Pay Attention

Our children probably hear the words Pay Attention a dozen times a day, or more.

In skill development it becomes even more imperative that we reinforce this.

Mistakes make us cringe.  Mistakes sound like mistakes, sometimes even a cat fight. 

Daniel Coyle says, “Mistakes are our guideposts for improvement.  Brain scan studies reveal a vital instant, 0.25 seconds after a mistake is made, in which people do one of two things – they look hard at the mistake or they ignore it.” 

Daniel makes one of the most significant comments we should ever want to hear.  Listen to this:

“People who pay deeper attention to an error learn significantly more than those who ignore it.”

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Errors need attention immediately.  Pay attention on the spot. 

And always, always remember Daniel’s parting words.

“Take mistakes seriously, but never personally.”

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Child

Practice Snacks

Practice Snacks

February 21, 2013

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Daniel Coyle begins Tip #18 with these words:

With deep practice, small daily practice “snacks” (5 -7 minutes at a time) are more effective than once-a-week practice binges.” 

Daniel continues:  “Our brains grow incrementally, a little each day, even during sleep.  Daily practice, even for five minutes, nourishes this process.”

And the critical ingredient is this – Do it every day.  Music educator Shinichi Suzuki says it this way.  “Practice on the days that you eat.”

That pretty much sums up the importance of this practice habit. 

With the practice-snack mindset the student is moving into deep practice mode, and in that mode you can’t leave anything undone.  Focus is the key. 

Every tiny mistake gets fixed.  The aim is accuracy – not covering a lot of measures or pages.

Once you establish this new habit as a way of life, you have taught a skill that becomes transferable into every other area of life.  

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Child

Slow It Down

Slow It Down

This week’s tip will be a challenge to almost every budding musician on the face of this earth, yet it is a crucial one to master.

Your child is no different.  If you help them master this principle they will be amazed at the improvement they will soon hear.

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Tip 26

SLOW IT DOWN (Even slower than you think)

Daniel Coyle says this:  “Super slow practice works like a magnifying glass:  it lets us sense our errors more clearly, and fix them.”  

The focus is on going slowly and then FIXING the problem passage.  You will perhaps need to spend a few minutes with your child this week to help them establish this practice method.

Remember:  It’s not how fast your child can play a passage.  It’s how slowly she/he can do it correctly. 

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Child

Aiming for Consistency

This week we are going to talk about chunking and struggle. 

They are not very glamorous words, but they are necessary for the developing student. 

Chunking is taking one small part of the whole and perfecting it. 

The idea is to pick a single chunk that your child can perfect, not just improve.  The aim is for 100% consistency. 

Use the SAP method:

S - Smallest

     A - Achievable

           P - Perfection

Think of it as aiming for a small, defined part of the piece of music and then have your child put all of his/her effort into perfecting that very small chunk.  Do this every practice day.

The focus is not on big, quick improvements, rather on small daily chunks. 

And when your child is successful at this, the magic happens – the skill that has been learned lasts.

Will there be struggle?  Absolutely.  You are having your child engage in “deep practice’.  Deep practice is about struggle.

Struggle often feels like failure; however, with talent development, struggle isn’t an option – it’s a physiological necessity. 

The struggle and frustration your child will feel at the edges of his/her abilities are the sensations of constructing new neural connections, and that is where talent development begins.

Carolyn Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

This tip is taken from  Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle.

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