Children generally don’t know how to practice the music their teacher expects them to accomplish. Even the most enthusiastic child usually practices by starting at the beginning of the piece and playing through until it sounds decent. Playing a game called “Scramble” can be a lot of fun and help kids know how to practice. This is one I learned from my dear friends Carole Bigler and Valery Lloyd Watts at the Kingston Suzuki Institute.
When beginning a new piece, divide the piece into what we call “scramble numbers”. (I circle these numbers to differentiate them from fingering numbers). The scrambles can be of any length, but they should make musical sense; in an early piece, they could be divided by phrases, in an advanced piece, such as a sonata, by the theme, development, coda for example.
Children then use those small bits to practice. One day the child might start practice with scramble #4, then jump to #3 then to #8. They might choose to do the left hand of scramble #1 and the right hand of #5. It really doesn’t matter!
Once scramble sections are provided, here are some ways to use them:
1. At the beginning of a practice, play the entire piece through. Find the scramble number that needs the most work. Go directly to that number and work it until it is acceptable. Then go to the next section that needs the most work. At the end of the practice session, play the piece through again to decide which scramble number to start on the following day.
2. Using a deck of cards, take out of the deck the number of scrambles that are in the piece. Take out a red and black of each number. (for example, if there are 10 scrambles in the piece take out cards 1-10- a red and black of each number) Shuffle the cards. Turn the cards upside down and choose one. Black cards are left hand, red cards are right. So, let’s say a red 5 is drawn. The child would practice the right hand of scramble 5.
3. Same game as above, only take one card of each number. When the number is drawn, the child plays that scramble hands together.
4. Same game as #2 and #3. Add a face card to the deck. When that is drawn, the student has to play the entire piece. Add another face card and the student can play any scramble # they want. Add the joker and the parent has to play the piece. haha
5. Play the same game as above, without using the music! Yes, I mean from memory!
6. At the lesson, I keep a deck of cards at the piano to play these games. Then I ask the kids if they want to gamble. The answer is always “yes”. I have the students choose a card. Whatever number they choose is how many times they have to practice a certain scramble # each day. The beauty of this is that I assign the sections. Let’s say that scramble #1 is easy for the child. When the child draws a low card, that’s the scramble I assign. Let’s say the child draws a face card (all face cards = 10) I then assign the most challenging scramble to that card. It’s brilliant! The kid thinks they are choosing their destiny! haha Parents love this game because at home, if the child complains, the parents just say that it was their luck!
What are the benefits of scramble?
1. It’s a game and children love games. It makes practice fun.
2. It takes time and adds to the bulk of practicing making the practice more thorough.
3. It aids in memorization. The child can also memorize in small chucks and not be overwhelmed when asked to memorize.
4. It helps in performance. Because the child has worked in small units, they can visualize the small units during the performance.
5. It can rescue a child if a memory lapse occurs in performance. Let’s say that the child is performing and has a memory lapse in scramble #3. Instead of panicking, the child can make a quick, calm choice. He can try the scramble again, go to scramble #2 and hope he can play through, or ditch the scramble and go to scramble #4 to avoid the situation all together. (we all know how painful it is when a child has a memory lapse during performance and starts over at the beginning!)
6. It aids in learning how to analyze the piece, which also aids in learning the piece faster.
I think that about sums it up. Practice should be fun not only for the child but for the teacher and parent too. It’s our job as educators to show kids how to practice and have fun at the same time.
I love the way you use the deck of cards. I know my students would love to practice this way! It seems like it would be so effective…they would actually LEARN a piece instead of just being able to play it at one lesson and forget about it right after.
Great idea! I can think of several Suzuki violin pieces that Scramble would have been hugely helpful with. Oh well.
And… this is sort of an embarrassing disclosure, but, um, Dungeons & Dragons dice are also a great practice accessory because they come in so many shapes. We have 4- 6- 8- 10- 12- and 20-sided dice and I use them with my daughter. I decide which die, and she rolls it to see how many times she should practice the phrase or whatever. You can use them for math games, too. Yes I am a total geek. 🙂
I love the idea of having practice games. I knew this was going to be a good post from your opening sentence – how true this is. In my opinion teaching students how to practise is a key element that many teachers miss.
I already have some practice ‘methods’ using playing cards at my site but I’ll certainly be linking to this as it is a welcome addition/expansion to what I already have.
I guess to only word of caution I have is that seeing the instructions displayed here is one thing. Turning that into a clear explanation that students will understand and follow is quite another.
I’ll be subscribing and hoping to see more gems like this in the future.
Many Thanks.
Hi their,
Where is the game, how to play the music card game. i can’t see the game everyone is talking about. please help.
I read your rules for playing Scramble the other day, and decided to try it right away with a student in particular. You know the one, the student with a bad case of the “stopsies”. I could never get him to work a section of a song with out going aaaaaall the way back to the beginning! As soon as I whipped out a deck of cards, I got him going backwards, forwards, and playing whatever section of the piece was needed.
Thank you for this wonderful suggestion!
Very pragmatic tip and idea. Thanks for sharing.
Hi.
I realised that I also use this method to learn a new piece except I don’t paly it as a game XD
I separate the piece and deal with it in smaller chunks, jsut that I don’t “scramble” the practising around. I only move on to the next bit if the previous bit is mastered.
I might try this method though, it sounds more fun, and certainly not as boring!
Everyone knows it can be difficult to motivate younger piano students. Great Idea!
Thanks. I checked out your site too. Nice job linking to other web sites.
Since I write mostly about music education I was wondering if there was a way you could link to my blogs on your site. The more educators share ideas the better it is for our students.
Thanks. I checked out your site too. Nice job linking to other web sites.
Since I write mostly about music education I was wondering if there was a way you could link to my blogs on your site. The more educators share ideas the better it is for our students.
very nicely done article, thank you.