I’ve received some questions about the latest practice incentive that I uploaded to the website, so I thought it would be helpful to give a few more details here for those interested in possibly using it in their studios. It’s called Mastering the Mystery of Music.

This is the one I used with my students last year. My goal in developing it was to challenge them to work toward mastery of different skills. The Assignment Book includes a set of Mastery Challenge worksheets that are separated into eight different categories: Staff Scout, Scale Sleuth, Rhythm Recon, Key Signature Specialist, Terminology Trainer, Chord Commander, and Arpeggio Agent.

Each category contains a list of 5-7 specific mastery challenges. The student chooses two mastery challenges each week and works toward having them mastered by the following week (along with whatever other repertoire assignments they are working on). If they are successful, then they are given the clue for that week. At the end of each session (there are six sessions throughout the year), they use the information from their clues to research and try to find out what the answer is.

The clues and answers all fall within a particular category, like: The Symphony Orchestra (where they are trying to figure out what the mystery instrument is), Great Pianists (where they are trying to figure out the identity of a particular pianist), God’s Mystery Revealed (where they are trying to identify what famous person said a series of quotes), Not-So-Famous Composers (where they are trying to identify the name of a composer), Folk Songs of the World (where they are trying to figure out the name of a specific folk song), and Ancient Instruments (where they are trying to figure out the name of an ancient instrument). After they’ve solved that mystery, they look back through their clues to figure out which one is the false clue.

Then, at a group class (aka Private Eye Workshop – or at the following lesson for those who can’t attend the workshop), I give them the code to crack the clue that’s hidden inside the false clue. The mystery word from the false clue is then entered into a blank on their Detective Worksheet so that by the end of the year they have discovered the sentence that reveals what The Mystery of Music is.

This particular Practice Incentive includes both print-ready and editable files for the Assignment Books so that you can either use it as-is or adapt it in any way for your own studio use. You can use the clues, mystery words, and Private Eye Workshop lesson plans that are included or you can re-create your own according to your studio goals and needs. Either way, I hope that your students have a blast being super sleuths and that it inspires them to work hard and “master the mystery of music”!

What makes you really excited? Studying music history? Sight-reading new repertoire? Dreaming up game ideas? Improvising arrangements of familiar tunes by ear?

Capitalize on your own area of interest to build the enthusiasm of your students. Invest your excitement into putting together creative assignments for your students. For example, plan a group class around composers and have every student present a brief report on a composer of their choosing. Or host a “Sight-Reading Super Stars Challenge” and let students put star stickers on a chart on the wall for every piece they sight-read throughout one month. Or pull out a deck of flashcards and come up with a fun, short game that you can play for the first five minutes of every lesson one week. Or hold a Name that Tune challenge where you print up a list of possibilities and give it to the student for reference; then play various tunes and have them see if they can identify which one it is from the list on the sheet.

One of the most effective approaches I ever started was developing a year-long practice incentive theme for my entire studio. Our whole year is built around the theme and I build in enough structure so that it functions like a lesson plan for the whole year, commingled with enough flexibility to customize the assignments for each student and for any specific needs throughout the year. I was able to spend a bit of time organizing my files over Christmas break and have put together a Resources for Sale page that highlights outlines each of the practice incentives that I currently have available, including the newest one that I finally added – Mastering the Mystery of Music! I’ve included not only the ready-to-print files, but also the original Word Doc files that are fully editable so that you can use the basic idea but customize and adapt it for your studio. Plus, this program also includes lesson plans for 6 correlating group classes throughout the year, complete with objectives, games, resource links, and weekly clues. (This is the kind of thing that gets me really excited, and brainstorming up a new idea every year definitely re-ignites my enthusiasm! )

You have a lot of games.  Do you do them just with the student at their lesson or do you incorporate these games into group lessons?  Do the students enjoy doing these games during their lessons?  How do you do that?

Yes to all of the above! Ask any of my students and they’ll tell you how much I love games! We play games all the time, but especially at the group classes. If possible, I integrate games into the lessons that relate to what the student is studying. For beginning students, we might play a lot of note identification games; for intermediate students, we might play a game to introduce or reinforce a new rhythm pattern; advanced students might utilize games for understanding key signatures or 7th chords.

