You're signed into Music Case as a Teacher or Parent. As a teacher or parent user you'll be able to see your student's notebooks, goals and effort in the 'students' section of the app. This is a simple way of getting a snap shot of your student's practice in the week before their next lesson.
To share notebooks you will need to scan your student's share code using the scan a new code button. Instructions on how to share a notebook as a student can be found in the student view of the app.
To get the most from Music Case encourage your students to download the app and use it each time they practice. The student version of Music Case is where all the tracking, stats and goal setting tools are!
In this support section you'll find tips on how to set really good goals and get your students making the most of their practice session.
Helping your student to practice effectively
You might begin by giving a rough structure for each day's practice and encourage them to create goals to remind them what they need to do.
For example:
- Before playing a note decide how long you will practise for and plan out your practice session into 5 or 10 min slots
- Decide what you will work at in each slot
- Think about what you will start with and what you will finish with
As a guide:
- Warm up with a bar or a few bars you CAN'T yet play fluently very slowly
- Work at specific bars, pieces or passages that you have agreed to work at with your teacher
- Finish by performing a piece or passage as if in a concert, make a note of areas that need improvement and use this to plan the FIRST bit of your next practice
Divide each piece into sections:
Think of working at each section in stages...
- Divide each piece into sections or bars
- Isolate the bars to be practised so you don't start before or continue afterwards
- Sort the fingering, notes and rhythm
- Repeat these passages slowly focussing on tone, shape and articulation
- Experiment with different tempos
- Play the passage as if performing it at tempo a few times and isolate areas/notes for specific work
- Use given practice strategies for sorting out problems (these need to be offered by the teacher and built upon)
- Put the passage back into context
Before you leave your practice session, make a little summary about what you are proud of achieving and one thing you really want to sort out or improve the next time you practise. Music Case can help students to prioritise their next session.
Remember that you can do a lot of useful practice by imagining the performance in your head away from the instrument.
You might help students to remember what happened in the lesson by attaching video, images or web links to practice goals
For example:
- Making a recording of yourself demonstrating
- Taking a photo of good posture
- Linking to YouTube videos of performances
Help them to learn to evaluate their own practice by encouraging them to reflect on their practice after every session in app
It will help them to ask themselves:
- How effective is my practice?
- Which skills do I need to work on?
- What do I need to do to get better?
- What do I know already that can help me?
Discuss their progress at the next lesson and ask them specifically about new ways they have discovered of structuring their practice, practice strategies etc. Looking at their Music Case stats before or during a lesson can make a good way in to this.
Asking your student to make recordings during the week is a great way of helping them learn to self-evaluate and learn independently
You might consider asking them to:
- Make a recording every time they work on a particular goal
- Make a recording every practice session with the idea that they play their best effort next lesson
- Make a recording as the very first and last thing they do in a practice session
Music Case allows students to record audio at any time and attach it to the goal they are working on.
They might want to think about the following aspects of music and their strengths and weakness in each area when they evaluate their own recordings:
Pitch: Accuracy, clarity and definition of notes and/or intonation
Time: Suitability of tempo, stability of pulse, sense of rhythm
Tone: Control and projection of the sound, sensitivity and awareness in use of tonal qualities
Shape: Effectiveness and clarity of musical shaping and detailing
Performance: Overall command, involvement with the music, musical communication
Making the most of recordings of student practice
- Students will usually only save or record something they are proud of or need help with so make sure feedback is appropriately positive and recognises what is good.
- Keep feedback simple and attainable. Prioritise those areas that make the most difference to a performance, Limit yourself to two perhaps.
- Make sure you reward or comment on musical, expressive playing before commenting on inaccuracy so that musical playing becomes a focus.
- If they are unfairly harsh on their progress and playing focus on areas they have not considered that are praiseworthy to help them put this into context. Give the strategies to help improve.
- 'Work in progress' is always hard to present to a teacher and for some students it can be quite a brave move to put a recording on or present their evaluation.
Teachers can then add further value to this in the lesson and identify areas for further development
Effective feedback:
- Describes and evaluates control of the skills they are learning.
- Follows on from what has been said in the previous lesson.
- Gives a balanced assessment of strengths and weaknesses of their playing.
- Takes into account a range of skills - at least 3! You might want to consider these skills when working with your students to set the goals for next week and tag them appropriately in Music Case to add value to your student's stats.