Practice Olympics – Wrap Up

A few weeks ago I posted that my students were going to be participating in the Practice Olympics, in which they would work on different practice related events.  In order to “medal” they had to complete a certain number of events. 2 events = Bronze level prize (sheet of stickers) 3 events = Silver level prize (Stickers + Kazoo + Harmonica) 4 events = Gold level prize (Stickers + Kazoo + Harmonica + Gold Medal) I am pleased to announce that ALL of my students that participated earned at least a Bronze prize and most earned Silver or Gold.  They were THRILLED about the events and excited to work toward the different level prizes.  Parents also appreciated getting to see their kids excited about practicing.  This was also a great way for me to see what kinds of practicing motivates each individual and what specific areas (ex. note naming, note writing, identifying parts of music, sight reading, etc.) might need a little extra work.  All around, I call this event a success and plan on doing it again in 2 Read More

Practice Olymipics

Let’s be honest, the word practice usually isn’t a huge hit with most kids.  Many children dread practicing and often fight it.  That isn’t because music is a poor fit, it usually has something to do with the perception of practicing as sitting still in the same room for longer than they would like, playing the same notes over and over.  Practice sounds and awful lot like another dreaded word… homework. Now, the above is not my definition of practice.  I consider practice as any time spent bettering your grasp of what we have worked on in lessons.  That could mean doing flash cards, writing a song, watching a video on youtube about playing piano, reading about a composer, sitting at the piano for 5 minutes, playing a new strum pattern on guitar, talking about lessons, etc. So, with the Olympics starting TOMORROW I wanted to come up with a fun and engaging way to get my students practicing more!  I found my inspiration for this activity on http://averyranchmusic.com/winter-piano-olympics and adapted it to suite the needs of my students. Starting today, my Read More