Last week’s post, ‘The Pencil’, garnered a lot more interest than I had anticipated: it was really intended as an irreverent end-of-term topic that had been on my mind for a while. If you’d like to read it, please click on the button below:
Subsequently, several teachers have written about the issue of ‘enticing’ students to write their own practice notes during lessons in order to effectively aid their weekly practice. Just to be clear, practice notes are the markings and scribblings made on the score or in a notepad during a piano lesson by both student and teacher, enabling students to remember what was mentioned and worked on during the lesson.
Every instrumental teacher has their own way of making notes for students as well as encouraging them to make or take their own notes, and so my suggestions here are just that; a few ideas that you might find beneficial or of interest.
Small children
Small children, from around the ages of 3 to 7 years, will do very little for themselves and will mostly rely heavily on the teacher, and even more heavily on a parent, for help and supervision. I don’t teach this age group at all now although I have done in the past. If I did though, I would like to have a parent present at every private one-to-one lesson for students of this age, so that the parent could walk through the piano playing process allowing them to understand what their child needs to do. By doing this, the parent can (and must) supervise every practice session at home ensuring that set homework is done every week, else there will be little improvement. In my opinion, the best suggestion here is for the parent to make practice notes for themselves and their young child – and, even better, film a few videos of the teacher playing a relevant piece or demonstrating practice ideas relating to the lesson’s content. At this age it’s most definitely the parent who wants their child to play, and therefore they must act as the primary guide in both lessons and practice sessions.
At a one-to-one school piano lesson where a parent cannot be present, the young child is responsible for their progress between lessons. Young children find making notes a challenge on their own and will most certainly require help. If kids are to use a notebook, it’s best to start with a brightly coloured or themed book, and one that appeals to their interests. However, children frequently forget to bring the notebook to lessons, so teachers must be prepared for this and therefore, writing on the music or score might be seen as a more secure approach.
In the past, I’ve tended to write on the score for younger children using coloured pens and especially large writing, accompanied by plenty of cartoons, weird drawings (to capture their imagination and attention!) and smiley faces – I then ask them to copy me and do the same on the score.
The addition of the ‘gold star’ sticker has worked well for me in the past: I was given gold stars when I had completed a piece successfully as a child, so I kept this tradition with my pupils (you can easily purchase a pack of nice shiny ones online). I would place a gold star at the end of a piece as a ‘well done’ after it has been played well or ‘finished’ at least, and then add some comments near that star, perhaps in gold pen, as reminders for working on the next piece – or the next lesson’s work. As a carrot, more gold stars appeared as the student moved through their tutor or method book, and this can also work with a silver star as a ‘very good’ followed later by a gold star, denoting an ‘excellent’ performance during a lesson. (I was routinely given a huge bar of Cadbury’s chocolate at the end of term, if I’d completed all my work – although I was much older than 5 or 6 – but chocolate is good at any age, right!?)
Even better than actually making notes, which might be seen as a bit ‘dry’ or dull for a pupil in this age group, is to link elements of a piece of music to something that they can relate to: this could be anything from a favourite toy or place to an interesting story or video game. I found that stories worked very well (we’d write them on the score), and I would also encourage small students to write their own ‘little piece’ around a particular story, using very basic notation on large manuscript paper, with plenty of extra drawings – you don’t need to be an ‘artist’ to have fun here!
A teacher must write all the necessary fingering into a piece for this age group: young students won’t be able, and can’t be expected, to do it for themselves. Literally everything must be explained on the score (and demonstrated) during a lesson for any progress to be made. Gold and silver pens were a lifeline for me, alongside the odd bit of glitter glue and stickers, too!
