Color In My Piano » incentive programs

My Thoughts on Practice Requirements

joy (admin) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:04:17 +0000

Many of you may remember being required by your piano teachers growing up to practice a certain amount of minutes each day/week. Perhaps your requirement looked something like this:

15 minutes a day,
140 minutes each week, or
45 minutes, 5 days a week.

One of my previous teachers built her incentive program around how much practice time each student completed each week. She would set an amount for each student (15 minutes/day for the young ones, and then gradually increasing up to 60 minutes/day for the advanced ones). If you completed all your practice time each week, you’d receive a sticker on your chart for that week. When you received 7 consecutive weeks of completed practice, you were allowed to chose a prize from the prize box. She used a system similar to the following:

Beginners: 10-20 minutes, 5 days a week (depending on their age).
Intermediate students: 20-45 minutes, 5 days a week.
Advanced students: 60 minutes or more a day, 5 days a week.

Personally, I use a simpler, more flexible practice requirement for my students. I simply tell my students and parents that they are expected to practice daily. And that’s it. Here are my reasons why I like to leave it at that:

Consistent practice is far better than intermittent practice. I realize that life gets crazy busy sometimes, and some days it may be more difficult than other days to get practice in. I don’t care if my students only can fit 5 minutes of practice in on the busy days — but practice must be consistent in order for progress to be made and piano lessons to be enjoyable. I believe that 5 minutes a day, every day for a week is far better than an hour on only one day out of the week.
Students are more likely to use their practice time wisely. I don’t know about you, but I find that when I set myself a timed amount for practicing, I can’t wait until my 60 minutes is over. When students sit down with a practice requirement in mind, that’s their focus: sitting at the piano until 20 minutes is over. But when students sit down at the piano simply knowing it’s time to get some practice done to prepare for their next lesson, that’s exactly what their focus is on: preparing for the next lesson. I would much rather have my students practice 10 minutes of quality practice time at the piano than 20 minutes of dilly-dallying. This is why my incentive program is not based upon the amount of time that my students practice, but rather upon the progress they are making through their books.
Students practice more. The daily practice requirement is actually quite freeing for most students. It helps allow them to feel in control of their learning, rather than feeling like they are simply fulfilling a bunch of requirements set by their teacher. When they sit down to practice, they are more likely to practice longer because they are more self-motivated. The best kind of motivation is self-motivation. Incentive programs are wonderful things for rewarding student progress, but earning trinkets, toys, or candy will not keep students taking lessons for long if that’s their only motivation.
Students are more likely to continue taking lessons. Students are most likely to continue lessons when they are successfully making progress, no matter the rate. As we all know, when a student doesn’t practice regularly, progress is nearly impossible. Daily practice is the best way to ensure progress. And when students are making progress the whole process is so much more enjoyable: students are motivated to learn, they are making progress, and the teacher is happy!

Now, of course, there are many successful teachers who have timed practice requirements, and I do not mean to minimize their teaching methods in any way. We all have different teaching styles, and one particular method might not work for everyone. I only mean to share this information in the hopes that it may be as helpful to some of you as it has been for me. =)

That said, I have been using the daily practice requirement for a few years now, and have found it to be very successful for most of my students. As with any practice requirement, of course, teachers must closely moniter student progress to see if the practice requirement is working well for them. On occasion, I will encounter a student who is not making sufficient progress in his/her lessons, in which case I will inquire about the student’s practice habits with both the parent and student. In some cases, if deemed necessary and helpful, I will then set a recommended weekly practice amount for the student.

But in general, having the daily practice requirement has been very freeing not only for my students, but also for me. For one thing, I no longer have to nag my students about getting X amount of minutes of practice each week! ;) Who cares how many minutes they are practicing, as long as they are making progress that you deem satisfactory for their age/level/talent? For another thing, I am noticing that they are much more motivated to play and learn then ever before and we are having a lot of fun in our lessons learning how to create music. =)

To read more thoughts about practice requirements, read Laura Lowe’s great article on her blog here.

Photo credit: tibchris | CC 2.0

A Peek into the Incentive Program Prize Box

joy (admin) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:18:32 +0000

Here’s a peek into the prize box I use for my incentive program. In case you haven’t read about my incentive program before, here’s the lowdown: I create an index card for each student, and when they pass a song, they are given a point/sticker for every page of the song learned. They can also earn points/stickers for doing theory worksheets, memorizing their pieces, etc. When they earn 25 points/stickers on their index card, they are allowed to choose a prize from the prize box.

