 “I provide a service and you pay for that service. For ease of budgeting (yours and mine) I accept equal monthly payments from September through June.” (From the policies and procedures listed on the Sally L. Palmer Music Studio website – www.sallypalmer.com ). Independent music instructors live like most of the rest of the world: paycheck to paycheck. Imagine going into your human resources office on payday and being told that you will have to wait a week. Too bad the mortgage payment won’t wait a week. Chapters 34 through 37 in my book Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons: 100 Lessons to Enhance the Parent, Student, Teacher Relationship address the issues of the private music instructor being paid. The last line of chapter 35 states: “With today’s technology, there are several ways to make sure that tuition is paid on time.” When the book was published in 2017 I honestly didn’t know how many options were available for parents to easily pay their kid’s music teacher, but I certainly do now! Because my book is full of bites of #snackablewisdom, there was no room to include the variety of electronic ways to pay. I was thinking about writing a blog post that described all the options and then, just like that, one of the piano teacher Facebook groups I belong to had a posted question: “Forms of virtual payment that you accept besides PayPal and Zelle?” How timely! The responses have been helpful to me and spurred me into action to learn what makes the electronic options different from each other. Let me share with you how the teachers responded. Read more.  Sally Palmer owns Sally L. Palmer Music Studio in Bellevue, Washington. She has over 40 years experience as a piano and vocal teacher and coach, and is an accomplished accompanist. She is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons.
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 “If I don’t practice the way I should, I won’t play the way that I know I can.” ~ Ivan Lendl, professional tennis player and coach. When I wrote my book, Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons – 100 lessons to Enhance the Parent, Student and Teacher Relationship, I found myself wanting to write so many tips on good practice. In fact, I ended up with two full chapters, twenty-two lessons, just on practice tips! It seems like a no-brainer that good practice would lead to progress, but I think we are just not always sure what “good practice” looks like. I’ve been using some of the same techniques that I have been using for years, somewhat successfully. My last blog post on “repetitive practice” made a huge impact on the progress made by my students when I instituted it on a more consistent basis several years ago. But it began to feel like, to me, that it was suddenly not working as well as I wanted it to work. Being a student of psychology, I am always interested in human behavior and why some things work and some things don’t. Research on learning and memory is fascinating and fluid. As I read different definitions of techniques for learning, I realized that, as an independent music teacher, I was practicing some of these techniques but didn’t know they had special names! So, with the concept of repetitive practice from the previous blog tucked under our belts, let’s move on to how we can define “good practice” even further. Remember when you were in high school and/or college and spent some sleepless nights cramming for an exam? In the short term, it worked! We got a good grade. But it didn’t last. I sure can’t tell you much about algebra, but I do know I passed the class. The crammed information for an exam quite literally leaves the working memory to leave room for more. I only invested in passing the test; I did not invest in learning. (Don’t calculators do all that work for me anyway?) When it comes to learning a piece of music and, at some point, having it memorized, we cannot cram. We can put our efforts into repetitive practice, but if we do all of that repetitive practice the days before adjudications we may do well on adjudication day and then simply forget the piece. You know what I’m talking about. You take a difficult passage of music, practice it over and over and over until you have it “perfect,” but then the next day your progress is gone. “I played it better at home” is a great example of this. Your student probably did play it better at home, three times in a row like you asked, but that was two days ago, and practiced passively at that. Let’s look into this a little deeper because there is a better way. Spaced Repetition Practice Spaced repetition is a "learning technique that incorporates increasing intervals of time between subsequent review of previously learned material in order to exploit the psychological spacing effect." (Wikipedia) In layman’s language for a music student – spacing thoughtful, repetitive practice. One of the oldest and most secure findings on learning and memory is that if you want to remember something, you should use spaced repetition. So how does it work? First we need to address the difference between working memory and long-term memory. Working memory is a cognitive memory buffer with a limited capacity that is responsible for the transient holding, processing, and manipulation of information. (Wikipedia) Again, in laymen’s terms, it’s the memory function where things are in a holding pattern, waiting to be told where to go, what to do. Most people can only hold about seven items in working memory. (Miller, George A. The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information.) Researchers in the field of teaching and learning have found that to take something you’ve learned and make it into long-term memory, you need to practice