We also use various practice games during the lesson so that I can help them learn effective practice strategies to use when they are practicing at home. Visit HowToPractice.com for a treasure trove of practice ideas and games. I’ll often play the “Penny Practice Game” during the lesson and then send the student home with a handful of pennies so they can use the same strategy in their practicing.

Yes, as far as I can tell, my students love playing the games. So, either I attract students who like to play games or they get converted pretty quickly. I see games not as something that takes time away from the “real” lesson, but as a complement to the concepts we are studying. I use them to teach and reinforce in a way that is hopefully clear and memorable to the student. It is part of the broad-based musical education and understanding that I aim to give each of my students.

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Chris Foley has posted an interesting collection of ideas and thoughts from teachers on how they write lesson notes for their students. As much as I love and try to utilize technology in my studio, I just can’t seem to break away from the handwritten weekly assignments. Part of this, I think, is because I love designing customized assignment books for my students each year, and it is always closely integrated with our practice incentive theme. But reading some of these inventive ideas sure does make me think more outside the box and contemplate the possibilities!

I’d be curious to know how you all handle weekly assignments. Do you use computer-based notes? Do you have any creative ideas that have proved especially effective?

Well, after many hours of brainstorming, praying, revamping, and planning, I’ve finally pulled together a practice incentive theme for the upcoming year. Hooray! Several weeks ago, I posted 4 Components of a Good Practice Incentive, so I kept these in mind as I was developing the theme. There were a couple of ideas floating around in my mind, but eventually I settled on a theme based on a suggestion from a student at last year’s Year-End Evaluation. And so I present to you, without further ado:

EXPLORING A GALAXY OF MUSIC

The Studio Splog is a website I’ve set up to go along with the theme this year.  I can’t say much about it yet, because I know I have students who read this blog and I don’t want them to find out too much before our official kickoff for the year. I’ll keep you posted, though, as things progress!

There is much debate in the educational community about whether to use extrinsic motivators (i.e. practice incentives) to encourage students to perform required tasks or meet certain objectives. Those in the non-incentive camp tend to assert that motivation should be intrinsic and that the completion of the task or the attainment of the objective is itself the best reward. Obviously, I am a proponent of using extrinsic motivators! However, I don’t believe that it has to be an either/or proposition. I think it is possible, and highly effective, to design a practice incentive that creatively instills motivation and ultimately capitalizes on the reward of [in this case] learning to play the music itself. That’s what I attempt to do each year with the practice incentives that I develop. This is certainly a challenge, but here are some thoughts on what contributes to a good practice incentive:

1. Age and Level Inclusiveness – the objectives should be structured in such a way that students of any age and level have equal opportunity to achieve the highest level. This is why the practice frequency aspect of my practice incentives emphasize number of days of practice rather than number of minutes – because an advanced high school student will typically have at least an hour’s worth of assignments, whereas a beginning 5-year old will have more like 15 minutes worth of assignments. For example, in the Let’s Have a Ball incentive, each student got to add a ball to their jar based on the number of days practiced. Skill-based aspects of the themes allow for variations based on level as well. For example, in a scale objective, the requirement could range from pentascales up to four octave scales in patterns, based on the ability of the student. However, completion of the skill requirement results in the same end reward, regardless of the student’s level.

2. Realistic and Measurable Objectives – the incentive has to be designed in a way that challenges the student, but makes them feel like it’s possible to be successful. For this reason, I encourage outlining smaller objectives that fit into a cohesive whole. Additionally, they must be able to measure their progress along the way, so the goals have to be concrete. For example, in the Climbing the Ladder to Success incentive, instead of just having an abstract goal like “learn a piece,” the student has a list of step-by-step points they can refer to so that it’s clear when the pieces have been officially learned well enough to warrant moving up to the next rung on the ladder.

