Wordless Wednesday February 8, 2012 - Why I Practice Every Day

Games we play!

How do I get the kids to practice?  

We do two things that make practice easy. 

1. Practice is a habit.  Its a habit because of our 100 day practice challenge (and 200 and 300).  
2. We make practice fun.  Is it always fun?  No.  But we try.

How so we make it fun?  We play games...lots and lots of games.  

What kinds of games? 

All kinds!

Where do we get the games? 

Usually we make them.  I used to spend a lot of time making up games customized with the songs that they are working on, but I've gotten more efficient.  Now to make the games  reusable, I either use numbers and assign the numbers to a particular piece of their practice, or we draw cards.

Gus made this particular game.  We use templates that we find on the internet, like those found on Donna Young's wonderful webpage.

And then either print them out and write on them or, if we're feeling fancy, edit them using Jarnal.  The game pieces are usually lego guys, or precious little bunnies.

I even reuse the game boards for math and reading games.  I keep them in a folder, and rotate them.  We sometimes go weeks without playing one, and some weeks we play one each day.

On particularly tough days, we use a chocolate coin as the game piece, to be eaten when the game is finished.  Its amazing what a little chocolate can accomplish.

Fishing for songs.

Many of the games are very simple.  Just roll 2 dice and the first tells you what song to play and the second tells you how many times to play it.

Some of the games are more involved and take forever, like fishing for paperclipped fish using a magnet on a string.  Fishing is Huck's favorite.  Honestly, it drives me crazy.

But the cat loves it.

The Game gives the assignments, not me!

Monkeys are great for counting songs or repetitions.

 But by far the best way to make practice fun is to play music together.

Day 321 of our 100 Day Practice Challenge - Overcoming the Travel Hurdle

Yep, the title is right.   We started our 100 day practice challenge 321 days ago.  If you are unfamiliar with the concept of a 100 day challenge, I'll explain.  The idea is to practice your instrument for 100 consequetive days.  Almost a year ago, we decided, as a family, to commit ourselves to practicing every day.  This wasn't a huge change for the kids.  They take Suzuki violin and practiced just about every day anyway.  At least I thought they did.  But once we started the challenge I realized that on the busy or difficult days we had often skipped practice.  It was a huge change for Eric and me.  We had been playing guitar and mandolin, respectively, for about half a year, and were averaging about 3 practices a week, usually after the kids were in bed.

So we decided to practice every day for 100 days.  We each picked an exception.  Eric said that it wouldn't count to miss a day if you had to travel and couldn't bring your instrument.  I said that you didn't have to practice if you were sick.  We set a three song minimum.  A day counted if you played three songs, any songs.  We each chose a "prize" for the end of 100 days, and then agreed on a shared prize of a big bike trip together.  

We celebrated lots of little milestones.  We bought a pizza on day 10, baked a cake on day 25, went to an amusement park on day 50, and a movie on day 100.  We still haven't managed a multi-day bike trip, but by the time we got to 100 days we had all realized that the true prize was the music.  We saw huge progress in our playing, but even better, practice had become easy and automatic.

It think it worked because we were all doing it together.  At the beginning of each day, I figured out where practice would fit, and then I made it fit.  At the end of the day we would ask each other if we had all practiced.  We were accountable and all working toward the same goal.

So when we got to 100 days, we kept going, and going, and going.  We celebrate the milestones less and don't notice the challenges much at all.

We've had a ski weekend planned for Huck's birthday for months and I gave the kids the option to use their "travel exception."  They were horrified!  They've made it this far and weren't going to miss a couple days for a ski trip. 

So we packed their violins.  Unfortunately, the guitar and mandolin simply didn't fit, so Mom and Dad used the exception.

Not only did the boys play their 3 song minimum each day, they got to give their Grandparents' a full concert!

Thank goodness for little instruments!

Now we just need to figure out how to pack the instruments for our week-long bike trip this summer. 

Why everyone needs a family band.

Why does everyone need a family band?  Well, I suppose they don't, but if you're reading this, maybe you do.  Here are our family's reasons:

•  Shana - 

• You get to hear your kids singing (at breakfast, playing, biking)
• You and your kids learn to value music, practice, and hard work
• You spend less time on TV and video games
• Your kids really want to do something meaningful with you, particularly something that you're not good at yet and you can learn together.
• You get to share music as a family.  As we all go through stages of closeness and separation, we can share the songs we play together.
• You can play music with your friends and their families
• It's great fun around a campfire.  So much fun that you'll have a campfire in your backyard just so that you can play music around it.
• So that you can play back up and watch you kids play lead.

