Repetition In Lessons

Attention All Students!!!

It is extremely important that you understand that practicing in lessons is different from what you do at home in terms of how many times you repeat something before you advance. Before we discuss this difference, let’s review the policy and philosophy behind practicing in our lessons:

Practicing During Lesson Time

Mr. Lewis has a unique teaching style. There are some teachers who refuse to spend lesson time practicing and feel as if you, the student, are wasting their time if you don’t practice before the lesson. A lot of teachers who quit teaching trumpet lesson actually site this as a reason why. They are disappointed in their students because they never practice.

Mr. Lewis is different. If (and we should stress that word “IF”) a student doesn’t practice for the lesson, Mr. Lewis will shift gears and practice with the students in the lesson. The reason he does this is because he feels like this is the perfect opportunity to teach students HOW to practice.

Not enough teachers will spend the time teaching the students how to practice. They simply demand that the dues be paid, through sacrificed time, and that the student be ready for the lesson when they arrive. Mr. Lewis believes in teaching his students more efficient ways to practice so they make more progress with the time the have.

Abbreviated Version

What the students must understand is that how they practice in the lesson is an abbreviated version of what they should be doing at home. To practice correctly, the students must repeat each section seven to ten times before advancing within the practice system. In lessons, we typically only repeat three to six times. 

In future articles we will likely discuss these practice systems and how they work at making practice time more efficient. For now, it’s just important that you know that the number of repetitions you do at home should be seven to ten.