Before having kids, I was a very linear worker. I would start a task and not stray until completion. Of course, keeping my linear course back then was easy… there was nobody asking me to make another snack, to play inside a cardboard box, or to put a bandaid on an invisible cut.
These days, things are much, much different. I can now make dinner… inside a cardboard box… while healing a plethora of invisible wounds. Parenting has made me a multitasking superhero and a much better piano teacher.
Today I wanted to share with you some creative multi-tasking strategies I use to squeeze every last drop out of a 30 minute piano lesson…
Strategy 1 – How Does That Make You Feel?
Lesson notes are the telephone wires that keep the teacher-parent-student communication triangle functioning smoothly. But writing lesson notes during lesson time can be less than productive for your students. So, include your piano students in the lesson note process.
Let your piano lesson note-writing double as a self-reflection activity. Instead of writing notes on your own that read something like, “Remember dynamics in Monster Truck Mayhem” (Okay…now I totally need to write a piece with that title!), ask your students to complete sentences that are constructed something like this:
- I’m going to remember to (fill in the blank) when playing Monster Truck Mayhem because it made the piece sound really (fill in the blank) OR
- Even though (fill in the blank) was difficult when I first played Monster Truck Mayhem, next week it will be easier because I will (fill in the blank) when practicing at home.
Strategy 2 – Tell Me About Your Day
A good piano lesson environment is built upon a good student-teacher relationship. And a good student-teacher relationship begins with conversational bonding at the beginning of each lesson. The problem is that some students can talk and talk and talk if given the free reign to talk and talk and talk.
So instead of beginning a lesson with an open-ended discussion, tie some ear training activities into your conversational bonding. Tell your students that you are going to play either minor or major chords. If they hear a minor chord they have to tell you something that they did not like about their day. If they hear a major chord they have to tell you something that was particularly exciting about their day.
Be creative with this activity. Notes played staccato can trigger conversation about high-energy moments in your students’ days events of the day while notes played legato can trigger conversation about the lower-key events of the day.
Strategy 3 – Lost in the Bottomless Backpack
There is something magical about a piano studio in the way it can transform the simplest backpack or music bag into a “Mary Poppins-like” bottomless sack. If you’re growing tired of watching precious minutes slip away as a student rifles through a backpack try this… hang some hooks in your waiting room.
Then, train your students to arrive at piano lessons five minutes early, hang their backpacks on a hook, remove all required lesson materials and wait at your door with a huge smile that says, “I’m ready to rock!”.
Strategy 4 – Back to Back Piano Games
Setting up piano games can sometimes eat into lesson time. So, try being flexible with your piano lesson routines to eliminate set-up time. Piano games do not always have to come at the end of a lesson… piano games are an enjoyable way to start a piano lesson too.
Instead of using piano games at the end of a lesson only, avoid extra set-up by playing a piano game at the end of a lesson with one student and playing that same game at the beginning of the next student’s lesson. This way you’re only setting up a piano game every other lesson.
Strategy 5 – Extra Security To Help With Disruption
Do you have students who spend the first five to seven minutes evading anything to do with piano lessons? Are they disruptive? Do they tear around your studio as you try to lure them to the bench?
Stop the chase! And, instead, insist that Mom or Dad accompany these students through your studio door and directly onto the piano bench. Then, invite Mom or Dad to stay for the first 5 minutes of the lesson to help set a calm tone for the rest of the lesson while you get right down to business.
While many students will quickly get into ship shape form with Mom or Dad in the room, for other students, Mom or Dad may be a further distraction. If this is the case…avoid this strategy altogether as doing so may ALSO save you lesson time! 🙂
Are You A Multi-Tasking Superhero?…
We would love to hear any tips and tricks you use to save time in piano lessons. Tell us about your multi-tasking superpower in the comments below…
I choose a “piano game of the week” and set this up before piano lessons start that week. All students then play this game. It may be a little easier/review for some students and more challenging for others but this system is a great time-saver! Another idea is to have two levels of games and set them both up before piano lessons for the week start. I do like to do the back-to-back game thing too – I start a game at the end of a student’s lesson and if the next student is early, I call him/her in and have them play together. Much more fun than playing with teacher! 🙂
I type my lesson notes during the lesson and email them at the end of my teaching day. I’m a lot faster at typing than I am at writing! I find that having students write can slow down the process even more because a lot of them are sooooo slowwwwww at writing! After emailing the lesson notes, I make the template for the next week of lessons so I know while it’s still fresh in my mind what I want to work on with the student at the next lesson.