recalling that thing from long-term memory. So how do we get our practice out of working memory and into long-term memory? Spaced repetition. “In a spaced repetition approach, your goal is to review material just before you would forget it, so you’re practicing the skill of long-term recall the best you can.” (pianopracticeassistant.com/spaced-repetition) Not a lot of research has been done for the learning and retaining of music, but the general concepts can be used by musicians aspiring to better performances. Interleaved Practice Another term, closely related to spaced repetition, is interleaved practice. I’ve been doing this with my students for quite some time, but I didn’t know it had a fancy name! It’s basically spaced repetition with the twist of randomizing the passages you are working on. Putting different passages to recall in between the repeated passage you’ve been working on, you are forcing the relevant knowledge out of the working memory. Remember, the working memory can only hold so much, so something will get bumped. What you want to get bumped is the passage you’ve spaced in repetitive practice. You want it to go into long-term memory. By forcing yourself to recall things at random, you build stronger connections. Here's an example from a classroom setting:  Deliberate Practice One more definition and we’ll move on. Deliberate practice actively and continuously is the practice of reflecting on and correcting one’s performance. Effective practice requires mindful engagement and conscious self-observation. This is how I’ve been saying it to students for many, many years: “I’m not at your house when you practice so you need to be your own teacher.” This is why having a piano teacher instead of being self-taught is so helpful. Teachers engage fully in the task of listening. We hear the mistakes and we stop and talk about how to correct the mistakes. We are not just teaching notes, fingering, counts, and dynamics. We, by our example, are showing students how to engage more in their practice time. The opposite of deliberate practice is the example I used in the previous blog (Repetition is the Mother of All Learning) where my student played through a piece and moved on to the next assignment. The opposite of deliberate practice can also be the “effortless enjoyment,” or slipping into the “flow state.” This is often where we continue practicing the same mistakes over and over until we have perfected them! It’s tricky though. Effortless enjoyment is important for keeping up motivation and preventing burnout (mine and the student’s), but it’s like a state of diffused attention. From Dr. Cal Newport’s blog entry Flow is the Opiate of the Mediocre: Avoid Flow. Do What Does Not Come Easy. “The mistake most weak pianists make is playing, not practicing. If you walk into a music hall at a local university, you’ll hear people ‘playing’ by running through their pieces. This is a huge mistake. Strong pianists drill the most difficult parts of their music, rarely, if ever playing through their pieces in entirety.” (http://calnewport.com/blog/2011/12/23/flow-is-the-opiate-of-the-medicore-advice-on-getting-better-from-an-accomplished-piano-player/) Research tells us nearly unanimously that it’s the amount of quality (deliberate) practice, not natural born talent and skills or the number of hours mindlessly practicing, that matters most in developing expertise. All of this – spaced repetition, interleaved practice, and deliberate practice – takes effort on the part of the teacher as well as the student. It takes the setting of goals, analyzing the music to be able to break it down into workable passages, and setting a schedule. Goal-directed practice and targeted, timely feedback is a must.
Now, let’s see if we can look at an example in a real-life situation. I have a student, we’ll call her Christy, who is preparing for a future adjudicated opportunity. She will be performing two selections in the piano solo event and one piano concerto. She will also be taking a theory test.  Mozart's Concerto in B-flat major, 1st movement (first two pages)
The first thing Christy and I will do (after she freaks out over the amount of work this looks like it’s going to take to learn and memorize!) is to divide each piece into small sections that she can work on. We will make them small enough so that she can see some progress in a minute or two of practice time. I would not expect her to learn all of these pieces starting at the same time, but I would definitely begin with the hardest one first. So, let’s take a look at the concerto. I would likely assign her the first four measures, hands separate to learn (especially that bass pattern), and then put the hands together, slowly at first. This might be what would appear in her assignment notebook with the way I do things currently: Mozart concerto – learn and practice m. 1 – 4 (leaving out the last 1.5 beats of m. 4) Practice hands separate – RH 2x/day, LH 3x/day - slow to start to catch problem areas Put hands together and build up speed. As teachers, we have to remember to tailor the goals and assignments for each individual student. Their learning capabilities are unique. This is just what I would do for Christy. To that assignment I might also have Christy start on one of her piano solo pieces. I usually go for a piece that is completely different from the other one she is working on, so let’s figure out an assignment for Journey in the Night. Journey in the Night – learn and practice the first 8 measures of the first page, LH only. Work out the fingerings in those runs; write them in if necessary. Make sure you count as you are practicing. Do this LH practice 3x/day, carefully. Try playing it as fast as you can after it’s