Inside the Bookstore:
Creating Studio Awards
OST MUSIC STUDIOS underuse awards. Sure, we put stickers in books, and hand out certificates, but that's using Studio Awards to pay homage to behavior and results that have already happened.
Where awards become really interesting is when they're used to shape what's about to happen. This IMT guide looks at how to do just that.
A smart way around this is to have Awards that are criteria based, rather than podium based.This means that any student who fulfils all the criteria qualifies for the award. In theory, every student in your studio could receive the Award— once they have met the requirements.
Like university degrees or badges in scouts, your students will realise that an award isn't something they win. It's something they earn.
Skills-based awards are available to any student who completes the qualifications. Exactly what those qualifications are is up to you—we'll look at how to create those qualifications in a moment—but first there's a more important and fun job.
The challenge is to create a name for the award that young students will find irresistable, and older students disarming-but-intruiging.
Let's imagine that the skill you want to promote is key signature recognition. You could create an award called "Key Signature Proficiency"...
...or
you could run with
"Key Signature International GrandMaster (1st Degree)”.
Now we're talking. Younger students will be suitably awestruck. Older students will smile at the over-the-top-hype, but will inevitably be curious about what comes after 1st degree (more on that in a moment). Either way, with the title dangling like a lolly that is just out of reach, the only question in your student’s mind now is what they have to do to qualify…
• To have scored 90% or more on the Key signature Challenge Sheet (Up to four sharps and flats)
• Correctly identify the key signatures of 15 randomly chosen works. (again, up to four sharps and flats, all excerpts by Haydn or Mozart)
• To have scored 100% in the IMT Key Signature Level 5 Quiz (one of our growing collection of free, randomly generated and self marking theory drills—a very easy way for you to measure your student's achievement levels)
The criteria is clearly stated in advance, so that when students are considering working towards becoming a 1st Degree International Key Signature Grandmaster, they know exactly what is involved. Students are allowed as many attempts as they need. So they can't be discouraged by failing. Once they've met the all the criteria—however long it took them—they earn the reward.
Make a fuss, congratulate them, post the achievement somewhere prominent for all to see.
But that's only the start.
. (You did design one, right?) Much more prestigious, as not so many students have their name on that honour board.
And of course, there's a 3rd Degree available too, but it's really tough to get.
This new 2nd Degree Award is similar to the 1st Degree award, except that this time they have to score 100% on a dozen different Key Signature Challenge Sheets, correctly identify the key signatures of 100 randomly chosen works(!) in any key, and score at least 95% in the IMT Key Signature Mastery Quiz.
I haven't listed the 3rd degree requirements, but you can bet that it would demand 100% from that same test. If you use your imagination, you can create plenty of upgrade paths, ensuring that the early ones are readily attainable, while the highest honours require efforts of Herculean proportions.
How many upgrades are there? It’s up to you. But the more possible upgrades on offer, the bette; apart from showing that your studio’s approach to theory is both varied and comprehensive, it also helps the students to feel as though they have genuine options, ensuring that their collection of awards is different from those of other students. So under the system above, one student might have earned their 4th degree Musical Terms and Signs Master, but only their 1st Degree on Rhythm Reading. Her friend might have completed the requirements for 2nd Degree on Rhythmic Dictation, but ticked all the boxes necessary for 6th Degree(godlike! The only student in the studio!) on Sightreading.
(You can see how this concept has been applied to learning scales in Scales Bootcamp, an IMT book that features over one hundred (!) awards to earn for each scale, with the promise that if you complete them all, you'll never need to practice that scale again.)
These are awards are again criteria based, but linked directly to your student’s playing, rather than their theory. Some possibilities might include:
The idea is that they score one point for every person who hears them play their piece, so the bigger the audience, the more points they can rack up. A performance for their family might earn them five points. If they play it for their class it school, they might earn 28 points. An assembly performance can be worth hundreds. Your studio might offer Public Performance Awards for 50 points, 200 points and 500 points. And yes, repeat concerts still count, while the points are cumulative. So if they organise to give a “performance” just to their parents every night for a week, they will score 14 Performance Points for that.
It is not unreasonable to expect that a student with 500 performance points behind them is going to be much calmer about playing that piece on competition day that one who only has 10 performance points. (Experience being the best teacher, or so they say…)
In fact, you may want to mandate a minimum amount of points theat they should earn before they even think about playing these pieces in that big competition or exam...or your showcase end-of-year recital, for that matter...
But all along the way, you'll he handing out rewards to mark the milestones, and reminding them about what the next milestone is.
So far we have looked at awards that reflect the daily demands of being a music student. They all have to learn pieces. They all have to do theory. They all have to practice, and perform what they have mastered. In fact, you’d hope that most of your students would end up receiving most of these Awards at some stage in their lessons.
But there is another category of Awards, for students who are prepared to go beyond the call of duty. You’ll think of a more awe-inspiring name for them, but for the time being, let’s just call them Extension Awards.Of all the Awards, the criteria for these is the most open-ended.
Extension Awards are designed to be for everything outside of the core skills—for the countless peripheral activities that would leave your students as better musicians, but which most people don’t seem to make time for.
We’ve listed a few possibilities below to get you started:
Unless you live in a one-hotel country town, the options should be overwhelming. There are student recitals, choral groups, military band performances, symphony orchestras, school musicals, string quartets, ethnic music groups, jazz ensembles, music workshops, competition finals…and that’s just before the weekend. Much more than any one person could possibly attend…but the sad reality is that many of your students will go through a whole year without attending any concerts at all.
The structure for the Award is simple. Your students would earn points for every concert they attend. Double points if they write a summary of what they experienced while they were there—the elements in the playing they liked, the things they didn’t, and above all else, why. Once they have accumulated a pre-defined number of points they qualify for the award.
If this turns some students into concert junkies just to pursue an Award, then so be it – the benefits enormously outweigh any debates over lack of honour in their motivation. And hopefully the habit will stay with them for a lifetime.
But be very certain of this. If they perform badly, the parents will be looking to you for answers (even if it wasn’t your fault). And some of these inquisitions are not polite. This Award encourages students to not only be ready for their deadlines, but to be ready very early. Not a fortnight, or a month. Eight weeks before the actual date, they would have a mock recital. If they pull it off, then they automatically qualify for the Award.
That’s for the silver version. For the gold version, they might need to be ready 12 weeks ahead of schedule.
The correlation between recipients of these awards, and the stand out performers on the day of the actual recital is always fascinating, and I don’t need to outline what usually happens.
So what is the challenge? You set them a task that represents four times the amount of work you would normally ask for. They have a week to get it all done. And if they complete it to your satisfaction, they earn this award.
So just for seven days, a student who ordinarily does twenty minutes of practice each day will suddenly be doing almost an hour and a half. Maybe more. It’s a big ask, but it’s only for seven days, and they know it won’t be asked of them again for another year.
They have the right to concede defeat. But more than a few of your students will be too proud to allow this to happen. (It’s often the students who you might otherwise label as “stubborn” – this week they are going to come into their own!)
And those students who do have the inner strength to persist for the entire week will be transformed by the experience.
Of all the Awards your studio can offer, this will be one of the toughest to get, and you will learn a lot about your students as you discover how each copes with it.