How effective is your piano practice? What about your students’ practice?
Practising practice during the lesson and teaching our students how to practise is so important. Most of their progress will happen during the week, when we’re not there to correct or guide them.
I’m so delighted to be bringing you this interview today with Graham Fitch.
Graham’s books about practice are where I really started to figure out how to practise effectively. It’s something I have blogged about many times and last year I wrote a book with my take on it: teaching students how to practice is a big part of our role as piano teachers.
To some of you this might sound a bit obvious. And I may seem a bit dim when I admit this, but I didn’t realise that for a long time.
I know many teachers who didn’t either.
That’s why I can’t wait to hear what you think of this interview. Graham explains some key points about teaching practice skills, and talks us through a few of my favourite strategies from his books. You don’t want to miss it.
Note: The interview starts off with sound but no picture. This technology fail only lasts for about 2-3 minutes and I didn’t want to lose the great content Graham shared during those precious minutes, so I hope you’ll bear with me. 🙂
Links Mentioned in the Interview
Once you’ve watched the interview, make sure to check out Graham’s resources on his site. They will change the way you and your students practise.
- Practising the Piano blog
- Practising the Piano ebooks
- Practising the Piano Online Academy
- Practising the Piano by Frank Merrick
When did you learn great practice strategies?
Did your teacher teach you to practice effectively? Do you teach these skills to your students? I’d love to hear how this journey has gone for you in the comments below.
Any suggestions in helping students master scale fingering during practice time. More so the hands together scales where a stubborn student has taken forever to work through it. Any help would be appreciated.
C. Solis
Well, what have you tried so far to work on scales during the lesson? I have a lot of resources about this here. For example:
https://colourfulkeys.ie/supreme-scale-drills-introducing-b-flat-major-scale/
https://colourfulkeys.ie/cut-scale-practice-excuses-scale-reminder-videos/
https://colourfulkeys.ie/the-secret-of-motivation-for-scales-and-other-boring-tasks-in-my-piano-studio/
Fabulous interview, really interesting. Loved the idea of practise columns, Also liked how Graham approaches a new piece in his own practice – I try to do the same thing with little students (obviously on a much smaller scale!) because when I was taught, many years ago, I don’t remember ever hearing a piece played before I learnt it. Everything back then was approached from a reading first perspective, Teaching kids HOW to practise is my current goal, so this was very relevant – thank you!
Wonderful that it was so timely for you Elaine. I agree, we should absolutely be playing pieces for our students regularly. That’s something I’ve been working on in the last few years too as I’ve gotten over the fear of them not reading. 🙂