Last Friday, NCGS celebrated it's first full length student solo recital.  Liam Calhoun did an amazing job performing selections from Books 2-4 of the Suzuki Method.  As I watched him, I noticed how calm and collected he performed. I remember my first solo recital, my Senior Recital at Juilliard as part of their Pre-College program.  I also remember being incredibly nervous!  Liam in command, and performed with wonderful musicality and technical control.  For me, it was a textbook first recital and then some.  You only have one 1st recital -- if you can make that recital a positive experience it will make the continuing journey a pleasant one.

While Liam was preparing for his recital, we spoke at great length on how to prepare for his first full length performance.  It was quite clear from his performance that he followed the advice I gave him to the letter, thus making for an outstanding recital.  While we cannot control every variable of the recital, the better we prepare -- the better we play.

Often times when I speak with students in their lessons, I’ll hear stories about how they’ve been very busy and weren't able to spend a lot of time to practice.  Part of how I teach is working with students to understand how to practice.  How to efficiently and effectively use their time so they can actually accomplish something.  With all of that said, until the student feel comfortable with that way of practicing, often times they feel the need to cram for a lesson.

Cramming For A Lesson Doesn’t Work

Unlike studying for a test about information that you may never use ever again, learning how to play an instrument for the short term (IE from lesson to lesson) doesn’t work.  Learning how to play an instrument is a skill.  What you learn is used as you advance and become more experienced.  If you learn things only with short term memory, never ingraining the skills into how you play the instrument, progress will never happen.  This means that you cannot do a weeks worth of practicing in a 2 hour cram session the night before your lesson.  Typically this leads to a crash and burn situation.  More importantly, students become frustrated due to the lack of improvement they make, and they don’t understand why.