From time to time we all find our mind wandering when it should be focusing on a particular task. Over a period of three weeks piano teacher Jorunn Marie Bratlie and three of her students set out to explore this issue in detail. On each practice day the students were asked to pick an excerpt or exercise that they would then work on in detail for 20 minutes. They should not just practise “as normal” but also write down their thoughts and actions as and when they materialised during the practice session, triggered by questions such as:

• Why do I repeat something?

• What do I need to improve?

• Which practice strategies (“tools”) could I use to improve a specific passage?

Such questions are normally asked and answered the moment they arise and without stopping to make further reflections. The reason for asking the students to put their reflections down on paper was to make them stay focused and not allow them to avoid the task. Another objective was to better enable the students to analyse their own practice in order to make better use of their practice time.

The three students were Student 1 (male), Student 2 (female), and Student 3 (female). All three were enrolled on the bachelor programme. To prepare the students for the project, the teacher allowed them to spend some of their piano lessons practising. She would occasionally intervene and ask the students why they practised the way they did and what they would like to change. For example, one of the students was practising an exercise where the main objective was to create forward momentum. As she began to practise finger strength, very slowly, the teacher asked: “What are you trying to achieve with this exercise? Why do you think this way of practising will help create momentum?” Was slow practice a standard routine for her, regardless of the purpose of the exercise?

The students met the request for daily observations of a 20-minute practice session in different ways. One student wrote down everything she did during practice for three weeks, providing a detailed account of a 20-minute session on each day of practice. Another student did the same for the first week but was less diligent in subsequent weeks. The last student reported that he “didn’t write something every single day, but I have written a little bit, at least”. Two of the students handed copies of their notes to the teacher, while the third submitted selected notes by email. The notes were used as a starting point for discussion during the one-to-one lessons and a couple of piano classes.

One student had experience of keeping a practice diary in which repertoire and exercises were noted down along with the timings for each of them. None of the three had any experience of taking notes while practising with the express aim of staying focused and questioning their own practice methods.

Students often find that different exercises require varying degrees of concentration. A study of German conservatoire students found that they felt practising a “problem” usually required the most concentration while practising familiar material required the least (Lehmann 2002). The NMH project described here did not distinguish between different types of tasks – the students themselves chose what to practise during the 20-minute periods.

A month after the project was completed, the three students were interviewed as a group. The quotes below illustrate the general gist of what they had to say.