what?

• Not really.

• The challenges help me improve my piano skills.

• I feel I am more interested in practicing since my skill and confidence in the pieces has improved.

• I noticed how much practicing, even small practices affect how fast you learn things.

• It took longer.

• I have discovered that if I push myself on things I don’t really want to do ( a part of a piece or something), I can get better at it and it can become a piece that I actually like!

• I have been doing more practice and noticed that I am surrounded by music [more than] I thought.

• Not really.

• I’ve noticed that I’m learning pieces a little bit quicker compared to last year.

• I’ve discovered that I’m constantly surrounded by music, so it’s easier to take a moment and practice in different forms.

Any other comments, questions, or suggestions to make the practice challenge better next round? Or other practice challenges/projects?

• Nope!

• I think that next round, we should be allowed one break day ;-) .

• Nope. :-)

• 100 days of practice but not every single day

• Set reminders to practice more regularly.

Most of my students are in the throes of the 100 Days of Practice Challenge. A couple have opted to go back to the 30 Days of Practice Challenge, which is fine. They have picked a goal that they are more confident they can achieve and are committing to it. What more can a music teacher ask for?

*

Thank you to my students Henry, Kateri, Claire, Tanya, Alexandra, Haley, Erika, P. and Anon. for sharing their feedback here.

Our 30 Day Practice Challenge: In the Students' Words

Last time, I shared some of my observations and musings while my students and I participated in the 30 Day Practice Challenge. Now that most of them have completed the challenge, it’s time for my students to share their thoughts on practising every day for 30 days.

As they each completed the challenge, I asked them to answer a few questions. Some of them have graciously given permission for me to share their comments here so that other music students and music teachers can read them:

What was the easiest part for you about the challenge?

• “Finding ways to practice in simple forms (fingering, theory, listening to pieces").”

• “Technique: when I didn’t have time for my songs.”

• “Being able to practice in a variety of forms: listening to music, drumming, tapping & piano.”

• “I can do my own pieces.”

• “The easiest part was doing theory the days I was busy.”

• “It was easier to remember to practice because if I just do it everyday, it wouldn’t slip my mind.”

What was the hardest part for you about the challenge?

• “Finding the time to practice everyday. Finding ways to practice differently than the norm.”

• “Doing more than just technique everyday. LOL.”

• “Getting time on the piano.”

• “Never having a day off but after a while, I got used to it.”

• “The hardest part was making sure I practice every day, even when I’m busy.”

• “Actually doing it.”

• Practicing every day.”

Has your playing changed since participating in the challenge? If so, how?

• “I think so. At home practice, I definitely hear a difference.”

• “I’ve been getting my technique and scales faster than I did last year.”

• “Yes. I have prioritized music more & have been able to improve on my pieces.”

• “It hasn’t.”

• “Yes. I’m learning the notes faster and the practices aren’t as hard because I remember the notes from day to day.”

• “Yes, since I played every day, my songs got better.”

• “Reading music itself is easier.”

• “It has changed because I feel that I’m finishing learning music pieces much faster than compared to last year. I feel that every time I notice I am getting better.”

Have you noticed or discovered anything interesting about your musical journey since starting this challenge? If so, what?

• “How practicing every day really does help you improve faster.”

• “Just that I’ve gotten my scales faster.”

• “Yes, I feel more connected & aware of my music schedule.”

• “I’ve been able to play more songs because I learn them faster and I don’t mind practicing as much because I know I’m earning something special at the end of the challenge.”

• “Got bored faster, so [I] tried to find other things [to play].”

• “I’m doing better than I was last year.”

Any other comments, questions or suggestions to make the practice challenge better next round?

• “Maybe a free day in case you can’t practice (free space day).”

• “Maybe setting alarms of when to practice.”

• “It was fun.”

Musings from the Teacher’s Chair

There you have it. The comments should come as no surprise to performing artists, writers, and athletes. They should come as no surprise to scientists who have found a connection between myelination and learning.

However, I think it makes a much bigger impact on my students to see and hear how they have improved over the #30daysofpractice . It will make a bigger impact on my colleagues’ students to read what their peers learned, in their own words.

My students are well into Maestro’s 60 Day Practice Challenge, while I’m plugging away at the 100 Day Practice Challenge. In fact, one of my students is a day ahead of me in the challenge.

We talk more regularly about different ideas for those light practices, because let’s face it: practising every day for 60 days or 100 days seems like a really long time at the moment. I may need to remind them that if they are feeling under the weather, they can take a day off. I suspect that a few of my students are getting some light practice ideas from my practice log on the Studio’s Instagram:

I have heard a significant improvement in all of my students’ playing, especially in their technical skills. Ditto for my own. It’s delightful because we can spend more time during their piano lessons exploring their musical expression, bulletproofing skills, and performance savvy.