learned. Play it on different octaves of the keyboard. To this piano practice assignment, I might add one thing to work on in preparation for the theory test. I expect Christy to practice for 45-minutes a day, but sometimes that is just not possible for her. She is in high school and is involved in school leadership and on the tennis team. She has a tendency to either not practice when her schedule is full, or more than likely, she will practice the day before her lesson and usually only practice one assignment. The two sections within the two pieces are probably enough for her already overloaded working memory. The direction I would give her using the concepts of spaced repetition and interleaving would be as follows. Remember, breaking up your practice in this way has the additional benefit of keeping focused attention on goal-directed skill building. Day 1: Practice m.1-4 of the concerto. Start practice hands separately to think about what you are practicing. Practice LH 3x; practice RH 2x. How is it counted? What are the dynamics? Practice hands together 5x. Where are the problem areas? Practice those areas 5x more. Day 2: Practice the first 8 measures of Journey in the Night, LH only. Figure out your fingerings & counts. Practice this 5x slowly. Day 3: Practice the concerto passage with the metronome for steady beat, 5x LH practice of Journey in the Night, 2x/very fast; 2x/very soft Day 4: Christy won’t practice this day because she is at school until 8:00 pm and then will have homework to do. Day 5: Practice any section of Journey in the Night that you want to. Practice it 3x Practice LH Journey, 3x Practice concerto passage with correct tempo and dynamics. 5x Day 6: Practice the last 4 measures of the concerto. Go through it 3x Practice the original concerto passage, w/metronome, checking yourself. 3x Practice LH Journey, first 8 measures, up to tempo, 5x Day 7: No practice as Christy will come right to lessons from school. If I understand the definitions of spaced repetition, interleaving, and deliberate practice, I think I covered it all in this sample practice assignment. Ultimately, wouldn’t it be great if students would just be smart enough to do this on their own? Some of my past students who have gone on to do wonderful things with their piano performances have done this on their own. But let’s face it, most of our students really do need our guidance. We also know that the above example of an assignment for a week might not happen once the student leaves the studio. We can only do what we can do, and that’s to do our job to the best of our ability. ** After I first wrote this blog post and before I posted it, I tried an abbreviated format of this technique for practice with one of my 4th grade students, on just one of his pieces. I asked him about it at his next lesson and he said he felt like he had an easier time and an easier time remembering what he had practiced from the day before! I don’t break my student’s practice assignment down day by day, but I think I’m going to try it for the students that have real anxiety about learning a piece and getting it memorized. I probably wouldn’t break things down day-by-day for beginner students, but I would certainly still use the repetitive and interleaving techniques and lots of variety. This won’t be easy to establish unless a teacher is already doing something akin to this kind of practice process. We have to remember that piano is more complicated than memorizing historical dates or how to divide fractions. After all, if you can only hold seven things in working memory, which seven do you choose? Individual notes, chords, phrases, dynamics, fingerings, etc.? Acquiring the skill of playing the piano is complex, but all this complexity means we have to be even more deliberate in applying these processes. Teachers do their work, students do their work, and the brain does its work. You’ll never know if it works for you or your students unless you try it!  Sally Palmer owns Sally L. Palmer Music Studio in Bellevue, Washington. She has over 40 years experience as a piano and vocal teacher and coach, and is an accomplished accompanist. She is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons.
 Many years ago, and I remember it vividly, I had a teenage student come to his lesson and he hadn’t practiced at all that week. In this situation, I asked him to “practice” during his lesson time. My desk is in the studio, so I sat at my desk and intended to do some lesson planning. One of the main reasons I did this was because I wanted to hear how he was practicing. Even the weeks when he said he did practice, he didn’t seem to be progressing much. He took out his assignment book and played the first assignment on the list. I remember thinking, “That could certainly use some work,” only to have him, after playing it once, move on to the next thing on the list. At this point I had to ask, “Is that how you would practice it at home?” He responded with a firm “yes.” I was glad that I had that opportunity because it opened a conversation about playing versus practicing, and about repetitive practicing. I have realized, with some students, I must write in the assignment book, “practice 3x/day” or whatever number I feel is necessary. Sometimes I’ll even ask a student, “How many times do you think you should practice this each day?” Often, they come up with a higher number than I would have! (I’m pretty sure they are trying to say what they think I want them to say.) When a student sees “10x/day” written in their assignment book, they understand that they really must work on it to progress. There have been times when I’ve written “1,000 x/day” and give the student that look that means I am dead serious. They know I don’t