5 Surefire Ways to Save Rehearsal Time
Okay, in favor of being parsimonious (per the title of my post…) this is going to be a quick post tonight. I just want to reiterate to all of the music teachers out there to PLEASE TALK LESS! Here are a few easy ways to achieve your new goal of talking less:
Time Your Talking! Cell phone + Timer on podium = Clear picture of the talking:experience reality of your rehearsals
1 Sentence/Stop– Okay, each time you stop your rehearsal, force yourself to speak for only one sentence before you go back to rehearsal/magic-making 😉
a 1, a 2, a 3 & 4 – Stop counting off your groups! Work to start them with a simple upbeat, or a sniff, or your own crazy cue.
Maybe your cues isn’t always quite so epic… or maybe it is… May the baton be with you!
Hand Up to the Haters – Instead of calling out the students who are causing disruptions (thus calling more attention to their disruption… disruption + attention = obnoxious kid²… So anyhow, instead of calling them out, glare at them and hold your hand up to them, then move on.
Ditch the Fillers – I know, I know, sometimes you don’t really know what needs to happen & you just need a moment. Most often, when I see this happen to teachers, they just jump into a nervous prattle that wastes way too much time and then still don’t remember what they needed to work on. Instead, try to listen to the students play again and see if it comes back to you.
Hopefully your students are a little bit younger… and happier than these guys, but you get the idea. PLAY!
The big takeaway here is that students are in music classes to make music, not to listen to your life story (well, sometimes they are way too interested in your life story…), but in general, they want to play more. So make way for more music!
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