Practicing Music 101 - Warm Up Stretches

One area that music students (as well as working musicians!) tend to ignore is stretching. Musicians are, in fact, small muscle athletes. It is important to take care of those delicate muscles that we have, not only to prevent repetitive strain injuries, but to ensure that we can enjoy making music for many years.

Here's a quick video from my Practicing Music 101 series

with seven warm-up stretches for the hands, arms and shoulders:

Check out my articles on Suite101 about

Arm & Hand Stretches

,

Face & Neck Stretches

and

Back & Shoulder Stretches

for more information. Happy practicing!

Music Practice Tips Online

There are a growing number of resources online to help music students with how to practice. As each music educator has a unique background, each has something to bring to the table - to you - the music student.

This is a short list of some websites that I recommend to my students:

• The Bulletproof Musician

• The Musician's Blog

• The Collaborative Piano Blog

Check out Chris Foley's series, "31 Days to Better Practicing" on The Collaborative Piano Blog.

Setting up the Studio Computer Lab

Technology and music is a huge area for growth as far as music teaching goes. I recently transformed my old office laptop into a music computer lab.

I downloaded various cool (and free) apps from Ubuntu's software center, including:

• Audacity

• Linthesia

• Score Reading Trainer

• GNU Denemo

• GNU Solfege

• Hydrogen Drum Machine

• Linux Multimedia Studio

• Virtual Midi Piano Keyboard

• Musescore

Generally, I zoomed in on apps that help students with note reading practice, ear training and rhythm work. The music notation software and audio recording software is to give them something fun to create.

One student was tickled pink that he earned three Maestro Bucks for creating a funky drum loop (and tutored his sister on how to use the program).

Revamping My Student Incentive Program

After several years of running "Maestro's Musical Quest", I've come to the conclusion that my student rewards program needs a complete overhaul.

This is what I've learned with Maestro's Musical Quest:

1. Most of my students found it very hard to maintain a practise diary. Many couldn't be bothered with it. Some hated it.

2. Quite a few students detested logging their minutes.

3. My students got discouraged when they saw that they weren't earning as many Maestro Bucks (to spend at Maestro's Market) because they didn't maintain their practising diary or get their parents' signature and basically gave up on the program.

4. The Top Dogs (Most Minutes Practised, Most Tasks Cleared, Most Maestro Bucks Earned) weren't necessarily practising efficiently.

I came to the sad realization that my practise incentives rewarded students for practising inefficiently. That is something I do not want to keep doing. Having a system that frustrates students isn't something I want either. Having said this, I still want them to be accountable for their work. It really made me think about what exactly I wanted to reward and inspire in my students. 

I decided to focus on four main areas: technical proficiency, music mastery, leadership/initiative and efficiency/meeting goals. The first three are Top Dog categories, re-branded as: "Technique Savvy", "Music Mastery" and "Music Maestro".

Technique Savvy:

Students will earn $2 Maestro Bucks for each technical element they master.

Music Mastery:

Students will earn $25 Maestro Bucks for each five songs they master. Memory is optional. Perfection will NOT be stressed at all. The main thing I want to reward is proficiency.

Music Maestro:

Students will earn $3 Maestro Bucks each time they do something above and beyond their assignments, e.g. do a concert report, compose a song, do a music review, help out as a recital assistant, do a composer report, present an independent study or work ahead on their own.

For those who are wondering, student prize that "costs" $100 Maestro Bucks costs me $1.00 to buy. Prizes are in $25, $50, $100, $250 and $500 amounts. I have gotten some requests for a $1,000 MB category as my students really like this one squishy exercise ball (which costs me $10).

The three Top Dogs will be awarded at the year-end Top Dog party, which all students (and pets) will be invited to attend (Note to self: find out if the neighbourhood park is available).

Mastery will also be rewarded through the

Gig Card

program. Perform 20 times and get a prize.

Goal setting, milestones and accountability are addressed with the

Goal Setting Sheet

. We'll work together to set their short-term, medium term and long-term goals:

On the reverse side, there is a spot for

End-of-Semester Checkpoints

. Both sides of the sheet must be signed by the parent, student and teacher.

The "assignment sheet" has been renamed "Learning Goals for the Week" to support the shift towards more goal-oriented practising habits versus practising for X minutes.  The Practise Diary? Gone. The Practise Log? Also gone. Parent signature? Not required. All I ask of them is to check off which days they worked towards meeting their learning goals. They will earn $1 Maestro Buck for each goal cleared.

Truth be told, my own Practising "Diary" is just a To Do List for that session. I don't log minutes. I stop when the job is done. I stop when I need a break. I change my strategy when something isn't working.

This is the heart of what I want them to learn - to make the best use of their time, whether they have 10 minutes or 60. Then when they do perform, wherever they perform, they can do so with a high level of proficiency and artistry.

© Rhona-Mae Arca, 2012.

All rights reserved.

Drowning in Music Lesson Planning

Once again, summer has flown by. My big list of summer projects? Pfft. Don't ask me about them and we'll be fine.

I'm currently in the throes of planning the group class schedule for my music studio. One idea launches into another idea and so forth and so on. The result is that I can barely get my ideas committed to paper (or in this case, the screen) quickly enough.

I'm quite excited about the activities that I have nailed down so far. Thanks to the staff at Caffe Crema, our first Studio Winter Music Showcase will be held there. My students will perform a set of contrasting selections. They will have to script their patter. I can hear them now, "It'll be like, a real gig!" Well, yes, kids. You'll be performing in public, so it will be a real deal gig. They'll have two "Open Mic Days" at my studio to get a feel for it all.

The year-end recital has been booked too. We have a few things planned to make it less recital-ish.

My students also be heading off-site for a few studio events too. So far, St. John's Music and Steinway Pianos of Calgary are booked.

But now, it's back to planning for the music group classes happening next week. My brother will be teaching my students about all the multimedia projects they'll be working on throughout the year, while I'll be doing a few interactive workshop-style classes with his students on practising, conducting and rhythm.

I suppose I should get back to figuring out why Libre Office refuses to print my handout with my stick-girl conductor properly.

© 2012 by Musespeak™. All rights reserved.