mean it literally, but they get the message loud and clear. Repetitive practice has always made sense to me. Athletes practice this way, military operations are practiced this way, and physical therapists expect it in their patients. Think about it – practice IS repetition. When practicing any instrument, repetition is the most common method used to learn a piece of music. Repetition helps to build your muscle memory. When something is practiced over and over and over, the muscles begin to memorize what they are supposed to do, and how they are supposed to move. (Lesson 46, Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons, page 64) Pretty soon, tricky fingering passages become natural. The great Sam Snead, professional golf player, once stated, “Practice puts brains in your muscles.” The Double-Edged Sword Repetition in practice does indeed work. But what if whatever we repeat puts errors in our muscle brains? If I practice the same thing over and over, my muscles will slowly learn what it is I am practicing. That being said, if I learn and practice incorrectly and continue to repeat it over and over incorrectly, not only will I not progress, but it is quite difficult to go back and fix it later. In this case, repetitive practice becomes a hindrance to my progress. As a teacher, it’s quite painful sitting through a song that a student, once again, has obviously put no thought into her repetitive practicing. She comes back with the rhythm still incorrect, so you ask her why it’s still wrong. After all, you wrote it boldly and underlined it three times in her assignment book to “count out loud” so she could get it right. (And you’ve circled it so many times in the piece that you can hardly see the notes anymore!) She then looks at you like she never set eyes on her assignment book. She did play it through 3x/day – exactly the wrong way she’s always played it! The key lesson learned here is “practice makes permanent.” It’s So Boring Several repetitions done correctly in a row is essential for progress. “But it’s so boring,” is what most students will say. Therefore, as teachers we need to constantly come up with new ways of repetitive practice techniques to try and eliminate some of that boredom. There is a caveat though. If a student really cares about progressing these ideas will be helpful. If a student does not care about getting any better at playing the piano, it won’t matter how creative you get with the practice ideas. “Whenever you are using repetition to practice, you want to be sure you are using it in the most beneficial and productive way possible.” (Graham Fitch, practisingthepiano.com.) No two students / musicians are the same, so a practice routine that is unique to each student is critical. Here are a few ideas that I have used:
I am reminded of a student who felt like every piece of repertoire I gave her was “too hard.” I wanted her to learn Debussy’s Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum from The Children’s Corner. I knew if I showed her the music as a whole, she would freak out. Even though I could see the different sections, I knew she would not. I found a section that I figured would be the hardest one for her to learn (measures 37 – 44, six flats) and I made a copy of that section. We worked on those eight measures, hands separate, then hands together, then a phrase at a time, then a line at a time, then the whole section. I encouraged her during her repetitive practice at home that she “mess around” with the dynamics and the tempo. Just letting her know that she had the freedom to play it different than what was on the written page gave her a sense of empowerment and desire to “try it out.” Repetitive, thoughtful practice made a huge difference. I continued to make copies of small sections to work on repeatedly, all in random order. When it came time to put two sections together in order, she felt such a sense of accomplishment. Of course, we had to work on the transitions, which required more thoughtful, repetitive practice, but when she discovered that she had learned the whole piece, she was overjoyed. I never heard her once say, “This is too hard.” Mission accomplished! “Spaced Repetition Practice” is a concept that is being studied, and I’ll have more on this technique of repetitive practice in my next blog post.  Sally Palmer owns Sally L. Palmer Music Studio in Bellevue, Washington. She has over 40 years experience as a piano and vocal teacher and coach, and is an accomplished accompanist. She is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons.
 Like many people around the world, I’ve been glued to my television, watching the Olympics. I am in absolute awe at the athletic ability these young people exhibit. My favorite events to watch are the figure skating and snowboarding, and while watching this year I’ve picked up on a few comments made by those critiquing the athletes. It dawned on me that these are some of the same comments I use with my students, especially as they prepare for an adjudicated festival or competition. “Muscle memory” is a two-word phrase that was used during the pairs figure skating event often. Muscle memory originates in the brain, so it’s not that your muscles have their own special memory, but your brain and your muscles work together. Think typing on a keyboard, or riding a bike. Muscle memory is the retention of motor skills upon repetition of the action. I really picked up on the whole muscle memory issue as I watched a couple of snowboarders prepare for high air jumps. They stood at the top of the slope and moved the upper part of their bodies in the motion they would be doing in the air. Another time I saw muscle memory in action was in ski jumping. The athlete (who won