How were you taught to learn something new, or to fix a mistake when you were a piano student? Your answer is likely “Drill it. Over and over and over and over.” Do you still force yourself to sit down and play the same thing repeatedly until it is right?
If so, then you’ll want to listen to this podcast. It will likely change the way you approach piano practice forever.
Dr. Christine Carter and A Look At Our Brain
I was surfing the internet recently and came across an article that caught my eye titled “Why The Progress You Make In the Practice Room Seems To Disappear Overnight”. This article introduced research done by Dr. Christine Carter; research that shows that the way in which we choose to practice has a significant impact on progress and retention. Intrigued at the implications this could have both for myself and for my students, I went right to the source. Dr. Carter is here on the TeachPianoToday podcast to share her insights and research on:
- What the Contextual Interference Effect means to our piano students
- What a truly effective practice session looks like
- How to structure a piano lesson to fully engage our students’ brains
- Why drill may not be the best way to learn/fix a tricky passage
- How piano teachers can use brain research to improve their students’ learning
- Blocked practice vs. random practice and which is preferable
- … and much, much more!
Teach Piano Kids How to Practice
Teaching our students how to effectively practice is as important as is anything we teach them during lesson time. But if we’re not teaching them to practice effectively, then we are potentially wasting that precious practice time they eek out each week at home. We all want our piano kids to progress in the most efficient way possible. Scroll to the bottom of this post to listen in on how it’s done!
The 88 activities in our Shhh…Your Piano Teacher Thinks This is Practice book were designed to encourage truly effective ways of practicing at home, unsupervised by a teacher. The activities are all reproducible forever within your own studio – so you can simply send home a fun activity with your student and know that good practice habits are being made! Many of the activities include strategies that are exactly as described by Dr. Carter. Check it out here.
Listen To The Podcast
To listen, click “Play in new window” below or visit our page on iTunes.
Thanks so much for this podcast. I can’t wait to try it out not just with my students but with myself!
I’m addicted to your podcasts. Thank You
You’ve done it again! What a huge contribution you are making to the teaching community. An easy read about the brain and learning is Brain Rules by John Medina. John also does a great interview. He is Not a pianist, but he is extremely musical( when we were young he composed all the music for his wedding. His wife Kari is a highly accomplished musician, composer,and musical director .
Brain Rules was on the New York Times Best Seller List for some time. John continues his research in numerous ways , including the Talaris institute, which he founded. He also wrote Brain Rules for Babies, along with numerous other titles. He is funny and engaging.
So you might consider him as a resource for a future episode .
I listen to all your podcast many times. I love the variety, the inspiration and the value of all the information you bring to us. Thank you so much.
Just curious, how many piano teachers are asking their students to come back to the next lesson with a detailed play chart (a diary where the students write what they worked on during that week, what they listened to, their musical experiences, etc.)
Andrea and Trevor, I would love to see you follow up with teachers who have implemented these ideas; how they are doing it, and the differences they see.
I work in a neuroscience lab, and my boss is familiar with the work that’s being done at McGill.
Thanks to all involved what a great insightful and well organized piece. Much to think about and adds meaningfully to the solution of “the practice problem.” Kudos
Thanks! I am eager for students to come to lessons today … I do do a couple of these, and will try some more of these ideas! Also, I’m going to pass this on to homeschooler friends – “how to” switch things up to make learning more enjoyable! I also would like to see my students (realize the important of and) keep track of their practice methods and time better.
It was such a blessing to find your site today. I just signed up my first student! I’m so excited and a tad nervous. This podcast is perfect, I can’t wait to try this.
I too came across this article on the Bulletproof Musician and began implementing some of the practice techniques into my own practice. As someone who is still taking orchestral auditions on clarinet, I found it extremely useful. I am now teaching these practice ideas to my clarinet and piano students. Makes a lot of sense to me!
Great podcast! Thanks for the information. I can’t wait to try these ideas with my music students as well as my children as we homeschool!
How wonderful to hear this today. I love new infomation that will help make the lessons and process even better. Thanks so much!! I will be listening to others soon.
What a great podcast! I have had the experiences that were talked about in my own practice and I have seen students in the repetition mode. The vocabulary terms used make perfect sense!
How can I get to the podcast about Dr. Christine Carter and practice habits………………..??
Hi Debbie – we’re updating our podcast player right now, but you can visit iTunes and it’s Episode 18. https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-teach-piano-today-podcast/id705700730?mt=2
Andrea-I have the “Shh…you’re piano teacher thinks this is practice”, but I’m need some ideas on how to get this to all my students, without breaking my bank account and swiping a whole acre of trees. I have almost 20 students, and I have been trying to wrack my brain on how I can get 88 pages to each of them. What ideas do you or others have? Thank you!
Hi Jennifer,
The book is in black and white in an effort to be “ink friendly”. Most copy shops are around 4 cents per page – so it would be about $4 per student. It’s within the print license to charge a print fee to parents to recoup your costs – so if you asked for $5 then you’d cover your time in printing etc. as well a little bit 🙂 Alternatively, you could print just one “studio set”, laminate each page and then loan pages out one at a time along with a dry erase marker.