How many of our pupils never open their record book between lessons - even if they practice?  I want it to become their own record of their own work.  They can look back through it to see the progress they have made.

I have been writing a question in the record books which needs a written answer before the following lesson.  'Write a 2 bar rhythm that is used in your piece', 'write down how many times you played the difficult section', 'what can you play well now?', 'what do you need help with in the lesson?'.  Or variations on those.  When the question is not answered in the book at the start of the following lesson, the pupil can be left at one side of the room completing it and join back in when this is done.

For the beginners, they have been recording how many notes they can play in one breath, or how long they can hold a long note for.  It's taking more writing time from me in the lessons at the moment, but I am finding more beginners writing in their books.  This was 2 weeks work from one of my pupils which I must admit to being quite proud of (it doesn't take much), especially the 'got it' on the second page.

Blog 3

N is still getting on well with his playing.  I learned a lot over that conversation we had earlier this term.  I am aiming to develop greater independence in pupils' learning over this year.  Mind you, i've been aiming to do that in all the time i've been teaching!

So many new pupils come into their lesson having religiously ticked practice boxes and having got the parent to sign.  But what have they actually done, and do the parents know what they need to do to support their children?  Do we lay out the bones of how a practice session will run line by line.  Or do we just tell them to 'practise'?  I've gone on so much about long note warm ups this term to begin our lessons, that i'm finally finding pupils doing this when they start their lesson before i've even said hello.  It's a minor success but we all need those.

I've been doing more than that too - writing in the record book the order of things to practise.  And expecting the pupil to WRITE something themselves before the next lesson.  It might be a short rhythm that the group can use for their warm up, or a composition to show they understand the piece we are working on, or just a written answer to 'what is your favourite piece?' or 'what are you still having trouble with?'.  The latter is the most useful tool i've discovered this term.  As i tell the pupils, if they already know what needs my attention, then we don't have to spend half the lesson working out where our energies can best be spent in the 20 minute lesson.

Anyone trying the same sort of thing?

2nd blog

I was going to start this blog with beginners, and my new ideas of how I am starting them off on the right road.  But I had such a fascinating lesson with a more experienced pupil last week that I thought it might be of interest.  N passed his Grade 5 clarinet last term with merit.  He always practised, as far as he said, but never made quite the difference between his lessons that I expected with his level of interest.  His performances never quite developed as I had hoped.  He is now continuing with his lessons on the saxophone, but not on the clarinet.

We started a new piece last week.  I sat down on a chair, and asked N to start to practise the new piece as if he was at home.  I had stressed the need for repetition as I had before. He understood the written music involved. But his practice style was very muddled.  Forwards, backwards, repeat once, move on: I couldn't really quite get a handle on it.  So, I showed him more clearly how to 'chunk' it into short sections (easy in this piece as there were lots of rest sections) and repeat each section until it was confident, and then play it another few times.  He recognised the difference, and tried it the following week.  The improvement in his work was dramatic - even N recognised it.  I think he'd been trying before, but I hadn't given him the real skills needed.

All I did to achieve this was to take time out from the teaching to spend the lesson on learning (him and me) instead.  N had all the skills but wasn't quite making them work for him.  I realise that I hadn't spent enough time demonstrating the best way to make a difference in his playing.  I've been teaching quite a long time now, and this was quite a revelation.

If you decide to try this out, do let me know how you get on.  And I'll make sure there's a picture in here next time, like Abby told me to.

So, we all have 3 targets discussed in our Performance Management.  And a year to prove that we're working towards them.  The following is one of mine:

To improve pupil progress by encouraging more and better practice.

How - Reflect on own successes with pupil practice techniques, gather ideas from other teachers and look at published research. Collate the findings and offer to HMS website Easter 2017 for others to read and adopt. Success criteria – own pupils making more progress and other teachers trying out the ideas.

To be honest it could be very boring reading large tracts of my writing at Easter 2017, so I thought about a blog.  That way, I could bore you across a far longer period.  What I'm looking for is:

1.  Proof that some of you woodwind teachers are reading this;

2. Feedback on whether what I'm writing is of any use (actually, I'm looking for POSITIVE feedback);

3. Some of you deciding to try out what I've been piloting (and telling me it helps in your teaching).

Then I will have met my target!

I thought I'd write something every weekend (though I'm not promising).  Please, truly and honestly but without being rude, let me know what you think.  Abby Roch at HMS has set this up for me, with the possibility of other blogs from some of you linked to the same main address - hence using 'hmswoodwind'.  And she said I should put photos in (to remind you who I am) -  

That's nearly enough to read for now.  But I leave you with this thought:  it is estimated that it takes 1200 hours of work to reach Grade 5 level (it's related to the 10,000 hours to be an expert we all know about).  If our pupils come to every one of their 36 20-minute lessons in a year and never pick up their instruments in between, they will take 100 years to reach this level.  And think of the link with HMS's motto - 

Participate - tick, Enjoy - probably no tick, Achieve - certainly not.