the gold medal) moved his arms during his rotations in the air so precisely that I knew he must have done those arm movements so many times that it was an ingrained part of the jump. Repetition, repetition, repetition. That is the key to muscle memory. The figure skaters know it, the snowboarders know it, the skiers know it, and pianists know it. Imagine repeating the same flips on the ice for four years in preparation for the Olympics! So, when a music teacher says, “play it again” or “play it 10 times a day,” it is to help solidify that muscle memory. Another Olympic commentator said, “She’s got everything locked down.” The only way to do that is to practice until you feel like you can practice no more, and then practice again. A really important reason to practice, practice, practice, and develop that muscle memory, is to allow the performer “to focus attention synchronously elsewhere, such as on the artistic aspect of the performance, without having to consciously control one's fine motor actions.” (Wikipedia) My favorite figure skating programs to watch were not the finely tuned technical ones, but the very expressive ones that made me feel something. The figure skaters who used their music and their athleticism to tell a story – those were my favorites. I tell my students all the time, “Don’t just play the piece, tell a story. Make people wonder what comes next.” Many years ago I took on a student who did not need any help with notes, counts, or fingering, but listening to her play was boring. We worked on phrasing, dynamics, and even considered how to interpret the rests and fermatas. Her muscle memory allowed her to focus solely on her story telling. As a medal-bound snowboard participant headed down the halfpipe, the commentator stated, “Let’s see how he can make his run different from what we’ve already seen.” That made me think of what I tell my students before they sit in a room of other students who may be performing the same piece for a panel of adjudicators. I mean honestly, how many times can an adjudicator listen to Fur Elise without falling asleep! I ask my students, “How can your performance stand out above the rest?” Then we work on not just the dynamics, but the dynamic contrasts – can the louds be louder and softs be softer? We analyze the phrasing by asking the question, “How does this sentence read?” And we always discuss what story we believe the composer was trying to tell with his composition. For instance, when you read about Chopin’s Prelude in D-flat Major, you learn that Chopin had a dream involving drowning and rain falling, which totally helps a student interpret the very repetitive middle section, where a left hand A-flat is played so many times you could be hypnotized to sleep! Listen to the rain hitting your roof and pick up the nuances. Those drops do not sound all the same. Speaking of repetitive, the question is always asked, “How can this repeated section be interpreted and played differently than the first time you played it?” It’s the same thing with the snowboarder. Those that were assigned to judge his performance had seen the same flips and turns over and over and over throughout the course of the competition. This particular athlete needed to add something different – more amplitude, softer landings, etc. – in order to impress the judges. Same with piano performance. It was so hard to watch some of the figure skaters make a mistake and hit the ice with an ungraceful thump. Time and time again I thought, “How do they get up and keep going?” These athletes work for four plus years for their three minutes on the ice and they take a fall? Devastating. When awards are determined by one-hundreths of a point, once tiny mistake can mean the difference between being on the medal podium or watching from the stands. But I saw every single one of those skaters get right back up and continue their skate, most with a smile on their face. I call that “mental toughness.” The word used for this kind of mental toughness is “resiliency.” Performers are always going to be nervous and mistakes are always going to be made. We rarely witness a perfect performance. Stuff happens. I teach my students that it’s not about whether or not you make a mistake, but it’s how you recover from that mistake that makes the difference. When I adjudicate piano festivals, I do not comment on the mistake, but I always comment on the mental toughness displayed by being able to continue performing. A performer cannot get inside their head and analyze or self-critique during the performance. They’ve got to be tough to shoulder on and complete, and complete with a flourish! One last thing that I noticed while watching a half-pipe snowboarding event. When the athlete had pretty much cinched the gold medal but still had another run she could take, not only did she take it but she performed it with ease and style. What a difference it makes to enjoy what you’re doing versus concentrating so hard on competing. That particular snowboarder just got to “strut her stuff.” We’ll see it during the figure skating exhibition at the end of the Olympics. We’ll see more smiles, more relaxed shoulders, and more than likely, less falls. They will be enjoying the experience. Imagine how it would be for the athletes, as well as piano performers, if, during the competition they could perform as if they were doing it purely for the love of it. Bottom line, this is what I’ve learned from watching the Olympics that I will impart to my students:
 Sally Palmer owns Sally L. Palmer Music Studio in Bellevue, Washington. She has over 40 years experience as a piano and vocal teacher and coach, and is an accomplished accompanist. She is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons.