Also, printing out materials can often eat into lesson time even with my printer right there in the room. What I do is make an ongoing list every week for what needs to be printed for the next lesson, then before lessons start for the week, print out everything all at once so it’s ready to go for next week.
Love your ideas… looking forward to the Monster Struck Mayhem song, haha!
re: using printer. My thoughts on printing are a little different. I have a tendency to sciatica and sitting for long periods is especially bad for me. So I welcome a chance to be up and moving around. But a by-product of this is that I have noticed that if I time the copying right, I can ask a student to see how many times s/he can play something- either piece or troubling passage- during the span of the egg timer. Kids love to test themselves against time! On a longer piece, I ‘ll say “I wonder if you can play thru the piece before I make your copy!”
I do that one too Lynn.
Thanks for the tips…you too, Leia! Andrea, can you share that chocolate smoothie recipe? My morning smoothies are getting dull.
Ha ha – yes absolutely!
1 cup of ice cubes
1.5 cups of your choice of milk (I use coconut or rice milk as I’m dairy free)
2 tbsp of cocoa powder
1 tbs of your choice of sweetener (I use honey or just one medjool date)
2 tbs of protein (I use hemp seeds but you could use a powder)
1 heaping tbsp of almond butter or peanut butter
Blend like crazy and drink while it’s cold and frosty 🙂
thanks for writing out your recipe, it looks great and I can’t wait to try it! I just had my morning smoothie, it’s green, but it’s not nasty! avocado, yogurt or coconut milk, spinach (you can’t even taste it), blueberries or pinapple, stevia to sweeten. MMmmmm!!! Your chocolate one will be great for when I have a chocolate craving. 😉
Thanks for the recipe. I just tried it this morning with almond milk, raw, organic coconut sugar for the sweetener (tastes like brown sugar but has a low glycemic index) and chia seeds for protein. It was yummy, filling and best of all, gluten free. This celiac is happy. 🙂
I, too, have a “game of the week” that I use. It really works well. (Often, I’ll actually prepare 2 games to have ready.)
Leia, I am interested in your emailing the lesson notes. I’ve tried that but it hasn’t worked so great. On the student end, I’ve had the issue of the emails “getting lost” (parents getting too many emails, forgetting to print them out, students not having it during practice time, etc.) What directions do you give parents/students regarding the emailed lesson notes?
On my end, its more of an organizational issue….trying to keep each lesson note per student so I can quickly look back and see what they’ve done in previous lessons What program do you type notes in? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Jane, I tried to be organized about this on my own and it was a nightmare. I stumbled upon musicteachershelper.com, and just the emailed notes has been worth the price. I can receive a daily summary of last week’s notes before today’s lesson, so I’m ready to go with my plan for the lesson. Students get an email as soon as I finish their notes. I often use my voice to text feature on my phone to capture a verbal reminder of assignments at the end of the lesson, and then fix the spelling/grammar after the lesson and send it out. Students can even log in and view the lesson notes, which avoids the lost-in-inbox parent syndrome.
I personally use mymusicstaff.com. It gives you unlimited students for only 12.95 a month as well as the automatic billing, website, calendars, etc. The features looked the same to me, but mymusicstaff is cheaper, although I’m sure you have your preference.
I write in my students binders each week, using a date stamp to mark each entry. I also have a half-size binder on my desk that lives there and is always open. Each day of the week is under a tabbed divider. Each student has a page with their name at the top under the day they have lessons. Before I start teaching for the day I stamp the date on each students page and read my notes from the previous week. I don’t actually write down everything that they are working on, just anything that I want to remember, like game ideas, things I want to make sure we cover at the next lesson. Sometimes I wish I had a copy of my students practise assignment, especially if they forget to bring their binder (horrors!), but otherwise I’m really happy with this system. For students who don’t look at their assignments in the binder, I often will put small sticky notes right on their pieces with reminders. Whatever works!
I also will slip in anything I need to give to the student, like bills, receipts, sheet music, etc, in by their page in my student notes binder.
I found a stainless steel one drawer file cabinet on wheels so I keep student materials in hanging file folders. I spend ‘in between lesson times’ to make copies of ebook music to put in each student’s file along with the game they will play that week along with any ‘notes’ I want to give the student. I teach ages 3 to 86 so I use a large variety of games or theory worksheets, so one game for the week does not work for me. I keep a small note pad in each folders to I can make notes of problem areas so as I prepare for the next week’s lesson I know what extra music to find, etc. . . .
