Every piano student begins the summer with the best of intentions for staying on track with piano practice. But, even with the best of intentions, summer can make it difficult for students to practice consistently.
After a mixed-up spring, where your end-of-year lessons looked very different, you may be wondering how to keep your piano students on track this summer (whether you take a break from lessons or continue teaching).
Today we’re helping you solve this problem with a printable Summer Piano Practice Routine that can be shared with your studio families. It provides a weekly structure that is feasible, fun, and effective.
A Weekly Summer Piano Practice Routine
After reading about today’s Summer Piano Practice Routine, download the infographic to share with your students. You can include the graphic in a studio email or newsletter, post it on your social media pages or print it out and send it home for your students to keep at their pianos.
Ask your students to follow the routine as presented.
Each day of the week has a different, catchy name that corresponds to the practice task they are to complete. By following this weekly plan, they’ll stay motivated and interested while keeping their skills sharp.
Our Summer Piano Practice Routine includes the following:
Musicality Monday – on Mondays, your piano students are asked to focus on the parts of their assigned repertoire that add extra finesse to their playing. Your students should spend Mondays practicing their repertoire with a keen eye on the articulation markings, phrasing, and dynamics.
Technique Tuesday – on Tuesdays, your piano students are asked to practice their technical work. Technical work is something that’s typically tossed to the side in the summer months, but by devoting a specific day to this task you can ensure it continues to be practiced. Ask your older students to practice their scales, triads, arpeggios, and your younger students to work on their technical exercises or warm-ups every Tuesday.
Wow Me Wednesday – on Wednesdays, your piano students are asked to work a special project that they will then show you when fall lessons begin. This can be a piece that they are memorizing, a piece they are teaching themselves, a recording project, a duet with a family member, etc. Giving students the freedom to pick their own project usually results in some wonderful surprises!
Theory Thursday – on Thursdays, your piano students are asked to hone their theory, rhythm, and note-reading skills using printables you provide for them (access our free piano theory homework sheets here).
Thursdays are also a day your students can use our newest piano student workbook to keep their note-reading skills sharp. Andrea And Trevor Dow’s Timed Note Reading Tests, Book 1 is now available here on Amazon.
Free Time Friday – on Fridays, your students are asked to be creative at the piano. Younger students can work on a composing book (our primer composing series is easy for at-home use!) or on improvisation (our teen method books always include improv practice).
Sight Reading Saturday -on Saturdays, your piano students will focus on sight reading. Be sure to send them home in the summer months with lots of lower-level repertoire selections to sight read. You can also encourage them to work ahead in their books, or ask them to teach themselves pieces they find digitally or at the music store. By devoting a day to sight reading each week, your students will develop decoding strategies that will carry over to all other areas of their learning.
Sharing Sunday – on Sundays, your piano students get the chance to “check-in” with you by recording themselves playing a piece of assigned repertoire and then emailing or texting it to you. There’s no need to respond with any sort of teaching advice as this is simply intended as an “accountability tool” to maintain a connection with you during the summer months.
Download Our Summer Piano Practice Routine
Having a predictable routine that keeps piano students motivated and interested is key when asking them to continue regular practice during the summer months. Reminding piano students to “practice every day” is not as effective as is giving them a specific schedule of tasks that they need to complete.
Can your students still practice other tasks at the piano each day? Absolutely! You’ll find that your students are likely to also practice their repertoire on “Free Time Fridays” or that they’ll sneak in some scale practice on “Sharing Sunday”. The key is in getting them to the bench to complete a task that feels do-able and where they can feel a sense of accomplishment once it’s complete.
“Right-click” on the image below to save our Summer Piano Practice Routine (or on a device “press and hold”).