 I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked this question since last June when my book Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons was first published. The answer has never varied – because I wanted to assist teachers in helping the parents of their students understand the nature of the business of independent music teachers, and to help the parents understand how they can help their children have a successful experience. So much has changed in the music teaching industry from the time I took private lessons. Most often the teacher was a man or a woman “teaching on the side” to earn a little pocket money. That may be the case for some teachers still today, but in general, more private teachers are supporting themselves and/or their families with their teaching income. That changes the playing field, at least it did for me. I take my responsibility to teach music in a private setting far more seriously than when I started out in 1980. Because I handle my teaching career as a business, and charge tuition accordingly, I have a dedicated responsibility to be the best teacher I can be. That responsibility includes, but is not limited to, continuing my education, taking advantage of today’s technology in the teaching environment, being organized in my business, and produce students who achieve the goals they want to achieve. What has been a struggle over the years is, a lot of parents grew up in the same environment I did where music lessons were just kind of “something to do.” Plop the five-dollar bill down on the piano and wait in the car while Junior took lessons with Mr. Smith. Everything has changed, which is what precipitated my desire to write a book. I call it a “conversion” book – helping parents with the conversion from the old way of doing business to the new way of doing business. My goal was to market the book to independent music teachers, so they would, in turn, sell or give books to the parents of the students in their studio. Not every teacher works the way I do, but the principles and philosophies of the business pretty much ring true for all of us, especially those of us who make a living doing what we love but also have the responsibility of supporting ourselves. My truest desire in writing the book was to help maintain healthy relationships between teachers, parents and students through the understanding of how the business works. I firmly believe that reading the book and following the principles within, as well as understanding the “why” behind policies and procedures, will eliminate confusion and frustration for teachers and parents alike. That is only part of the book though, and that was the main focus behind writing it. But as I began writing, I found myself wanting to include helpful tips on things such as getting the most out of a practice session, how to have the most beneficial environment at home for practicing, the importance of good equipment, and how to stay focused and positive through the process of teaching and learning. I am so appreciative of the parents who really invest not just their money but their time and energy to making sure their child(ren) succeed so I found myself writing to those parents with additional ideas on how to continue and enhance what they are already doing. I also felt that those same ideas would be so helpful to parents who may have never learned an instrument themselves or had to deal with practicing and the struggles in learning music. What started as a book to help teachers help parents understand the nature of the business, also became of book of suggestions and encouragement. The last chapter ended up being a love letter to my colleagues, whether I know them personally or not. I wanted independent music teachers everywhere to know that I know what a great job they are doing. We private music teachers are quite busy and don’t seem to ever have time to sit down and talk about our trials, failures, and successes. We don’t take enough time to share our ideas and encourage each other. That’s how the last chapter came about – my desire to sit and talk to other music teachers. It is a wonderful opportunity in this life to be able to do what you love and make money at the same time. No one talks about the struggles and pitfalls along the way though, and that’s what I was hoping to address, and help alleviate, by writing the book. I am grateful for all the support I have received and for all those who are helping me achieve my own goals.  Sally Palmer owns Sally L. Palmer Music Studio in Bellevue, Washington. She has over 40 years experience as a piano and vocal teacher and coach, and is an accomplished accompanist. She is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons.
 Many may remember the old television commercial where the narrator would hold up an egg and say, "This is your brain." He would then crack the egg into a sizzling, hot frying pan and say, "This is your brain on drugs." He would then ask, "Any questions?" It was an extremely effective commercial which is why so many remember it even years later. Playing the piano (or any instrument for that matter) is fun, but it has also been proven how incredible the brain functions and develops while learning to play the piano. "This is your brain on piano."
The prefrontal cortex is involved in a wide variety of functions, including:
One can see the distinct advantages to developing and strengthening the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Careers in science, design, visual arts and manufacturing are optimal for those with strong spatial abilities. Eyes, ears, hands - these are only a few areas where those who learn piano can excel and accelerate brain development. Also to be taken into consideration are the use of 10 fingers, two feet, keeping time, touch, and artistic interpretation, all using different parts of the brain.  Sally Palmer owns Sally L. Palmer Music Studio in Bellevue, Washington. She has over 40 years experience as a piano and vocal teacher and coach, and is an accomplished accompanist. She is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons.
