Most of a Student’s work is invisible. She (or he) will spend 30 minutes at a weekly lesson in front of a teacher with her parent helper and perform her lesson pieces and receive instruction on how to practice for the next session. Here the student is rewarded with praise and affirmation with a supportive parent observing and approving of her work in the class and a believing teacher who is offering encouragement and making honest comments about the work that has been done.
Never underestimate
Then the student goes home and practices for six days with her Home Helper. And the cycle is repeated throughout the year. At recitals a student is offered another chance to showcase her work through her performance and this is highly motivating! Never underestimate the power of recitals to motivate practice!
How do we help the younger student see their work on a daily basis? See it with a sense of accomplishment, and find motivation in the day to day practice between events?
Some Ideas:
Start a Practice Calendar
for every day that a students practices, she rubber stamps or places a sticker on the day! This is one of the oldest forms of making the invisible visible! After a month has gone by look over all of the markers for her work and praise her!
A system of accomplishment can be set up as well that will reward with achievement medals different levels of practice, for instance after 30 days of continuous practice there is a 30 day recognition award given to the student at the recital. This is great because is rewards with recognition, persistence and consistency, not simply memorization or facility.
Coloring Sheets
Other ways to mark the practice is to create sheets of 50 and 100 marks, that represent repetitions on practices and then hanging these in the studio or the home practice space. The pages can be a fill in the dots to make pictures, or simply color in different pictures with 50 - 100 spots to fill in!
Quilting
One parent had the fantastic idea of creating a practice quilt that marks certain accomplishments in a lasting way.
And these are simply a few of the ways that we can begin to find ways of Making the Invisible work of daily practice Visible!
See you Tomorrow when we will be discussing the Creative Imagination
With Peace, Love, Hope and Joy,
Ben
Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
Me and You Time
Motivational Book
I’ve been reading the very first motivational/self-improvement book published in the U.S. and it’s rather dubious title is: Think and Grow Rich written by Napoleon Hill. The book has been a staple for many American entrepreneurs since the 1930’s. As a book that teaches the organization of accomplishment there are many fantastic principles that can be applied to artistic work with your child.
Power of the Master Mind
The one that I wanted to talk about today is what Hill calls the Power of the Master Mind. Which in common 21st day language would be called a “Think Tank” or “Brain Storm Group” “Vision Cast” or something similar.
A Spirit of Harmony for a definite purpose
Gandhi was perhaps one of the last century’s greatest examples of someone who used this concept in a positive way and according to Hill, his method was in “inducing 200 million people to coordinate, with mind and body, in a spirit of harmony for a definite purpose.”
Our greatest Challenge
Looking at this from an educators point of view I see that here is our greatest challenge as teachers and parents working with musical children. How can we creatively adopt this method of Gandhi in our everyday actions with children?
Become beautiful and lovable people as adults
One of the ways that I have seen this method begin to work is to become beautiful and lovable people as adults. Then really begin to apply the idea to “be the change that you want to see in the world. “ Once this is apparent in our actions, words and intention children begin to want to be around us, and it is far easier to ask them to practice a certain technique or learn a difficult concept.
Bruce Anderson's Re-phrasing Suzuki's philosophy
Children love to learn, you can not stop them from learning!
It just depends what they will learn. And they will learn whatever is put into their environment. (this is a paraphrase of a teacher with a great heart, Mr. Bruce Anderson.)
Children will want to spend time with us
So let us work to develop our own love of music, our own creativity, our own love of learning and by being beautiful and loving people, children will want to spend time with us, and will want to learn from us. I believe that they will learn from us whatever we model for them, at first accepting it as the way things are, and later realizing that they have a choice as well to become who they want to be.
Tips:
Practice being curious about your world with your child.
Help yourself find joy and fun in the day and talk about or show it to your child.
Treat yourself to something indulgent and out of that indulgence approach the “work” of practice with your child as a joyful and potentially playful activity!
Share your deep thoughts or those of others with your child and elevate the practice time into one of self improvement beyond a physical skill to a holistic practice.
Children grow up
Enjoy this time with your child, it will be over and finished very soon. (and perhaps this is some hope for parents who are overwhelmed… :-) children grow up and usually do not want to spend their teenage and older years working alongside of a parent figure as they develop their individuality.
