As my teenage contemporaries redecorated random homes with vast strands of bathroom tissue, I was cloistered away fervently practicing my violin five hours each day. My mother never once had to remind me to practice.

Musicians advocate that practice is of utmost importance in the development of any player. Jascha Heifetz, possibly the 20th Century’s most amazing violinist, said, If I don’t practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.

For something that is so crucial to musicians, it is surprising that so many players resist it. Telling a child to practice can be like asking him/her to eat brussels sprouts or to clean his/her room. As a violin teacher, I deal with the dreaded P word every week. (This also applies to adults!)

What’s so terrible about practicing?

Priorities: The common complaint is I don’t have any time to practice. Really, in the end it’s not a matter of having a full plate. The amazing players who practice every day are not working with 28-hours a day. Students who practice regularly have simply made practicing a priority. These dedicated individuals enjoy practicing and its benefits so much that they sacrifice other activities to make time for their playing.

This doesn’t mean you have to give your right arm as an offering to the merciless practice gods. You may get a bit less time on the tv or computer, or maybe you have to ignore the ringing phone until you’re done. A nip and tuck here and there can add up to a lot of previously unavailable time.

Be Inspired: The key to enjoyable practicing is inspiration. For example, when a musician feels inspired by a favourite song or role model s/he is compelled to practice. Inspiration frequently emerges while attending a live concert and meeting a famous musician. Just ask anyone who’s seen a famous musician play live in concert.

Perhaps the materials you’re working with are too dry for your tastes? Maybe you’re not being challenged enough? Discuss any inspirations or lack thereof with your teacher or another musician to get you back on track.

Set Goals: Many players also thrive on setting and meeting goals, such as to play with an advanced group, to learn a challenging piece, or to perform well in festival or an upcoming concert. My best music making has come from feeling inspired and by achieving personal aspirations.

Each summer I ask my students to set goals for the following fall and also for 1 year, 5 year and 10-year. Their responses are impressive; more than half aspire to teach violin someday and most others just want to be more confident players and to play for pay!

Check-Points: My job as teacher is to help the students make their goals a reality. We create appropriate time-lines for the goals, including check-points to make sure the players’ actions are aligned with their end goal.

For example, if a student’s goal is to master a concerto, we make sure they’ve have outlined the steps to learning the piece along with the technique and skills required required. I’ll practice these exercizes for two months, and by December I will be starting on 5th position.

Sometimes this practice involves excercizes, scales and theory, but other times it’s as simple as completing a book or gaining more confidence through public performance. By setting up check-points at comfortable intervals to make sure you are on the right track and to make the overall goal seem less daunting.

And besides, life is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the journey to meeting your goal and once you get there you’ll have plenty more road ahead to explore.

Goals Can Change: I’ve always got a list of short to long-term goals for myself, ranging from one-week, one-month, six-month, and 1, 2, 5, 10-year goals. Sometimes the goals change, which is okay because I am constantly learning and growing. What was important to me 10 years ago may not be a big deal to me now. The important thing

Incentives: Everything we work for has reward. Just as brussels sprouts contribute to physical health, practice contributes to better musicianship. However, musicianship just isn’t tangible to 5-year-olds.

Thus, teachers and parents are prompted to offer fun incentives for practice. Kids are rewarded with stickers, ice cream coupons and other treats. My students can earnFiddlebucks for their practicing, which can be used to purchase trinkets and toys.

These programs work for most children, but even stickers can become pass? after a while. Children should be encouraged to aspire to higher goals, thus setting higher rewards. As my students progress, they curb their spending to save Fiddlebucks for long-term rewards, like lunch with the teacher, which takes over a year to earn.

How to Practice: Though students understand the benefits and rewards of practice, many do not know exactly *how* to practice. Each teacher has particular requirements and expectations, but generally my start/focus/playtime routine works best.

Start: The student stretches and warms-up with long, clear tones, then scales and arpeggios, and finally a warm-up piece or exercise.

Focus: Here the student works on new and challenging pieces, paying close attention to detail and correcting mistakes but also focusing on his/her strengths. Focus allows the player to make improvements and build confidence simultaneously.

Playtime: Saving the best for last, Playtime is when the student reviews favourite songs and has some fun. Tasks such as playing with the radio (ear training in disguise), recording yourself, composition and improvising are all enjoyable assignments that can motivate a player.

