Music Practicing 101 - Finger Push Ups

This finger exercise is one I learned at one of my early piano lessons, many moons ago. It's a hand exercise to strengthen those musical fingers, especially our very weak finger #4.

I detested it during those early piano practices, but I must say, my Finger #4's are better because of it. My students and I have dubbed it "Finger Push Ups":

A Note on Office Organization

My primary project this past summer was to organize my office and music studio. Oh no, not a cursory, throw things into a file to deal with later. I've been in extreme decluttering mode.

Since I began teaching in 2001, I have dutifully kept all of my music teacher newsletters. Have I read them all? No, of course not. 

Just a fraction of my piles to declutter! Photo by R-M Arca

Just imagine how much paper that is. Got the picture in your mind? My paper clutter is truly as scary as you imagined it to be.

I am approximately 80% through but I have been gleefully ripping out articles to read throughout the year. I have developed the following filing system:

1. Activity/Event ideas

2. Blog topic ideas

3. Group Class ideas

4. Lesson planning

5. Professional library ideas

6. Music games and puzzles

7. Piano Pedagogy

8. Professional development

9. Portfolio additions (my own published articles)

10. Recital/performance ideas

They will reside in my Active Files drawer until I am done with them. My hope is that throughout the year, I'll actually read these articles. Of course, that hinges upon me clearing the area leading up to my filing cabinet.

Cutting down my To Read Pile into a simple filing system. Photo by R-M Arca

Music Group Class Round 1 Reflections

Well, students and teachers of Musespeak Studio and To the Wind Studio have survived the first round of music group classes with this new format.  I learned three main lessons:

1. I have gotten too complacent as far as teacher-student communications go. My students, their parents and I have an established rapport. I'm starting virtually from scratch with my brother's students. Sure, we've chatted at recitals, but a five-minute chat and teaching in 90-minute stretches are two totally different things.

2. It is important to over-plan and have several back-up activities up your sleeve. My pacing for one of the group classes was perfect. One was all right but could use a few more activities, while the other - well we raced through my lesson plan and I wound up flying by the seat of my pants for a very long time. I have Divine inspiration to thank for the "Let's Make Up a Story with Sound" exercise that I did with yesterday's students when improvising.

3. When teaching at another studio, have a studio contact list on hand in case you need to contact a parent in the case of an emergency or behavioural issue.

Overall, it was a positive experience. I've learned which students I need to be firm with and which ones I can recruit to take more of a mentoring role with the junior students.

I enjoyed teaching four lovely girls basic conducting gestures and beat patterns.  They giggled a lot and had a great rapport with each other.  

The "Get into The Groove" class challenged me the most. I will need to plan more rhythm exercises, especially ones where they split off into smaller groups. As for the stubborn ones - let's just say that I'm just as good, if not better at digging in my heels. "The Art of Practicing" also wound up being a great group of music students who were very engaged. In discussing how to practice music, we discussed stretching as well as their learning styles and practicing challenges (e.g. "When I Don't Feel Like Practicing"). The conversation also lead to areas I had not thought of incorporating into my presentation - and they should be. Thanks to them, talking about how to practice when injured and speed learning will be incorporated into my presentation. I look forward to the next round of music group classes.

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.