Power Practice – Bunny Bead Counter
October is “Power Practice Month” and our first practice tool is Bunny Bead Counter.
Isn’t this adorable? One of my student made the bunny bead counter herself. She brought it to the lesson and proudly showed me her new piano pet friend. How creative! At home, she uses the bead counter to keep track of how many times she practices her piano songs!!!
No More Mindless Repetition
To make the repetition fun and engaging, it is great to encourage students play the song differently each time. Dr. Julie Knerr’s 20 Ways to Practice For a Recital offers a wealth of strategies. Here are just a few:
How about playing it slow like a turtle?
Fast like a cheetah?
Play silently?
Sing along?
Challenge yourself and see how many creative ways you can come up!
Practice Abacus to the Rescue
Composer and Piano Teacher Wendy Steven took the bead counter to a whole new level. Her blog “Get Rid of Mindless Practicing the Piano” is a wonderful resource on how to use abacus to help practice time fun and productive.
When making a mistake, many students tend to go back to the beginning of the piece and play the whole song again and again instead of focusing on the problem spots and play only the sections that contain the mistakes. What I really like about the Abacus is that it encourages playing “sections” of the piece instead of always playing from beginning to end.
Want More Practice Strategies
This is the first post in a series of “effective home practice.” We will focus on how to use simple tools such as bead counter, magnetic board, chore charts, games, visual timer to create an engaging and productive home practice environment. You will also get to see a Power Piano Time video where I reveal my secret of experiencing powerful piano practice at home.
Click on the links below and check out more amazing ideas on how to become a super practicer.
Piano Playtime – Amazing Tips from a Mom
Power Practice – 3 ingredients in 5 Minute Video
What practice strategy do you find helpful? Please leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!