I find that it is best to have several potential redirecting strategies for students who get frustrated over missed notes or trying to learn a new technique or a challenging new piece. For some, moving them away from the piano to the art table for a game or theory lesson provides a chance to “start over.” This is especially true when they’ve not had as much time to practice and they’re getting upset. Another tool I use during those times is to move them away from my grand piano and put them in front of the digital piano with the sound turned OFF. We work through the areas where they are struggling and the student doesn’t get upset with having to hear their own missed notes. Then we go back to the grand piano and the lesson ends with a smile. It isn’t something I do every week but it has saved the day… and the lesson on more than one occasion.
I may have mentioned this before (if so, tune out!). Even though I use my computer for everything else under the sun. my method of writing assignments is pretty old-school. My materials are: a 3-hole punch, a clipboard, a 3-ring notebook, carbon paper from Staples (a source of wonder to my students!), paper from my recycle stash and pre-printed yellow assignment sheets (yellow because it’s less likely to get lost in the shuffle). The yellow assignment sheet is home made with “Time to Make Music” at the top, plus a line for name/date & my contact info at the bottom and stars to color (practice incentive) on the side panel. The clipboard holds recycled 3-hoIe punched paper & a sheet of carbon paper. At the beginning of the lesson, I slip a new assignment sheet into the clipboard. At the end of the lesson, I put the assignment sheet in their lesson book, add the carbon copy to the notebook where I store copies for the month. As the student leaves, I make quick notes for planning the next week’s lesson on the carbon copy in the notebook. This method gives me instant access to what happened last week and what I need to do for next week. I keep copies of a few lessons back for each student. This also serves as backup attendance information. My studio software is Music Teacher’s Helper which I love. It’s been a real time-saver.
This is great, Joan! I was looking for someone old-school, even who uses carbon paper (as suggested by Frances Clark). I have too many students to make separate notes later and cut into my practice time for my own gigs. It’s hard enough for me to write anything while teaching, because I’m attending to the teaching — not writing. I’m looking for the simplest possible way of being clear with assignments, organized, and keeping track of students’ progress.
So your students don’t have to remember to bring any sort of assignment book, right? That seems helpful as well. Mine have an assortment of assignment books, and half forget it each week, so I’m always writing on post-it notes that at least stay attached to one of their books.
Can you email me a copy of your yellow assignment sheet? Love the idea of colored paper… Colors make such a difference in so many aspects of teaching.
I would also like to see a few pages of your own notebook to see how you keep track of students.
What is your system for repertoire, either for planning or history with students, and keeping track of your own stock?
Thanks for sharing your system!
One more comment. I’d much rather record the best part of the lesson: what we laughed about, some quotable line (like my 80 year old student saying, “I don’t know where my fingers are!”), something about their mood or personal life, and recording the most significant achievement of that day; e.g., “Look how well you sightread that, hands together… because of our careful planning and looking at it first.”
The big smiles after realizing such an achievement, the milestones reached… How do I keep track of that and have a record to show the student later? I confess the stars and reward systems…. can’t keep up. Can’t do it. Don’t care enough… I end up giving everyone a take-apart eraser at the end of every month anyway, regardless the number of gold stars… and they know it!
But if I think of creating another sort of journal/log, that’s just more writing I can’t keep up with. I’m thinking it needs to be embedded in the lesson assignment… maybe written in all caps in a different color?
Like Leia I email assignments for all students at the end of the day. The parents seem to prefer this, and the emails always seem to get read (better than the physical assignment books which I used to use). When doing my lesson prep I print out the emails and write directly onto them what I plan for us to do at the lesson. That way I can refer back to exactly what was assigned last week, and I have all my “this week” ideas right there in front of me at the lesson.
My big time-saver has been to train my students from the very first lesson to do 4 things each week. They arrive 5 minutes early, so they are ready to go the minute the student before them leaves the bench. Sometimes they are even waiting behind the student with books in hand, ready to go. I made a sign with a picture to go with each reminder that says “wash your hands, use the bathroom, open your books, is your theory done?”. I let the parents know that these four things can eat up 5-10 minutes of their lesson time so it motivates them to arrive early and make sure their child is prepared to begin on time. Changing the pictures on the sign from time to time keeps them attentive to this routine as time goes on.
These are good suggestions. I would add to this “Spit out your gum.”
Thanks, Val, for your four suggestions to save time. I am going to use them; hope they work! My lessons are 30 minutes once a week and I need all the time I can get. Thanks again.