With fluency comes confidence. I have also noticed that even my shy students are more willing to be the “Instagram Star of the Day,” while some who don’t like performing are actually showing off for their friends at school.

I do hope they realize that practising is a journey. We trip and fall a lot in the early stages, and there’s some “two steps forward, three steps back” in the troubleshooting phase; but with regular practice - mindful practice - we reach those awesome moments more quickly.

Remind me next round to record clips when they start and finish the 100 Day Practice Challenge. I have a feeling that the second half of the school year is going to be full of awesome musical moments.

Special thanks to my students: Claire, Tanya, Erika, Henry, Kateri, Alexandra, P., and Anonymous for giving me permission to share their #30daysofpractice experience.

Our 30 Days of Practice Challenge

As I mentioned in my post about this year’s Maestro’s 2018/19 Studio Challenges, my students and I are are doing a new practice challenge this year. Last month, we started a 30 Days of Practice Challenge. The practice challenge was inspired by concert violinist Hilary Hahn and her 100 Days of Practice Challenge on Instagram:

I felt that my students need to build up their chops a bit before they are ready to tackle the 100 Day Challenge. Enter Stage 1: the 30 Day Practice Challenge.

The premise is that students commit to practising 30 days in a row. Healthy days, that is. Sick days won’t count against them. I told my students that I didn’t want them anywhere near their instrument if they had a fever or felt like puking. It would be a wasted effort. Better to concentrate on getting well. They’ll earn $200 Maestro Bucks once they complete the challenge. If they miss a day, then they must restart the count.

Some of my students are close to wrapping up their 30 Day Challenge, so I think it’s a good time to share some of our discoveries, observations, and lessons.

The Challenges of Practice Tracking

My students have to maintain a practice diary or log of some form. Most opted for the paper diary, although some are using it in conjunction with the Practice Buddy app.

Initially, most started by using the Practice Buddy app, but some students experienced glitches which resulted in lost practice log entries, and some practice sessions do take place when students are separated from the mobile device that had the app. Then, there were cases when students forgot to start the timer on the app or forgot to keep up with their paper log entries. The conclusion was that a paper log was still required.

Paper Practice Log

This student very quickly abandoned the Practice Buddy app in favour of paper practice log. Photo by R-M Arca.

Practice Feedback

This student maintains a paper practice diary but uses the Practice Buddy app when she wants me to listen to a practice clip.

Practice Buddy

This student also uses a paper log and the Practice Buddy app.

Practice Makes Consistent

The Practice Buddy app has been useful in giving students a relatively easy method to send me practice clips for feedback during the week. It’s been fun on my end listening to the clips, hearing my students’ progress, and giving them cute stickers in addition to feedback.

A handful of my junior intermediate students are very close to completing their 30 Days of Practice Challenge. They should be wrapping it up within the next week or so. They are pretty excited about their bonus.

They do a combination of practising at the piano as well as theory and using some music apps such as Note Rush, Note Works, Music Reading Essentials, Perfect Ear, and Tenuto. Their progress has been steady in their repertoire, theory, and technical exercises. I hope that they are as pleased with their progress as I am.

My upper intermediate and advanced students are having a tougher time at practising every day. They get a roll but then something comes up and they miss a day or two. I’ve suggested that they install one of the abovementioned apps and to visit the Student Repertoire Playlist I created on YouTube.

Having said that, they are still maintaining a good practice frequency for the most part, so it’s still a winning scenario as far as I’m concerned. A couple of students thought of a way to do some scorestudy on the go, which I thought was pretty brilliant.

Walking the Talk: My #30daysofpractice Challenge

Oftentimes, it seems like there’s never enough time for music teachers to dedicate to work on something new or hone their skills. I think we wind up looking for ways to push ourselves into preparing something to perform: like joining a music teacher performance group, playing in a church choir, accompanying other musicians, deciding to prepare for a concert/workshop/piano camp, and joining an ensemble. After all, it doesn’t matter if it’s the teacher or student, we need a goal to work towards.

It is in this spirit that I decided to take up the challenge along with my students. Then, I needed to find a way to make my practice log accessible to them so that they could see that yes, I’m working through trouble spots and scales, just like they rest of them. I decided follow Hilary Hahn’s example by posting every day to the studio’s Instagram account:

I still used the Practice Buddy app as a timer but maintained my Practice Tracker in my Bullet Journal so that I could keep track of what I practiced each day.

The paper form of my practice tracker lives in my Bullet Journal. Photo by R-M Arca.

I completed my 30 Days of Practice Challenge yesterday. At breakfast, I was discussing with my brother the takeaways from my journey. Here they are:

Practice makes consistent: This isn’t anything new. This is something that my brother and I both learned as we worked towards our ARCT in Piano Performance through the Royal Conservatory. It’s something that we learned through years of budo. Anyone who practices an art or is an athlete know this lesson well.