Homework: Sometimes I assign violin homework to students of all ages. The assignments vary from draw a picture of your violin, to play a concert for your family andwrite a report about your favourite or a famous violinist. Interestingly all the children love these special assignments and become increasingly inspired and motivated to practice.

For example, one of my students e-mailed Natalie MacMaster for an essay project and was encouraged by Natalie, herself, to play the fiddle each day. The Cape Breton Canadian fiddler said, it really does make things better.

Consistency: I don’t know how many times I’ve heard, I meant to practice, but it slipped my mind. Consistency is the most important step to enjoying successful practice. The truth is that practice is best done and easiest when done consistently. The more we practice, the more we are inspired to practice.

Have a hard time with consistency? I’m sure you still manage to eat and sleep every day, so you’ll find a way to get the practice in if it works around one of those schedules! Play just after waking or right before bedtime. Eat your lunch halfway between your warm-up and pieces. When you make it a routine it’s harder to leave out of your day and you’ll actually get it done! No more guilty lessons!

Sometimes it’s not possible to play every day, but it does make a tremendous difference. For players just starting a consistent routine it’s best to do two shorter practices rather than one long one. Going at it full steam can tire a player out and make them less inclined to want to do it again. You’ll be left with more energy after a couple of shorter practices and will gradually lengthen them.

Family Support: It is of utmost importance that parents or spouses of aspiring musicians provide encouragement for the player. Never poke fun at sour notes or say things like, if you don’t practice we’ll take away your lessons. Through thick and thin the family’s job is to support the player as they master their art.

Other Perks: For students who still find it difficult to keep a practice routine I suggest they opt out of washing dinner dishes and serenade the dishwashers each night. It’s amazing how quickly they jump to it when they know there is no more dishwashing! There are countless other perks (excuses to get out of work) to practice that can be sorted out with your family.

I spent my formative years either grounded or due for a grounding due to the occasional landscaping mummification. However, in the 542 times I was grounded, my kind mother never took away my violin. I could be heard playing my violin sadly from my bedroom prison cell: Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.

And I loved it.

**Rhiannon Schmitt (nee Nachbaur) is a professional violinist and music teacher who has enjoyed creative writing for years.

She currently writes columns for two Canadian publications and has been featured in Australia’s Music Teacher Magazine. Writing allows her to teach people that the world of music is as fun as you spin it to be!

Rhiannon, age 29, has worn the hats of businesswoman, performer, events promoter, classical music radio host and school orchestra music arranger in rural British Columbia, Canada.

Her business, Fiddleheads Violin School & Shop, has won several distinguished young entrepreneur business awards for her commitment to excellence. Her shop offers beginner to professional level instruments, accessories and supplies for very reasonable prices: Visit http://www.fiddleheads.ca

Rhiannon is also Founding President of the Shuswap Violin Society which promotes violin & fiddle music and helps young musicians in need: http://www.violinsociety.ca

I’ve overheard teenage musicians mention casually they are considering teaching music to make extra money. I am compelled to butt in, “Do you enjoy teaching?” the answer I interrupt with “Are you patient?” Their response: “Like, I play wicked, teaching will be an easy gig.”

My response: maniacal laughter.

Teens, let us hear the wise old violin teacher preaching a holy sermon from atop a glorious mountain of experience: Teaching music isn’t a luxurious life of sleeping in late, illuminating the unquestioning minds of flocking prodigies through 30-minute jam sessions and writing off all your music gear and fast food meals come tax time. Lord have mercy on our souls.

Simply put, teaching music is weekly customer service, with occasional late night support calls when the instrument falls out of tune or the player is struggling. A teacher is dealing with customers who are exploring new ground, hence requiring lessons in the first place, and is responsible for helping advance them into musicians who no longer require our services.

Sounds easy, except that the most trying aspect of customer service is, oddly enough, the customer. The human collective is a random grab-bag of mixed egos and inhibitions, fears and potential, attitudes and limitations. Even the ideal customer, who listens closely, asks exactly the right questions and retains everything they have ever been taught, cannot master music in an afternoon. (At least we teachers have a semblance of job security).

Music, a vast system of pitch, velocity and rhythm that can take a lifetime to understand, has been further complicated with pedagogy. There are more styles to teach violin than there are ways to cook an egg. Each method claims theirs is the most effective way to master the instrument, they have countless scientific studies to prove it and please enter your credit card number here.

