I love any tool that breaks a task into the small, specific steps that can be taken to achieve mastery. Which is also to say that I am a big fan of rubrics.
If you're not familiar with rubrics, they are defined as "a detailed scoring guide that outlines specific criteria used to assess a piece of work or performance" (Google).
I loved using rubrics so much when I was in college that I designed music assessment rubrics for my private students. I developed them thoughtfully and honed them over time because I wanted to help students:
increase their sense of ownership in their musical progress
understand how specific musical elements affect the mood or character of each piece
improve their execution of these elements so they can play more expressively
If you're thinking that that is a tall order for one little rubric, I think you're right!
Incredibly, these positive changes are exactly what the rubrics have inspired for my students. When using these practice guides, students are more engaged in the process of mastering their music. They listen more carefully when they practice, and are more eager to improve their performance.
Because I teach lessons on flute, clarinet and piano, I developed separate rubrics for piano and woodwind students. Both rubrics have many things in common, but are also tailored to address specific elements for different instruments.
For example, the woodwind rubric provides opportunities for students to assess:
breathing and phrasing
embouchure
intonation
The piano rubric provides opportunities for students to assess:
pedaling
hand position
the balance between the melody and harmony
Each rubric outlines a dozen or so musical elements that comprise any piece of music - notes, rhythms, dynamics and so on. A scoring system from 1 (poor execution) to 10 (perfect execution) is provided for each element. There are sections where students can re-score their execution of each element on consecutive practice days to gauge their progress.
In addition to prompting all the positive changes listed above, the rubrics have also helped my students learn how to practice. They understand the focus and attention to detail necessary to improve a piece of music and are more likely to employ these skills - even when the rubric isn't used.
A bonus benefit of these rubrics is for you, the teacher: they greatly improve the likelihood that each student will improve their piece from one lesson to the next. No more listening to same poorly played passages again and again! Instead, enjoy the progress your students make from one lesson to the next as they learn how to practice with focus and attention to detail.
I hope you'll give these rubrics a try and see if they work for you! For a limited time, you can get both rubrics for FREE on my website at The Music Shop.
Visit The Music Shop today!
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