All areas improved: With the challenge, I practised my other instruments more regularly. In fact, two of my most popular posts in my 30 day challenge was for the ukulele (Day 10) and cajón (Day 27).

My technical chops are nearly back to where they were when I was taking jazz piano lessons. Ear training, rhythm, sight-reading, chording and improvisation skills improved too. That’s all well and good, as I need to have my chops up to snuff this year.

Learning and sharing with musicians: Partway through my challenge, I started to follow posts with the #100daysofpractice, #30daysofpractice, #cajon, and #ukulele hashtags. The result is that I got neat practice drills, grooves, and ideas from other musicians. Abigail Raber (@passionate_harpist) inspired me to break out the metronome more regularly. Karina Mandock (@theoperaticcatholic) made me feel normal as her practice sessions are similar to mine. And I just love listening to Minoustics clips.

On the flipside, each time I post a practice clip of the Game of Thrones Medley arranged by Jarrod Radnich, people ask where I got the music from. Maybe I should ask for a commission on sales as a result of my practice posts.

It really wasn’t that hard - once I made the commitment: It didn’t help that I injured my lower back last month, which affected my practice length. However, I used my “light practice day routine” as I was healing. This is comprised of any combination of scorestudy, listening to either my students’ repertoire or my own, ear training, or rhythm work. It is a bit of a bonus that I also work at concerts through my side jobs, so I get to listen to fantastic music performed live and call it practice.

When I was just using my Bullet Journal to track practices, I still wasn’t practising daily. Nor was I tracking on a regular basis. Somedays just got away from me. Other days, I talked myself out of it, saying I was too tired or needed to get something else done instead. However, once I made the commitment to my students and to those who followed my 30 Days of Practice online, I couldn’t skip. I mean, it would look really bad if me the teacher, reneged on the challenge, right?

My Practice Log

Day 1: Practice Buddy photo | Day 2: In Christ Alone Recording Photo | Day 3: Practice Buddy photo | Day 4: Scales | Day 5: Arpeggii | Day 6: Cajón drill | Day 7: Scorestudy photo & video | Day 8: Game of Thrones Medley | Day 9: Pirates of the Caribbean | Day 10: Someone to Lava & Sonata in G Minor, Hob. XVI:44 | Day 11: Sonata in D, op. 12 no. 3 | Day 12: Perfect Ear app | Day 13: Perfect Ear app | Day 14: Mass of Glory | Day 15: Game of Thrones Medley | Day 16: Sonatina in D, op. 36 no. 6 | Day 17: Perfect Ear app | Day 18: Nocturne in e minor, op. 72 no. 1 | Day 19: Anthem | Day 20: Choir practice photo | Day 21: Perfect Ear app | Day 22: Pirates of the Caribbean | Day 23: Seven of Hearts | Day 24: Prelude & Fugue in d minor, BWV 851 | Day 25: Spanish Alleluia | Day 26: Des pas sur la neige | Day 27: New cajón groove | Day 28: Choir practice photo | Day 29: Perfect Ear app | Day 30: Sonatina in D, op. 36, no. 6, 1st mvt.

The Next Practice Challenge

Tomorrow, I’ll treat myself to some calamari from Opa for completing my 30 Days of Practice. I was planning to give myself a few days off before beginning my next practice challenge, but since I’m playing piano at church this weekend, I can’t. Well I could but I want to play the parts to the Mass of Glory better than I did last time, so I better carry on.

Stage 2 in Maestro’s Practice Challenge is a 60 Days of Practice Challenge. I decided a couple of days ago that I’m actually going to jump to Stage 3: the 100 Days of Practice Challenge.

It will be interesting to see if any of my students opt to do the same. Should they decide to proceed to Stage 2, they will get $500 Maestro Bucks upon completion. Although some may need to restart, they should be able to complete the challenge by Christmas Break and enjoy a break before their first attempt at the 100 Days of Practice Challenge.

After completing Stage 3, they will receive $1,000 Maestro Bucks to spend at Maestro’s Market. Jumping to Stage 3 now means they can potentially earn more Maestro Bucks by the end of the year, completing two Stage 3 rounds and possibly a Stage 2 Round. However, jumping to Stage 3 now means that they’ll be in the same boat as me - practising over the break. If they are doing a piano exam, it would be wise for them to maintain a practice regime over the break.

As for me, there’s no point in doing the 60 Day Practice Challenge. Between studio recording projects, piano parties, a Christmas recital, and Christmas Masses, I have plenty to work on from now until past New Year’s. Making the #100daysofpractice challenge should be doable.