Uh oh. It’s January. No, no, don’t worry – keep reading – this won’t be yet another “new start” or “a better you” article. I’m an independent music teacher and I’m assuming most iSCORE blog readers are as well, so you may be able to sympathize. Many of us just finished a gratifying and somewhat harrowing couple of pre-January-RCM-exams weeks dealing with students who went from good to amazing… or from “get a doctor’s note, this is hopeless” to “hey, looks like you’ll pass after all… NOW will you learn your technical elements in the fall when I ask you to?”

A particular student stands out especially vividly for me this year. Young and quite gifted, an academic high achiever and used to things coming easily to him, his first couple of years required, at first, both parents to help manage him during lessons. Don’t ask, it wasn’t pretty. Then, as he became more “studio housebroken,” just mom attended. This fall it was just him and me for an hour each week. Mom was thrilled when I suggested we try a formal RCM Grade 3 exam. Though I’d exercised every bit of due diligence I could think of, to make a long and likely-familiar story short, we rolled into the chaos that is December and the young fellow still hadn’t even started his Sonatina!

In desperation, and with both parents on board, I initiated a pre-exam “boot camp.” Over the two weeks of Christmas break, when he and his family would be out of town but with access to a piano, he would send me daily progress videos via iSCORE, and I would provide feedback via text and real-time audio annotation (a VERY cool feature!). His assignment: one line of the Sonatina and one line of the yet-unlearned minuet B section learned daily (yes, I was beginning to panic!). He didn’t manage to upload recordings daily, but it did light a small fire under him knowing that “Madame Julia” (their name for me) was overseeing his efforts, that he wasn’t abandoned, and that he couldn’t slack off. Bless his parents, each of his semi-daily iSCORE uploads contained a video of him playing one line (or pre-determined logical section) of each of the two pieces, three times in a row “nicely,” with something resembling good continuity, and a try at the pre-discussed articulation and dynamics. In response, each of my semi-daily annotations ranged from a simple “good work, keep going!” to text and audio annotations giving specific suggestions and real-time audio examples embedded into his video in key places. I have to admit, it did occur to me that these freebie mini-lessons might be overly time consuming, but in reality they generally required less than 2 minutes of my time.

After he returned home, we continued the iSCORE boot camp between each of his few remaining pre-exam lessons, and though he didn’t make a miraculous improvement (“But WHYYYY do I have to play all of these notes staccato? Staccato is STUPID”!), I no longer stressed that he’ll be my first student ever to fail an exam!

Peace of mind?  Priceless.

(Photo source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/–9khKREJ2qw/Tz2XHdNfHEI/AAAAAAAABVU/gYVszcQ_75A/s1600/Realization-Funny-USMC-Marine-Boot-Camp.jpg )

Julia Fountain’s teacher blog… On the Learning Curve December 2013

I’m not a singer. Let’s just get that straight from the start. But I did take my courage in hand a while back and submitted my alto 2 video part to the Virtual Choir 4 project. If you’re not familiar with Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir projects, he and his remarkable team have created a world-wide community of amateur and professional singers that will take your breath away. The most recent “VC” project was made up of nearly six THOUSAND singers from all over the globe! For more detail, see http://ericwhitacre.com/the-virtual-choir.

The reason I’m sharing this is because the VC projects and iSCORE have a valuable element in common:  VC participants make many MANY trial recordings before finally submitting the best one. iSCORE students also generally make multiple rough drafts of their portfolio uploads before “going public” – even when “going public” only means uploading their practice session to share with their teacher.

What does this mean? For myself it meant starting out sounding pretty bad – I was short of breath, phlegmy, and more than a little out of tune. I sang and video recorded, and reviewed the video, and deleted… and sang again…and again…and again…for hours… and over the course of two weeks, a wonderful thing happened. I consulted with other online community members about singing mechanics and other issues (apparently my crazy-person choking up into tears was not uncommon and would abate as I became more familiar with the music. Go figure!). I didn’t feel like I was “practising” per se, but little by little my breath control improved, I hit more and more of the notes spot on, and – wonders! – I also noticed my video attempts were more shaped, more heartfelt. Somewhere in those hours of repeated tries and flops I no longer had to work so hard at the little details and had begun singing from the heart. I finally had a video I was happy with. More than a little surprised, and more than a little proud of myself, I submitted it, while wincing at my audacity.

In case you’re just that curious, click on the YouTube icon below to the finished VC4 video on YouTube. I do a quick “ooooo-oo-oo-oooo” cameo in the upper left corner at the 38-second mark (top row of windows, 3^rd from the right).

Listening to my final this-has-to-be-good-enough video and getting that supportive and positive feedback on it the VC community was a turning point for me. In a lovely feedback loop, it gave me more courage to sing out more often, which, in turn, has made my singing better! I have the same high hopes for my students using iSCORE. If they take a ride along the “record, listen critically, tweak, re-record, repeat and finally upload” spiral, get that so-critical peer and teacher feedback, then head back with it onto the spiral again, I’m confident that most of my students will really begin to blossom as self-directed musicians!

“On the Learning Curve” is a series of musings and reflections by studio teacher Julia Fountain. Julia and her students have been using iSCORE since 2012. This post is open for comment and discussion.

One of my favourite “Simpsons” TV show quotes is little Ralph’s happy cry of “BOXES!” I admire his wonderful, unselfconscious simplicity. Since last spring when I promised to demystify the iSCORE boxes, I’ve been mulling and pondering the best way to tackle the intimidation factor that I first felt, standing at the bottom of the iSCORE learning curve. We’re taught from elementary school to fill in every empty box, to answer every question, to fill in all the white space in our colouring pages. After a decade or two of nearly daily indoctrination, it can become awfully ingrained. I’ve got to love my little ones, though. At 5 or 6, or even 7, they’re barely “house broken” into the rhythm and expectations of private piano lessons, and there isn’t an ingrained bone in their bodies.

Imagine this – at their first lessons earlier this fall, I sat down with several of my new students and their parents to introduce them to iSCORE, the super-cool stuff we could do with it, explaining my goal of helping the kids become self-regulated learners and conscious practisers rather than clock watchers, and showing them how to properly use this most excellent tool. Everyone nodded and left, smiling and keen to start. Some of the older ones diligently put something into every box, obviously getting great satisfaction from following instructions. One little one, however, simply followed Ralph’s lead, joyfully crying “BOXES!” and gleefully ignoring the “correct” learning process. She skipped any planning and did the barest minimum the system required, only entering the piece names and uploading song after song after song, clearly enjoying the idea that everyone in the studio would hear her play, especially the “big kids” bless their hearts, some of whom actually took a moment to give her their feedback comments. Several others dove head and shoulders into designing the best home page imaginable….and stopped there, occasionally sending me or other students a quick message, a la Facebook.

That’s where we sit now, with these students happy but not using iSCORE quite…well… not quite right. It seems I have a choice. I can insist they follow the right steps in planning their work, doing their practicing according to that plan and finally reflecting when their pieces are completed and performed. It’s a systematic and effective process, but knowing most of them, insisting on it would very possibly make them stop using iSCORE entirely!

Instead, I think I may just let them enjoy splashing around in whatever part of the iSCORE “pool” they’ve jumped into. Bit by bit with encouragement, they’ll hopefully venture further into the deeper learning waters and, with luck, by the end of the year they might be planning a little and reflecting a little, but doing a lot of playing, recording, critical listening, troubleshooting and finally uploading for sharing in the studio community. Not a bad place to start, all in all.