One of the most effective ways that I teach my students when learning a new piece is: Doing mental practice and practicing away from the instrument. In fact, learning how to do mental practice takes precedence when addressing any technical/conceptual issues. This take a ton of work on both the teacher and students’ part, but it is worth it over a long period of time.
Mental practice and visualization plays a huge role in developing that patience, resilience, alignment of mind and body if we want to achieve better music.
Kids love it when I become their “puppet”. The hardest part is getting them to understand the concept of aligning your mind and body movements. “Air fingering” and “air bowing” helps greatly for younger ones to solidify what they think/hear in their minds Vs. their actual movements. When I am a puppet to what they’re working on in the music, they get to hear what’s being played on a more sensitive level; this trains their ear and raise awareness on all levels as well. They immediately hear the hesitations, the wrong notes, the misalignments that are often neglected when they’re unable to take a step back to listen to themselves.
Playing an instrument is so difficult and it involves so many levels of multi-tasking and awareness skills. So by taking away the layer and difficulties of physical playing, you help students understand and hear their thoughts better, train their mind before they combine both physical + mental mechanisms again.
We teachers also make the mistake of repeating an instruction 3-10 times with no productive improvements, and forget to reevaluate how we are the ones who are not conveying messages across to our students in an effective way.
Everything boils down to how we think and approach situations or issues in life. Just dig deep and find out what’s the root of the problem, explore whatever ways work best for you and your students.
Hope you can try this approach and that it helps!=) This works not just for younger students but any ages who is open minded to try!