Parents ask me all the time, “How long should we practice?”

This is my simple response. Practice length matches lesson length.

• If your lesson is 30 minutes, practice 30 minutes
• If your lesson is an hour, practice an hour
• If your lesson is 90 minutes, practice 90 minutes

I like this rule of thumb because it works both ways. You shouldn’t practice less than your lesson length, but you also shouldn’t practice more than your lesson length.

It is up to me (the teacher) to make sure I am not assigning more in home practice than can be reasonably done in that time frame.

This also means that in lessons I can truly model what home practice should look and feel like.

I think many parents come into violin lessons with instincts about the work it will take, but not certainty. They need and want to be told what ‘normal’ and ‘good’ looks like. This framework is a really simple and reasonable way to express what ‘good’ looks like in our studio.

This is a simple, practical teaching tip I learned from Daina Staggs.

Don’t run through pieces until they are ready for review.

Teach previews. Hear chunks. Hear chunks with the recordings. Stitch together certain sections. But don’t hear the whole thing.

I think this works well for a couple of reasons.

1. You don’t take up lesson time playing through new pieces when you still have detail work to do. (30 minutes go fast!)
2. Students and parents are able to easily tell what is review (whole piece) and what is new (partial piece).
3. What you do in lessons should model home practice. If you don’t want your student to waste time playing a whole piece at home, don’t allow yourself to do that in lessons.
4. Your student will more thoroughly know pieces section by section if they know they won’t be able to start from the beginning every time. This requires a deeper understanding of the map of the piece and more frequent listening so they know how chunks fit together. (I’m a big fan of raising the bar so that the only option for success is exactly what you are looking for.)

I hope you find this useful!

It can be difficult to pace work as a private Suzuki violin teacher.

Sometimes we take on too much. Sometimes we feel like we aren’t doing anything.

I’ve found it helpful to split of my work season by season. I define objectives for Spring (Jan-June), Summer (July-Aug), and Fall (Sep-Dec).

Within the season I establish some kind of flavor (through playlists, uniforms, habits, etc.) and break down each month into a sprint of at least one project.

For example, in this season (s’23) I developed this playlist, this collage, and split my schedule in half (8pm-8am is completely off at home, 8am-8pm is completely on at work).

The meta goals for the season (s’23) are to..

1. Stay hyper-consistent with content on blog (here), instagram, and YouTube.
2. Develop a magnetic studio that can take students from Book 1 to 10.

To support those goals I’ve planned weekly recurring (content every Monday, teacher training every Thursday) and the following projects for each month.

• JANUARY: Student Violin (Q1), Financial Shift (Business, Taxes, etc.)
• FEBRUARY: S.O.P.’s, launch Suzuki Archive
• MARCH: Blueprint (B1-10)
• APRIL: Student Vision (Q2), C.O.A, and Parent Podcast
• MAY: Studio Recital, Yearbook
• JUNE: Transparency Report

I hope this gives you some insight into how I continue to make small changes month after month after month. It is from choosing not to do most things. Specifically choosing just to do two big projects (content and studio prep) and 11 small sprinting projects. One at a time. I hope this inspires you to make small, tangible steps towards your goals, too.

It might be fun for you to see all of this come to life in the next five months. Cheers!

Whether you know it or not, whether you are working on it or not, a culture is developing around your studio.

Either that culture is created intentionally, or it is created unintentionally.

I’ve chosen to build a few strong core values into our studio. Here they are.

1. Wisdom.
2. Integrity.
3. Transparency.

In the last year I’ve been looking for every opportunity– not just in the lesson, but beyond the lesson, to communicate these values.

Every touch point I have with students and parents must be considered.

[Read more…]