How to Take Lesson Notes
Children need adult guidance to practice the violin effectively. As your child’s practice partner, one of your key jobs is taking notes during their lesson and then applying those notes to home practice. Here’s an outline of what to write down during lessons:
What:
Write down what your child and teacher do during the lesson. This list of activities is your practice assignment: replicate as many of them as possible during daily home practice (keeping in mind that young beginners will likely need to cycle activities throughout the week instead of doing every activity every day).
How:
Record the details of how your teacher is working with your child
What instructions do they give your child?
What do they ask your child to notice?
What do they compliment? What do they correct?
Can you define what ‘success’ looks like for this activity? (If not, ask!)
Why:
As much as possible, write down why each activity is happening (defining the ‘whys’ takes some time, but it does get easier with continued practice…see below for some more info):
Questions
It is 100% normal to have questions about any and every part of the practice-partner process! I am always happy to talk with parents about note-taking and practicing questions. Every teacher is different, but these are my preferences about when to touch base:
Whats: Beginning of the lesson
Certain activities will likely be especially easy or difficult to replicate at home. It’s helpful for me to hear about what did and didn’t work well, as well as anything you just couldn’t get to happen at home. This is great to discuss at the beginning of a lesson so that we can adjust the lesson plan accordingly.
Hows: As we go
It’s usually easiest to discuss ‘hows’ right after an activity, or even while the activity is happening.
Whys: End of lesson/outside of lesson
The ‘whys’ tend to be the least obvious, the least concrete, and the least engaging for kids. They are a great thing to discuss together at the end of a lesson and/or in a follow up email post-lesson.
