Polishing Pieces and Improving Performance Confidence

Grr! Back to the Beginning!
Often, unsupervised practicers prefer practicing the passages that are already excellent! It gives them a sizable self esteem kick. Students need to learn that practicing is also important for stamping out the weak parts. This isn't always pleasant for the child or the rest of the family.

Game: The child has to stop playing and go back to the beginning (of the piece or passage) if a mistake is made. Mostly, mistakes are only obvious if the fingers get jumbled. Advanced players can decide on which aspects make up a ‘mistake’-- dynamics, intonation, rhythm, etc. Don't play this too often if the child's tolerance level is low.

Result List: With this weekly-changing list, the students are more aware of the problems that need to be corrected:

Eat that Frog
Make a list of sections that are troublesome and rank them from worst to best. The rule (for that week?) is, ‘eat that frog!’ Attack the worst section the first thing every practice session. (If you ‘eat the frog’ first, the rest tastes wonderful!) After a while, that section is too good to be the ‘worst’ and a new section takes its place!

(For students chronically guilty of the only-playing-already-perfect-parts-syndrome, I often copy new pieces, paste them on cardboard and cut out the hardest passages. These pieces are the ones the students get to take home and attack. After all of the difficult passages are complete, ‘paste’ them back into the piece or give the student a new copy.)

Stopwatch Action
If your child is neglecting certain parts because they are difficult, take a stopwatch and record the time it takes for him to play the passage. Ask if he can 'better' his time by two/five/ten seconds. Generally, the concentration is so high, that the passage gets better almost immediately. Boys especially love this game.

If the child gets slightly frustrated because his or her time is still slow, pretend that he or she is taking part in a competition or race and will be called out soon. In the meantime, you can secretly train (practice) very slowly, or the hands separately until the 'big moment'. Then, call out his or her name loud and clear (like an announcer) and have the child try another run-through with the stopwatch. Generally, the kids almost halve their old time!