3. Student Options – giving the students various objectives from which to choose encourages ownership of their goals and an increased sense of responsibility in their practicing. This might entail setting a specific repertoire-related goal, choosing from a list of technical challenges, or selecting a piece of music to sight-read, etc. The key is to somehow incorporate these individual options into an overarching theme that involves the whole studio. For example, in the Go For The GOLD! incentive, during each of the 5-week sessions, students had a list of extra activities they could do on their own to earn additional points for their team. Watching the team points accrue week-by-week on the wall served as plenty of motivation for the students to be constantly looking for ways to earn more points!

4. Rewards/Prizes that Contribute to Musical Growth – In many ways, the primary reward my students experience is that of having reached new musical heights or excellently learning and playing fun repertoire. The excitement of these incentives is driven more by the process and the experience than any tangible prize. “Prizes” might include attending a symphony rehearsal with me, going on a special invitation-only musical tour, or taking a trip to a recording studio. Whenever I do give tangible prizes, I opt for items like music dictionaries, a composer fandex, a gift card to the local music store, a customized gift I’ve designed especially for them (like these music manuscript books), etc.

Hopefully these are some helpful tips for those working on developing their own practice incentives. Can you tell I’m still absorbed in planning my studio practice incentive theme for next fall? I always love to hear ideas from others, so if you’ve got some ideas, please share! Are you planning any new incentives for the fall? What practice incentives have you found to be the most effective in the past?

Things have been a little more sparse around here because I’m trying to plan next year’s practice incentive. Trying is the operative word. For those of you who have been here a while, you know that each year I plan a big studio-wide practice incentive based on a particular theme. I really love coming up with new ideas each year, but it takes a lot of brainstorming, writing, planning, re-thinking, and preparing. I officially reserve the month of August for this purpose, but I like to start jotting down thoughts and letting various ideas percolate earlier in the summer so that I have plenty of time to solidify my plans and purchase and prepare all necessary supplies.

Something that is especially helpful to me in my planning is a set of questions that I ask the students on the Year-End Evaluations:

• What did you like about [last year's] theme?
• Is there anything you didn’t like about [last year's] theme?
• Do you have any suggestions for future theme ideas?
• What areas would you especially like to focus on improving next year?

Combined with input from the parents’ evluations and some of my own ideas and objectives, we usually end up with an engaging and motivating theme for the year. I have in mind what my theme title will be for next year, but I can’t say yet because I know that some of my students follow this blog and I wouldn’t want them to get the inside scoop ahead of time!

I’m interested in purchasing at least one of your incentive programs but have no studio yet. Is there a program(s) that might work for a teacher just starting?

Of the practice incentives that I currently have available, I think the one that would work best for a fledgling studio is Climbing the Ladder to Success. This one is more individually-based with the objective being to encourage students to play lots of music. Students of all levels benefit from supplemental music that is appropriate to their level. And the Diligence Dollars that the students are collecting throughout the year could be used for any event or items that you choose; they don’t have to be for a trip to a recording studio. So, I think this practice incentive would be the most adaptable to a studio with any number and level of students. Plus, it’s pretty easy to implement and is a lot of fun!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Mike Saville, of the excellent How to Practise website, recently compiled a great list of 50 Websites that will Improve your Music Practice. This is definitely a page worth bookmarking and passing on to students!

Could you expand on the Practice Your Way to a Party? I am looking for a good summer incentive program.

Each of the students set their own goal for how much time they wanted to practice each week. Once they reached specific goals, they got to color in circles or triangles on a page at the front of their assignment books. At the end of the year, everyone who had reached their goal was invited to a party. For the boys, I threw a pizza party and we played lots of fun, active games. For the girls, I planned an elegant tea party and encouraged them all to come dressed in their best afternoon tea dresses. Each of the girls was assigned a famous woman from history and collected information about her. At the Tea they shared the information in the form of clues and all the other girls had to guess who it was. We had a lovely time donning our hats and sipping tea together!

I had to do some digging, but I found the files for the pages that I used in the front of the assignment books that year. Feel free to use them if they will meet your needs!

Practice Goals Sheet – Girls

Practice Goals Sheet – Boys

I also found this Practice Tips sheet that I made up that year to include along with their goal sheets:

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!