With Love, Joy and Hope,
Ben
P.S. Tune in tomorrow for a talk about Revealing the Invisible - a concept that most parents are aware of, and that I was taught by a parent in Tacoma
I’ve been reading the very first motivational/self-improvement book published in the U.S. and it’s rather dubious title is: Think and Grow Rich written by Napoleon Hill. The book has been a staple for many American entrepreneurs since the 1930’s. As a book that teaches the organization of accomplishment there are many fantastic principles that can be applied to artistic work with your child.
Power of the Master Mind
The one that I wanted to talk about today is what Hill calls the Power of the Master Mind. Which in common 21st day language would be called a “Think Tank” or “Brain Storm Group” “Vision Cast” or something similar.
A Spirit of Harmony for a definite purpose
Gandhi was perhaps one of the last century’s greatest examples of someone who used this concept in a positive way and according to Hill, his method was in “inducing 200 million people to coordinate, with mind and body, in a spirit of harmony for a definite purpose.”
Our greatest Challenge
Looking at this from an educators point of view I see that here is our greatest challenge as teachers and parents working with musical children. How can we creatively adopt this method of Gandhi in our everyday actions with children?
Become beautiful and lovable people as adults
One of the ways that I have seen this method begin to work is to become beautiful and lovable people as adults. Then really begin to apply the idea to “be the change that you want to see in the world. “ Once this is apparent in our actions, words and intention children begin to want to be around us, and it is far easier to ask them to practice a certain technique or learn a difficult concept.
Bruce Anderson's Re-phrasing Suzuki's philosophy
Children love to learn, you can not stop them from learning!
It just depends what they will learn. And they will learn whatever is put into their environment. (this is a paraphrase of a teacher with a great heart, Mr. Bruce Anderson.)
Children will want to spend time with us
So let us work to develop our own love of music, our own creativity, our own love of learning and by being beautiful and loving people, children will want to spend time with us, and will want to learn from us. I believe that they will learn from us whatever we model for them, at first accepting it as the way things are, and later realizing that they have a choice as well to become who they want to be.
Tips:
Practice being curious about your world with your child.
Help yourself find joy and fun in the day and talk about or show it to your child.
Treat yourself to something indulgent and out of that indulgence approach the “work” of practice with your child as a joyful and potentially playful activity!
Share your deep thoughts or those of others with your child and elevate the practice time into one of self improvement beyond a physical skill to a holistic practice.
Children grow up
Enjoy this time with your child, it will be over and finished very soon. (and perhaps this is some hope for parents who are overwhelmed… :-) children grow up and usually do not want to spend their teenage and older years working alongside of a parent figure as they develop their individuality.
With Love, Joy and Hope,
Ben
P.S. Tune in tomorrow for a talk about Revealing the Invisible - a concept that most parents are aware of, and that I was taught by a parent in Tacoma
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Pizza Parties
Childhood memories
As a child I attended an old Presbyterian Church in Tacoma. I can remember that it was next to a K-Mart (now Big K) and that a lot of my friends growing up where there. We would play games after the Sunday school classes and sing songs in the services that were often comforting to me. The evening services and hymns have stayed with me even now after 20 years. There was something that spoke of peace and rest and a certain type of "peace that passes understanding" that I still long for today.
Sunday-school teacher
Like all of the other church kids I attended Sunday school and one of my teachers was Craig, a football player at UPS and an engineer student he was most memorable to me for sporting a long and curly mullet, driving a large pick-up truck, having a cute girlfriend, and engaging with us kids in a way that motivated us.
The Challenge
As a class Craig challenged us to memorize the ten commandments, (I think I can still remember them…) and the carrot that he held out for us was a pizza party at his parents house way out on the peninsula with huge trees to climb, woods to play in games and lots of root beer! We all worked hard to memorize the Decalogue and after a few failed attempts as a group we finally had everyone on the list for the Pizza Party and the rest is history!
Impressed us
We talked about the pizza party before it happened for months and even now it is indelibly marked in my memories as one of my favorites!
Realization
This is a realization that I have had recently: children love Pizza Parties! (or any other type of festive celebration!) After every recital we always have a celebratory party with food and fun, this is a reoccurring marker of celebrating the students efforts.
Some tips for creating celebratory occasions
On a daily basis celebrate the progress verbally with honest and thoughtful praise. Remind your child of their next recital or other performance goal. Link this to the party afterwards and talk about how fun the recitals are!
Festive Markers
As a parent you can set festive markers for your child that help them to stay motivated to progress. Ideas include: planning a Pizza Party with friends after they finish a book, or other major accomplishment.
