As your piano recital approaches, you can bet your piano students have been hammering away at their recital songs for at long time. And while other repertoire has certainly been interspersed, more than 4 weeks is a long time for little kids to be friends with a single piece. And I don’t doubt, many of those “friendships” are starting to fade.
With only a few weeks to go before the start of recital reason, now is a bad time for your piano students to grow bored of their recital piece. So today, we’re asking the readers of Teach Piano Today to put on their creative hats and share with our community one fun approach to keep kids jacked about their recital pieces.
A Little Incentive To Share
We’re going to give away two copies of our resource, Shhhh… Your Piano Teacher Thinks This Is Practice to two piano teachers who leave a comment below (before midnight tonight – November 18, 2013)… because this unique book just happens to be a super way to keep recital-bound kids practicing! Note: The contest is now closed, but please continue to share your ideas if you like!
Here’s an example comment to guide your thinking:
Tear a piece of paper into several squares. On each square, write a different dynamic marking. Place the squares of paper into a hat. Have your piano student draw a dynamic marking from the hat. Instruct them to play their recital piece in the manner dictated by the drawn dynamic marking.
One Last Thing Before You Hit “Comment”
We’ll be announcing the winner of the giveaway in tomorrow’s post. But that’s not the only reason you’ll want to hang out at TeachPianoToday.com tomorrow… nope… you’ll also want to stop by and listen to our interview with Jon Schmidt of The Piano Guys!
Donna Hunter says
I, too, would like to thank you for all of your wonderful posts. I always print out your posts so that I don’t lose any of your awesome ideas!
My students love to be video taped, which I email to their parents so they can ooooh and ahhhhh. To motivate them, I tell them I will video when they can play it without mistakes. Next, I will video them again when they can do something special with it – for instance, one boy was able to play his blindfolded so he got videoed again. He now wants to do a medley where he rolls from one song directly into the next…and of course, I will video him when he succeeds. I have written permission to post on YouTube and my web site which makes them feel very special. One of my student’s goals is to go “viral” on YouTube!!
I would LOVE to win a copy of your Shhhh… Your Piano Teacher Thinks This Is Practice as it would certainly cut down on the amount of printing I do of your posts! Thank you!! :o)
Jenny says
We introduced this idea during Halloween and works well for any holiday. Give each student a cut out of a Christmas tree and have some special sequins or stickers they can glue on. Each time they run through the piece during the lesson they can add an ornament to their tree. If they can do it memorized then they can add a star on top!
Aitee says
We do a mock recital and record it. Usually kids are more relaxed than having a whole load of audience and we can capture that moment better. Makes a great and welcomed Xmas prezzie for parents! And it keeps the momentum going for the kids knowing that there’s a ‘recital’ before the actual thing!
Debra says
So many wonderful ideas. Each morning I look for the new email from you. Thank you so much! I am utilizing many of your ideas and not only am I loving them, but so are the students! Thank you!
Heidi N says
Have a “dress rehearsal” group lesson. Peers can fill out a questionnaire as they listen with ratings on various elements (dynamics, remember to bow?, wrist float off at the end of performance?, etc.) or describe what kind of a story or imagery the piece created in their mind.
Jeremy says
In addition to practicing walking up, playing, bowing, etc. I have my students play the “Opposite Game”: play their recital piece with as many opposites as possible. If the dynamics are marked forte, they need to play piano. If the tempo is fast, they play slow. If the articulation is legato, they play staccato. You’d be surprised at how carefully students need to look at their pieces to catch all of the details. Then, we play it again the correct way, with their eyes and ears much more engaged with what’s on the page. It can really breathe some freshness into a piece!
rachael hamilton says
Heres my idea. Choose an animal with mum or dad (or friend or family: we see many people over christmas) act out that animals movment with that person. Eg. Elephant with its slow heavy feet and swaying trunk. Monkey hanging from a tree, remember monkeys use their feet like hands too. They also love to hang from branches taking up one hand (or foot! Playing hanging upside down would be a great challenge, only with an adults supervision). And then students are to their piece like that animal, then the adult/friend is to imitate as closely as possible. They should perform in this way for the rest of the people there. If its a well known tune everyone should guess the tune And the animal. Its great fun getting adults to be silly.
Diann Ruesch says
I love, love these fun ideas! This is my first Christmas Piano Recital, so I’m still learning about fun ways to do things. But, we are doing a piano duet themed recital, so they actually have two pieces to master. One duet and one solo piece. We tried to pick out fun and exciting pieces for each of them to learn as well. Love, love The Piano Guys! And love using Jon Schmidt’s piano method to start out my student’s learning to sight read right off the bat. Excited for tomorrow’s interview!
Rebecca says
I have quite a few siblings duos or parent/child duos that are close in ability in my studio. I’d ask them to teach each other their recital pieces. They’d both get a good laugh and come back more refreshed and ready to work on musicality; they’ve gotten to hear it from someone else, analyzed it a little bit, etc.
Marilyn Brennan says
Where do I find that sticks and dice game?
I love all your ideas.
Amber says
I just look forward to reading you posts everyday! Sometimes I’m not able to read them at the moment, but I always save them and come back to them.
AHHHH, keeping them engaged in practicing! The “struggle is real”, so my students have been saying!
