Let me open this one with a fact: I love teaching cello lessons. LOVE it.
*sigh* Now that I've gotten that out of the way....
I will never understand folks who opt for private instruction, and then flat out do not practice. Tonight, I saw a student's practice chart for school. Not only was this student using our lesson time to count as 45 minutes of practicing, the other days had numbers like 6 minutes, or 5 minutes, and even a few 4 minute days sprinkled in. 4 minutes!?!@?!?!?!? I wanted to commit suicide right there. In fact, if one were to remove the 45 minute "practice" sessions that are our lessons, this particular student was never practicing more than 40 minutes TOTAL during the course of the week. This, my friends, this makes me f*cking crazy. This student is someone who takes weekly lessons, 45 minutes in length, and is assigned to practice scales, note reading, and Suzuki songs. I have made this student promise to practice 4-5 days per week, for at least 30 minutes per practice day. This is also a student who is very smart, able, full of potential, and seems to really love music.
I just pulled off of my music shelf my method book from when I was in 4th grade. Stapled to the back cover is my practice log.
Here is what the end-of-week totals look like:
130 minutes
120 minutes
150 minutes
180 minutes
185 minutes
180 minutes
etc. etc. etc.
4th grade was the year that I began playing cello. I didn't have a private teacher yet.
f.
1 comment:
but Brian, you're a music dork. remember? us dorks LOVE practicing.
i have a student who always argues that she should just be able to leave her music on my piano because she doesn't 'need' it during the week.
i would think the nice thing about having your own private studio (i.e. not the music academy) is that you can create your own strict practice policies and feel free to bitch your students out for not following them. sometimes i wish i had that freedom. instead i have to smile and nod....
Post a Comment