“She likes coming to lessons, but I just don’t know how to get her to practice at home.” Why is this type of utterance such a common lament for parents and teachers? My own question isn’t how can we make students practise. It’s more a question of how we can help students want to spend time playing their instrument. Many kids begin their relationships with music in something of an arranged marriage – paired with an instrument often chosen by matchmaker parents and guided by teachers. They sometimes fall in love with their partner instrument, sometimes not. Other students fall in love with an image of themselves and music making, and when that image meshes with reality – wonderful. When it doesn’t, then the relationship can fail, especially if other “loves” like sports or dance and social groups come crowding in. Who hasn’t seen that image of the solitary geeky kid, indoors, sawing away at his violin or piano or whatever instrument, while the cool kids are outside being cool… together. So I suppose my question really is, how can we make music a less isolating experience for students?

Problem 1 – feeling alone in the practice room. We encourage our piano parents to support and encourage their young musicians, but there came a time in my own early teen years when I really didn’t want my parents to even listen to me play, let alone give feedback. I would have happily given away my LP’s and heart-throb posters for some time with other musicians who were wrestling with the same sorts of joys and frustrations I was. Nobody I knew played an instrument, let alone the “long-haired” music my teacher had me on a steady diet of. I enjoyed learning it, but it certainly didn’t help me fit in with any of the other kids! These days, most teachers let their students play pop music regularly, but even so, nobody but another music student will likely understand the mildly o.c.d. commitment that helps most students progress beyond a basic level, so talking about pop-listening playlists won’t be quite the same as talking with someone who shares your pain (and even better, has suggestions!) when you moan about those stupid BIG chords you can’t quite reach in that song you REALLY want to play for the talent show, or that crazy-making sonata passage you just can’t get!

Suggestion – use social media like a Facebook studio page or iSCORE to open an exchange between students within the studio and between iSCORE-linked studios. Do any of the students already know each other from school? We teachers can do some nudging to encourage students to exchange messages and recordings – small-scale “virtual ensemble” recordings anyone? It might easily work, but my guess is that for some, it might not have enough of the “wow” factor to shake them into action. Myself, I’m going to hand pick some of my students to participate in an experimental studio linkup with one or two studios in New Zealand and Australia (including Tasmania!) – it’ll certainly take some time and effort, but the results could be ground breaking. I’ll keep you posted.

Problem 2 – It’s lesson day again already? I forgot to practise! For whatever reason, students are not making regular “dates” with their musical instruments between lessons. How can we make our encouraging teacherly presence felt mid-week? Through iSCORE, we can message with students online, via students’ home pages and artifacts. A practise assignment could be, “iSCORE me a video of ….” Perhaps a successful 3-times-nicely recording uploaded for you to see and comment on, or a question you can answer via uploaded demonstration. “See how I switched fingers on that note? That’s how you can turn 5 fingers into 6!” Frustration and confusion are real motivation killers, and it makes for a much more productive week if we can eliminate them soon after the lesson has taken place. Speaking of eliminating frustrations, I hear the wunderkinder of the iSCORE technical team have fixed the log-in issue that was such a huge frustration for many.  Yay!

Good ideas aside, I gnash my idealist’s teeth over the majority of my students who I’m convinced would benefit from it but still aren’t using iSCORE (or even emailing me their “I practiced” messages or accomplishment videos, grr!). I keep trying, though, encouraged by those who’ve made the time and reaped the benefits of between-lesson interaction with me and other students. As with most practice-incentive schemes, there are the perennial questions, “Does any of it help the hard-core non-practicers? Will the practicers always practise anyway?” We can but try!