Frustrated?!?!

A former professor at Samford, Tracy Wiggins, once said something in a seminar that I always remembered.

I know I can't quote him exactly, but the main gist of the information made an impression. He said that if you are passionate about the music you are making and about the instrument that you play, then from time to time you will experience frustration in practice and in your lessons. This is normal from time to time and is not a sign that your child you take a break from lessons, but rather a sign that your child is intensely interested in playing to the best of his or her ability and that is a wonderful thing!

We are very close to recital time and working hard to be ready. If you child become frustrated during practice, there are several things you can do. Be sure to practice slowly, and bit by bit. Sometimes a new piece of music can be intimidating. As a teacher, I will never assign a piece of music that I know a child cannot learn at his or her level. I try to work very hard to be sure that each student is prepared for the next concept before moving on.

Some of the tactics I employ are to break the pieces down into the smallest elements. For beginning private lessons students, we might first simply sing the words together (if there are words). We would then tap or clap the rhythm. We might also go through the whole piece and say the letter names of the notes as we go. We discuss any new elements that are introduced in the music.

In classes, we introduce a new piece of music as a game. We use a board game. Each student rolls the dice and plays a short portion of the piece. This breaks it in to bite sizes pieces. The students learn from hearing their friend play the piece.

For more advanced students, we begin by listening to the piece and talking about it. We would discuss the key signature and important theoretical elements of the music. Then we would start slowly hands apart. We work short segments at a time and only move to hands together when we are ready. When we start to put hands together, we must be at the point where hands apart is very steady and rhythmically accurate. When we put hands apart, we analyze how the parts fit together.

For beginner and advanced student an important aspect of learning a new piece of music is to start by recognizing patterns. Find portions of the music that repeat. Composers are all about recycling! Usually short parts of the music are used many times. This makes it easier to learn!

If you hit a brick wall with practicing, try a new tactic. Work on theory sheets. Or visit my practice resources page for online theory games that are fun. https://imaginationsmusic.musicteachershelper.com/resources/ Another idea is to allow your child to compose his own piece. We will work on improv and composition in our summer classes. Children are naturals at this and it helps relieve some of the tension!!