Caution
If you set a party as a “dream” for your musical child to reach for, you must follow through as planned when they reach their goal for it to be a memorable and positive experience. We don’t want children learning to associate disappointment with musical effort.
Ice cream = fun
My parents would treat our family to ice cream when a musical milestone was reached, that was fun too!
Have fun using your creativity to celebrate your child’s musical progress!
Tomorrow I will be talking about Bubbles of Awareness with children...
With Joy,
Ben
As a child I attended an old Presbyterian Church in Tacoma. I can remember that it was next to a K-Mart (now Big K) and that a lot of my friends growing up where there. We would play games after the Sunday school classes and sing songs in the services that were often comforting to me. The evening services and hymns have stayed with me even now after 20 years. There was something that spoke of peace and rest and a certain type of "peace that passes understanding" that I still long for today.
Sunday-school teacher
Like all of the other church kids I attended Sunday school and one of my teachers was Craig, a football player at UPS and an engineer student he was most memorable to me for sporting a long and curly mullet, driving a large pick-up truck, having a cute girlfriend, and engaging with us kids in a way that motivated us.
The Challenge
As a class Craig challenged us to memorize the ten commandments, (I think I can still remember them…) and the carrot that he held out for us was a pizza party at his parents house way out on the peninsula with huge trees to climb, woods to play in games and lots of root beer! We all worked hard to memorize the Decalogue and after a few failed attempts as a group we finally had everyone on the list for the Pizza Party and the rest is history!
Impressed us
We talked about the pizza party before it happened for months and even now it is indelibly marked in my memories as one of my favorites!
Realization
This is a realization that I have had recently: children love Pizza Parties! (or any other type of festive celebration!) After every recital we always have a celebratory party with food and fun, this is a reoccurring marker of celebrating the students efforts.
Some tips for creating celebratory occasions
On a daily basis celebrate the progress verbally with honest and thoughtful praise. Remind your child of their next recital or other performance goal. Link this to the party afterwards and talk about how fun the recitals are!
Festive Markers
As a parent you can set festive markers for your child that help them to stay motivated to progress. Ideas include: planning a Pizza Party with friends after they finish a book, or other major accomplishment.
Caution
If you set a party as a “dream” for your musical child to reach for, you must follow through as planned when they reach their goal for it to be a memorable and positive experience. We don’t want children learning to associate disappointment with musical effort.
Ice cream = fun
My parents would treat our family to ice cream when a musical milestone was reached, that was fun too!
Have fun using your creativity to celebrate your child’s musical progress!
Tomorrow I will be talking about Bubbles of Awareness with children...
With Joy,
Ben
Monday, January 5, 2009
Scheduling Peace
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could simply tell students the what and the why of musical practice and then trust that they would take care of the rest?
Children do not have this capacity
But as I have observed, most children do not have this capacity for self motivation, self control and self direction in achieving musical goals! In fact if you have a child that has all of these characteristics consistently then “take them to the doctor!” they are not normal healthy children is what Dr. Kataoka used to say to parents.
So how do we help children to develop self motivation and other self directed attributes?
I have been researching this for the past eight years and it is through observing successful parent/child teams and also searching through Suzuki’s philosophy that led me to a few observations that I would like to share:
Scheduling Daily Practice at a consistent time and following through in a peaceful manner is perhaps the greatest key to helping children learn a musical instrument.
Some tips:
The Practice Alarm
some parents use a daily alarm to create a “third party” that controls the start time - that way the child and parent do not have a daily battle of wills to determine when the practice will happen.
Morning Practice is best
I recommend that the practice be in the morning before other tasks and school are begun, that way both child and parent are rested and can focus on the daily assignment before the stresses of the day tire and distract them.
Timing lessons and being fair
Timing lessons and being consistent and fair with the timer will allow that child to build a sense of ownership for the time spent and awareness of the difference between practice time and play time.
Once the issue of a start time is established and a daily alarm (either internal or external) is set and the practice is approached from a peaceful and focused manner by the Parent then children can begin to learn how to improve their music talents. This is a first step for young creatives to learn how to become self motivated as well!
Tomorrow we will be talking about Pizza Party Markers - or How to Develop Long Term Motivation in your Child! See you then, Ben
Children do not have this capacity
But as I have observed, most children do not have this capacity for self motivation, self control and self direction in achieving musical goals! In fact if you have a child that has all of these characteristics consistently then “take them to the doctor!” they are not normal healthy children is what Dr. Kataoka used to say to parents.
