When I was a child, I used to practice the piano standing up. Why? That way I could run to the kitchen (where there was a clock) to check how many minutes had flown by. Once I hit the illustrious thirty minute mark, I would proudly pronounce to both my parents that ‘I just practiced […]
The problem with private one-on-one instrumental lessons
In a recent lecture I gave to undergraduate pre-service teachers, I concluded by saying a single provocative statement: ‘when it comes to education, we should all think more about the f word.’ Of course, the ‘f’ word referred to fun. Why was I saying this? In research conducted by Charlie Williams (an iOS developer, musician […]
Practice Myth no. 2 – Practice Should Sound Good
In the lead up to a performance, practice should eventually sound good but for most of the time practice would sound fragmented, full of mistakes and repetitive. It’s practice! Not performance! I remember in the lead up to an audition, one of the songs I was learning contained a broken diminished 7th chord. My accompanist […]
