Practice 

Home Practice – An Important part of Your Child’s success

Have you heard the sound of your child practicing his/her instrument at home lately?  How often?  How does it sound?  As a teacher, my goal is for EVERYONE to be successful.  The difficult part of this, is that I can’t MAKE anyone successful; they must want to BE successful.  Our band world is a lot like that of an athlete: our bodies and minds must work together – in other words we are trying to develop muscle memory, which will allow us to develop the skills needed to be able to control our instruments and model expression.  The only way this will happen is if students practice 4-5 days per week, 20 minutes per day, in order to reinforce the skills learned in band class. 

One of the biggest issues with younger players is that they do not realize they are playing incorrect notes while playing with the rest of the class.  However, when I ask them to raise their hands when I play an incorrect note while demonstrating on my instrument, they almost always recognize my intended mistake.  This is another reason why they need to practice at home.  This will allow them to realize that they are making a mistake and correct it.  I want students to understand that they get only one opportunity to perform it correctly in a concert.  Therefore, they need to practice it correctly many times to insure they will meet this standard.

I want EVERY child in the Whitford Band Program to continue and move into the next progressive band class.  I hate it when kids quit, especially when it could have been prevented with a little more effort on their part to be successful.

On that note, I need your help.  I know of few 11-14-year old’s who are disciplined enough to make certain that they maintain a consistent practice schedule.  They need your help!!  Please ask your child if he/she has practiced, and if not, send him/her them off to do so.  You don’t need to help them; they just need a reminder to take care of business.  Music teaches them so many things (teamwork, self-discipline, the ability to think and problem solve, self-expression, leadership skills) that will serve them will throughout their lives.  Please help them be successful.  They will thank you!

I strongly encourage you to get your child a combo tuner/metronome.  This will help them a great deal with developing better time and improving their ability to play in tune.  I particularly like the Korg TM-60.  You can also get a phone app.  If you are going this route, I suggest Tonal Energy.  The only reason I like the Korg better is that it can used at school.  The phone app can only be used at home because of Whitfords cell phone policy.