A teacher has to weed through the dogmatic hype and come out with a cohesive teaching concept that jives with their own approach to playing and learning. They also have to understand their instrument inside and out, keeping in mind a clear idea how and when to introduce new concepts as to not overwhelm the student. After carefully formulating a perfect lesson plan, the teacher will then scrap it all and reinvent their method when it inevitably doesn’t fit the student’s learning style.

A good teacher is not locked into one method or way of explaining ideas. Instead they receive feedback from the player and interpret it into a lesson that will make an impact.

What makes the most impact, you ask? Repetition. Repetition. Then you do it again. Detach yourself from how many times you’ve played “Fur Elise” or corrected that particular eighth note. There are pin-sized holes in my eardrums from “Twinkle Twinkle” and I develop an itchy rash prior to our annual Christmas recital, but I’ve found a Zen peace in accepting my fate.

I see each lesson as a new chapter in the life of a musician I am helping along. With experience, lessons have developed their own rhythm and my teaching days swoop past me.

The repetition can get to some people, like the crusty old piano teacher, the one everyone seems to have had as a child, who wielded a nasty ruler for discipling unwanted notes. I knew a guy in high school who whacked his violin students on the head with his bow whenever he, the teacher, became frustrated.

A teacher cannot crack when the student plays the wrong note for the hundredth time, so impatient musicians must carefully consider their suitability as teachers. “Penny whistle teacher needed: Psychopaths with Intermittent Explosive Disorder need not apply.”

Instead of whopping students with a pernambuco stick with hair, my aforementioned colleague could have channeled his infinite aggression into another enjoyable branch in the music industry, such as fending off broken beer bottles at the country bar or smashing double-neck guitars for screaming mobs at GM Place. Last I heard he’s still teaching at the music store, but has invested in a heavy carbon bow and a cocktail of barbiturates.

Once a player has established that teaching is a good direction to take and they have passed all the inkblot exams without incident, he or she needs to lay down a teaching foundation. Selecting a method book to use is one thing, but the teacher needs to develop a mission statement and their goals in teaching.

My mission focuses on two words: Inspiration and Encouragement. My goals include “music as a life experience” and sharing my love for violin among friends. The mission statement and goals serve as a guide whenever I am faced with a decision or problem in my work, it’s sort of an operations manual for my business. And that’s what teaching music really is: a business.

I urge all musicians who plan to make their music more than a hobby to take business classes on marketing and promotion, finances and taxes, and business plans. Learn to promote yourself because no one will know who you are if you just sit at home chatting on MSN. Keep good financial records so you are prepared for tax season. There are far too many exceptional musicians, performers and teachers who are stuck on the dole or playing for the coming and going liquor store clientèle due to poor business practices.

You don’t have to be a marketing whiz or a lawyer, though your mother would prefer such a career change so she can have her basement back. Just learn enough to keep yourself out of trouble with the tax man and to maintain a full compliment of paying, regular students. For more guidance I suggest the book “Making Money Teaching Music” by David and Barbara Newsam, available for a free read through the Okanagan Library system.

It seems to be an oxymoron, but it is possible to make money teaching music! So teenage musicians, nod your head, say “yes Rhiannon,” and do exactly everything I have ordained in the article above, then watch the money pour into your bank account.

Hallelujah!

And try not to spend it all at the music store filling the blank slots in your gear rack.

Amen.

**Rhiannon Schmitt (nee Nachbaur) is a professional violinist and music teacher who has enjoyed creative writing for years. She currently writes columns for two Canadian publications and has been featured in Australia’s Music Teacher Magazine.

Rhiannon (age 29, she’s not really old) has worn the hats of businesswoman, performer, events promoter, classical music radio host, school orchestra music arranger and music columnist in rural British Columbia, Canada.

Her business, Fiddleheads Violin School & Shop, has won several distinguished young entrepreneur business awards for her comittment to excellence. Her shop offers beginner to professional level instruments, accessories and supplies. http://www.fiddleheads.ca provides a rich resource of information on her school, violin, products for sale and more.

Rhiannon is also Founding President of the Shuswap Violin Society. http://www.violinsociety.ca She dedicates much of her time to community music projects and helping young musicians.