Saturday, December 5, 2009

Creative Practice

We all know that the results of piano lessons are largely dependent upon the practice done by the student between lessons. Every good piano teacher realizes this fact, and tries to encourage students to give consistent time and energy to home practice. Various plans work with greater or less success. Roughly these plans are
  1. parental cooperation;
  2. a card system for checking the time which the student has given to practice and some form of rewards; or
  3. organization of home practice so it can become a creative experience
The third type, creative practice, can be the most effective, especially when combined with the spirit of emulation naturally stimulated by activities such as watching the teacher perform, listening to music, attending concert pianists' recitals, or attending local classical music events such as chamber music or musical ensembles. If a student can develop an interest in his practice, an initiative in going to the piano for pleasure, a desire for regularity in home study, this attitude will be a great step toward successful pianism.

Plan of Creative Practice

Essentially the plan of creative practice consists in presenting a musical problem to students which can be solved in different ways, or which can be worked out by the student from material of his own choosing culled from his previous experience. The music should be able to be worked out at the keyboard. This helps motivate good piano practice. The student then brings his solution to the lesson and has an opportunity to express his own ideas, to consult his own taste, and to have his opinions sympathetically considered by his teacher (and family). He has created something - thereby exercising one of the strongest incentives to playing piano. Of course, the teacher must exercise her own ingenuity and inventiveness in applying this idea.

It's best if lessons are varied, flexible and alive. Truly, home assignment shouldn't degenerate into mechanical drilling or to merely assigned tasks. Intense drilling can come in later years. When a particular composition is to be studied it is approached with the ideal of attaining an expressive result, as nearly as well as the child can make it; and whenever possible, taking a creative practice approach to the piece.

For more information about piano lessons NJ, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

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