Motivating students to practice is a big topic for piano teachers. In fact, it's probably the biggest one.

Tackling this area is no small undertaking, and I'm delighted to welcome Samantha Coates to the podcast to talk us through it. In this three-part series Samantha is unpacking motivation and parent education, and what leads to students that are intrinsically motivated to practice.

In this first episode, Samantha discusses overscheduled students and how teachers can educate the parents about practice expectations. She also explains the difference between "if-then" and "now-that" rewards and why this distinction is so important to make.

Ultimately, at the end of this series, I hope you will have started to understand how you can move your students into that top green square of the motivation matrix. Let's get started.

Transcript

If you'd like to download a PDF transcript of this episode, please click below.

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In this episode, you’ll learn

• Why kids are so overscheduled these days
• What we can do with these overscheduled students from the first meeting
• The best way to use rewards in our studios
• Why we do need some extrinsic motivation
• How we can better understand our students' motivation
• The biggest change you can make straight away in your teaching

Links Mentioned

• The Motivation Matrix
• Jelly Bean Practice
• Drive by Dan Pink
• Episode 18: Everything But the Pieces (Part 1)
• Episode 19: Everything But the Pieces (Part 2)

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Thank you for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, and I’m grateful that you’ve chosen mine.

Whether you’re at the gym, on the bike or in the car, I know that you and your students will get lots out of what you learn in the long run.

Just make sure you try out some of the ideas before they get lost in the business of your next lessons!

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Do you give out rewards in your studio?

How do you think this affects your students' motivation? Has Samantha changed how you think about rewards and motivators?