Below is an example of a Guided Practice Plan I send to all my students after each lesson. They can use this to know what to practice and how to practice before their next lesson. At the top, are their long term goals. They look at these first to remember why they're practicing and what they're working towards. Underneath, it tells them what to practice and how.
The first section is technique. This means how they hold their body and fingers while playing. It is essential that beginners learn good technique right from the start so they don't develop bad habits. If they play without good technique, they can develop pain and tendonitis after a while so technique is important to keep their body healthy. Each technique exercise has a video along with it that they can watch to remember how to hold their body and fingers as they warm up in the most healthy way.
Underneath the Technique warm up is the Current Song they are working on. It shows the song name and what they are focusing on in order to pass the song at the next lesson.
Theory refers to reading music on the staff. It's important that students learn both how to read and write music in addition to learning to play by ear and improvise music. I try to give a balance to each of these activities. However, beginners often need to focus on Music Reading skills in order to remember them well. All students have a Theory book to help them review important reading and writing skills. They can complete it at home before the lesson or during the lesson.
Sightreading is when a student can play a short piece of music at their level with a steady beat, correct rhythm and pitch on the very first try. Many people who have played for a while do not have this skill because it does not always come easily. We focus on Sightreading skills from the very beginning so students can eventually feel confident opening a new piece of music they want to play and figuring out how to play it all by themselves. Autonomy is always a goal of piano lessons. Students are given four steps to "preview" the music before playing it and then they begin to play. Most students can play a new short song they've never seen or heard before correctly the first time after following this method right from the beginning!
The bottom section is the review section. This includes playing songs they've already learned to play correctly. Ending a practice session with review helps build confidence and security and helps students to end on a high note!
Following a Guided Practice Plan makes practice easier and enjoyable! Students are no longer playing the same song over and over with no change or improvement. Instead, they focus only on areas of the song they need to get better on and they switch activities often. Practicing is more interesting when you have a variety of activities to choose from that include both written pages and playing songs. Finally, having a variety of songs they know, don't know and know a little bit makes practicing less frustrating because there are easy parts and challenging parts. When practice is focused, diverse and at their level, students are more excited to keep up their practice habits over time; a win for both parents and students!
