Tag: fun music

Getting Myself to Practice During Coronavirus Lock Down

I have a confession to make: I had a really hard time getting myself to practice during the lock down. I tried all my normal tricks to get myself to practice, besides gigs because…lock down. Nothing happened. I just couldn’t get myself to do it.

I finally did get myself to practice. Here is the information about it.

Aversion to practice was common during lock down – unless you’re a student.

First, let me put this out there: my students practiced more during lockdown than ever before. They were bored and their flutes and pianos were fun. I was very proud of their progress.

I talked to a lot of adults – professionals and semi-pros, and I wasn’t the only one having a hard time practicing during lock down. It was a common problem. Even Two Set referred to it.

Why was I having a hard time getting myself to practice?

For me, I think I had a hard time practicing because all my gigs got cancelled. It completely erased my accountability. I had nothing to practice for except practicing, itself.

In addition to that, my excitement and anticipation were completely gone because 2020 wiped out all my gigs. Normally I have no problem practicing for its’ own sake, but this time everything was such a downer that my subconscious associated practicing with the downer of the virus.

Finally getting myself to practice.

A friend asked me to write an arrangement of a piece, and that got me excited to open up the piano. I love being creative. Once that spark ignited, I started putting my flute together and practicing that, too.

I wasn’t very rusty at all, which was surprising. I made sure that I was either doing the two-stand method or ending with a fun piece. This kept the spark of joy alive from session to session.

What will I do if this ever happens again?

There were three problems that needed solving for this particular situation.

  1. I needed something to work towards.
  2. I needed accountability.
  3. I needed to erase the fallacy that had crept in about practice.

Here are the things that I’ll do if this ever happens again (unlikely, but good to have a plan).

Get Lessons

One easy way to solve all of these problems would be to get lessons. There’s a reason my students weren’t having problems with practicing. They were working towards a goal and I was holding them accountable.

Sightread Fun, Easy Music

I might also buy some fun sightreading music. I bought a Veggie Tales book to sightread and I’ve been having a blast because it’s easy enough for me to sight read and it’s bringing me back to a time when my friends and I loved that cartoon.

Write Music

Writing music worked this time. I’m not sure if that would be reliable for me or not, it depends on the situation or the composition idea. This arrangement that I’m working on is really fun and it pulled me out of the slump.

Conclusion

I’m not pretending to have all the answers. I know what has worked for me in the past. I know, based on the solution, what would have worked for me in this situation. Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Maybe this will help you pull out of the Covid practice slump. Maybe you’re reading this five years from now and there’s another slump that’s going on. I just hope this helps you.

Super Fun Practice Session

The purpose of a fun practice session is to keep up your morale towards your instrument. It takes longer than the regular practice session, but it has a different overall purpose. It brings the joy back to practicing when everything feels a little dull. Jennifer Cluff mentions this kind of practice briefly in this article.

Two Stacks of Music

You should start with two stacks of music – the music that you’re working on and music that you already know and enjoy. The enjoy part is the most important.

Put the stack of music that you already know and enjoy in order of easy to hard. I like to have the first one to be something from a Disney book, like this or this. That way I can do something fun and enjoyable, yet still be able to concentrate on form or tone.

Fun Practice Session Order

Here’s an example of the order in which you would practice on a day you need a fun practice session.

  1. Easy Fun Music (used instead of tone studies for winds)
  2. Scale warm-ups
  3. Easy Fun Music
  4. Technical Studies
  5. Old Repertoire
  6. Etudes
  7. Old Repertoire
  8. Repertoire
  9. Old Repertoire

Old Repertoire

Let’s talk about that old repertoire for a minute. It can be your standard definition of repertoire – music that isn’t an etude or a technical study and you’ve already learned.

Here’s the thing – there’s no reason why it can’t be an old etude that you loved. Why not? It’s your practice session, your rules. I recently pulled out an old Level 3 lesson book to play Irish Washerwoman because I wanted to.

Prevention

Preventing the need for this kind of practice session is easy – make sure that you play something fun at the end of each practice session.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t do the fun practice session just because you want to. Have an unexpected couple of hours? Do this because it’s fun!

Conclusion

Sometimes things get a little too intense in practice, and everything starts feeling dry and boring. We all need a pick-me-up every once in awhile, and this kind of practice session helps remind you how much you love music.

I Forced My Kid to Take Piano Lessons for 4 Years and She’s Thankful

I chose a goal piece for my daughter to be able to quit piano. Once she got to that level, she decided against it.

I started giving my oldest daughter piano lessons in 2nd grade. She loved it. She responded well to everything I taught her. She enjoyed the competitions and being able to play songs from Disney.

The Turning Point

In my daughter’s school, she’s allowed to start band in 5th grade. A little young, I know, but I went with it. I started helping her choose an instrument in 4th grade so I could get a good deal on a used student instrument. She chose the clarinet.

After she chose the clarinet, she asked if she could quit piano when she starts band. My husband and I said no, she could play both, just like I play both the flute and piano.

The Goal

We told her that she can quit piano when she can play the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata. Our reasoning for this was because it’s far enough along that she can pick it back up if she wants. She could decide to plunk out most things by that skill level, too, if she had to.

My husband grew up with an age limit. When a child of his family graduated high school, they could quit piano. We decided if she has a goal piece of music, she could speed ahead and get it done if she wants, and she’ll still hit the level of musicianship that we wanted for her.

That being said, we made it very clear that she will always be playing at least one musical instrument until the end of high school. If she quits the piano, she would have to stick to the clarinet through the end of high school.

Our Reasoning

We were very clear on our reasons for wanting her to be playing an instrument.

  1. Brain Development. We saw over the years several studies about how being an instrumentalist helps with brain development. We want her to have those brain development aids for her while her brain is developing.
  2. Emotional Outlet. We wanted her to be able to come home from a tough day at school and bang it out on the piano, especially through those rough Jr. High years.
  3. Dementia. This is an odd one for the list, but I found an article that said those who played an instrument were less likely to get dementia.

7th Grade

At the beginning of 7th Grade, I told my daughter that she’s ready for learning the Moonlight Sonata, if she wishes. She said that she still hates piano, but she wants to learn Golden Aspens by Joyce Grill first. As I tried not to smile, we started on the piece (fist pump!).

After that, she still made it clear that she hates piano, but she wanted to learn The Healing Garden by Carol Klose first. Once again, I tried not to smile as we started learning the piece.

In May, when she was about half-way through learning The Healing Garden, I decided to call her on it. I told her that she really likes playing the piano, but she’s not admitting it to herself or others. If she really hated the piano, she would have whipped out that Moonlight Sonata before I even gave her the go-ahead, and would have been working on it as soon as possible.

She didn’t say anything, but gave me a thoughtful look. After about 5 minutes, she told me that she still hates piano.

June 21, 2019

We had around 3 weeks left in learning The Healing Garden. She played it for me in her lesson, and when she finished playing it, she turned around. Here’s what she said:

“I love this piece. It touches my heart. This is the first piece I’ve ever played that touched my heart. I think that you’re right. My head wants to quit piano, but my heart doesn’t.”

I succeeded in not crying, but I misted up. I replied, “This is why we do fun music. I always have you playing a serious piece and a piece that you choose. This is why it’s so important to have a piece for every emotion. Sometimes your serious piece will do that, too, but you need to have something so that you can play your heart out.”

Thank You!

Carol Klose and Joyce Grill, if you’re out there, thank you so much for writing those pieces! They turned my surly 7th grader around.