Owning It

Earlier this week I had a conversation with one of my middle school students.  I’ve got to tell you, one of my greatest delights as a teacher is the privilege of coaching/nurturing/supporting students- especially ones whom I have journeyed with through most of their lives.   So, this recent conversation confirmed a passage of time and my student’s new opportunity for growth. 

Like most middle school students he is wrestling with the challenge of owning self-discipline.  It’s so tempting to avoid those tough sections of music and use the allotted practice time to play what is already learned.  

We talked through strategies, and I trust he left with a sense of empowerment and determination to make good use of his time and focus on progressing in those difficult places.

Owning self-discipline is a practice that can be encouraged at any time.  Helping your child recognize those opportunities is a really good thing – one of the many ways we as parents are able to come along side our children.

Carolyn Biggs 

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Character and Talent

Possessing natural ability is important.  It can jump-start a career, a professional bent or a sports icon.  However, without character, that talent soon fades. 

John Wooden, legendary coach of the UCLA basketball program and the only coach in history able to boast of 88 consecutive wins knows a bit about character and talent. 

How did John Wooden become John Wooden?  He had a profound sense of integrity – or character, as is our focus today.

“I believe ability can get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.  It is easy to begin thinking you can just turn it on automatically, without proper preparation.  It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there.  When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over, remember - More than ability, they have character.”

~John Wooden

Character gets a person out of bed and into the practice room.

Character helps one focus on the immediate job at hand – a difficult passage, a messy measure.

Character drives one to perfect practice principles. 

And that, parents of the people I have grown to love, is one more reason to guide your child into habits and skill-set development that will launch their ability to realize dreams and goals regardless of the path they pursue.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Putting Success and Failure in Perspective

I love success...and winning.

Failing or losing never feels good.  

But what is success and failure?

I could consider myself a success by my ability to play a Level 5 book with ease.  However, I know my capability is beyond Level 5; setting a goal below my competency - is that a picture of success?

Not by a long shot.

Success

Success is aiming for a goal that is just out of reach but not out of sight (learning to play the original piano composition of Rhapsody in Blue).  I see what I am aiming to accomplish, and by stretching, practicing and honing my skills I will someday achieve it.  That is the success mindset.  

The act of setting and reaching low level goals is not a good measure of success.  It is the stretching and achieving that adds self-esteem and the thrill of victory.

Failure

A good look at failure reveals this:

We need more practice

We need better defined goals

We need more information

We need to slow down

We need to grow in incremental steps

Just because a student has failed at something does not mean she/he is a failure.  This is perhaps the most important principle of this blog.  

My husband, Michael, is fond of saying:  

“Failure Is not Final”

Your child’s failures can lead to success when gently nurtured along with a healthy dose of reality... “Okay you failed.  What do you need to do differently next time?  What can you learn from this momentary setback?”

The fixed mindset says:  

“Success means smart.”

“Failure means dumb.”

I hope you will consider this:

Success is incremental.

Failure is a learning opportunity.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Talent Is Developed

Talent is rarely a gift at birth.  And even if it is, there is still a metamorphous that has to occur.  It is the developing of a talent that makes the talent come alive. 

Thankfully there is hope for those of us who have great desire but little natural giftedness.  This quote says what I want to say.

“Believing talents can be developed

allows people to fulfill their potential.”

~Carol S. Dweck

Does your child ever compare him/herself to others in class or in performing arts at school?  It happens all the time.  Parents need to consistently reinforce the concept that talent is developed through a learning process.  Otherwise, any musical or athletic ability will wash up and fade away. 

There is great hope in this thought today.  When I consider my students' musical potential, I often ponder what could be if they put forth the effort required.  Once they catch a glimpse of where they can go by using consistent practice habits, their skill will evolve into some amazingly beautiful expressions. 

The belief factor in combining talent and skill development is key. There is a critical balance between nurturing and overburdening a child with their own possibilities.  The secret is to help them learn how to see the value of a process (which takes great patience) as they learn.   Talent, then has a chance to flourish!

