When I was a piano student, a checkmark was as good as a sticker. Stickers were reserved for extra special occasions… because back then (yipes!) stickers were expensive! I worked really hard on my piano pieces each week to earn that checkmark. My teacher wrote with a black pen, and her checkmarks were huge.
I loved them.
Because it meant I never had to play that piece again.
As we often do as piano teachers, many of my old piano teacher’s habits carried over into my own teaching. I too would bestow a checkmark on the tops of my students’ pieces that I deemed “complete”. They loved them too. (But they also expected a sticker ;))
This year my personal goal has been to have all of my students be able to play any of the pieces they have learned this year at any time. They each have a list in their binder of completed pieces. These are the pieces that anyone can ask them to play, and they are able to do so without hesitation.
But this goal has been easier said than done. And I realized that my checkmarks were working against me.
Checkmarks mean “Finished!”… “Complete!”… “Done!”… “Never play it again!”… Essentially the opposite of what I am hoping to instill in my students.
What To Do Instead?
So instead, I’m writing POP! on the top of my piano students’ pages. Instead of the satisfaction of getting a sticker and checking off their piece, they get to celebrate with a few goes at a piece of bubble wrap. I have an odd mind. But there’s a method to my madness.
POP stands for Play Often Please! My students think it’s funny; I think it’s going to change the way they view their “completed” piano pieces. Now that nothing is ever “checked-off” their piano books will become a book of pieces they know, rather than a book of pieces they used to know.
I’m excited to have a studio full of piano students who can play any of their pieces at the drop of a hat. My piano students are excited about the bubble wrap. Win-win 🙂
Hilde says
LOVE this way of thinking!!
Leia says
I’ve never heard of checking off pieces and then never playing again! I guess all our piano teachers had different methods. Mine used to check off a piece once I could play it hands together (but before I introduced dynamics, pedalling, etc.), and then we revisited it often. I’ve been doing the same with my students, and they love revisiting pieces they enjoy playing – especially when I play the duet accompaniment!
Love your POP idea. I hope it gets them excited to play pieces they adore!
jamila says
love this concept ! i am always telling my students you NEVER finish working on a piece ever, to which they always look bewildered and bothered, so maybe i will use your POP ! i too am in the process of reviewing all the pieces they have learned, and they also are seeing if you don’t regularly review, you will loose all that work you did, so having them once or twice a week review or run through all of your pieces !
Rebecca Brown says
I love this idea! I’m always floored when a parent asks, “Is it okay for her to go back and play some of the songs she has already passed now and then?” Heavens yes! I always wondered where they got the idea that it was not okay. But, reading this post, I think maybe I’m giving that impression by just giving a sticker (and music point) and moving on.
Lulu says
Jamila has some great ideas!
Sue Dugan says
I think this holds true for all areas, not just repertoire or lesson book! I am having my students off the bench this week with spring break and it is such an eye opener when you see musical concepts they are struggling to remember; theory concepts or notes on their instruments( I have other instruments that I teach). Thanks for the post it reminds me to review more often!
Colleen Branson says
I’ve been trying to figure out how to get them to NOT drop them. I have a few that take my words to heart and go back and have fun playing them … but a lot that are stymied if I ask for a piece we finished two months ago (for example). I’m thinking maybe I should make (get made) some P.O.P. stickers. Love the acronym. I use stickers for especially great progress in a particular area in a week, so my students know that a sticker doesn’t mean it is “finished”… but they do take the check mark that way. A good kick in the butt to get me thinking on this.