It’s pretty safe to say that our biggest struggle as piano teachers is getting students to practice frequently and efficiently. It’s also pretty safe to say that most piano teachers own an inordinate amount of post-it notes đ
When brainstorming new ways to inspire and assist my students in practicing over the summer, my eyes fell on my massive stockpile of post-it notes… and I decided to see what I could do with them to improve home piano practice.
The result?
Check out the 5 ways I’m now using post-it notes to help my students practice the piano more often and more efficiently…
5 Ways To Use Post-It Notes for Piano Practice Success
1. A Structured Break-Down Tool – Young piano students need help breaking tasks down into small pieces. They need step-by step instructions on exactly what to do to achieve success. While you can verbally and visually provide this in a lesson setting, at home students are often left to their own devices (which can result in frustration or errors).
Post-it notes to the rescue!
Post-It notes can easily provide a step-by-step narrative to help your young students know exactly what needs to happen each time they sit down to practice. Check out the image below – four stacked notes become a “break-down” booklet to follow with one task adorning each of the four post-it notes.
2. A Daily Goals Tool – Even piano students with the best of intentions can lose focus after two or three days of practicing alone at home. With post-it notes you can easily provide a focused daily outline for what you would like your students to accomplish each day of the week. Check out the image below for how I use post-it notes to provide daily goals for the week (different colors can represent different types of work… such as repertoire work, technical work, sight reading etc.)
3. An Effective Practice Habits Tool – In our podcast on practice efficiency, Dr. Christine Carter explained that the most effective way to practice involves “tricking our brain” – changing the order of material, mixing up routines, and learning pieces in small bits.
Post-it notes are an ideal way to help your students “trick their brains” while learning new repertoire. Simply label the measures that need work with the letters ABCD, and then provide several post-it notes with a variety of combinations. Ask your student to remove a post-it note after completing four repetitions of a particular measure combination. See example below.
4. A Practice Focus Tool – For very young piano students, a entire page of music can seem daunting. Sending a young child home with a task that feels insurmountable sets them up for a week of ineffective practice. With post-it notes however, music can be easily separated into manageable sections by blocking off areas that your students can skip over at home, covering up measures that still need your assistance to complete etc. This strategy prevents miscommunications with parents and makes music look much more approachable for students who are easily intimidated.
5. A Tool For Review – My goal for my students once they reach the end of a book? To be able to play *any* piece in their book at the drop of a hat. But this requires frequent review that has to find its place in their home piano practice routines.
A fun way to inspire review is by placing a silly sticker on a post-it-note and then hiding it in their book. Your students’ task is to search their book for the mystery post-it note and then practice and review the corresponding piece during the week. When the piece is perfected, the post-it note is removed and the sticker that is on the post-it note gets placed, instead, on the piece..
Where To Find The Perfect Practice Tool?
You never know which strategies are going to work for a particular child. What motivates one to practice may fall short with another. This is why I am constantly seeking out inventive home practice strategies. But… no matter what strategy I try, I always send home an activity from our resource “Shhh…Your Piano Teacher Thinks This is Practice” to go along with it! These 88 activities are motivating, hilarious and designed to teach effective piano practice strategies to your young piano students. Check it out here.
Merri-Lynn Raddatz says
Over my 29 years of teaching I have acquired many older conservatory, sight and various other music style books. What I have done is photocopy 4 random consecutive measures of a piece and tape it in their dictation book. This is at the end of all their “to do” for practice and it gives them a personal goal that will not only give them a sense of personal accomplishment (as I do not go over it with them and I see if they are actually reading the dictation) and then a way to help them understand how taking a little bit of a piece at a time is better than trying to play all of it at once. I compare it to how we eat our meals — we do not take our neatly placed meat potatoes vegetable and salad on our dinner plates and in one gulp inhale all of it, no we take a fork full at a time so we can savour the taste and after many repetitions of “fork to plate fork to mouth” we have completed and enjoyed our meal and our plate is empty. And all that has gone into our system is going to break down and build up our strength. The only downside to this analogy is I’m often starving for a steak meal after explaining it to my students.
Barbara says
A great idea Merri-Lynn! I love that it gives the student an opportunity for personal accomplishment. Thanks for sharing it.
Also like the analogy of eating a meal; something kids can understand easily.
Gaya says
Merri-Lynn, I use the same analogy :))
natalie whittington says
I have used #4 so many times this year! Especially for those more challenging competition pieces. Thank you!
Jo Riecker-Karl says
I have used post-it notes for years, but these techniques are new to me and will be very useful in my studio. Thank you!
