Has this ever happened to you? Your student has worked on a piece for months but it's going nowhere. They're not practicing enough. They seem bored in lessons. Their performance is lackluster at best.
If so, there's a great technique that will help motivate music students. I use this technique all the time and is has been teaching gold!
The strategy? Have your student devise a story for the piece they're playing.
Storytelling can really bring a piece alive for a student.
It's important to remember that not all students intuitively understand the expressive power of music. Asking them to tap into the more universal skill of storytelling - one they've honed since childhood - is an effective way to help them understand the emotional possibilities inherent in the music itself.
I've used this technique many times throughout my teaching career, and without fail it has helped motivate music students who are uninspired. They become more invested piece, practiced it more diligently, and expressed the music more fully.
Here's how it works:
Have your student play through their piece a few times.
Ask them to identify the overall mood or character of the piece (depending on the length of the piece, there may be more than one).
Ask them to identify where shifts in mood or character take place. What musical sounds signal these shifts?
Ask them to describe different actions, moods, or characters for each section of the piece. When a noticeable change occurs in the music - tempo, theme, or articulation, dynamic, etc. - what do they think is happening in the story? Are there any moods or events that recur with repeated phrases or motives?
Have them jot short phrases throughout the music to remind them of the shifts in the story or character where they occur.
Have them tell you the story from the beginning to give the musical journey some cohesiveness. Revise if necessary - or desired!
Once the student has settled on a theme or story, help them manifest it through the music by signaling the changes as they occur when they play. “Oh, here comes the monster!” “The bunny curls up and goes to sleep.” “The children are entering the dark forest.” and so on.
Do this a few times until they've internalized the story and are expressing the musical elements appropriately without prompting.
When using this technique with younger students, you can also ask them to draw a picture that represents their story at home. Young kids love to draw, and it's one more way of engaging them more deeply in their narrative so they practice more expressively.
Takeaways:
not all students intuitively understand the expressive power of music
storytelling - a skill universal to all students - can bring a piece alive for a student and motivate music students to engage with the piece
students who develop stories for their piece are much more likely to enjoy it, practice it more, and play it more expressively.
Like this blog? Hate it? Fall somewhere in between? Leave me a comment - that's how I know where to steer the ship!
Your timing was perfect for me! Storytelling through our pieces is my theme/focus for the year. My theme is: “Chronicles in the Keys.” Thank you