 Inspiration author, William Arthur Ward, said it best: “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” (Goodreads.com) This has been my teaching motto for as long as I can remember. I believe I was born to teach and that I was also gifted with musical abilities beyond my understanding from a very young age. The combination of these two gifts set me on my life’s path, that of being a music teacher. I have recently been nominated for an educator award, and when these types of nominations come my way I never feel adequate because I did not get my degree in Music Education or Piano Pedagogy. Instead, I opted for a degree in the field of human behavior, specifically with a passion towards adolescent behavior. I believe the most critical part of teaching is understanding what makes a student “tick.” Oftentimes parents have told me that they would have terminated lessons “long ago” except they liked the way I related to their child and vice versa. My natural goal in teaching is to help produce musicians that are well-rounded human beings, with the ability and desire to share their talents and to provide service in society. I don’t recall ever making it a priority to be a knuckle-rapping, wrist-slapping, perfection demanding teacher. I have had students go on to do great things (piano performance majors, Broadway performers), but I believe it’s more because I related to them as individuals and helped them to express their musical passions in their own unique ways. I’ve always understood that kids may not remember all that I have taught them but they will remember how they felt during the learning experience and I have made it a point to create a joyful and passionate learning environment. Don’t get me wrong, I have extremely high expectations of my students. I set the bar high because 99.9% of the time students will meet and exceed the standard I set. (Lesson 95 – Achieving when the bar is high)We work hard, but we work hard with purpose. My motivation in joining various music associations has been strictly for the benefit of my students. First, these associations provide opportunities for my students to set goals to perform and be adjudicated, and second, they provide me with opportunities, through workshops and masterclasses, to better my teaching techniques and style. I believe in continuing education and a lifetime of learning. As a teacher, I have my students set goals at the beginning of each year. These goals are designed to teach them life skills, such as choice and accountability, time management, setting priorities, integrity, responsibility, public speaking and performing, and, of course, goal-setting. I also encourage them to explore other artistic ways to express themselves through art, poetry and writing. (Lesson 92 – Helping students prepare for the future) So, where other teachers may have wonderful lists of degrees and certifications, that’s not me. I spend a lot of my time in volunteer positions that will benefit me as a teacher which in turn benefits my students. I love my job as a teacher! There is no greater calling!  Sally Palmer owns Sally L. Palmer Music Studio in Bellevue, Washington. She has over 40 years experience as a piano and vocal teacher and coach, and is an accomplished accompanist. She is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons.
 Lesson 82: Expose students to lots of music At one of my city’s local malls, there is a little stage where some sort of musical performance happens every Friday night. While my granddaughter and I were having dinner at a café near the stage, the music started up, a little jazz ensemble, and she hopped down from the bar stool and just started dancing. Her mom used to do the same thing. I decided at that moment that I was going to expose this little one to as much music as I could whenever we had the opportunity to “hang out.” This is where being a “super supportive parent (and grandparent) becomes a whole lot of fun! One weekend I took my granddaughter into Seattle to the Experimental Music Project Museum to see a Hello Kitty exhibit. While we were passing from one area to the next, we encountered a junior high school orchestra playing in the large area off the entrance. I thought my granddaughter would just hurry right through on her way to see more Hello Kitty stuff. Contrary to what I thought, she wanted to sit down and listen, so we did. She sat very politely, listened intently, shushing me at one point when I said something to her, and clapped loudly when they were finished. I don’t even think she knew what classical music was, but she knew it sounded pretty and wanted to listen. We have seen a couple of animated musical movies together – Moana, Sing, and the recent dance movie, Leap. There is no way we can leave once the credits start rolling because she wants to get in the aisle and start dancing . . . until the music stops. And that “dancing to the music” doesn’t just happen at the movies. When she was around three years old, she would jump off my lap during church and dance as the congregation would sing the hymns. She has attended a few of my studio recitals, loves to sit in the front row, and is pretty attentive for a six-year old! One of my students was performing at a park with another studio and I wanted to go hear him but I was caring for my granddaughter at the time. I told her I wanted to go hear some music in the park and she started jumping up and down and clapping. The weather was not very cooperative, but she stood and listened to the music, and was joined by a friend who was at the park that day. And most recently I took her to see Aladdin at Seattle’s historic Paramount Theatre. We had tickets two rows back from the stage, right in the middle of all the more mature season ticket holders. I was a little nervous about the wiggles and nonstop talking that is characteristic of a first grader, but she did great sitting for those 2.5 hours. I was watching her reactions almost more than I was watching the show! She loved the music and as we were walking back to the car, she was skipping and humming. The cherry on top? Just this week she asked her mom if she could take “singing lessons” from gramma! Kids won’t know all the styles and genres of music unless they are exposed to them. Granted, they get exposed, possibly overexposed, to what’s playing on the radio or their phone’s playlist, but the world is so much wider than what they are listening too. Be a super supportive parent and open their musical world. Check out your local listings of entertainment and arts events. Just recently I saw an ad for a Halloween Children’s Concert produced by the Lake Washington Symphony Orchestra, including an instrument “petting zoo.” Can’t wait to take my granddaughter to this event. Fun times!  Sally Palmer owns Sally L. Palmer Music Studio in Bellevue, Washington. She has over 40 years experience as a piano and vocal teacher and coach, and is an accomplished accompanist. She is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons.