So how do we help children to develop self motivation and other self directed attributes?
I have been researching this for the past eight years and it is through observing successful parent/child teams and also searching through Suzuki’s philosophy that led me to a few observations that I would like to share:
Scheduling Daily Practice at a consistent time and following through in a peaceful manner is perhaps the greatest key to helping children learn a musical instrument.
Some tips:
The Practice Alarm
some parents use a daily alarm to create a “third party” that controls the start time - that way the child and parent do not have a daily battle of wills to determine when the practice will happen.
Morning Practice is best
I recommend that the practice be in the morning before other tasks and school are begun, that way both child and parent are rested and can focus on the daily assignment before the stresses of the day tire and distract them.
Timing lessons and being fair
Timing lessons and being consistent and fair with the timer will allow that child to build a sense of ownership for the time spent and awareness of the difference between practice time and play time.
Once the issue of a start time is established and a daily alarm (either internal or external) is set and the practice is approached from a peaceful and focused manner by the Parent then children can begin to learn how to improve their music talents. This is a first step for young creatives to learn how to become self motivated as well!
Tomorrow we will be talking about Pizza Party Markers - or How to Develop Long Term Motivation in your Child! See you then, Ben
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Musical Ritual
All children like rituals.
Birthdays Christmas and Recitals
Think of birthdays, every child anticipates their own and their friends birthday parties! Another big one for children here in Tacoma is Christmas and Hanukah (which has just come and gone,) and then the excitement and desire to perform in the Seasonal music recitals. These are rituals separated by large spaces of time and children love to dream about these events, they get excited for these events long before they come around! I wonder at times how to build an environment that will synchronize with a child’s natural love of ritual.
Bored observing in Japan
When I studied in Matsumoto and observed the teachers work with many different children it struck me how boring the process was for me as a non active observer, and I justified that as my lack of understanding of the language, perhaps I would get more excited about watching lessons for 6 hours in a row if I could only better understand the conversations! But after teaching for 7 years in Tacoma I have come to realize that I was bored not from any lack of understanding, but because there is a certain ritual to lessons that is repeated over and over. And this is how children learn best.
Explaining what is a Ritual?
Perhaps I should explain what a musical ritual is. Dictionary.com describes ritual as “any practice or pattern of behavior regularly performed in a set manner” through my several years of teaching children and coaching parents on how to practice creatively and productively at home this secret of having and maintaining a specifically musical ritual is one of the most important to! Some people have the wrong idea that creativity can not be taught or directed and that children should be left free to develop this most enriching human trait. Dr. Suzuki never taught this. His message to us teachers and parents is that it is up to us to create nurturing environments where children’s creativity can develop and flourish. It is my sincere hope that more and more parents and educators will embrace this profound belief of Dr. Suzuki’s.
Creative Parents
Over the last 7 years many highly intelligent and creative parents have participated in creating truly beautiful daily musical rituals for their children in my Suzuki Piano Studio, they have done this after learning of the importance of shaping the child’s environment and out of a desire to nurture their children’s creativity in the realm of classical piano playing. I would like to share some of the ideas that they have told me they are doing because I believe that their desire to nurture their children as parents is so powerful that they have in turn become highly creative individuals in creating beautiful environments for their children to flourish in.
The Candle
One parent has a special piano candle that she and her child light together as they start their daily practice, it is a candle that they have picked out together and one that has a pleasing aroma that brings out feelings of peacefulness and something that the child is interested in. - one note on the safety of this practice - as an avid candle user myself, I would recommend using soy based candles as they are from a renewable source. Also please look for naturally scented candles as the synthetic fragrances can effect children and adults negatively.
Piano Games
Another mom has found a set of fun games that her child loves to play and these are designated as “piano games” only to be played after the daily practice session! What a creative idea! All children love games and linking a fun game to a specific daily activity reinforces a love of that activity and motivation to accomplish the work before.
Hugs and Tickling
A Third Parent has taken the time to devise a certain physical ritual where she and her child always play a ticking game and hug after their daily practice! How wonderful for the child to know that whatever the practice was like that there will always be some fun and unconditional love expressed at the end of the practice!