I recently restocked the prize box with some cute new items. Take a look!

The purple prize box.

It’s decorated with some cute music stickers!

I found the above craft projects at Jo-Ann Fabrics & Gifts for $1 each.

I found the little pens and the colorful rings were in the party favor section at Wal-Mart.

The hair clips are from the local dollar store…

…and so are the various notepads, erasers, and pencil sharpeners.

And so there’s a little peek into the prize box! My students LOVE digging through the box to find a treasure. =)

30 Theme Ideas for Music Studio Events

joy (admin) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:02:52 +0000

Here’s a list of 30 theme ideas for music studio events! Themes can be used as the studio theme for the school year, or for summer music camps, or for studio recitals. If used for the studio theme for the whole year, there are a number of ways the theme can be incorporated: the incentive program, group lesson activities, worksheets, games, food, decorations, dress, recital repertoire, etc., can all be coordinated to fit the theme.

Medieval Times | castles, knights, princesses
Fantasy | same as above, plus dragons, wizards, etc.
Mystery |detective, private eye, clues, magnifying glass, footprints, fingerprints, evidence
International / Around the World | choose a specific country, or give a survey of a few different countries (Egypt, Africa, etc.) world music, cultures. For example……
Fiesta | sombrero, maracas, dances
Tropical | surfing, luau, grass skirts, steel drums, Caribbean/hawaiian music, palm trees
Winter | snow, icicles, skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, cold, mittens, scarves, snowmen
Carnival / Circus | ringmaster, tightrope walker, elephant, tickets
Art | colors, brushes, make connections between art and music. Activity: compose songs named after colors.
Roller coster park | use this theme to study musical forms (e.g., ABA), or musical styles.
Animal Planet | animals galore! Activity: try matching animal characteristics to how different music sounds.
The Great Outdoors / camping | campfire, singing, woods, lantern
Under the Sea | ocean, waves, fish, jellyfish, dolphins, sharks, seaweed, treasure, sunken ship, scuba diver
Barnyard | farm, farmer, animals, fields, crops, harvest, tractors, seeds
Construction | bulldozers, dump trucks, CAUTION tape, hard hats, orange cones, STOP, GO, workers
Jungle Safari | lions, giraffes, jeep, binoculars
Wild West | cowboys, saloon, ghost town, cowboy hats/boots, bandanas, sheriff, horses, saddles, lasso
Pirates | pirate ship, pirates, buried treasure, treasure maps, scavenger hunt
Desert Oasis | cockroaches, oasis, palm trees, sand
Olympic Games | fitness, games, exercise, practice
Going Green | recycle, be efficient (with practice time)
Splish Splash | water bottles, droplets, river, brook, ocean, puddle, rain, hydration, summer, squirt guns, pool. Listen to Debussy’s La Mer.
Outer Space | stars, moon, sun, rocket ships, astronauts, aliens, ufo’s. Natalie is doing a space theme in her studio this year and it looks fabulous!
Futuristic / Time Travel | contemporary music, technology in music
Race cars | finish line, car, tires, gasoline, checkered flag, trophy. Activity: do timed worksheets for naming note on the staff.
USA / Patriotic / Stars & Stripes | USA history, fireworks, wear red, white, and blue, or wear stars/stripes! Activity: learn about American composers.
The magic of music | magician, magic tricks, deck of cards, top hat, magic wand, rabbit, gloves. Activity: discuss how music has the power to affect your emotions, change your mood, influence you to do something, etc.
Blast from the Past | choose an era of music history: Classical, Romantic, Baroque, etc. Dress old-fashioned, eat popular treats from back then, etc.
The Great Composers | choose a specific set of composers, and focus on one each day/week/month.
Musical Instruments | learn about the parts of the piano, or the instruments of the orchestra. Discuss timbre, register, range, tuning, etc.

Please share any additional ideas you have, or any resources you’ve found to be helpful for planning a themed event for your music studio!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peasap/ / CC BY 2.0

What Motivates Musicians and Music Students? – Part 2

joy (admin) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:36:12 +0000

This post is Part 2 of the two-part series: What Motivates Musicians and Music Students? Here’s a quick recap and then the conclusion of the series:

This goal [creating students who can convey musical meaning] in itself is an intrinsic motivator, for even the youngest of students can appreciate the value of musical meaning and feel important as they learn to create musical meaning. But to encourage this kind of mastery of the instrument, we need to make sure that our incentive programs are reflecting this goal.

