Try the Review Challenge!

Regular practice of review pieces is important for all of our students, Suzuki and Traditional alike. It helps develop good tone and bow control, solidify intonation and practice memory, among many other things. But, convincing our kids of this can sometimes be a challenge! I've had several parents come to me with stories of practice struggles when it comes to review pieces. After all, it's just so fun to progress quickly on the new pieces! So, setting up a practice challenge for review pieces can be a good way to motivate the reluctant reviewer and remind them that review songs can be fun too!

The review challenge should be slightly different for each student, but can be based on the following. I like to go back to the beginning of a book and have the student earn 2 stars for each song after giving two recital quality performances of each. The practice partner or teacher should be the judge of what constitutes recital quality, and is different for everyone. This is a nice mini-goal that makes practicing review songs a challenge and a priority and might just help your child or student with intonation and bow control in the process!