Andrea says
You’re welcome Jo! I think we all have a huge stack that we use sporadically – but I’ve really been loving a structured use for them đ Thanks for commenting.
Robbin says
Kicking up my use of Post-Its a notch now! I love the use of notes for every day’s practice. I often put the note directly on the music, but having a chart is so much better.
Linda H. says
I like these ideas and have probably used only #1 and #4 myself. But the idea of I putting a sticker on a post -it on a random review piece in ther book strikes me as a great idea. I always have them review pieces, but write them at the end of their lesson notebook. The element of surprise will be more fun! I also do the “measure mix-up” -#3- during students’ lessons and of course encourage them to practice that way at home. I’m pretty sure that rarely happens..LOL. SO—out with the sticky-notes. Great idea…why didn’t I think of that? Sheesh!
Christy Alfredson says
I use post its like crazy. I love your ideas for new ways I can use them, especially #5. Here is a link to my new ones to print off. (I always print off large batches when I need many identical notes–It saves lesson time)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rf0uxlug7rre0nc/Found%20it%20post%20its%20print%20off.pdf?dl=0
Barbara says
So cute, Christy. Thanks so much for your generosity in sharing these. The students will get a kick out of them!
Andria says
Cute “sticker” design. Since I can’t print onto post-it notes, what do you use to stick these onto the review pages?
Jane says
There is a glue stick that turns any paper into a post it note. i found them at Staples.
Krista says
I started using post it notes for my students recital songs. I only had the large lined ones so I wrote an ordered practice for them, which usually started with slow practice and repeat 3-5 times, then playing hands separately, together, then with a recorded copy of their song at a certain tempo, etc. I made sure the list of tasks could be completed in 5-15 minutes depending on the age and ability of the child sit and practice at one time. I found my students did better because they knew exactly what and how to practice. Wish I had thought of it earlier in the year. I also had my students help me write them by allowing their input based on what we talked about in the lesson. It helped them feel like they had more ownership over their practice.
Ellen says
I love these ideas!! Thank you!! I can’t wait to use them!
Nina DeKock says
Christy, what kind of paper did you print your notes, to make your ‘post it’ notes? Thanks.
Andrea says
Hi Nina – I believe that you can simply stick your post-it’s to a regular sheet of paper and feed it normally ensuring the post-its go in “sticky side” in first. It prints on the post-its as it would normal paper.
Beth T says
I use them for memorizing a piece. We cover up just 1 measure to start, then they play the piece. Add 1 more to another measure & then play it again, etc. I usually stick a neat little stack to the top of the page & they see if they can use them all up
Andrea says
Great idea Beth! Thanks for sharing đ
Gaya says
Awesome, I’m going to try that.
Thank you, Beth!
Yvonne Quinn-Chittle says
I especially love the idea of breaking it down into smaller sections……I was one of those ‘global learners’ who would look at the entire piece and get overwhelmed. I break it down with them, but using post-its would make it really visible.
Andrea says
Hi Yvonne – I’ve also found that this helps to avoid any misunderstandings with parents (you know the “But Moooom… she said to stop here! Honest!” conversations that escalate during home practice?) This way everyone knows exactly what is expected during the week and your student gets the feelings of accomplishment as it’s a smaller goal to meet.
Gaya says
Thank you for these fresh ideas, Andrea! Definitely going to use my post its more.
Kim Harris says
Andrea, I love #2! But when do you find the time to write these all out? Not during the lesson itself obviously. I can see writing out the daily technical practice notes ahead of time, but how would you know ahead of time what needs to be worked on in specific pieces?
Andrea says
Hi Kim – I do it in lesson time! I’m a fast writer and I do it as my student and I a) discuss what they think needs work and how they would like to break it down b) actually does the steps I lay out day-to-day in the lesson so they know what it “feels like” and c) do this instead of any other lesson notes. I found I wasn’t spending enough time teaching my students *how* to practice a long time ago and so I’ve changed my lesson approach to feel “okay” about spending time in lessons teaching them effective practice habits. It saves time in the long run đ
Marilyn says
I have been on sabbatical since January because I was with my husband in another country. This week has been encouraging and overwhelming as I’ve picked up lessons again with my students. Some continued to take lessons with the teacher I recommended, some stopped lessons but continued to practice, and some did almost nothing. I will definitely be using these, but especially #5, because review is obviously the top priority right now! Thank you so much for all your great ideas and thanks to all of you for sharing!
Andrea says
Hi Marilyn – Hope they help everyone get back on track (and also hope you had a refreshing break!) đ