Are you constantly repeating material every week because your students are not practicing enough at home?
Do your students have too many after-school activities and not enough time or motivation to practice at home?
Are your enrollment numbers dropping because today's students are not as interested in Band or Orchestra as they were 10 – 15 years ago?
Home Practice Reinforces What Was Learned in Lessons
We all know that the real learning has to come from home practice, where the student has to apply the techniques and make them work for him/herself. Muscle memory is very difficult to build if there isn't a consistent practice plan. How can you keep your students motivated enough to stay in your program and want to practice the material at home?
How to Motivate Students to Practice
The following articles can give you some great ideas to light a spark in your students to practice and enjoy music more. From advice to give parents about approaching home music practice to 7 Effective Tips for Practicing More to to the Ultimate Practice Motivator, you should find a wealth of information to boost your program and morale.
Are We Stressing Kids Out With Too Many Activities? A Music Teacher's Perspective
I have noticed over the past 25 years, a serious decline in the amount of home practicing and the amount of self-motivation to work on challenging areas of music. Students look more exhausted and are less engaged to participate. Here's some suggestions for motivating students and engaging parents to set up realistic goals for activities and practicing.
7 Tips for Teachers to Get Today's Students to Practice More
There’s this expectation that students will learn whatever they need during their music lesson and not need to put extra time in at home. This is reinforced at home because as music programs get taken out of schools, less people are exposed to performance programs, and do not know what is involved with creating music. These 7 tips have been tested and proven to work in many people's music program. Read on and see how these can work for you.
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A Practice-a-Thon; The Ultimate Practice Motivator!
With local governments giving less funding to schools, and school districts cutting back on music and arts programs, music teachers may want to consider running your own Practice-a-Thon. This is not only a great idea for music teachers, but also for PTA parents and Booster Clubs to think about as it boosts morale, excitement, and can make many students “flip the switch” to setting intrinsic goals for practicing music. See how you can do this for your program and community.