Let’s first consider this: What kind of student would be produced by an incentive program that is based upon the number of minutes practiced each day? Answer: The student is motivated to spend more minutes sitting at the piano, but not necessarilyto spend their practice time efficiently and towards the goal of creating musical meaning. To only encourage large amounts of practice time is missing the point. So how do we create incentive programs that encourage students towards the goal of learning to communicate musical meaning?

The best idea I am coming up with right now is to base the incentive program upon how many pieces (or pages, perhaps, since some pieces are longer than others) the students “passes.” Since the teacher has ultimate control over when the student passes (or doesn’t pass) a piece, the student is encouraged to figure out what kind of things the teacher values in their playing in order to do well in the incentive program. That is, the students are more likely to think about what the teacher wants them to improve on in their pieces while they are practicing (aka, the elements that contribute to communicating musical meaning in their pieces). At this point, the student might even (**gasp**) crack open their assignment notebook and read what it says! – try to shape the phrases more, and think about using more arm weight in the forte section, for example.

What do you think? Would an incentive program like this work? What kind of incentive program do you find to be most effective for your students?

What Motivates Musicians and Music Students? – Part 1

joy (admin) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:19:46 +0000

I found an interesting post over at the Third-Stream Music Education blog. It includes a link to a fascinating video of Dan Pink’s presentation about motivation in the business world (be sure to watch the whole thing!). The post at the Third-Stream Music Ed blog makes some interesting connections between ways of motivating employees and ways of motivating students in music education settings in schools.

There are some connections here that can made made to private piano teaching as well. Knowing what we do about how motivation works, how can we effectively motivate our students? How can we improve the number of students who quit piano by the time they reach junior high and high school? What kind of incentive program should we create in our piano studios in order to get maximum results from our students?

But first — here are two of Dan Pink’s basic propositions:

When the solution is clear and the tools needed to complete the problem are provided, extrinsic motivations (such as, a monetary bonus) work very well to encourage productivity from employees. It’s the whole follow-the-carrot kind of reward system.
But when the solution is less obvious and the tools may not be provided, monetary motivations do not work well. Instead, intrinsic motivators (i.e., being motivated by the feeling that what you do matters) work well. Intrinsic motivators work better for situations where the problems require creative, innovative solutions and ”thinking outside the box” is needed.

The teaching and learning of music falls into the second category, because it is so subjective and it requires creative problem-solving skills. And so, according to Pink, intrinsic motivators then ought to be used.

Before we talk about the application to incentive programs, let’s first clarify what the “tasks” or goals of learning piano (or music in general) are: mastery of the instrument. But what does this “mastery” involve? At first appearance, our goal seems to get our students to play play their pieces accurately, with few mistakes. Under this definition of mastery, a robot could conceivably succeed. Well, then maybe mastery is to get out students to progress rapidly, or to play lots of difficult repertoire. According to this logic, a “successful” music educator would be one who has students who learn all of 32 Beethoven piano sonatas, or who become concert pianists, perhaps. While, or course, these things are not bad, they aren’t exactly our goal either. At least, not our chief goal.

So then what is our chief goal? We want them to create music — music that carries meaning and touches the emotions. In other words, we want our students to become masters at creating musical meaning and communicating emotions through their music. And if they become concert pianists along the way, so be it. But I’d say we’ve succeeded as soon as we create individuals who can appreciate music as a way of communicating expression. This is something that all of our students — both the talented and less so — can attain, at some level. This is much more practical than trying to create concert pianists. And so much more rewarding.

This goal in itself is an intrinsic motivator, for even the youngest of students can appreciate the value of musical meaning and feel important as they learn to create musical meaning. But to encourage this kind of mastery of the instrument, we need to make sure that our incentive programs are reflecting this goal.

[...to be continued in Part 2...]

3 Ways to Motivate Busy Students

joy (admin) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:08:22 +0000

I believe students today are busier than ever before. They are involved in everything you can imagine — art, karate, gymnastics, swimming, sports teams, church activities, 4-H, and more. And this is all on top of their regular homework assignments from school. Sometimes the student gets stretched too thin, and something needs to go. Other times, the student may just need a little extra incentive to motivate them to consider piano lessons to be just as important as everything else.

