* Make practice a priority- like brushing teeth! Students could practice first thing in the morning when they are fresh before going to school or when they come home before they start their schoolwork.
* Divide practice sessions into many smaller segments throughout the day rather than one big chunk. Students should practice regularly and consistently.
* Have a nice area set aside for students to practice that has a music stand, a relatively comfortable armless chair at the correct height, good lighting, pencil, eraser, tuner, metronome.
* Be a motivator. Avoid being discouraging about how students sound when practicing.
* Provide incentives to reward consistent and careful practice, such as CDs, concert tickets, and so forth.
* Communicate with the teacher to be sure practice assignments are clear.
* Leave the instrument out at home if it helps to get the student to practice.
(Teaching Music, Vol. 13, August 2005)
2. Isolate the problem by breaking it down to its simplest form.
3. Remediate by using a variety of strategies to fix the problem.
4. Reinforce playing the section correctly by repeating it many times successfully and consecutively.
5. Recontextualize once you've got it by reincorporating the once-problem spot back into the music. Begin with slightly larger chunks of the music, and gradually increase the size of the chunks until you are confidant the problem is fixed.
6. If the problem should occur later, go back to step 1, and repeat as necessary.
(Teaching Music, Vol. 13, August 2005)
1. Begin with long tones
2. Scale study (2-3 scales per day) and rudiments for percussionists
3. Lip slurs for brass,octave jumps for woodwinds
4. Chromatic scale study in back of Standard of Excellence book (fingering chart)
5. Excercises in Standard of Excellence book (assigned in class)
6. Concert/sheet music