Posted by David WK Johnson on April 07, 2008 at 10:57:14:
In Reply to: Beginners and rehearsing the music posted by Will on April 06, 2008 at 19:17:01:
Motivating students to practice is a battle that will last your entire career. After 7 years of teaching, I'm still struggling to find the right angle to convince my students that individual preparation outside of rehearsal is essential to allowing the ensemble to best communicate the composer's intentions.
The two functions of practicing are:
1) To develop sufficient endurance and technique in order to express yourself musically, and
2) To gain familiarity with notes, rhythms, and/or stylistic elements such as phrasing, dynamics and articulations in order to express yourself musically.
You're already doing the right things. Your expectations are high and you want your ensemble to improve. Make sure you let your band students know what your goals are for the band and always remind them of your goals. Make sure that your students' musical goals are in line with yours. If your students only want to give you 50%, and you want them to give 110%, then that's where conflicts arise and students start quitting band. Bringing them up to 110% takes many years of gradual improvement (with several setbacks thrown in to keep you on your toes). Know your band and maintain a good balance.
I personally don't like using practice forms. Through my experiences with them I discovered that kids simply lie on them and parents sign them to get their kids a passing grade. Often, parents aren't home to monitor their child's practicing habits. The kid will say, "yeah I practiced for 45 minutes before you got home. Can you sign this?"
Kids forget their forms all the time and it ends up becoming a big logistic headache. The concept of practice forms looks great on paper, but the actual implementation of the practice form is more work than it's ultimately worth.
You've already mentioned a much more effective motivational strategy, and that's the use of performance tests. I will be using electronic portfolios beginning next fall (Smart Music, Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory, and Practica Musica) with my Junior High Band Students and Senior High School Band Students. I have a very strong feeling that implementing electronic portfolios will have a very positive impact on the practice habits of my students.
Some challenges I'm anticipating is that the students might feel like it's asking too much of them and that it will be overwhelming for them. So, I'll start slowly and make sure the first few assignments are extremely easy and would take only a couple of minutes to complete. Gradually, I'll raise the level of difficulty of the assignments over time.
Practicing vs. Rehearsing:
Practicing is where students spend time fixing things that can be fixed alone.
Rehearsing is where students spend time fixing things that can't be fixed alone.
Make sure your students understand the difference between rehearsing and practicing. Sometimes, if we're struggling with a technical passage in a piece, I'll stop rehearsal and I'll say, "You have 3 minutes to practice these hard measures," and I'll let them work it out during that time so we can rehearse it. In rehearsals, I tend to focus much more on musical effect than technical accuracy. I believe that technique is best arrived at by having a musical reason for it. My kids know that if they can't play their notes and rhythms correctly, then they won't be able to communicate the composer's intentions as best as they can, and that's the worst punishment of all! I try and sell practicing to them this way: "If they don't practice, then they ultimately cheat themselves out of a potentially fantastic and significant emotional experience, which is why we do music in the first place." That's a much stronger (and more positive) sell than the threat of a less-than-optimal grade.
: I teach beginners and have had a hard time getting them to put the work in on their own time so we can work as a group during rehearsal. I have a bulletin board that charts the band's points for practice minutes and the goal is a party after our concert. I am working up a grading system for next year that involves practice sheets and play exams so I can accurately assess their abilities. I just feel that I am working more on individual parts that should be worked on at home and want to get into the music in rehearsals instead of playing the black spots on the page. What do you do to motivate your students to practice and what do you do during rehearsals that is different from lessons? I am a first year teacher and love what I do and would like to make this program better because there is a lot of potential.
: Thanks
: -Will-