Make a practice contract. A practice contract is basically an agreement between the teacher and the parent/student that they will complete a set amount of practice each week. Most (young) students cannot remember to practice piano each day on their own. They need a parent to remind them and keep track of their time spent practicing. In most cases, both the parent and student (and the teacher) are much happier when consistent practice takes place, because the student can feel that they are progressing, and the parent feels they are getting their money’s worth.
Teach the student how to practice. It’s not enough that the student is playing piano for 15 to 30 minutes each day. They need to be using that practice time effectively. To ensure this takes place, the teacher should essentially be teaching the student how to practice during the lesson. Help the student troubleshoot problem spots and give them specific ways to fix the problems. Guidelines for practice ought to be written down in an assignment notebook, so that the student can refer to it each time they sit down to practice. It may be helpful to give young students a set of specific steps to follow. For example, you might write in their notebook: 1) Point to the all the dynamics in this piece. Find the hand position change and draw a star by that measure. 2) Tap the rhythm of the whole piece on the wood of the piano, counting out loud. 3) Play the piece through as written.
Create an incentive program. Some positive reinforcement (paired with the parents’ help in the consistent practice department) goes a long ways for some students. Create ways for students to earn points for completing certain tasks, like passing their pieces, memorizing their assignments, completing theory assignments or extra credit worksheets, learning their scales/five-finger patterns, etc. Get together some prizes to award once the student has earned a certain amount of points. Click here for a description of the incentive program I have used for the last couple years.

These are just three ways to further motivate students and encourage increased progress. There are many more. Please share your ideas below!

Incentive Programs

joy (admin) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:19:00 +0000

Do you use an incentive program in your piano studio? Incentive programs can be a useful way to motivate and encourage students to be diligent and productive with their practicing. Let’s face it – most students really can be bribed into doing well! :]

Have you discovered a program that works well? I recall my piano teacher implementing a number of different programs while I was taking lessons – unfortunately, she never stuck with one long enough for me to earn a prize very often. A good incentive program must be simple enough for the students to understand, and can’t be too time consuming as to take up a lot of the lesson time. It needs to be easily attainable, otherwise students will give up on ever earning a prize. And it needs to be affordable – as teachers, we need to keep our expenses low, especially during these economically rough times.

Most incentive programs are based on the number of minutes or days that the student practices. A weakness of this approach is that the older students might be more likely to win prizes more often than the younger students, which doesn’t seem very fair, especially since the younger students are the ones who can most easily be influenced through the use of an incentive program. In addition, this approach does that guarantee that the student practicing productively – that is, troubleshooting and solving problem areas, rather than mindlessly playing through their pieces.

For the above reasons, I designed my incentive program to be based on the number of pages they “pass” each lesson. For example, if a student “passes” a three-page song from their Lesson Book, they earn three points. Each page completed form their theory book also earns them points. Bonus points are also awarded if a student memorizes his/her music, if they write in the counts (1…2…3…4…1…2…3…etc.), or if they complete any other task that goes above and beyond what was required to do. No matter what the activity, it’s simply 1 page = 1 point.

Points are recorded by placing stickers on colorful index cards that have their name written across the top. (Kids love stickers – there’s no way around it!) When a student earns 25 stickers on their index card, they may choose a prize from the the prize box at the end of the lesson.

My prize box is a clear purple, plastic shoebox decorated with music stickers. I regularly restock the prize box full of inexpensive trinkets – such as little notepads, colored pens (usually 2 or 3 rubberbanded together), bouncy balls, matchbox cars, keychains, etc. I generally limit myself to spending between 50 cents and $1.00 per item. Most of the trinkets I buy come from the party favor section at the local dollar store or at Meijers. Sometimes, it’s difficult to find items suitable for older students. For their sake, I have started keeping a few $1.00 gift certificates to the local dollar store on hand. I tell them to pick out their own prize!

I have found this incentive program to work well because it encourages the students to practice with their minds fully engaged, consciously working towards the goal of “passing” their pieces. It also is flexible enough to allow the teacher to reward any extra, miscellaneous tasks that students might complete. The goal of 25 stickers is easily attainable, even for the younger students. Having an incentive program in place has helped me motivate my students to progress through their books, rather than stagnantly staying at about the same level of playing. What kind of incentive program have you found to work for your studio?

Color In My Piano » incentive programs

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