No More Folks Songs, plus Deadly Practice Excuses
Hi there Blitzers,
Huge news from the AMEB: No more folk songs AT ALL!
That’s right, just 12 months after the AMEB’s big change to the syllabus to make the testing of folk songs limited to recognition only, they have now completed deleted folk songs from the syllabus!
Details can be found in the opening pages of the AMEB’s Manual of Syllabuses. There is now no memory component in the Theory or Musicianship exams for grades 1-4. Over the next few months all BlitzBooks workbooks and online materials will be updated to reflect this change.
The 7 Deadly Practice Excuses
Here's the final part in our series on The 7 Deadly Practice Excuses.
5. ‘The pieces were too hard/I got confused/ ‘I’ve decided I don’t like those pieces any more’
This excuse is often employed by students who have an inkling they may have over-used Deadly Practice Excuses 1-4. However, most music teachers are well aware of their students’ limitations and usually don’t set pieces or tasks that are too difficult. More often than not, the ‘confusion’ results from not consulting the ‘what to do for next week’ book or simply due to lack of practice.
The announcement that a student no longer likes a piece of music may not be well received by the teacher, especially if the piece was selected by the student just a few weeks before, after a painstaking process of listening to every piece in the book and finally deciding on one or two. What usually happens is that the student has not really done any work on it at all, and figures that it now belongs in the ‘too hard’ basket.
Sometimes students fall in love with pieces, but after the first few of weeks of exciting note-learning they become disillusioned, because that’s when the more difficult nitty-gritty problem solving practice needs to kick in. So just like in all relationships, there is a honeymoon period at the beginning, and then some work needs to be done to keep the fire going! It’s always worth working through this, because the rewards are great. I don’t usually let my students drop pieces (especially ones they’ve selected) until they’ve done enough work on them to actually know whether they dislike them!
6. ‘Every time I tried to practice my mum told me to get off the piano’
As a teacher AND a mother, I find this excuse most amusing. The student who tries this one has clearly forgotten that it is mum who is paying for the lessons. What has usually happened is that the student forgets or refuses to practice at the allocated time, and repeatedly jumps on the piano (or whatever instrument) just as everyone is piling in the car to go to school, or other such uninviting activity (thus rendering practice a more attractive alternative).
Some interesting variations of Deadly Practice Excuse no. 6 are:
- My sister’s doing her HSC and it interferes with her study
- My father does shift work and my practice wakes him up
- We are renovating and the piano is covered and in another room
These excuses may work well once or twice. But if there really is to be a prolonged period of the instrument being unavailable, hopefully the parents will let the teacher know and procedures can be put in place to reduce the frustration on both sides!
7. ‘I was sick/on holiday/on camp
This, at last, is the only acceptable and reasonable excuse for doing no practice from one lesson to the next. In these cases the lesson can easily be filled up with intensive sessions on scales, sight reading, general knowledge, aural… the list goes on!
But... sometimes students perceive they are unable to practice when in fact this is not the case. For example, none of the following would excuse a whole week without practice:
- I was really tired after my sleepover
- I corked my finger playing netball
- My wrist starts to hurt every time I practice (but miraculously not for any other activity)
Pianists in particular should take note that they have two hands. If the right hand is injured, it’s perfectly reasonable and actually quite effective to practice with the left.
With regard to students being away, a little planning ahead can do wonders, such as informing the teacher well in advance when holidays and school camps will take place (sadly this does not always happen.) I usually write down a plan in the exercise book that takes this into account. I do not allow my students to cancel lessons due to lack of practice… there’s always so much to do!
I’d like to finish up with a suggestion for teachers and students. Keep a tally of which Deadly Practice Excuse is used and how often. Perhaps limit usage to a maximum of 1 or 2 per term, and never the same one twice! Keep it light-hearted and the student will hopefully be working towards establishing new habits. After all, we want the excuse to be deadly, not the practice!
Great idea to get students practising more (i.e. using above excuses less)
Three weeks ago my 11-year-old daughter suggested I implement a ‘house’ system with my students. She said she thought they would all practice more if they were earning points for their house and competing for the ‘house cup’ (she is a mad Harry Potter fan, in case you couldn’t tell).
Even though it was the end of the year, I decided it would be fun to trial it for a short time. It has been a huge success!
I allocated each student to one of three houses: Yamaha, Kawai and Steinway. I split siblings up so that they could compete against each other. Here is an extract from the email I sent to them:
"You can earn points for your House by practising! You will earn:
- 1 point per minute of practice PLUS
- 5 bonus points per session of practice
You must keep a log of the day or date and start/finish times of each practice during the week… starting right now! Next lesson we’ll be adding your points to your House’s total.
In addition, you will be awarded 10, 20 or 30 progress points in your lesson. Obviously, the more efficient your practice is during the week, the more you will have progressed.
The House with the most points at the end of the term will win the House Cup! There will also be awards for individual effort."
Everyone got very excited about this and I had colourful charts on the wall showing each student’s contribution and the growing house totals. I plan to convert these into high-tec Excel graphs at some stage (with help from my husband of course) and post them on the website. All in all it really got students motivated to practice!
To your music education,
Samantha
Samantha Coates
BlitzBooks
PS: Make sure you read my BlitzBitz blog - where I regularly discuss music theory, upcoming workshops and new downloads.
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Upcoming Events
Summer Piano Seminars
We've just announced our January Summer Piano Seminar series for Brisbane, Adelaide and Orange!
Join us for a brilliant day of professional development where you will learn new techniques for fostering happy and successful students.
PLUS: A champagne gourmet lunch to Celebrate BlitzBooks' 10th Birthday!
BONUS: all attendees receive a Blitz Birthday Showbag with lots of goodies including a FREE copy of How to Blitz Sight Reading!
BlitzBooks is turning 10
Plus: This coming January BlitzBooks will celebrate its 10th birthday. Huge celebrations are planned in the form of specials, prizes, giveaways and champagne cocktail parties! Your local music store will have more information and we’ll keep you posted with all the happy events.
Workshops
I had great fun presenting my session entitled 'The Inherited Student' at the recent 'Refresh and Recharge' conference run by MTA NSW.
I’ll be presenting this same session in January at the VMTA’s upcoming Summer Conference 'Bach to the Future'. More details about this can be found at www.vmta.org.au
Downloads
Aural Game - number motifs
The Downloads page on the Blitzbooks site is regularly updated with new resources for students, teachers and parents.
This month I've added a new Aural Game download - number motifs. It's an excellent exercise in sight reading and developing the inner ear.
In this game, the teacher plays the motifs on this page in a random order, and the student (having his/her own copy of the sheet) has to number them accordingly. The teacher may choose to play each motif only once, or twice, or any number of times. The fewer playings, the harder the activity!
Download it here.
About BlitzBooks
BlitzBooks is the series by Samantha Coates that has revolutionised music theory teaching. Students are no longer bored with their theory books! Since January 2001, music students have been able to ENJOY their theory education with fun, user-friendly texts. The conversational, easy-to-use format has made BlitzBooks incredibly popular with students as well as making teachers’ lives easier.
The BlitzBooks series covers the AMEB syllabus for Grades 1 to 5 in both Theory and Musicianship as well as offering fantastic publications in the areas of beginner music theory, sight reading (piano) and general knowledge (any instrument).
Each Theory/Musicianship workbook is complemented by a comprehensive Teacher Guide and separate Answer Book, a feature no other theory series offers. There are many additional music resources on the BlitzBooks website, as well as constant updates relating to revisions and changes to the AMEB syllabus.
BlitzBooks remains on the cutting edge of music theory education, making this series the number one choice for students and teachers in Australia and overseas.
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