Fun and Loving
So a musical ritual is about creating a pleasing, fun and loving time together with your child on a daily basis! Rituals help that process by setting up expectations for certain beneficial and pleasing activities for the child and the parent and these are linking into the practice.
Practical Notes for parents
Some practical notes on musical ritual. I have noticed that the parents who consistently have motivated children and are excited about learning have tailored their musical ritual to their child and themselves, what works for one parent and child may not for another. These parents also stick to the ritual as long as it is age appropriate and appeals to the child’s sense of self worth and fun! When a child grows and matures their rituals may change and shift but the habit of building consistently pleasing and fun aspects into the daily practice of classical music is maintained!
Tomorrow's topic
Tomorrow I will be talking about “scheduling peace” in your musical practice.
With Joy, Hope and Love,
Ben
Birthdays Christmas and Recitals
Think of birthdays, every child anticipates their own and their friends birthday parties! Another big one for children here in Tacoma is Christmas and Hanukah (which has just come and gone,) and then the excitement and desire to perform in the Seasonal music recitals. These are rituals separated by large spaces of time and children love to dream about these events, they get excited for these events long before they come around! I wonder at times how to build an environment that will synchronize with a child’s natural love of ritual.
Bored observing in Japan
When I studied in Matsumoto and observed the teachers work with many different children it struck me how boring the process was for me as a non active observer, and I justified that as my lack of understanding of the language, perhaps I would get more excited about watching lessons for 6 hours in a row if I could only better understand the conversations! But after teaching for 7 years in Tacoma I have come to realize that I was bored not from any lack of understanding, but because there is a certain ritual to lessons that is repeated over and over. And this is how children learn best.
Explaining what is a Ritual?
Perhaps I should explain what a musical ritual is. Dictionary.com describes ritual as “any practice or pattern of behavior regularly performed in a set manner” through my several years of teaching children and coaching parents on how to practice creatively and productively at home this secret of having and maintaining a specifically musical ritual is one of the most important to! Some people have the wrong idea that creativity can not be taught or directed and that children should be left free to develop this most enriching human trait. Dr. Suzuki never taught this. His message to us teachers and parents is that it is up to us to create nurturing environments where children’s creativity can develop and flourish. It is my sincere hope that more and more parents and educators will embrace this profound belief of Dr. Suzuki’s.
Creative Parents
Over the last 7 years many highly intelligent and creative parents have participated in creating truly beautiful daily musical rituals for their children in my Suzuki Piano Studio, they have done this after learning of the importance of shaping the child’s environment and out of a desire to nurture their children’s creativity in the realm of classical piano playing. I would like to share some of the ideas that they have told me they are doing because I believe that their desire to nurture their children as parents is so powerful that they have in turn become highly creative individuals in creating beautiful environments for their children to flourish in.
The Candle
One parent has a special piano candle that she and her child light together as they start their daily practice, it is a candle that they have picked out together and one that has a pleasing aroma that brings out feelings of peacefulness and something that the child is interested in. - one note on the safety of this practice - as an avid candle user myself, I would recommend using soy based candles as they are from a renewable source. Also please look for naturally scented candles as the synthetic fragrances can effect children and adults negatively.
Piano Games
Another mom has found a set of fun games that her child loves to play and these are designated as “piano games” only to be played after the daily practice session! What a creative idea! All children love games and linking a fun game to a specific daily activity reinforces a love of that activity and motivation to accomplish the work before.
Hugs and Tickling
A Third Parent has taken the time to devise a certain physical ritual where she and her child always play a ticking game and hug after their daily practice! How wonderful for the child to know that whatever the practice was like that there will always be some fun and unconditional love expressed at the end of the practice!
Fun and Loving
So a musical ritual is about creating a pleasing, fun and loving time together with your child on a daily basis! Rituals help that process by setting up expectations for certain beneficial and pleasing activities for the child and the parent and these are linking into the practice.
Practical Notes for parents
Some practical notes on musical ritual. I have noticed that the parents who consistently have motivated children and are excited about learning have tailored their musical ritual to their child and themselves, what works for one parent and child may not for another. These parents also stick to the ritual as long as it is age appropriate and appeals to the child’s sense of self worth and fun! When a child grows and matures their rituals may change and shift but the habit of building consistently pleasing and fun aspects into the daily practice of classical music is maintained!
Tomorrow's topic
Tomorrow I will be talking about “scheduling peace” in your musical practice.
With Joy, Hope and Love,
Ben
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