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The Practising Dilemma |
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Ideas for Developing Intrinsic Motivation and Practice Skills By Susan Clarke The More You Play the Easier it Gets Practising as a Social Activity Getting kids to practise their instruments is the probably the greatest frustration faced by the majority of instrumental teachers and parents. I have spent my whole career trying to crack this issue and have tried nearly every kind of strategy to get my students to practise, some more effective than others. Practice logs are a common solution. At a recent conference, Larry Clark, the co-author of the Yamaha Advantage Band Method, said that he didn’t believe in practice logs because they simply provide another opportunity for kids and their parents to lie (especially if there is an extrinsic reward) and I tend to agree with him. I have had many students come to lessons with their practice log filled in, signed by their parents, with very little noticeable improvement leading me to the conclusion that they either have no idea what they are doing or that the practice log is not a true indicator of their practice during the week. Sticker rewards, stamps, treats for ten perfect weeks etc. lead to the child practising for the reward instead of for the joy of playing music. When there is no reward, there is no effort and the rewards have to become bigger and better as the student becomes desensitised to each reward level. I also find that these methods can negatively affect student’s feelings of self worth if they miss out on a reward or if they feel the rewards are unfairly distributed. If they feel badly enough they simply won’t want to play anymore not because they don’t like it, but because they are not being rewarded. Research tells us that extrinsic motivation (competitions, stickers, treats etc.) is not only ineffective in the long term, but can damage a child’s intrinsic enjoyment of an activity, so what is the answer? Since beginning my experiments with flow and working with students to experience the joy of musical performance, I have come to a number of conclusions. Firstly, kids choose to learn an instrument because they think it is going to be fun and they imagine themselves being able to play their favourite music straight away. Most of them become disenchanted with the experience when it descends into a cycle of nagging by their parents and their teacher to practise. When they leave the program, the most common complaint is that it just isn’t fun. Secondly, they want to be with their friends. Of course, we know that playing an instrument is only fun when you’re good at it and when you can participate with others in a mutual spirit of enjoyment. We also know that all human beings, adults and children alike, feel good about activities that they are good at and avoid those they find difficult, and therein lies the secret to intrinsic motivation. The more you play the easier it gets Bearing this in mind, I changed my tune on practising. Kids feel they are good at something when they find it easy. So I developed a rainbow circle that goes like this: The more you play the easier it gets; the easier it gets the more fun you have; the more fun you have the more you want to play. And so it goes around. Of course the opposite is also instructive: The less you play the harder it gets; the harder it gets the less fun you have; the less fun you have the less you want to play. Kids who get into a rut are stuck in this cycle and often feel overwhelmed and incapable of getting out of it, so I use the rainbow circle to help them. I have found this method very successful with my students because they have a simple and effective understanding of why they should practise with a payoff that develops an intrinsic motivation for practising and playing music. The reward comes when they find playing easier and come to their lessons excited and ready for the next step. We must also teach our students independent learning strategies or how to practise if they are to be successful. I use the old riddle: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time in small digestible chunks. This is a great problem solving strategy taught to me by a mentor many years ago. Teaching kids how to break music down, sometimes to the extent of the transition between two notes, is a critical part of instrumental pedagogy. Using creative note groupings that go over the bar lines, practising the fingering and rhythms first, visualisation and imagery are all musical problem solving strategies that children need to learn and understand. Sometimes whole phrases are simply too long to fix the problem. Once students have developed these skills, practising becomes productive and enjoyable, instead of a repetitive and uninspiring task. Many of my younger students are proud that they can eat elephants and are quickly developing the independence they need to practise effectively on their own. It is important to remember that our students have dominant learning modalities – visual, auditory, tactile and kinaesthetic. Recently I hit upon the acronym MEOWS, Music Engages Our Whole Selves – Ears, Eyes, Body, Mind, Heart. Music is an activity that can engage all learning modalities, especially if we explicitly and consciously employ all modalities in our teaching. Unfortunately, a lot of traditional teaching focuses on the visual, by spending the bulk of lesson time on music reading. For an auditory or kinaesthetic learner this approach can be deadly. Improvisation, call and response activities, and movement must be incorporated in our lessons far more regularly if we are to engage these learners, who are often our most musical students. These activities will also develop the aural and rhythmic skills of visual learners, who are often far too reliant on the printed page to learn to listen or play with flow. Providing students backing tracks to their pieces (Band in a Box from PG Music is a quick and easy way to do this yourself), or using computer software such as Smart Music (available with the Essential Elements Band Method) can develop these skills at home, as well as providing the motivation to practise by utilising current technology. There is a plethora of technology resources available for studio and group teaching, and with technology being so dominant in kid’s lives we’d be mad not to use it as a learning tool when we can. Composition activities can provide another incentive to practise. Children can write their own technical exercises using their known melodic and rhythmic vocabulary. For example, ask the students to compose as many four beat rhythms as they can, using a crotchet and a crotchet rest. There are sixteen rhythms that they can use to improvise melodies or to practise clapping. Nick Peterson’s book “The Rhythm Method for Safe Practice” is a great resource for this kind of activity. One of my students who had difficulty reading rhythms said that it was so much easier playing rhythms she had composed herself and was able to clap everything she wrote. Approaching music as a composer gives them a different way to engage with music that will enhance their aural, performance and reading skills. You can also extend the life of a tune they love to play by asking the children to make up variations in different rhythms, transpositions, tonalities, playing it backwards, augmentation, diminution etc. (There is a page of ideas on the Resources page) Most of my teaching is in groups. There is always one group that is progressing faster than the others, so I call this the “fast group”, who generally manage to complete one or two pages in their method book each week. Students know that the only way to progress into the fast group is to do the same amount of practice. The fast group, who set the benchmark for the beginners, gain early access into the band and continue working as further challenges come into play. Students who have made more progress than the others are given musical rewards, like a simple arrangement of a favourite popular piece like “I’m a Believer” or the “Theme from Titanic”. (Available in all transpositions on the Resources page) Practising as a Social Activity The other key to practising lies in the fact that kids in the middle school years need and want lots of social contact, and one of the problems associated with practising, is that is usually presented as a solitary activity. At local schools where I teach, many of my students get together to practise their band music and practice assignments, some at after-school care, some at home, some during lunch time at school. At one of my schools, the students have organised a practice club at lunchtime on the day that I’m there and can use me as a resource when required. Ben Hogan the golfer said “Every day you don’t practise you’re one day further from being good.” I’ve turned that around to “Every day you practise you’re one day closer to being good” and my students have responded to this idea because they all want to be good and have more fun playing their instruments. In conclusion, I can’t say that all of my students practise regularly but over time, more of them are getting into the habit because they can see the fun and benefits experienced by their peers. Posters that reinforce these concepts are available from JILTOA on the Resources page of this website.
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