In my two-book series for young beginners, ‘First Repertoire For Little Pianists’ (published by Willis Music), I have already made all the necessary practice ‘notes’ after each piece for teachers and their students, and there are also lots of games for the student/teacher (or student/parent) dynamic to keep a youngster’s interest. I encourage the student to colour the black and white drawings in the book too, so that they become accustomed to ‘writing’ in their piano books. It’s worth noting that the ‘First Repertoire For Little Pianists’ series is intended as supplementary material to go alongside a beginner’s tutor or method book. Find out more by clicking the link below:
Older Children
One might expect students aged between 8 and 12 years to start the process of making or writing notes in their lessons. I prefer that they purchase a notebook for the task, but we still write heavily on the score – and if they’d rather only do this, then that is fine.
In a private one-to-one lesson, I ask for a parent to be present at all lessons: I do this for all my lessons at Junior Guildhall and the GYA online academy, for example, if the student is aged around 12 years or under. Note-taking success will depend on how serious the student is about their piano playing and how much time they have to devote to their weekly practice, but my students of this age are usually fairly advanced. They also demand progress, are committed and are generally highly motivated. Parents will supply a piano notebook, and they will write in it every week: I will demonstrate the necessary technical movements or arm/hand/wrist/finger motions depending on the piece and its demands, and they will film me using their phones, or press record on a Zoom lesson. Parents will also try out particular body movements for themselves (even those who don’t play will do this), so that they can best assist their children during their weekly practice sessions.
At one-to-one school piano lessons, the child is solely responsible for their practice notes, and their progress in between lessons. In this case, I write most instructions on the score, so that they provide active reminders during practice sessions and they are easily readable. In my experience, kids of this age still need all the fingering written in by me: I write it in the score on virtually every note (especially crucial for complex music like preludes and fugues by J S Bach or concert studies, for example) and I find this is the best method to eventually guide students on how to learn to add their own fingering. Careful explanations via practice markings on the music at various points in the score may be required too, and they will generally be noted if written in large print and accompanied by colour of some kind (usually pens) for the younger pupils within this age group. If a child likes their gold stars and coloured pens, then that may be the way to go: anything to jog a student’s memory as they practise from week to week is a benefit.
Do I feel that a piano notebook is crucial? Not necessarily at this age, unless a student really wants one and finds it useful to write notes. They are more beneficial for parents to read about what needs to be done at every piano practice session. My student’s scores are usually littered with markings and practice notes! If you prefer a cleaner score, then a child of this age will need a notepad. However, whether they will really benefit from a notepad at this stage will depend on their current level and interest in playing the piano.
Teenagers and Adults
I don’t have any private teenage students taking one-to-one lessons as my pupils of this age are linked to various institutes, but I do have some private adult students.
My teenage school students all use an iPad to make notes, but they don’t use one to play their pieces as we find conventional scores a much better and more reliable bet. They will make their notes with their iPad pencil, but we still add a lot of information into the score: definitely more than that written on the iPad. Elements such as metronome markings, how many times to repeat practice movements and note patterns, fingering, and helpful practice suggestions using accents or a deeper touch are all written on the top of the score as well as alongside the passage within the music, which tends to look very crowded.
Not everyone likes to make notes, though: until recently, I taught a young gifted player who would only ever write scant remarks on his score – they were minimal at best. Yet, he never forgot any of my practice suggestions or details, and made substantial improvements in his playing every year: he’s now studying music at St. John’s College, Cambridge University, so this approach worked well for him.
Most adult students like to have a notepad: some of my pupils have very smart ‘high quality’ designer-style pads! I do notice that adults take a long time to write their notes and this can impede our lesson time somewhat, but they don’t seem to mind too much. Teenagers and older children write very quickly which doesn’t take up much of our lesson time, and this is especially true if a parent does the honours.
In the end, it really doesn’t matter how you write on your music or in your notepad during a lesson, providing the results of practising can be clearly heard. Occasionally, it can take a while for a student to get ‘into their stride’ regarding making notes, but eventually they come to see this element of any lesson as vital.
If you are a teenage or adult player, you may be interested in my piano series ‘Play it again: PIANO’ (published by Schott Music), which has all the relevant practice notes you ever need (as well as fully annotated scores) written for every piece of repertoire within all four books as well as plenty of information about piano technique, too. Click on the button below to learn more:
Top Image by Marius Masalar on Unsplash
