If I tell them that I'm keeping a list of their "AAA" songs on a blank page in the back of their notebooks, they ask "What's AAA mean?"

Music that you can play "Anytime - Anywhere - for Anyone!". It's a list of all the music you know, that you've practiced and learned (and maybe even memorized). These are the songs you can play from whenver you wish to play for someone. "Let's see how long you can make your list! I'll check every lesson and you can play your best songs for me until the list has all your favorites on it!" (Date and Title and Composer is needed. I number the entries also.)

After the list is growing, I start talking about the next "Community Performance" that we have scheduled to go and play for others to hear our music. This can be a retirement home, or a retail show hosting a music event for piano students, or a special invitation. (I always have a program printed with the participants names and their song sets listed. In this format, students very often go back to the piano and play more songs. I organized them in groups of 2 or 3 songs and follow a theme.)

Now they have a list 1) of songs they can play and 2) they have a date and location to play at. It always is a festive event and everyone feels well about going. We went to play Christmas Music at a retirement home for 5 years in a row, and it was a miracle, that of the participants, several had been doing this for the past 5 years, several for three, and two years, and a new bunch of kids for the first time.

I think having a reason to practice besides preparing for lessons is a great catalyst for practice increasing. The kids love to feel that they have something to contribute in the "entertainment" for others area.

What gets your kids practicing more and more?

Yes, I agree--students tend to be more motivated to practice when there's a specific performance goal in mind.

Another strong motivating factor for my students is when they really like the piece. I'm constantly amazed at students who show up at a lesson with one piece (sometimes the most difficult of their assignment for the week) sounding terrific, while others sound like they're sightreading. But I can understand, because I was the same way at their age!

Betty, I really need to get you into Piano Guild! There is absolutely no reason for you not to be earning your ACM certification from them, and giving your students the opportunity to perform and receive a report card in the "National Auditions." The students will eat up the challenge!

John

I agree with John. This is the second year for me with Guild. Thanks to John's guidance, last year everything went so smoothly. My students love the challenge and so do my parents. It definately keeps them practicing. I schedule our annual studio recital one to two weeks after the Guild Auditions, this is where I present their beautiful certificates that they earned at their auditions. By then they are so prepared from Guild that our Annual recital is quite immpressive.

Add my voice to the choir - some kind of performance opportunity is key. Whether it be Guild, competitions, National Certificate (the Canadian RCM Examinations), or the various MTNA and affiliate programs, it's an important way of giving students opportunities to share their music and be a part of a larger community of musicians.

(And I do the AAA List, thing, too. I stole the idea from somebody up and Michigan and simply call it "The List," but it's wonderful!)

I love the idea of having repertoire at your fingertips, and more formal repertoire for performing formally.

In regards to what has been discussed, I was parent of a young teen taking lessons. He had specific goals. He wanted to reach a good skill level with his instrument, and only had a few years to reach that level before auditioning, since he was a late starter. We discussed both exams and performance opportunities.

If you go for exams then you have to prepare for those exams. You are tied up with working on the things that the exam requires, which are not necessarily the things that you as a student require. It is much better if your teacher can concentrate on your particular strengths and weaknesses, and choose the exercises, studies, and pieces geared to where you're at and what you need. It is possible that an exam or performance events will preempt that. A student having those kinds of goals will feel the external events to be interferances, and that takes away from motivation. You want to hurry up and get them over with so you can concentrate on the things that you want to work on. Why not work on them in the first place?

That is for that kind of mindset and/or situation. In my son's case, the school was already providing regular practical exams and various performance opportunities. The needs from the private teacher was to get the tools for being able to execute what the high school program demanded so that the repertoire could be handled, the requisite number of studies were learned, etc. However, these exams, performances, and studies were not the motivator. Wanting to excel and possibly eventually reaching a career was the motivation. The lessons and practicing are the means.

People who choose to learn to play an instrument often want to learn to play that instrument well. If so, the greatest motivator is an organized, competent teacher who cares to teach well. No amount of performances or exams can substitute for competent, organized teaching. The other things then are rewards, icing on the cake. I want to perform because I am playing well, have beentaught well, have practised well and now I feel so happy with my playing that I want an outlet in the form of performance. Performances are indeed a pleasure, something to look forward to, chocolate pudding after the steak and potatoes.

