Making the Most of Practice: The Five Coin Trick

A Practice Game: 5 Coin Trick

The “art” of practicing is truly an art. How many teachers simply tell a student to “go home and play a difficult passage twenty times”? But HOW are we supposed to practice?

Here’s a game I use for students (of all sizes and ages) where the mind wanders the number of times a passage is played. What I usually tell a student is to pick a passage that needs to “solidify.” Choose a metronome speed (yes, your metronome IS your friend) that is comfortable. Then the game begins.

1. Choose between 5 and 10 objects (coins, candies that don’t roll, stones, etc.). With this game, I tell the young students to get the money or candy from the parents so that when they finish the practice session, they keep (or eat) their reward!

2. Place at least 5 of the objects in the “neutral zone”. The neutral zone is in the middle (table, chair, the top of an instrument case, music stand, on the piano, etc.)

3. There are three areas:

• “I ruined it!” area (left),
• “Neutral” zone (in the middle) and,
• Zone “I played well” (on the right)

4. OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME is to get ALL the objects to the “I played well” area.

5. NOTE: If the passage needs a lot of work, use more than five items!

6. RULES of the game:

• You CANNOT have items in BOTH “I played well” and “I played poorly” zones.
• Items can only be in TWO zones at a time. The “neutral” zone is one of them.

7. Play the passage several times to determine the best metronome speed with the fewest errors.

8. Start with ALL objects in the neutral zone.

9. Play the passage. was played correctly (both notes and rhythms)? If so, move an object to the right (“I played it right” area).

10. If the passage is played incorrectlyan object moves to the left (“I played it wrong” area).

11. Remember that objects can only be in two zones: “Neutral” and “I played well” or “neutral” and “I played poorly”.

• If a passage is played CORRECTLY and there are objects in the “I played it wrong” zone, move an object from the left to the “neutral” zone.
• If a passage plays INCORRECTLY and there are objects in the “I played it right” zone, move an object from the right to the “neutral” zone.
• If a passage is played CORRECTLY and there are objects in the “neutral” and “I played it right” zones, another object is moved to the right.
• If a passage is played INCORRECTLY and there are objects in the “neutral” and “I played it wrong” zones, another object is moved to the left.

12. Play until ALL the objects are in the “I played well” zone. After they are all to the right, play the passage ONE MORE TIME. If a mistake is made on the final turn, an element must be moved back to the “neutral” zone. It will take two more correct performances for all items to return to the “I played well” zone.

13. At the end of this set, move the metronome ONE notch up and start over or move to another passage. In order not to get frustrated, make sure the metronome speed is set to ensure success. The key point of this game is to “ground” the fingerings (and/or rhythms) in the hands and mind. This cannot be done without repetitive practice!

Now go practice! And parents, kids should keep the coins or eat the candy.