The Cultivation of Piano Practice Strategies: Implications for Teachers

Abstract

Practice is the most important part of learning music, and most teachers and students agree that practice is beneficial and necessary for music learning (Kostka, 2002). Cultivating and improving students' practice strategies has always been a priority for many music education scholars and it has been a well-researched topic over the years. For example, the factors affecting practice strategies are studied (Hallam et al., 2017; Hallam et al., 2020), and the use of a small number of individual practice strategies is studied (Pitts & Davidson, 2000; McPherson & Renwick, 2001; McPherson & Davidson, 2002; Bartolome, 2009; Hallam et al., 2012; Pike,2017). Most of these studies are qualitative analysis, which is common in the field of education. Although the number of subjects in many of the research studies was small, the similarity of the results can be used as a basis for further research. Paying attention to the use and current situation of students' practice strategies not only helps music teachers to understand the quality and effect of students' practice, but also provides some instructional suggestions for teachers to promote teachers to evaluate and improve their teaching methods. Using these previous studies as a basis, this paper will discuss how to develop students' practice strategies to help them succeed. Teachers trains the practice strategies of students from three aspects: helping students set reasonable goals, imparting practice strategies and cultivating self-assessment ability.