A major motivational factor in practicing is having set goals. Playing a study, or piece, or scales, are not goals. Improving timing, getting even sound, establishing phrasing, learning particular dynamics, so that there is something defined I am working on which I can focus on during my practicing - that is motivation for practicing. It cuts out aimlesness.

Responsiveness in addition to the leadership in lessons is also motivational. If during my practicing I've been stumped by something, or if I think I just caught on to something, the whole week I will want to explore this with my teacher and hope he will have room for it. If what I have been doing in practicing cannot find its way into a lesson, some pleasure is lost, and sometimes a need is not met.

These are the motivational factors in this household for the young teen to forty-something that have existed.

Betty,

Preparing for an "event" seems to be at the heart of most activities a child is involved in. In school it is an exam, presentation, report card. In entertainment systems it is competing with the computer to acheive a stage or working with or challenging a virtual team on the internet. Sports is a classic example and the measurement and accumulation of statistics gets more detailed each year. Feedback systems are everywhere. Thinking outloud I wonder how well kids do these days where the feedback system is not firmly organized?

I really like your AAA paradigm which seems to imply that memorization is very important too as a prequisite to CP. Seems like kids (assuming they want to) should have as many opportunities to play for others as possible. Unfortunately the appetite for classical music seems limited in public so that AAA list may include ragtime, "showy" pieces and other non-classical pieces for maximum interest.

Yes, in my piano studio, it's an alternative that focuses moreso on "entertainment" values and gaining performing experiences in public.

Encouraging memorization with more of these types of songs gives the student something to play well when someone invites him to play on their piano. If you don't carry your music with you, it's hard to produce something on demand like that - so, have lots of music prepared that "shows your stuff". You want students to be "Can Do Kids" whether they are performing classically and formally with an audience, or if they get to play spontaneously for the "Play something for me" crowd, or play in an environment where there is socialization going on, shopping, people in movement, places where you deal with sudden noise and distraction. Often times, with chairs on the premises, people stop to listen for a while, others are cordial to the performers.

It's an entirely different venue, but it could be "tightened up" to require a seated, quiet audience, too. It depends on your ability to control the environment with the owner of the establishment's permission. Casual? Formal?

Some places are very condusive to Community Performances, and we frequent them again next year, and start an annual event.

Betty

My students like the "AAA" list too, but I call it a "Repertoire List"--they seem to like the name more than the list... In answer to your question, some of my students like to perform, so the performances motivate them. For the students who don't like to perform, I have cards with circles on them, one circle for each week of practice. Each card has 3 months worth of practice circles on it, and every week my students come to their lesson with the whole practice log filled out they get to mark off a circle. I keep a few inexpensive trinkets in a box and when every circle has been filled out, they get to choose one out of the box to take home with them.

I realize that this is a teacher to teacher question in a teacher forum, and thus I am intruding. The question nonetheless involves what makes students practice more. I am a student. I have listed some things that have affected both myself and my son, thus two age groups, but the youngest age being 12. These are things that have not been considered, yet for us it was a huge factor both in terms of motivating practice, or demotivating it.

What motivated either of us pertained to things that would help us grow or were related to weaknesses we wanted to strengthen, skills we wanted to improve. Even a choice of pieces might come in this category. The question was almost "What will this teach me? What can I derive from working on it?" If the music was chosen only because it sounded nice and was easy, it came close to being disappointing.

Secondly, being asked to do a study or a piece, to play it expressively, having a list, was less motivating. But being told what to develop in that study or piece, what specifically could improve and how to improve it, this was highly motivational. Practicing was a pleasure, there was something to look forward to, something specific, and something one could see change over time. These specific things also had a way of improving the quality of music as a whole, giving more control.

These are the things that get me to practice more. I don't know how universal this is. When these things are missing, then it is harder to stay with the task.

I do hear what you're saying, keystring, and I know you're a very focussed person. But don't forget that though learning piano is indeed learning a skill, it's learning to play music most of all. There must come a point where you choose a piece because you love the music, without any thought of what it might do for your technique. And I have found that loving the music is the biggest motivator of all.

