One of the strategies I use with my intermediate students is “backwards practice.” It is easy to be excited about learning a new piece, and to work really hard on the first page. But after a few weeks of practice, looking at that second or third page can start to seem daunting, and it’s just more fun to play through the familiar bits than to slow down and tackle the rest of the piece!
Enter “backwards practice”: I introduce this concept in the lesson, teaching the last few measures to the student and working through them until they are fluid. Then I challenge the student to go home and add a measure before the last few measures, and then a measure before that, and so on, until the ending is fluid. When they finally back up to the “easy” first page, they will know the whole piece! It is so gratifying to play a really solid ending: it becomes the reward for a job well done!
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