What’s Going on Between Lessons?

“We’ll just call this a complete failure.  I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong?” 

I’ve mentioned my website www.LessonSpark.com a few times here.  One of the features is a Practice Diary that students update with their daily practice activities so their teacher can see what they are doing between lessons.  The quote above was the entry of one of my students this week, and exemplifies why I built the site in the first place.

Teaching good practice skills and keeping students motivated throughout the week is one of the toughest things we do as music teachers.  We can all tell when a student has practiced or not, and we can probe about what is actually happening, but how can we really know?  We only see them for a short time once a week or so, then send them off to do most of the learning on their own through daily practice.  I remember times when I was a kid being frustrated because I didn’t understand something I was supposed to practice, and I honestly don’t think I learned good practice skills until college.  I want my students to have a different experience. 

So I created www.LessonSpark.com.  Teachers can post lesson assignments so students know what it expected, and they can see what is happening with their students between lessons in their practice diaries.  Of course, some of my students are better than others about updating their diaries, but at least I have a window into what they are doing.  I can encourage them, give them praise, and help them when there are problems rather than waiting to find out at their next lesson and responding on the fly.  It doesn’t take a lot of time, just a few minutes every day or two to check in and maybe send a message, but I think it goes a long way to helping my students learn.

The student that posted the entry above was unable to play for a few weeks and last week was our first real lesson in a month.  If you’ve ever been unable to play for whatever reason for a period of time, you understand her frustration.  I got this message 2 days after her last lesson, so I was able to reach out and provide some encouragement and guidance to get her through the rest of the week.  That makes all the effort worth it.