HI Currawong, I hear you. I enjoy playing music, and I enjoy the music I play. This thread is about what motivates students to practice, with a hidden thought that students are sometimes not motivated to practice. In addition to having pieces to play, possibly preparing for performances, for some of us being taught how to play, how to develop the tools of playing is a very major factor of motivation. Specificity likewise. Because this issue had such an effect I thought it important to mention. Are teachers aware, for example, that it does matter a lot to some students?

Keystring,

I don't know about other teachers, but I am aware that the form of motivation you mentioned does matter a lot to some students. I was (and still am!) one of those students. Right now I don't use that form of motivation, because my current students are not motivated by it. I am glad you mentioned it though; some teachers (like one I had) are not, or at least do not seem to be, aware of this form of motivation.

Thanks for the response, Canto. It does seem that we are a minority. But if you think a certain way, you will imagine everyone else thinks that way. A number of things were a mystery to me. What is important is to be aware of it, to be able to communicate it to one's teacher. Some of the discussions have been enlightening in that respect.

How do I put this. A while back I was exposed to some technique on violin. I worked in a dry manner on this technique, and it enabled me to produced controlled and nuanced effect. I was learning a piece of music and I had it like a clean skeleton ready to be filled. I had a musical vision, a bel canto kind of nuance in the flow of the tone. When I got that bit of technique I could produce the sound and the vision. It is like magic.

When I come into the abstract world of technique, it spills into magical music of subtle shades. If there is the belief that I do not want to do boring technique, then I am condemned to produce my music with big fat wax crayons. Such condemnation fills me with despair.

unfortunatly i find it very hard to motivate students to practice. Most of my students are only taking lessons because of "mom and dad" but i can't "fire" them because i work for a studio. i've tried making an AAA list, playing stuff that THEY want to learn (like disney songs), rewards with stickers, candies, small prizes, LOTS of praise... i've even seen 'threats' made by the parents "if you don't practice then you won't get that new toy you want" and nothing still ever works for me. it's times like this that i really hate teaching, it's a waste of my time, their time, and their money.

sorry, went off on a rant there :S

Ashdyre, are you still considering starting your own studio? If you can't make the move wholesale, could you at least try it out with one or two of your own students fo your own choice on your own turf and see what that brings?

Ashdyre,

Rants clear the air!

Can I suggest you find some music that has a duet accompaniment for the teacher to play? Sometimes parents or grandparents play the piano well enough to enjoy playing along with the kids as they are learning? That really makes the music sound "glorious" and the steady beat is helped along by the accompaniment. You sound entertaining together, pieces are short, and within early elementary through elementary.

I particularly like Dennis Alexander's Finger Painting series - the kids are very enthusiastic about his music - so many moods in one book, and the graphics and positions are easily found.

I also use the Hal Leonard 5 Finger Disney books, but the fingerings often mess up badly and have positions that are not the most efficient, so I always have my "Wite-Out" handy to fix them. The Disney books are used when they have been able to keep a steady beat and they are secure with rhythms.

I use these beginning books to show patterns - melodic and rhythmic, repeating notes, form, and reading by direction and distance.

If you have an unresponsive piano student, put a head set on him to listen to a CD of piano playing (maybe his own if you have the equipment). These kids need to get the idea that they can do it too, and if you can capture their imagination, they often become very willing and explorative. Headset pipe the music right into the ears (caution: not too loudly). Also try soft, slow music, as well as exciting rhythms. Also, rhythm clapping seems to get the action started more than just counting. Teach the brain, the body, not just the fingers. Do you know about Dalcroze?

I think motivation comes from within the student - self motivation! Make him feel ALIVE at his music lessons. It's not just what you say, it's what you "DO!" Action word!

Yay, hay!

Betty

Oh, that's how I felt when I first started teaching. :p You should try to establish your own studio. As you build a reputation for producing quality students, you will get better students who are self-motivated. Since they already love piano, they practice on their own.

One day per week I work for a studio. But even when I'm there I bring with me my high expectations. I go through lots of students during the school year. It's the nature of working for such a place, but the good ones do stick around. Hang in there!

ahhhhh thanks everyone for your advice (sorry, not trying to steal this thread!)

unfortunatly, the plans of opening my own studio have been suspended for the time being, but this week i am actually aproaching the school board to teach privately there, so hopefully that will help a little, it will definatly be a more professional environment.

