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Excellent point on the use of consistent fingering. By the way, welcome to the forum. Nice to have another Puget Sound area teacher here.

Your point about allowing students to fail on occasionally is interesting. My students unfortunately get plenty of practice "failing."

I suspect that the problem with intermediate and higher level lit is that with elementary pieces, it's possible to work completely through it (most of the time) without having to break it down into component parts. This isn't true for intermediate and up, and it's hard for students to make the transition in their home practice.

Markeyz,

Markeyz said: "When I have a student that isn't applying advice I try to emphasize how much extra work they are creating for themselves if they ever hope to play it right. Having started out as a self taught pianist I have plenty examples of bad habits that I've had to fix. I let students know that many of these habits have taken me years to correct. I tell them that every time they play something wrong they are going to have to play it right at least twice to reverse the damage and many more times if they want it to be secure in performance. Most students want to progress as rapidly as possible and this usually gets their attention."

The voice of reason, Markeyz! Telling them "effective" and "efficient", does that help? Saying "Have you heard about the One Minute Manager?" Just how does one get through to these 'I'd rather do it my way' kids?

Like John, I'd like to say hello to you from nearby South Hill - Puyallup. What say to Western Washingtons or Washington State teachers getting acquainted and getting together sometime in the future (2008)?

Betty

John and Betty, thanks for the greetings. I actually found these forums over a year ago while searching for a new piano but haven't posted much in this particular section. I've found the forums to be a tremendous resource, though, as I am relatively new to teaching. I've had one or two students on and off since college but have only carried a significant number for the last three or four years. Reading the words of more experienced teachers such as yourselves and others has been quite helpful in my efforts towards becoming a more effective teacher.

To answer your question, Betty, I certainly use the words "effective" and "efficient" but the word "work" seems to be the one that gets the student's immediate attention. I'm not familiar with the "One Minute Manager" myself, or if I am I don't know it by that name. Could you elaborate on that? I think I do a good job of communicating what to practice, how to practice it, and how often to practice, but I could probably improve in the area of how to structure the individual practice sessions, probably because I am not particularly rigid in my own practicing.

Marc

Markeyz:

Google: One Minute Manager

Kenneth Blanchard, the author, has many books available on managing time and results in many areas of life. It is easy to take his concepts and apply them to the management of music study, especially in practicing.

His basic premise is that there are three basic ideas known as "the three secrets of the one-minute manager", namely: one-minute goals, one-minute praisings and one-minute reprimands.

Hope that gives you some ideas. I find they work well for me at home and in the studio and just about everything I do as a project.

It is interesting to see what you can come up with as a one minute task. It avoids diddling and dawdling and gets right to the meat of things. Simplifies your intentions and helps you get results.

Betty