#121 The Thankful Tree — Thanksgiving Practice Activity
By Christy Hodder, Expert Music Educator
What if this weekend's practice wasn't a battle at all, but a little thank-you note to music?
That's what this Thanksgiving activity is all about. Your child chooses the piece. Your child chooses what to focus on. And after every piece, they stop and name something they're thankful for. Six pieces, six leaves, one beautiful tree on the fridge.
And yes, I've included two free printables at the end, in colour and in black and white, so you can start today!
A quick note to my American friends: I know, I know, Thanksgiving in October? