I am very blessed to have some very hard working students.  There are times, however, when students fall into a sticky-stucky, icky-yucky pit full of excuses as to why they just can't practice (it happens to the best of us.)  I've discovered a resolution that might blow your minds, but will certainly help your students blow you away!

Give your student MORE music!  That's right, I said it, and I do it, and it works.  This Ultimate Practice Incentive might surprise you.  It might even have you rolling your eyes, scratching your head, or saying things like, "Is this teacher CRAZY?!"  While the latter might be slightly true, this has proven to be a successful way to unstick my stuck students and give them a positive and educational practice incentive that parents, students, and teachers are happy about.

Here's what you have to do:

First, have your students create a practice log in a notebook.  Have them decorate it, give them stickers to put on it, just to make it fun!  This practice log should include the following:

Date |  Beginning Time | Ending Time | Total Practice Minutes | Total Minutes to Date
Here is an example of how your students practice log might look:

Date       |  Beginning Time | Ending Time | Total Practice Minutes | Total Minutes to Date

9/16/13           3:10                  3:35                       25                              25

9/18/13           4:45                  5:15                       30                              55

9/19/13           5:00                  5:30                       30                              85

Set a goal for your students, either weekly, monthly, or quarterly (whatever works for you).  Goals should be attainable.  Make sure each student has goals that work for them.  For example, one student might be able to do 400 minutes a month or more, while another might only be able to do 300 or less. Get into a routine of having them or their parents log their practice minutes  The practice log should be checked by the teacher on a weekly basis.  Give them sticker rewards for reaching a fair number of minutes per week.  After your students have gotten into a logging routine introduce the Ultimate Practice Incentive.

The Ultimate Practice Incentive
Offer musical prizes in the form of, you guessed it! MUSIC!  Make sure the music is fun and engaging. Themed music works well. Also, students love being creative so you can take this opportunity to compose a song as one of your musical prizes.

Here is an example of one of my UPI's:

120 minutes of practice = 1 new Halloween Song
130 minutes of practice = BONUS 2 new Halloween Songs
140 minutes of practice = DOUBLE BONUS 3 new Halloween Songs

You'll have your students out of that icky-yucky pit in no time!

So, give it and try and let me know what you think of this idea or if you have any other Ultimate Practice Incentive ideas.

Jennifer Lorys
Jennifer's Musical Moments

Being a piano teacher is a wonderful gift.  I get to share my love of music with others (oh, and I actually happen to know a lot about it too!)  Jennifer's Musical Moments offers in-studio (at my place) and in-home (at your place) piano lessons.  That means, in essence, I have two studios.  One studio being my place of business, and my other studio being my "Pianist. Will Play for Chocolate" tote bag.  So, while being a piano teacher is a blessing, being a traveling piano teacher can sometimes leave me scrounging for new and inventive ways to teach a concept using (sometimes unconventional) household items.

Here is a glimpse into some of my more recent, on the spot, tools I've used to teach. 

Napkins
I needed one of my students to play an entire piece of music without looking at his hands.  He looked like a bobble head bouncing his head and eyes up and down to check the notes, then check his fingers on the key. I then had an "ah-ha" moment.  The "Napkin Song" was born.  Napkins are perfect for covering fingers and hands.  They are lightweight and they gracefully lay on the hand.  Anytime we need to work on building trust in our eye to hand coordination, the "Napkin Song" works wonders!  

Ping Pong Paddle and Ball
I used this fun activity to show rests (beats of silence) in the music. Rests can sometimes (actually all the time) be challenging for students to do.  Some students simply skip over them as if they don't exist.  One of my students was having difficulty feeling the rests in her song so I immediately came up with an idea.  I needed a percussion instrument (besides the piano), however, there was none, so I found the nearest ping pong paddle and ball and created my own instrument!  I told her every time you have a rest in your music, I will bounce the ping pong ball off of the paddle.  If we don't hear the bounce, that means you were playing and you skipped your rest.  After lots of laughs, and us changing roles as piano player/ping pong player, we successfully accomplished an understanding of the rests in the song, all while making some pretty fun sounding music!  

iPad
The iPad is a common tool for piano teachers to use in teaching students.  I really wanted to incorporate more ear training into my students piano lessons.  I decided to use the family iPad to record excerpts of pieces for the students to transcribe by ear.  The students LOVE this activity.  It's great because they can work on developing their aural skills, not just in the lesson, but throughout the entire week, and once they've accomplished the task of actually deciphering music without written notes, they show their excitement by smiling ear to ear and asking for another tune to tackle.  You can also use the iPad for other fun things like recording the teachers duet of a song for students to practice along, or simply just capturing successful musical moments with your students.  Trust me, they will cherish these musical memories!

Jennifer Lorys
Jennifer's Musical Moments

Finding time to practice piano can be a bit, well, challenging.  Yes, we love music.  Yes, after every lesson we have this yearning to go home and practice the OMGeezies out of a song until we feel as though we've become DiCaprio screaming with open arms on the top of that forsaken boat (Parents, you might have to explain this reference to your children). Then, reality sets in and we realize that we are mere mortals, going to school 8-3 or working our jobs 9-5.  As children, our schedules have schedules (whatever that means).  We resort to scheduling in "fun" like play dates or computer time.  As adults, we work all day, then we come home to our families, and as much as we love them dearly, we work some more until the entire family crashes, probably at some undesirable time (7pm or 2am), and wakes up the next morning to do it all again.  We are all very busy and our lives are all very full, but I believe that if you are taking lessons, there is a musical kind of hunger inside your soul that deserves to be fed, and just like you schedule in time for feeding your body (daydreaming about Nutella on Oatnut bread right about now), why not make it a point to schedule in time to feed your soul.

I am a professed scheduler; appointment books, dry erase boards, post its, calendars, and even text messages to myself.  I do it all.  When I have something written down, it automatically makes it important.  This is why I encourage all my students to  make practicing piano a routine.  When something becomes routine, you EXPECT it to be happening.  You expect that you will eat breakfast in the morning (or at least lunch in the afternoon).  You expect you will brush your teeth afterwards.  You expect to have soccer practice after school. You expect that your favorite television show will be on Wednesday at 8pm. As a piano teacher, I know my students expect to progress at learning piano (I also have that expectation for them). So if you expect to progress, then you should absolutely expect to be practicing.  Pick a time, a time you know you can commit to, and as mega brand Nike says, "Just Do It."  I guarantee that you will certainly begin to feel as though you are "DiCaprio-ing" your way to the top of that ship.  Only difference is that after you've committed your time and you are making your musical strides, it will be smooth sailing.

Jennifer Lorys
Jennifer's Musical Moments