Group items tagged

Although several lines of research (e.g., deliberate practice, mental practice, modeling, self-regulation) have begun to show links between general practicing approaches and achievement, relatively little is known about which specific behaviors are most effective in eliciting performance gains. Information regarding which behaviors are beneficial to school-age musicians is especially needed, given their often limited formal training and the scarcity of studies with this population. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among observed practice behaviors, self-reported practice habits, and the performance achievement of high school wind players.

In general, the results of this study have shown that the quality of practicing that takes place may be more crucial to improvement than the quantity of time spent playing.

The results also have practical implications for music educators. Although the findings cannot be considered causal, the correlations between performance achievement and the behaviors repeat section, slowing, whole-part-whole, and skipping directly to or just before critical musical sections of the étude indicate that these may be particularly useful strategies for making improvement.

It may be that those who were more accustomed to practicing with specific musical or technical goals in mind were able to practice more effectively during the study

This suggests that teachers should guide students toward practicing with musical and/or technical goals in mind.

This could be done by assigning specific musical passages to students or by asking students to practice applying specific musical concepts (dynamic contrasts, vibrato, expressive tempo manipulation, etc.) to various pieces when working alone.

This suggests students may need to be trained to distinguish between efficient and inefficient practicing.

For example, teachers could demonstrate characteristics of inefficient practicing, such as repetition of errors and physical and/or mental fatigue, and warn students to guard against them. Conversely, teachers could also highlight characteristics of efficient practice, such as focusing on problematic passages and taking appropriate amounts of rest.

Results of this study demonstrate that repetitive practice may not always be the most effective strategy for beginning musicians. Teachers could structure class instruction using random orders, rather than relying exclusively on repetitive drill, and teach students how to structure their home practice in this way

Many descriptive studies have shown that beginners make very limited use of self-regulated practice strategies (Austin & Berg, 2006; Hallam, 2001; McPherson & Renwick, 2001; Pitts, Davidson, & McPherson, 2000). Therefore, it would be critical for teachers to help students make this application at home.

Other researchers have found that novice adolescent musicians tend to exhibit inconsistent practice habits. Rohwer and Polk (2006) categorized the practice tendencies of students as holistic/noncorrective, holistic/corrective, analytic/reactive, or analytic/proactive. They described analytic practicers as those who were prone to remediate sections of their music both proactively and reactively, and they found that these students made significantly more gains than did the holistic practicers. Barry (1990, 1992) focused on the use of structured practice time and supervision in middle school instrumental students and found that the students were significantly more able to prepare a musical etude when practice was carefully structured and supervised. Like McPherson and Renwick (2001), Barry found that students who engaged in unstructured practice tended to play their music faster, use a metronome less, use fewer mental practice strategies, and self-assessed less than those who engaged in structured and supervised practice.

Barry and Hallam (2002) argue that this is because novices who have not yet developed strong aural schemata are often unaware of their own errors, whereas more capable musicians are more aware of their strengths and weaknesses.

The ability to self-regulate, or self-teach, is a learned skill requiring individuals to make a number of decisions related to goal setting, self-efficacy, attention, strategy use, and assessment.

In order for teachers to improve the way in which they teach their students to practice, it seems apparent that they must first understand the ways in which their students think during practice.

retrospective think aloud protocol. Ericsson and Simon (1993) describe this method of data collection as a process in which subjects are asked to describe their thoughts immediately after performing a given task.

Though they stated that they knew which pieces needed work, they did not have a specific idea of what aspects of the music needed work.

When students encountered difficulty, they reacted in one of three ways. First, although each student exhibited different levels of tolerance for frustration, at some point they each demonstrated the tendency to move on to a new activity when something began to cause frustration.

Second, students would retreat to easier passages when things became too difficult.

Finally, student ability to maintain focus over the span of the practice period also affected motivation.

Although the ability to maintain attention and self-efficacy may be beyond a teacher's realm of direct influence because of the unique personalities of the children, it appears that teachers can improve student motivation by providing students goals for improvement rather than simply recording practice time.

The ability to clearly define goals that are specific, proximal (short term), and moderately challenging is a major component of effective practice (

The factors influencing the use of practice strategies can be broken down into three categories: strategy repertoire, appropriate use, and motivation. Using the metaphor of having a "practice toolbox," students need to have a number of tools from which to draw on, but they also need the knowledge and skill to use them appropriately and the motivation and self-discipline to make the effort to take the tools out of the box.

Educational leaders commonly emphasize the importance of teaching students how to critically think and learn on their own. Musical practice is an important way in which music teachers can provide their students with these opportunities.

It seems to follow that helping instrumental music students develop self-regulation would result in improved ensembles and more efficient rehearsals. Methods for teaching practice skills to middle school and high school students must be developed through continued research and best practice in order to develop independent musicians.