I notice that a lot of times when my students aren’t making great progress at the piano, it’s for a really simple reason: they just aren’t practicing enough.
It’s not very glamorous advice, but most students just need to play their music more in order to play it more confidently and with good continuity.
Piano teachers are known for asking students to “play it one more time.” And then another time. And one more after that.
It might feel like a chore to students, but that’s really what it takes: repeating music over and over until it feels easy. I’m always brainstorming new ways to make repetitious practice more manageable for piano students. Today, I want to share a fun tool that I recently created for my piano students to help make repeating music a little more exciting.
Related: Make The Most Of Your Practice Routine With This Simple Technique
I’ve been busy creating these fun piano practice repetition sheets for my piano students. Each sheet guides students through practicing something 50 times.
I deliberately chose the number 50 for these practice sheets for a few reasons. To many students, 50 seems like a big number and if I just tell them to do something 50 times, it probably seems overwhelming. That type of instruction is paralyzing to most students and they may not practice at all with a task that big. But, over the course of a week in between lessons, it’s really not unrealistic to practice something 50 times. It’s approximately 10 times per day, 5 days a week.
For almost any level of student, that’s a really doable amount of times to repeat something, but it will also give them enough practice to really make a difference. This is true at most levels. Sometimes beginning students only want to play their song 2-3 times and they feel like their finished. Getting to the at 50 mark is where they’ll really start to feel confident and secure in their playing.
The same goes for intermediate and advanced students. The continuity of their music will really start to come together as they push past those first few repetitions.
I’ve used these practice sheets in several different contexts:
- When preparing for a recital or competition. This year, I challenged every one of my students to practice performing their recital piece 50 times the week of our recital. They were so confident at the recital!
- During the school year we use a pretty structured assignment sheet, but in the summer months, it’s nice to change gears. We use these repetition sheets to challenge students to practice their songs 50 times. If their working on 2-3 songs at a time, this works well for our looser summer schedule
- For more advanced students, we might just focus on 1 page or a smaller section of their music for their 50 repetitions.
- These practice sheets make a fun studio-wide practice incentive. Each student that completes a sheet in a week could be rewarded, entered in a drawing or given a special privilege at their next piano lesson.
Click here to find the piano practice repetition sheets in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop.
I’ve been creating tons of different themed practice sheets and you can find them in my Teachers Pay Teacher shop. There are several different designs available so far in a growing collection. You can purchase them each individually, or all of them as a bundle.
Using these piano practice sheets with students is pretty straight-forward. Students just mark off a number with each repetition that they play. Some sheets have little images that can be colored in and others it might make sense to connect the numbers dot-to-dot style. Cross off each number is always an option to.
I usually help students get started by marking off a few numbers at their lesson, then send them home with the assignment to finish all 50 by their next lesson.
It’s fun to have a variety of designs to appeal to different students and their interests. If you’d like to check one out for free, you can get the spaceship-themed piano practice repetition sheet here.
Also read: How To Make A Piano Practice Counter
What tricks do you use to encourage repetitious practice? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below!
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