A friend and colleague in town also blogs. She’s been blogging longer than I have. We meet for coffee sometimes to talk about teaching and blogging and all kinds of things.

A couple of weeks ago we met with Kay, another blogger friend, in a coffee shop. We were on laptops and smart phones, chatting verbally,  talking posts, widgets, dashboards, reblogs –  and all the while on our screens sending each links. And we are so not teenagers.

It was glorious.

Rhona-Mae has a newish blog called Busted Piano String. You have to LOVE the title of that one! Music practice tips and ideas for musicians of all ages and levels.

This week she gave some advice on the numbers game and cramming for exams. When it’s crunch time and not everything is prepared, how can you best use your practice time to maximize your marks? Sometimes the best bet is to sacrifice a mark or 2 or 3 in one area in order to do better in another.

And I wholeheartedly agree. Particularly with memorization – specifically with Bach. If I have a student who struggles with memory anyway, we’re not even going to try. We can more than recoup those marks elsewhere.

It is not acceptable to make that decision four months before an exam with a jazzy tune. As a student of mine announced last night. Fifteen minutes of frustrating memory work for me – she just can’t remember a chord she just played – unbelievable – and I finally told her point blank that I cannot do the work for her.

At which point she looked up at me with the sweetest eyes and said, “They won’t take off that many marks.”

Tearing my hair out over this one…

Do read Rhona-Mae’s article for sensible advice.

Kay’s blog is Medley of Melodies. Jazz & Classical Piano – Let’s teach it all!

__________________________________

Image: JPN Photoblog