By teaching privately as a school board employee, do you mean that you get to teach one-on-one, or create your own curriculum for a small class?

I created my own assignment and activity books with motivation to practice incorporated in them. For example, this year we had a Go For the Gold Theme and students received a treasure map. For each week they practiced their required amount, they earned a plastic gold coin for their treasure box (kept here at the studio) and got to mark off one more circle towards the treasure on their map. Along the way, when they reach a circle with a picture, they earned a small prize from the treasure chest. This year was one of the best practice years ever!

I have also found a way to motivate students to learn and practice scales using these assignment and activity books. In the Planes Trains and Automobiles book students go to ground school by learning the first five sharp scales in the circle of fifths. Once they complete them, they earn their pilot's license and get to go flying. In A Walk on the Wild Side, students pack their bags to go on a Safari by learning the first five flat scales in the circle of fifths.

Teachers interested in using these books can find them at www.keystoimagination.com.

One of my students who is notorious for not practicing through the week came to her lesson this week totally prepared. I complimented her on piece after piece. Finally, I asked her about it. Told her I was really impressed with her preparation.

Her response? "I've got to be ready for Guild Auditions in 4 weeks."

Who would have thought it? :rolleyes:

Dear Betty Patnude

I find one of the best things to get kids practising is to use the ' Music Minus One ' series with the accompaniment on cd provided. it challenges them ( provided it is pitched at their level of development ). It gives them a great sense of achievement when they hear the finished product.

Just one suggestions that I have found always works.

Also use Keyboards like the Roland which has many technical innovations that invite the student to want to participate.

Thanks Maurice,

I will look for "Music Minus One" and give it a try on your "say so" that it "always works".

We have to do things in lessons that empower the student in developing his abilities and why not at the same time, provide some "joy".

I PM'ed you, too.

Betty

As a adult student, I agree with Keystring's original post - what motivates me is knowing what skills the piece will help me learn/develop. Sure I like to learns certain pieces for their tune, but even in those I like to know what I will learn. Unfortunately, books I am using (Royal Conservertory graded series) don't have that info. I recently came across Jane Magrath's Masterwork classics that has this info in the content table.

You´ve got to find pieces that they like, then it´s not a chore for them to practise.

+1 to Currawong's emphasis on loving what you do.

I very much enjoy exploring the intellectual and technical sides of music but it's the emotional side that drives the bus for me.

I have found that the biggest motivator for me as a student has been not playing for other people, but playing WITH them. I'm not really that interested in the idea of performing solo at recitals, nor do I envisage a piano journey that consists mostly of banging away in isolated practice.

Piano used to be a very social instrument - it was the backbone of popular music both in the home, and in pubs etc. It has largely lost that place, partly to recorded entertainment, TV etc but partly to guitar. Piano has become much more of a solo instrument with many students apparently treading a fairly lonely road. From what I read (and see) the most common pattern is that the majority of piano students learn for a while and then drift away and stop. Of the large number of people that I know who at one time took some piano lessons only 4 still have one in the home, and only one of them actually plays it now.

The market for the teaching model where students spend years plodding through a more or less classical repertoire seems to be shrinking. The motivation of playing for family and friends (who mostly seem unenthusiastic about filling the audience role, if reports here are anything to go by) or performing solo at recitals, is apparently looking like an increasingly thin carrot.

It won't be for all, but maybe rediscovering the social aspect will juice up some of your students. I get together with friends every week in public, in the local music shop. We have an absolute ball. We start off with three of us on guitar, mandolin and either banjo or another guitar. Whoever else wanders in can join in if they like. Last week we ended up with another guitar, an extra banjo and some percussion. We've had singers, various styles of drums, tin whistles, dulcimer, and even a double bass join in. But not a single keyboard player (and yes there are keyboards in the shop). I hope to break that mould before too long.

Maybe once in a while, put down the study for exams and recitals, find a few other musicians and singers and have some FUN together. And then do it again next week too...

Cheers,

Chris