Natalie Gibson Grimes says
I tell my students we will be having a “recording session” at their next lesson so they must have their recital piece well prepared. We make a recording of the piece that the student can share with friends and family. This usually inspires some excitement, practice, and self-awareness from the student.
Candy says
Thank you very much for sharing your great teaching ideas. I have learnt a lot from your posts and use them quite often at my teaching studio. Please keep up the good work!
Paul says
As a student is learning a piece, they will have several parts that trip them up. The tricky parts will be identified with numbers 1-6 (two or three numbers can go to a tricky part if the piece is shorter or easier). Students will role a die each day to determine which tricky part they need to focus on. They will role the die again to determine how many times they need to play through the part. Finally, they must role the die again to determine which fun exercise they will do with the tricky part before they start. The numbers are 1. Play the tricky part with eyes closed 2. Play the tricky part slowly and somberly 3. Sing the right hand and left hand melodies 4. Stomp, clap, punch, etc. the left hand and right hand rhythms 5. Play the part fast and lively 6. Change the key from major to minor (or minor to major. I hope to win!!
Kristy says
I think it is really important that each student understands the story/emotion behind the piece they will be performing. Together we talk about what the piece is trying to say. With each section, what story is it trying to tell? What is the overall emotion? If the student connects each phrase to a image or feeling in their mind, they will feel more emotionally connect to it.
I also like to youtube their song and find other musicians playing that piece. We talk about what we like and don’t like, what is similar to how they play it, what is different, etc.
For very beginner pieces, you might not find any videos on youtube, so instead you could play it different ways and after each version, the student would express their thoughts of the piece (with some direction from the teacher).
Both of these methods help the student to feel more committed to their piece and they are more willing to put a lot more effort rather than if you just talk about technique, rhythm, etc. They will be super keen to share the story or the emotion they have discovered with the audience when they perform it.
Hannah says
I have students record their recital piece, and then they get to be the “critic,” telling all the things that they did good and all the things they could do better. Then, they get to be the “teacher” and give themselves a practice strategy to use to fix these things. Then, they get to be the “performer” and do all of these things correctly. Students love getting to think about their piece from all the different roles!
Beth says
Like a few others, we have our Christmas recital after the holiday, right before school starts. Usually the first Sunday in January. Parents love that their students are ready with several songs to entertain guests with during the whole month of December. I encourage the students to play as many songs as possible and pick 1 or 2 faves to share at our informal performance. For the snacks afterwards, I also invite the families to bring any last lingering goodies they are wanting to get out of the house so the Resolutions will be easier to keep. . . Someone else always make better treats than the ones at home already, you know!
Beth says
I have a sheet titled “You Be the Judge” with check boxes next to Correct Notes, Correct Rhythm, Steady Tempo, Measures played extra well, Measures that need work, etc. Sometimes they judge themselves (from a recording), sometimes they judge each other. (I teach group).
When they leave for the holidays, I give them a sheet that has room for 5 signatures and ask them to play for five different people (neighbors, relatives, etc.) over the holiday. If they bring it back with five signatures in January, they earn a special treat. Last year I made decorated sugar cookies for them (the melted snowman on Pinterest – really cute!). This year I plan on giving a fun cupcake in a neat cupcake box. This prompts them to continue to play over the break and have more performance opportunities.
Brenda Slocum says
I also have a deck of cards that have the concepts that make for a good performance. We choose one at the beginning and end of lesson. Good reminders and keeps the students trying and focused during our lesson time.
Carla says
So many great ideas! I do many of the same things as others. Sectioning the piece off is a great strategy so students can start at any section. We will have a “section quiz” where I call out a section and they have to play from that starting point by memory, hands together or hands alone. I also play the “stop and go” game. Students start their piece and I randomly yell “Stop!” I wait for a random amount of time and when I say “Go!” they have to try to keep going from where they stopped. It’s fun for all of us! 🙂 Love this website! Thanks for all you contribute to the piano teaching community!
Madelaine says
This will be my first year prepping students for performances. How far ahead do you recommend starting recital pieces? Thank you for all of your advice and innovative ideas!
Orlia says
So many awesome ideas! Here’s one of mine, mainly for beginner/early intermediate students: To see just how well each student can start his/her piece from different spots, I go back and forth with them. They play a measure/phrase, then I play the next, then they have to play the next one without missing a beat, and so on through the entire piece.
Jacqueline F. Graham says
Among the many posts that you write that have a “strong” impact on me….there was a particular post that went straight to the core. In the topic “Is it finally time to quit”, you wrote, “If teaching piano is your true calling, quit whatever soul-crushing job is taking you away from a full time piano teaching career. Because the world needs more great piano teachers just like you!” I am proud to say that last month, I resigned from my former job and followed my true calling of becoming a full-time piano teacher. I…am…”LOVING” it!!! Thank you for the inspiration of moving forward in doing what I am truly passionate about.
Jacqueline F. Graham says
To help my student in preparing for a piano concert, like some of the teachers mentioned, we have mock concerts, and they perform at group meetings or for new clients that are coming to my studio for observation. At their lesson, we also record their performance each week with a video cam. In watching the video, we decide the main goal for the week in their practice(technique, expression, etc.) to take the performance “higher”. They review background info in their notebooks consisting of the research they did about the composer, a map of where he was from, and information that they looked up of terms/definitions and symbols used in the piece.