'Get Smart' Practice Challenge

Our practice challenge for January is going to be based off an improvisational teaching acrostic, Get SMART, introduced to me by Shelly Davis of the piano parent podcast several years back. 

You can listen to that podcast episode below to hear examples of students Getting Smart with their music. 

The word SMART stands for Style, Melody, Articulation, Rhythm and Tempo. And our challenge for this January will be for students to put their own spin on each of these elements into music of their choosing. Once they've given their own creative interpretation to a piece on each of the 5 musical elements, they'll have completed the challenge! 

This is going to be very open-ended and student led because:

• Students can use the same music for all 5, so they end up with 5 different versions of the same piece, or choose different music for different elements along the way.
• Students can work through SMART in any order, they don't have to start with Style if they'd rather start with Tempo or one of the other elements.
• I will help in lessons when students feel stuck or uninspired, and we'll brainstorm possibilities together, but I will not be telling them how or what to play. The hope is that students will enjoy unleashing a bit of their own creativity!

We'll be sharing videos of our SMART improvisations over on the studio Facebook and Instagram, so be sure to follow along there to see what our creativity produces!