As a parent, teachable moments are at your disposal daily. Use them wisely.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

The Right Questions

If you are like most parents and grand-parents, including me, when your student gets home from school or gets into your automobile, you begin with a barrage of questions.

“How was school?"

“Did you have fun?"

Etc., Etc.

Good questions, all of them, however, what if we tried asking "better" questions.

Carol Dweck, our resident Mindset expert, suggests these:

“What did you learn today?”  This is more than just a passing conversation.  Really show interest in knowing what your child learned.  It is called “reinforcement” in the learning process.

Ah, here’s a good one.

“What mistakes did you make that taught you something?”  Asking this question can help your child in the beginning stages of analysis and critical thinking.

And then this one …

“What did you try hard at today?”  Phrased in the proper way you prepare your child to put forth effort in learning - the greatest mindset of all.  What you have just communicated is this …“you don’t have to be perfect the first time.  Some things take time.”

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Look Back to See Ahead

Sometimes we have to take a step back and look at where we've come from in order to appreciate our own measure of growth. 

And it is so with your child.  Do you ever hear them complain that they aren't making enough progress in school or in music?

Why not dig out last year’s music book or school text book.  Sit down with them and reminisce about those by-gone days when life was tough and that musical passage was a challenge. 

And now, look at where they are today. 

An Olympic athlete once said:

“There is something about seeing

myself improve that motivates

and excites me.”

~Jacki Joyner Kersee

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Thoughts on Giving and Expecting

Life usually works this way – first we give and then we receive.

It is true in musical skill development, receiving a paycheck, or winning at a sport.  We give the effort, we play the game, we show up and do the work that is requested, and then we expect the reward. 

I rue the innately talented individual.  In too many instances I’ve seen students with an unusual amount of “natural” musical ability who give up when advancing to the next level of skill; the point that requires consistent practice, plenty of stumbles and ultimately brings a very satisfying sense of accomplishment. 

They had plenty of “stuff” to get them out of the starting gate and often they zoomed ahead of the pack.  Then they burned out and lost motivation simply because of operating on a raw talent without making the effort to strengthen their natural skills.

Our principle is this:

If you don’t give anything, don’t expect anything.

Success is not coming to you; you must go to it.

~Marva Collins

A worthy conversation with your child might be this:

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

The Greatest Gift to Give

The Greatest Gift to Give

October 14, 2013

Ready or not … Christmas is coming, but wait, don’t shoot the messenger yet.  My thoughts are about gifts … just not Christmas gifts.

Practicing parenting skills and instill a love for learning is an incredible gift.  Here is an important insight from our current favorite read by Carol S. Dweck. 

Her quote:

“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is teach their children this:

~Love challenges

~Be intrigued by mistakes

~Enjoy effort

~Keep learning”

~Carol S. Dweck

As we relate this to the process of learning a musical skill we readily see the correlation.  Now amplify that as a life skill for all areas and you compound the effect.  You turn your student into a “can-do” person who sees challenges as opportunities, not as failure traps.

Michelangelo, sculptor and painter is famous for saying this …

“I’m still learning.”

Challenges and mistakes are not the enemy.  It is our attitude toward them that defeats us from the start.

Keep teaching. 

Keep parenting.

Keep instilling these great character traits into your child.  It will pay off.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Ordinary to Extraordinary

How did Michael Jackson become Michael Jackson? 

Was Michelangelo born with a hammer and chisel in his hand?

Did Leonard Bernstein pop out at his birth and play a few Beethoven pieces before his first burp?

I admit, some of these scenarios are a bit absurd.  And they are done to make a point. 

We love Carol Dweck's book Mindset.  Again this week we focus on one of Carol’s quotes.

“We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes that were born different from us.  We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.”

~Carol Dweck

Carol just said two mouthfuls.  Did you catch her last phrase? 

