Sonder Music: Piano Lessons in Norman, OK
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Step One: Listen

9/9/2021

3 Comments

 
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It’s Monday evening and your child has a piano lesson tomorrow. You didn’t get any practice in this week (or hardly any), but you still want to do what you can at this late hour to help your child have a good lesson tomorrow. Keeping in mind you don’t have much time left in the day, you look at their assignments (probably 5 or 6 different things) and decide to pick one piece to focus on. Rather than get into the details of the assignment, you ask your child to practice it once or twice before bed. At least you’ve done something before lesson day!!

Your instinct to help your child get ready for their lesson even though they didn’t have a good practice week is awesome! But let’s talk about the execution. If your child hasn’t thought about their pieces since their last lesson, just diving in and playing a piece without going through the details of the assignment isn’t likely to yield good results. In fact, they may even be reinforcing bad habits. 

So, what do you do when you only have 15 minutes between dinner and bath time to practice the night before the lesson? Listen, listen, listen. Have your child listen to all their pieces. If you’re in my studio, you likely have multiple listening assignments on any given week, but they are usually not long. Practicing the piece at the piano is almost always Step Two of the assignment, not Step One. So, if you don’t have much time, just do Step One. On the couch! Or even in the car while driving to the lesson! Your child will come to their lesson with all their pieces fresh in their ear and mind, ready to learn! 

3 Comments
Deidra
9/9/2021 10:51:48 am

This is excellent information to remember when we are away from home, and Alana does not have a lot of practice time.

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Min
12/4/2023 02:46:38 pm

Thank you for the reminder! Listening is imperative in all stages of learning, and you're right that I feel this to be especially effective when faced a time crunch.
Thank you for including listening assignments each week. It is helpful for the non-pianist parent to support learning at home and also fun to go back to all of the pieces we've learned. Ms. Lauren, you're the best!

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Tradeworx Fence link
1/25/2024 06:37:27 am

Great job on helping our child prep for the piano lesson, even with a time crunch! Listening to the pieces is a smart move, especially when time's tight. It tunes them in and gets the music fresh in their mind. Awesome way to make the most of those 15 minutes!

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    Lauren's Blog

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    Lauren Sonder
    Lauren Sonder is a piano teacher in Norman, OK.
    She believes in providing a well rounded musical education that emphasizes training the ear, learning music in a variety of styles, and being creatively engaged at the piano.

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