Music Moms

[rainbowmama]

Both of my kids who play instruments do this, and I don't really understand why. They will play a piece very well a couple times a week very well for months and then all of a sudden we'll review the piece and they've forgotten huge chunks of it. Generally, the next time I ask them to play it, they play it perfectly. Why does this happen? It doesn't happen super often, but when it happens, they often get very frustrated and discouraged. How do you handle this during your kids' practices?

[IsabelC]

They could be forgetting bits because they piece wasn't 100% learned in the first place (the parts that were hardest to master to begin with usually 'backslide' sooner), or because they haven't been reviewing often enough, or because they are bored with the piece and have been playing on 'auto-pilot' when asked to do review practice, or because they are using most of their energy on their new/current repertoire, or perhaps because the learn/practice/review schedule isn't quite optimum for them. 

Things you might try:

• Change the frequency, for instance try 'resting' the piece for a month and then relearning it every day for a week instead of bringing it out twice a week.
• If you follow a regular practice order, so that playing 'old' pieces is always the last (or first) task they do, experiment with varying the order and see whether that makes a difference.
• Think of a way to make reviewing old piece more exciting (e.g. put a bunch of titles into a Lucky Dip Jar so they can draw one out to revise).
• Let them relearn some really old pieces from time to time. It can be very encouraging to polish up in one practice session something that took you 6 weeks to learn when you first met it a couple of years ago!
• Don't let them collect too many pieces to keep 'on the boil'.  (If you are doing Suzuki or have an organized music teacher, you will be told how long to keep each piece. But if you have a teacher like one ours, they might keep assigning new things and forget about old things until your kid ends up with 42 pieces on their practice list, in which case you will have to intervene lol.)
• Make a game out of playing it well first try (maybe with a small consequence depending on how it goes) so that they are motivated to give it their best shot.
• If they trip up on that fast / high / syncopated bit, encourage them to do some detailed work on the relevant technique before trying the piece again. (Note what they get stuck on in case there is a pattern across pieces that tells you they need to work on some particular key / timing / fingering / bowing / breathing etc.)
• Eliminate auto-pilot play-throughs by assigning a Focus for every revision practice (e.g. "Today let's focus on compelling dynamics"), and ask them to check the music first even if they are going to play from memory.
• If/when they are at intermediate to advanced level, you could encourage them to have some fun being a bit silly with their old pieces ("I wonder what would happen if you did the whole piece staccato / 50% faster / two octaves lower / with the bowing back to front / in the style of Wagner?!"). Obviously this would only be occasionally, because you want them to actually revise the piece to sound its best. But it does force them to think about, and listen to, their playing, so that the review part of practice isn't just something to check off before moving on.

And don't forget that your child's teacher is a great source of advice and suggestions. Talk to them if your dc are experiencing too much frustration during practice time.

Edited October 23, 2016 by IsabelC

[SKL]

Here's how I understood it.  When you have to think about what you're doing, your cerebrum is doing the thinking, but after you do it a bunch of times, your cerebellum takes over.  You no longer have to actually think about it.  If you stop practicing it regularly, your cerebellum memory has gaps and your cerebrum tries to fill in - but now you have to think about each and every note again, which sets you way back.

 

So if there is a piece they want to always keep fresh, they should practice it regularly even after they have it memorized.  :)