 A former student of mine reminded me the other day of something I taught her many, many years ago. I wrote this statement down on a piece of paper for her and she said that she put it up on her bedroom wall where she could see it every day. “An unwritten goal is merely a wish.” Then, just the other day as I was preparing yet another ‘moment of teaching’ on the topic of goal setting, I came across this statement: “A goal without a plan is a wish.” Very similar, wouldn’t you say? So, I combined the two statements in preparation for meeting with my students in a few weeks to discuss our goals for the year. “An unwritten goal, without a plan, is merely a wish.” In writing my book, Six Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons: 100 Lessons to Enhance the Parent, Teacher and Student Relationship, I found myself mentioning some sort of goal-setting experience quite often. Presenting the topic of goal-setting, I like to start with the bigger picture and refine it down to specifics. For instance, start with a vision. In the music world, a student’s vision might be, “I want to be a great performing pianist.” Every music teacher alive loves to hear those words come out of their student’s mouths. But how much can actually be accomplished if we stop with just the vision? Let’s refine that vision into a goal, specifically a longer-term type of goal, such as, “I want to be able to perform, from memory, at my school’s talent show this year.” See how we are starting to be a little more specific? It can’t stop there. We need a plan. Plans are like short-term goals. Plans must be specific and measurable. For the absolute best results, we can be accountable to someone to help stay on task, and have a ‘check in’ as to how we are progressing with our plans. So, remember:
“Goal setting is essentially beginning with the end in mind. And planning is devising a way to get to that end.” (M. Russell Ballard, American businessman and religious leader) After my students have set their goals and plans for the year, I like to touch base with them often, sort of have a personal progress interview. This gives them a chance to be accountable and it helps them to stay on task. I had a student who set a goal over the summer to complete a certain piece before heading off to piano camp, as well as staying on top of the selections she has chosen for competitions in the upcoming year. She kept a little journal with dates and what she wanted to have accomplished by those dates. In conjunction with her journal (plans), she kept a practice log to help her stay on track. One summer lesson she came a little bit unprepared, so I asked her, “How are you doing on your plan? Are you keeping up?” She replied that she had slipped a little bit on some of the pieces. I couldn’t believe what a difference it made when she began to deviate from her plan. Those specific and measurable plans really help with progression! Lesson #62 – Practice log to stay goal-focused Keeping a practice journal or practice log is a great way to stay focused on your practice goals. Don’t just keep track of the days and minutes you practice, but jot down notes on what you have accomplished and what you still feel needs some work. As we venture into a new school-year of fabulous music lessons, teachers and students will benefit greatly if they take some time to discuss goals and plans. All will be richly rewarded.  Sally Palmer owns Sally L. Palmer Music Studio in Bellevue, Washington. She has over 40 years experience as a piano and vocal teacher and coach, and is an accomplished accompanist. She is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons.
 A couple of years ago, a student arrived at her lesson in tears. I asked her what was wrong and with a choked voice she said, "I didn't want to come to piano lessons today but my mom told me I had to." I asked her why she didn't want to come and she said she was in the middle of her homework and this wasn't her usual day to have lessons. Again, I asked her why she couldn't come on her regular day and she said, "because of ski school." I knew all of this, of course, but I wanted to make sure she understood why the change was made. She continued, with tears streaming down her face, that she couldn't come on another day because of her after-school activities. She was clearly upset that her schedule had been changed and she had lots of homework to do. Are you visualizing this scene? Are you seeing, in your mind's eye, a tired, over-involved teenager at the end of her emotional rope? Nope. This student was a 2nd grader! In my humble opinion, an over-scheduled 2nd grader! How do we help our parents with this balance of academics, sports, music, social, and family? Are there questions we can ask when interviewing students and parents? I wanted to send this over-wrought, sweet little girl home to get some rest, but instead I tried to make it a really fun lesson, with activities, and stickers, and jokes. We, as teachers, are asked to be more than just teachers sometimes. We are often called upon to be a different kind of listening ear. My studies in the field of Psychology have been extremely helpful as a music teacher. So many of our students are completely overwhelmed and there isn't always a solution to the situation. Our best bet is to love them, Let them know that they are loved and worthwhile , and that their thoughts and opinions matter. Sometimes these kids just need to "vent" in a safe environment. Be a listening ear when needed. Maybe you are the adult who can help them understand time and resource management. Be gentle, be loving, and by all means, express your concerns with parents. Be kind in your comments and be prepared for some to possibly take offense. I have generally found that most parents are doing their absolute best to do, well, their absolute best. Always make your priority the health and well-being of the student. Don't ever forget, teachers, we are a valuable resource in the lives of our students.  Sally Palmer owns Sally L. Palmer Music Studio in Bellevue, Washington. She has over 40 years experience as a piano and vocal teacher and coach, and is an accomplished accompanist. She is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Exceptional Music Lessons.
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