Why & How to Create a Practice Challenge: A Conversation with Barbie Wong

On this week’s episode of the Time to Practice podcast, regular guest Barbie Wong is back to have a great conversation about practice challenges. Whether you’re a parent or caregiver supporting a young musician or a music educator, a practice challenge can help give a real boost of motivation and energy around getting in our daily practice (or listening for that matter!)

 

To Listen to the full episode you can find the Time to Practice Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform. You can also listen directly from the link below: 

Highlights of my conversation with Barbie Wong all about Practice Challenges include: 

* Decide what is going to count when it comes to tracking your practice. Barbie Wong suggests taking stock of where you currently are. If regular practice is already happening, then getting to a certain time goal, or number of tasks accomplished, or kinds of tasks accomplished may be appropriate.

If practice is not regular or is only happening sporadically, simply getting to the instrument every day may be the goal.

I’ll also add that if you’re putting a practice challenge into place during a particularly busy time of life, with lots going on, getting the instrument and doing even a short practice and allowing that to count while also doing more every day, you can, can be a great strategy. I am participating in a practice challenge right now in our Musical Nest community, during an unusually busy month for me, so I am counting on doing absolutely anything and celebrating that!

*Christine cautions that it’s tempting to be reluctant to count our child’s practice if they weren’t in the best of moods

but to put that aside as a separate issue. We’re tracking if practice happened, and let’s face it, even grown-ups feel grumpy sometimes while practicing! Working on how we treat each other around practice and setting expectations for behavior is totally appropriate, but counting practice for practice is what she recommends.

*Find a way to track your days of practice and put it somewhere visible: a google search for free printable trackers will give you many choices! Here is a simple one I found

*Find a way to Celebrate your accomplishment when you’ve met your goal. It could be 30, or 100 days in a row of music practice, for example. Decide how you will celebrate and mark the accomplishment!

Type of Practice Challenges to Consider:

-30 or 100 days of Practice

-A practice-a-thon to raise money for a good cause, or even to help a child raise funds for music camp

-A raffle ticket challenge where students earn tickets for meeting a certain practice goal each week

-Create something visual like a paper chain and see it grow as you practice

The list could go on and on! We hope this conversation inspires you to give this a try and we can’t wait to hear how it goes for you!!

Links in this episode: 

Community with Barbie: BarbieWong.com/community 

Connect with Christine on Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/suzukitriangle

Live Talk 1/18/25 with Christine about “Working with our Child’s Strengths in the Practice Room” Sign up to attend Here