“… who made themselves extraordinary.”

~Did you know Michael Jordan was cut from this high school basketball team?

~Albert Einstein was considered illiterate.

~I recently read about a man who wanted to be an attorney.  He studied for the bar exam, took the test – and failed.

He took it again – and failed.

He took it again – and failed.

This want-to-be attorney took the test forty-eight times and finally passed it. 

Today he is a successful attorney.

~J.K. Rowling showed her first Harry Potter book to twelve publishers.  She is now worth over $15 billion dollars.  She hasn’t always been J.K. ROWLING.

In spite of the fact that overnight success is something most of us will never experience, we can help our children discover how being extraordinary comes by practicing perseverance and diligence in the task at hand. 

I love this thought:

Some winners just take longer to develop.

  

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Juggling Life

A little food for thought...

In the middle of our busy lives how often do we pause long enough to consider our current state of being?  If you are a typical family of school age children you probably find yourself juggling any variety of activities like these:

School

 Ballet

  Swim

   Band/orchestra

    Church activities

     Homework

    Screen/monitor time

   Family meals

  After-school activities

 Piano practice

Travel time to and from the above

And then there's sleep.

Whew!  It makes me weary just remembering the challenge of juggling my own family's activities.  I've been in similar shoes, and like many of you, navigated family life while also employed full time. 

I am not a magic genie nor am I an efficiency expert, and would not dare try to tell you how to manage your family life. 

However, I want to encourage you to periodically take time to evaluate all that keeps you and your family in perpetual motion.  Sooner or later you have to manage your family schedule or your schedule will manage you. 

Every activity listed is a good and worthy pursuit.  Use wisdom and boundaries as you help your children learn how to balance work/play/rest.    And then what will be left?  Perhaps your sanity. 

Just some friendly food for thought. 

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Praise the Effort

We continue to look for ways to give your child reinforcement and recognition.  Again we dip into Carol Dweck’s book

Mindset.

If you want to give meaningful positive reinforcement, consider this.

Dweck sent four research assistants into the New York school system’s fifth grade classrooms.  One child from each class was selected to participate in a nonverbal IQ test consisting of a series of puzzles that were easy enough for all the children to do with relative ease. 

Once finished, the children were randomly placed in one of two groups. 

In one group each child was praised for their intelligence...“You must be smart at this. “ 

In the other group each child was praised for their effort...“You must have worked really hard.”

Next the two groups were given a choice of tests.  Each group was told they would learn a lot from attempting the puzzles, and some were easy and some were hard.

Of the students in the group who were praised for their effort, 90% chose the harder set of puzzles.  They used perseverance, and exercised confidence in their determination to see how much could be accomplished.

Of those who were praised for their intelligence, the majority chose the easy test.  Why?  In part, these students received praise for being smart before they were challenged to demonstrate their true skill level. 

Praise your child for making an effort.   As an adult, I still appreciate that kind of recognition.

Order MINDSET by clicking HERE

Carolyn Biggs

Did I Win?

Skill development is not a race to see who comes in first.  Skill development is all about best effort and learning along the way. 

Our two annual performances, Ivories and Ice Cream and New Years, New Tunes  are more about demonstrating what has been learned so far – never about outperforming another student. 

Again this week we dip into Carol Dweck’s book.  She says

this …

“’Did I win?  Did I lose?  Those are the wrong questions.  The correct question is “Did I make my best effort?’”

Carol continues … “If so, if you made your best effort, always remember this.  You may be outscored but you will never lose.”

I really like that.  It’s all about “best effort". 

Help develop this concept in your child and you will instill a lifelong, valuable character trait.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

The Value of Challenges

Carol Dweck, Ph.D., author of Mindset (a highly recommended read) offers this quote:

“If parents want to give their children a gift, 

the best thing they can do is to teach their 

children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.  

That way, their children don’t have to be slaves 

of praise.  They will have a lifelong way to 

build and repair their own confidence.”

~Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

We live in an age when it seems children often receive false praise because that is the "nice" thing to do.  According to Carol Dweck, Ph.D., this is a gross mis-representation of real- life experiences as an adult. 

Of course we want to build the self-esteem of our children, but in the rush to do so we zoom past the more critical learning process that cultivates problem-solving skills and a core foundation of working hard to achieve our goals.  Most of life’s goals are not easily accomplished.

I've never known a musician who played perfectly from the beginning of their musical career.  Making mistakes is an inevitable reality. 

By teaching children how to put forth a true sense of effort

we can raise up a generation of smart, capable individuals who are able to reason out perplexing problems, embrace challenges and navigate difficult places in life. 

Order YOUR copy of Mindset - Click Here

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

A Library Card and a Musical Instrument

There is more to music education than meets the average eye.  In the book Lighting Their Fires by Rafe Esquith, we

find some intriguing thoughts.

In response to the question “Why is music education important?” he answers, “Children don’t seem to be paying attention as well as they once did.” 

There is a corollary between the physiological mechanics and the human skill development when you include some kind of musical training. 

Mr. Esquith continues: 

“When a child plays music, they are learning about something that has nothing to do with music.  They are learning about focus, about listening to others, about making mistakes and correcting them.  All of my musicians do better in math, science and all other areas of school once they start playing music.”

And in a great summation, he says, “Give your student a library card and a musical instrument and your child is set for an extraordinary life.”

 Order Lighting Their Fires HERE

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

The Food of Love

"If music be the food of love, play on."

~Rafe Esquith

Okay...please bear with me for a brief moment while I climb on my soapbox. 

Somehow, our educational system has determined that when money is tight the easiest thing to erase from the budget is creative arts...music, drama, visual.  (It often becomes an "elective" - which means students have to choose to extend their school hours in order to participate).  When that happens the implications deeply impact every student in it’s' wake.

I'm off now.

I picked up a new book this week; Lighting their Fires, by

Rafe Esquith.  It is inspiring and renewing my love for teaching music.  Perhaps you've heard of it.  

Mr. Esquith, a fifth grade elementary school teacher (of 25 years), is having a tremendous influence on the students he teaches.  His methods are not according to the whims of educational administrators.  But his passion for helping kids learn core life skills is transformational.  And, by the way, he believes much of that learning occurs through the arts. 

I LOVE that.

So, hopefully there's enough summer reading time left to fit in one more book.  I believe it will provoke important thought and conversation on behalf of those amazing children you nurture daily.

That's the beauty of art--we strive 

for perfection  but never achieve it.

The journey is everything.

                                                                 Rafe Esquith   

Carolyn Biggs

Order Your Copy HERE

Precision Targeting

How many times have you heard your child practice a musical passage and struggle with the same spot time and again?  We all have, and without some focused attention on the problem it rarely improves.

Consider this:

After a few attempts on a troubling passage, make a game out of having your child work only on those measures that are troubling.

Follow this pattern

Slow it down

Repeat it ten times perfectly

Put it back into the music with the measures before and after – in tempo.

This is called “Precision Targeting” and it works very well, however, to insure their participation be prepared to give something in return.  Offer a spurt of your time and enjoy playing with them!

Have fun and watch what happens.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

If They Can Do It, So Can I

I am a huge fan of allowing your student to watch other’s perform in their field of interest, especially young students near their own age.  The principle is simple – if they can see someone like themselves performing with excellence, then they just might grasp more of a vision of their own success on their instrument or in their sport. 

That is why performance without competition is an important developmental experience.  When we had our Ivories and Ice Cream event in June I was amazed at the width of musical presentations.  We had some students in their infancy performing their pieces to their absolute best, and then we had more experienced students performing to their best abilities on more challenging pieces.

It boils down to this – “If they can do it then I can do my own version of it.”

Be sure and expose your student to great video clips and live performances as often as you can.  Great role models model.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student