The Six Week Practice Sprint
A good friend of mine named Sarah owns her own paper goods company called Whimsicals Paperie. Recently, she presented a session on how she organizes her art supplies and products at the Get Organized HQ - September 2020 Virtual Conference. Besides being thrilled for her for this opportunity, I thought, really? There’s a conference SOLEY based on organization? Apparently, 70,000 people attend!
Sarah in her well-organized studio
As a conference junky, I decided to check it out and purchased an All Access pass early on when it was an incredibly good bargain.
I haven’t gotten through all of the sessions but I did get a chance to listen to Kayln Brooke’s session called the “Six Week Sprint.”
In it, she describes how she whittled down her goal setting system from one year, to 90 days and then eventually to six weeks. She claims six weeks is the sweet spot for setting AND achieving goals. It’s because the six-week sprint system demands action right away with no time to procrastinate,
The shorter time-frame helps you make better decisions on what to say yes and no. With only six weeks to work on your goal, you’ll probably want to decline any new projects until your six weeks are up, so that you can give it 100% focus. Lastly, you won’t get bored, or cave into the shiny new object syndrome. -Kayln Brooke
With six weeks left of the teaching year before winter break and feeling the crunch of the holiday season ahead, I decided to create a six-week practice sprint challenge for my studio.
A little before listening to Kayln’s session, I interviewed Charlene Shelzi-Jarvis for a podcast. In the episode she describes her Club Piano. As a student in her roster, it’s a privilege to be invited to her “club level”—think club sports—and she expects hard work.
In fact, Charlene shared that her students who join the club have the option to sign up for a 100-Day Practice Streak! If they miss even one day, they’re out. I was impressed and yet knew that I would have a difficult time enforcing the streak like Charlene does (she’s a drill sergeant!) so I decided to go with a six week challenge instead.
Everyone gets this checklist (page 1 of 2) to keep track of practice—all based on the honors system.
I call it the 626 SPRINT = 6 weeks of practice - 2 goals to achieve - 6 days of practice each week.
According to Brooke, only one goal should be chosen during the time frame. I broke that rule and decided on two specific goals (following Charlene’s lead) with a few smaller ones alongside.
Pianists must practice 6 days a week:
A holiday piece for a December 11 performance.
A level-specific technical challenge—either selected major 5 finger patterns or major scales, arpeggios, primary chords and inversions. These exercises pack a two-for-one punch because I’ll use them to review technique like wrist rolls, hand position, scale fingering, staccatos, rotation, etc. As students play their theory in their practice, it will carry over into off bench activities and drills to reinforce concepts.
The goal for how many keys to master is set for each individual student based on their proficiency.
3. Ok, I break the rule further by requiring students practice other pieces, too, in preparation for upcoming festivals in the new year. But, these only have to be practiced 3 times a week. Any checkmarks beyond what’s listed on the chart, the student earns $50 in music money—another Charlene inspiration.
Brooke’s states that the goals must be concrete and actionable and follow her A.C.T. method.
A = ACHIEVABLE
The goal should be within reach yet aspirational. It should not be something easily attained and somewhat of a stretch so that enthusiasm doesn’t peter out.
C = CLEAR
Next, the goals must be well defined and easily measured and quantified. From week to week, there should visible progress. These are clearly stated in the students’ assignments in Tonara—a platform for delivering assignments that I couldn’t teach without.
The benefit of this is being able to clearly articulate exactly what you’re shooting for, so that you can celebrate when you reach it. -Kayln Brooke
When learning a new piece, there’s levels of achievements. After listening to a podcast from the Bulletproof musician, I re-calibrated my level labels and added in survival and proficient:
Survival = barely hands together but getting close.
Learn = hands together with gaps in timing.
Proficient = hands together with correct timing aligned with a metronome.
Mastered = hands together with correct timing, few slip-ups, dynamics and articulations.
Memorized = it rocks!
As kids drove through the Trunk or Treat, they got to listen to other kids play the piano!
T = TIME TRIGGER
At each level, there must be an assigned frequency on how to complete the goal and a hard due date.
So each week for six weeks, all students have been charged with two goals that must be practiced six times before the next lesson. If they can’t squeeze in practice on one day, they may practice two times on another day. Listen to the podcast episode and you’ll realize that I’m a “softie” compared to Ms Charlene.
Their preparation is for a possible “tailgate recital” I’ll hold in mid December. Barring frigid temperatures and snow, I plan to connect my digital piano to a speaker (like I did at our church’s Trunk or Treat) and ask families to park their cars, open their windows and listen as pianists play their holiday piece.
With this sprint in place, pianists will reach a level of mastery for a performance and gain technical skills—MY reward as a teacher and of course theirs, too. But, because they may enjoy a more tangible prize, pianists will also receive a $5 gift card IF they check all the boxes. Read more about how I steam line my incentives here.
Our motto as we keep up the pace!
As one who avoids studio incentives that need massive amounts of tracking, this sprint feels feasible and functional.
And, I look forward to creating more.
How do you think this six-week sprint would work in your studio?
