Mastery Through Practice: Powerful Results That Last

It’s the start of a new year.

A natural time to make goals and think about where we want to go in the next 12 months. I like asking students and their families to set goals for the year and you can see my planning sheet for that by clicking here.

As a teacher I also like to think of my studio as a whole, and what good habits I could help my students develop over the next year.

This year I looked over the list of habits from Beyond the Music Lesson to see what I wanted to focus on as a teacher working with each of my students.

I encourage you to do the same with your child(ren) or students.

I’ve decided this year that I want to focus on helping my students develop mastery.

I think this is one of those concepts that we all agree with in theory and know is important. However, it can difficult to share how to develop it and why with our children.

I love this quote from Rachel Barton Pine (originally published in the American Suzuki Journal):

“If we were athletes and we executed our routine and learned it accurately, then it would be time to move on to the next thing. If we were doing math and figured out that seven plus five equals twelve, then you can’t get much more perfect than that.

In music, the reason we love it so much is that it’s an art. Getting everything right is the point at which we actually start working. That’s the beginning, not the end. ”

Mastery is going beyond getting the basics down correctly.

It is keeping at it until you can’t get it wrong

Until it’s part of who you are

Totally ingrained

That is the beginning – where we can start to play with artistry.

This what we’re seeing when we see an excellent performer on stage.

This is what we’re seeing when the bow hold (finally!) gets set with confidence and stays in place all during practice.

When setting up to play is automatic and confident.

When notes are played right in tune with ease.

And here’s the danger . . .

It’s really really easy to stop working before we get there.

To decide it’s good enough.

And we basically know it.

Suzuki famously said

“Knowledge + 10,000 repetitions = mastery”

Really?

10,000 times?

Who has time for that

Who is going to dig and spend that much time making it easier and totally automatic?

Maybe it won’t literally take 10,000 repetitions. But it will take many many more than we wish it would.

That is what separates those who have knowledge and those who have mastery.

That is what gives us powerful results that stick with us for a lifetime.

As teachers and parents we can’t MAKE our students master something. We have to show them how and invite them to do it.

And, I, for one feel like I could do a better job of it.

So that is my teaching word of the year.

Mastery

How do I get students to dig in develop mastery of their skills?

How can I set up ways to get them to spend the repetitions needed to feel the difference between understanding something and mastering it.

What can I do as a teacher to help them see why it’s even worth doing?

So I am going to do a challenge with my students each month in 2019 with a different focus. A skill we can all work on mastering. I hope this helps lead everyone in that direction. I will let you know what I think came of my experiment by the end of the year.

How will you focus on developing mastery this year?