Getting Students to REALLY Listen to Themselves

Technology has made it so easy to evaluate ourselves as performers.  I record myself a lot.  Listening to myself on a recording feels like looking at my face with a magnifying glass.  There’s more there than meets the naked eye.  I always catch mistakes, weird movements that are affecting my playing, or some other problem.  It’s just impossible to focus on doing your best playing and catch every little thing you could improve.

I record my students for the same reason, and I encourage them to record themselves at home if they are able.  The biggest error that happens that kids can identify through the recordings are stops and starts in their playing.  Often students will think they’ve performed a piece perfectly, not realizing until they hear themselves that they are stopping for an extra beat every time they breathe or have to change hand positions.  Or we get so used to making the same error that we don’t catch it until we are listening to ourselves and watching the score.  Listening to the recording gives them the opportunity to self-evaluate and find their own errors, and I’m a big fan of self-discovery in learning.

Back when I started teaching, we had tape-recorders, which were pretty low quality.  Today, there are some really great options.  I have Garage Band on the iMac in my teaching studio, and I find the recording quality pretty good and it’s really easy to use.  Apple also offers Garage Band as an App for iPad.  On the notebook PC that I use for outside lessons, I’ve been able to use the web cam function.  And for recording “emergencies”, you can use the video function on a smart phone or iPhone.  All of these things came pre-loaded on the equipment, so I haven’t had to invest any money to do this.  There are also other apps you can download for Droid, though the quality isn’t as good as the other options.

Given the ease of access and use of all of the recording options I’ve listed, it really just makes sense to get kids listening to themselves play early on.   Once recording becomes a habit, lessons tend to be geared toward questions related to something a student heard or saw.  And students that are directing their learning are more engaged and likely to be happy with their progress.

BY THE WAY… I have streamlined the pricing and sign up for student subscriptions to LessonSpark.com so I am extending the “Grand Opening” promotion to "lock in your subscription rate for life" until May 31,2011.  Anyone that signs up between now and the end of May will never pay more to use the service as long as you remain a member.  This is in addition to the 30 day free trial.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do! It's full of tools to help teachers and students get the most out of lessons. And, we've taken care to make sure the site is COPPA (Child Online Privacy & Protection Act) compliant.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

A New Way to Get Paid

Lately, I’ve been having problems getting paid for lessons.  I have a pretty clear policy that all my students’ parents signed agreeing that monthly tuition is due at or before the first lesson of the month.  But lately, I’ve had to chase some folks down to get paid.  Up until now, I’ve only accepted cash or check.   I HATE chasing after people for money.   Look, I’m not greedy I just want to get paid so I can focus on teaching my students.

Charging a late fee doesn’t seem to be much of a deterrent.  When I do finally get paid, they forget to pay the late fee and I end up having to chase to collect that fee so I gave that up a long time ago.  I don’t encourage post-dated checks for a year or semester to maintain the flexibility to upsell to longer or more frequent lessons.  I’ve also not had much success with directing them to PayPal, because once the lesson is over, they forget and I’m back to repeating my request for payment again.

A package came in the mail the other day, and I’m hoping it will be the solution to my problem.  It contained a little tiny credit card reader from Square that attaches to my Android phone.  I've heard good things about it from friends who've used it for other things like craft shows.  I have a personal account set up so now when someone says “I forgot my checkbook” I can swipe a credit card.  The device is free and processing fees are minimal.  Most everyone I know carries around a credit card or has a debit card with a Visa or Mastercard logo on it.  And if this doesn’t work, I’m going to change my parent/student contract next year to require everyone to keep a credit card on file with me that I can charge automatically if payment is late.

I’ll keep you posted on how this goes.  I suspect I may have some students that just opt to pay by credit card rather than check.  Once I’ve tested it with my current students, I plan to market my studio as accepting credit cards.  It may attract some new students.  At the very least, I’ll hopefully get paid on time with more consistency and without having ruffle feathers by “hounding” my students or their parents for payment.  I can keep the lessons for learning!

If you’re interested in learning more about Square for yourself, you can check them out at https://Squareup.com.  You just need an Android or iPhone to get started.

More on Ending Discomfort in Playing

Let's talk about relaxation.  How often have you been told, or even told a student to “relax!”  What exactly does it mean to “relax.”  I’m a big believer that you have to be able to explain anything you instruct a student to do, and instructing them to relax is no exception. 

Being able to physically relax, and relax in a way that is appropriate for your instrument (or voice) is a skill that can be learned.  For the purposes of playing a musical instrument, it comes down to understanding a little bit about how muscles work.  Muscles work in pairs or in groups.  The easiest example is to flex your bicep.  When it is flexed, the tricep on the back of your arm is loose, but when you straighten your arm, your tricep flexes, and your bicep gets loose.  If you keep your arm straight for an extended period of time, your tricep fatigues, but your bicep feels nothing.  Relaxing your arm is finding a balance between the two muscles so that neither is working harder than the other.

I can’t begin to tell you exactly what muscles are affected for every instrument.  My best advice if you are having specific muscle pain is to visit a physical therapist or medical massage therapist and show them what you are doing when you feel it.  Ask them to explain to you which muscles are overworking, and which muscles will balance them out.  When you're playing an instrument you're inevitably going to be out of balance with some muscle group or another, the key is not going more out of balance than necessary.  Overall fitness helps as well.  If your body is in good physical shape, it can handle more stress and strain.   If you’ve got the time, you can also do some research on anatomy to learn more for yourself how muscles work together.  Something I’ve done with good success is to just close my eyes and be aware of what muscles are working.  I’m someone that carries tension in my shoulders, so when I work on a tough piece of music, my shoulders sometimes head for the sky.  By focusing on the muscles that I feel when I lower my shoulders, it helps me to relax.   Since I’ve learned about this, I no longer feel like I’ve been in a wrestling match after a long practice or rehearsal.  Even more than myself, by being aware of this with my students, I can actually see habits that could be causing them discomfort or will in the future and help them change those habits early.

If you or your student has an injury, please see a doctor.  I’m a musician, sharing what works for me.  I tend to be drawn to the minutia of how things work and this is what has worked for me.  I think that relaxing appropriately for your instrument or voice is a skill, and mastering it can give you many more hours of practice and play without discomfort.  Hope that helps!

Practicing, Teaching, and Performing – Without Pain or Discomfort

Playing any instrument or singing is an incredibly physical endeavor.  I don't know a musician that hasn't struggled with some ache or pain that stems from what we do.  For those of you that don’t know, right now, I’m six months pregnant with our second daughter.  We couldn’t be more excited!  But anyone that has been pregnant knows that it comes with certain discomforts.  So I find myself now more than ever concerned with issues of practicing and playing with discomfort or even pain.  Sitting through two hour rehearsals or three or four hours of back to back lessons can be stressful when you aren’t making a person! 

I consider one of my key responsibilities as a music teacher is to teach good posture and technique, not just because my students will play better if they do, but also because they will be healthier for it.  In the short term good technique and posture will give students more stamina to stick with practicing for longer periods without tiring.  In the long term, using good posture and technique can help stave off repetitive stress injuries or carpal tunnel (which runs in my family – ugh).  Let me make clear:  I am not a doctor, or medical practitioner of any kind.  I am not giving medical advice.  By taking care of ourselves and our students in small ways we can encourage and help them to practice in a more healthy way.

Mr. Miyagi had the answer all along!  It’s all about balance and it starts with overall full body balance.  If you’re standing to play, your feet need to be apart directly under your shoulders, with your knees and hips loose.  If you are sitting, your weight should be centered over your two derriere bones.  If you play an instrument you pick up, bring the instrument to you, don’t lean into the instrument.  Try lifting the instrument with your eyes closed and see if it makes a difference in your posture. You just can’t ever be lazy about good balance, or you’ll feel it!

Here’s a balancing exercise I use:

1.       Roll your head forward to backward, chin down to chin up.  You want to feel the stretch, but don’t push to the point it hurts.  Do this a few times, then bring your head back to center.

2.       Now turn your head from side to side, looking over your right shoulder, then your left shoulder.  Do this a few times, then bring your head back to center.

That’s it.  I usually feel taller after this, and I feel balanced and everything is aligned.

There are lots of paths to help you get to balance – Yoga, Alexander Technique, Feldenkreis, physical therapy, and others.  I tend to think the more simple you can keep it, the easier it is to stick to.  Full-body balance is just one component.  Next, I’ll talk about some other things you can do to prevent pain and discomfort in practice!