•   Eric - Because it's fun
•   Gus  - Because it's fun
•   Huck - Because it's fun

Aren't you glad I asked them? 

No seriously, to quote Dan Zanes, "What is life without family bands or neighborhood bands or just people by themselves playing tunes?"

Speaking of Dan Zanes, he has an awesome set of videos on his web page.  There are videos showing you how to get started on guitar, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, harmonica, spoons, and many more.   Once you get some chords under your belt, you can print out any of his songs with chords.  They make great sing alongs for young and old.


Another great source of information if you're just starting out, or if you're looking for new tunes and ideas, is the ToneWay Project.  They have videos that will get you playing the song "Shady Grove" with just a G chord, and then just a D chord.  You can be playing and singing in 15 minutes flat.  Once you've watched their tutorials, you can browse through hundreds of songs and listen to sound clips.  

Playing with others - Music Jams

There was an Old Time Music Jam at our local art gallery last night.  There were guitars, fiddles, mandolins, banjos, ukuleles, harmonica, and an adorable little banjo uke.  Huck, who usually plays washboard or spoons at jams,  played a couple of his fiddle tunes, Angeline the Baker, Old Joe Clark, and Bile Them Cabbage.  Gus played every song, whether he knew it before or not.  Eric and I chorded along using cheat sheets or watching other players hands.  We were surrounded by a beautiful display of quilts.  I can't imagine a lovelier setting indoors.

Old Time Jam at the Green Drake Art Gallery and Art Center, Millheim, PA

Tips about Music Jams

Music jams are great ways to learn about instruments, new songs, music styles, make connections with other musicians, and just to have a good time.  Some music jams focus specifically on one style of music, Old Time or Celtic for example, and others are open to whatever the participants want to play.

Jams aren't just for great musicians.  Anyone can go.  If you don't play an instrument or aren't comfortable playing with a group yet, you can sit outside the circle and watch and listen, or you can join in with a set of spoons or a rattle egg.  If you're just starting out and can only play a couple of songs, bring your instrument and when its your turn to suggest a song, suggest one of the songs that you know.  Often, if you know a couple of chords:  G, D, and A, you will be able to chord along with some of the songs even if they are new to you.  Bring a notebook and write down the names of songs that you like and pick one to work on for the next jam.

Jam etiquette varies.  Some are very relaxed and others are less so.  The best way to find out is to ask.  For example, at Old Time Jams everyone usually plays the melody (or chords) and improvising or soloing not encouraged.  The opposite is true at Bluegrass Jams, where everyone plays chords and the melody or "solo" is taken up by one instrument at a time around the circle.

Welcome to Three Songs After Dinner

Three Songs After Dinner is a blog about a family that enjoys playing music together.  Not long ago, our musical expertise included two boys, now 6 and 8, taking Suzuki violin lessons, and two parents who had been fairly average high school band members.  My oldest son has a passion for everything musical, especially fiddle tunes.  His fiddle teacher suggested that he teach us all to play instruments, so that we could accompany Gus.  We didn't have a good reason not to, so he loaned us a mandolin, we dug a guitar out of my in-laws attic, bought a small washboard at an antique shop, and embarked on a musical adventure.  

We've learned a lot along the way, had plenty of fun, as well as some frustration.  The blog is called Three Songs After Dinner because in our early days we tried to play 3 songs after dinner every night.  Since we knew 3 songs, it seemed a reasonable request, but we rarely made it through all 3 before someone got frustrated that the fiddle was too fast, the guitar too slow, the mandolin out of tune, or the washboard just too loud.  Fast forward a year or so and we can play and sing after dinner for as long as we want, and sometimes we do for quite a while.  We're not ready for gigs or anything, but we have a good time sharing music as a family, with friends, and at jams.

I started this blog as a way to record the adventures of our Family Band, share what we're learning, what's working, what's not, resources, songs, and stories.  I hope to find others who are playing music with their kids, their neighbors, their parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents.  I hope to help others who want to play music with their family but don't know how to start.

Recipe for a Family Band

Ingredients:

• Any number of family and friends

• Any number of instruments (including but not limited to guitars, mandolins, fiddles, banjos, washboards, spoons, harmonicas, pianos)

 

• Some resources

• The desire to spend time together doing something fun and rewarding!

• One or more 100 day practice challenges

 Instructions:

Combine ingredients, practice frequently, have fun, and stick with it!