Setting Goals

As we have seen and discussed in class, the practice logs for this marking period have an added component. Students will reflect on their own progress and personal expectations and use these reflections to set meaningful, appropriate goals for themselves.

Goals should be things that a student has not already mastered, but feels confident that they can accomplish in one meaningful practice session. A meaningful practice session is one in which an appropriate amount of uninterrupted time is devoted to a specific goal. Meaningful practice sessions for scales can be less than 10 minutes, but all other goals should be given more time.

Make a mental list of the type of goals you would like to set before composing your own. You can set goals such as, but not limited to:

• Orchestra music
• School lesson music
• Scales
• Private lesson music
• Community/Youth Symphony music
• Fiddle tunes
• Posture/Position

Scale goals should state more than just the major or minor scale name. Why did you choose this scale? Here are some ways to practice scales:

• Improve tone quality: adjust bow use, position, and posture for better sound
• Pitches/Fingerings: clearly defined whole and half steps
  
• Dynamic work: achieve good tone in a variety of dynamics
• Bow improvement: martele, detache, slurring multiple notes to a bow, practicing with rhythms at different tempos
  

A scale goal may sound like this:
"Review the pitches & fingerings of the A Major Scale. Practice scale at ♩= 68, first using the entire bow, then slurring 2 notes per bow."



Words such as "memorize" and "learn" should be avoided in the wording of the goal because memorization and learning require the passage of time to check.

Instead, consider what actions lead to memorization and learning:

• Mastery of technique: correct bowings, pitches, fingerings, dynamics, rhythms
• Daily repetition: only count repetitions that are correct!
• Performance: for family, friends, classmates, teachers
• Reflection: it sounds okay, but what can I do to make it better?

A goal with memorization in mind may sound like this:
"After careful review, perform m1-10 of Piece 6x correctly."


Individual practice is crucial to creating a full, wonderful orchestra sound. Often, we can get excited about our orchestra music and want to play the entire piece all the way through. This type of goal should be reserved for the days (not even weeks) prior to an orchestra performance. Students should set goals that focus on small sections of an orchestra piece and choose specific techniques to work on:

• Pitch/Fingerings
• Bowings
• Dynamics
• Tempo
• Tone quality

Orchestra goals may sound like this:
"Increase tempo in m20-26 of Orchestra Piece by playing in all increments of speed between ♩= 60-80"
"Correctly play m78-80 of Orchestra Piece 3 times, each time focusing on notes, bowstroke, and dynamics."



Remember that students are expected to practice an average of 20-30 minutes per day. Logs will be graded based on the quality of goals and the time management shown by students. In the past, logs were graded for completion. Now, students should have a comfortable practice routine in place and will receive a grade accordingly.


For additional guidance in forming goals for practice logs, refer to the post on practicing or email me at ellisl@guilderlandschools.org