One of my students is away for three weeks this summer. “I won’t be able to practice!” he grinned at me in his typical mischievous way. Oh, sweetie… do I have a surprise for you….
Piano students can still practice, even if they are away from their pianos for a portion of the summer. They can still progress and gain skills, even when they’re on holiday!
You’ll be happy to know that I sent that little guy packing with all three of my Practice Without A Piano Strategies that we’ll be sharing with you in the coming weeks.
It’s All In the Details… We’ve Forgotten
I had a prof at University once who asked us to write out the first two lines of the current piece we were practicing; both hands, all articulation markings (including slurs), and all of the dynamics.
This was one pop quiz that caught my entire class off guard. Our attempts were, at best, dismal. Had he asked us to play the first line… no problem; but the ability to take what we could play and actually write it out in detail was incredibly difficult.
I never forgot this little exercise… mostly because I hated getting a poor mark… but also because it reminded me of how much we rely on muscle memory and “auto-pilot” when we play.
We are missing many small (yet important) details by not being fully aware of what is on our score.
Obviously, this process may be quite a bit simpler for your beginning piano students, but teaching the good habit of “score study” right from the get-go will have them thanking you much later in life.
How To Make Score Study Fun
Score study doesn’t have to be boring – in fact, it can be really fun.
Creating a simple “scavenger hunt” for your student using his current piece is a great practice habit to develop. Send home a sheet with questions such as, “How many dynamic markings do you see? What kinds of articulation markings are found and how many of each? On what note does your piece start? Finish?”…
All of these questions seem simple, but they help to create important connections in your student’s brain that will transfer nicely once he’s back at the keys.
Try This Score Study Scavenger Hunt
Even if your piano students aren’t heading out into the wilderness where the prospect of finding a piano for practice is as likely as finding a unicorn… learning to study their score away from the piano will have measurable benefits to both their progress and skills. So this year, while on summer road trips, tell your students to forget about playing “find the license plate” and instead try some backseat score study!
And I know you’re all saying “But Andrea…. where’s our free printable? I don’t have time to make a scavenger hunt!”… voila! Here’s a template you can print and use to guide an effective score study.
Use it in lessons, send it home… or on vacation!
I LOVE THIS !! Can’t wait to try it ! Thank You for sharing
In our area children have projects and homework during every holiday. During holidays and vacation I tell them to just have fun and we will pick up where we left off when they get back. The parents and students love me for this. I think everyone needs a real break every once in awhile.
Thank you, Andrea, for the ideas and template. I was able to open it on my IPad in Good Notes and add my own text boxes to customize it for my students. Awesome! 🙂
A friend of mine went to Juilliard. She said that when she was away from the piano …especially during her commute ….she and other students were studying the score. I really believe in this …but I had never thought about giving kids questions to answer at home. Excellent idea!
Also: ???You teach in the summer? …My students (and their parents) would be in revolt. I have offered to give students lessons in August; but I rarely have any of them take me up on it. Occasionally advanced students (Gr 9-10) will ask for summer lessons but not the younger ones.
Hi Sandra – summer lessons at my studio are optional. Some kids want to keep coming and some parents see the value in continuous lessons instead of doing the “two steps back” over the 2 summer months. Summer lessons can be made quite a bit different than lessons during the fall with special projects, lots of theory games, outside activities etc to change it up so the kids still feel as though they are getting a break. If I made summer lessons mandatory where I live there would be a revolt too 🙂
Awesome, and goes perfect with my plans for adding something like Piano Karate to my incentive program for this coming school year. I’ve had several parents ask me to help with additional at-home practice resources. This is another cute and practical idea. They’re asking about the next Fortissimo book (we only have the 1st) and are working hard to “finish” the one they have, so I can be “bribed into getting” the next installment. Kind of glad I don’t have to give out grades, because this is much more fun and unique.
Thank you for the new template! It will work perfectly with how I have the kids explore their songs at lessons. Now they have something to take home as a reminder.
This is a great idea and thanks for the free template to help get started! It’ll work perfectly with the game approach that I am taking to help with theory
I am amazed that people don’t teach during the summer. I will not hold spots if kids want to take the summer off. They loose too much in that time and during the school year I always get the “I didn’t have time to practice because I had too much homework this week”.
That being said, I love this post. Even if they aren’t going on vacation. I had a student tell me the other day that he didn’t need to look at his music because he memorized it (this being said as I was trying to get him to see his mistakes because he doesn’t read the music ever, he just goes off what he thinks should come next). I think this exercise will be perfect to use with him.
Thank you for this! I’m very strong in sight reading and changing keys or practising in my mind. I’ve used it to change an offertory or even a song selection that I will be singing or leading the congregation in after the sermon is finished. I never really thought about how to teach that to my students. Thank you for this website and your many tools and suggestions. This one is great!