This Summer I tried something that worked great to motivate my students to practice their technic. I called it the "700 Club". The students became members of the club when they had practiced a total of 700 scales, arpeggios, diatonic triads, etc. from their Keyboard Gymnastics technic sheets (these are available at tcwresources.com). I gave them two months to accomplish their 700. (I had them make tally marks in their lesson notebook.) All those who were members of the club got to come to what I called an "Ice Cream Pizza Party". I made large cookies (from frozen chocolate chip cookie dough) and topped them with ice cream. Then the kids got to put on toppings: chocolate, carmel, cherries, whipped cream--whatever they liked. We all watched a Veggie Tales movie while they ate.
I had 20 out of 29 kids qualify for the party! Some of the students did the bare minimum--700, but most were "over-achievers" and got as much as 2600. I was so impressed with their efforts that I decided to give a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize to the top three. It was a race right to the end. The girl who won turned in her final numbers at midnight (email) on the day of the deadline. The 2nd place winner had 2340 (a teenage girl) and the 3rd place winner had 2142 (a 10 year old boy). I gave the winners a $20, $10, and $5 gift certificate to a local toy store.
But the best part was how much their playing improved. I now had students that could play cleanly and stay with the metronome like they had never done before. It was such an A-HA moment for them because they could see for themselves that it was possible.
I went online to a free certificate place (123certificates.com) and made them all a "700 Club" certificate to take home.
Try this in your studio any time during the year--I'll bet you like the results.
-Kathleen
p.s. check out these blogs for some more fun ideas for your studio and information on how to implement the Keyboard Gymnastics achievement program in your area: keyboardgymnastics.blogspot.com and TCWkeyboardgymnastics.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment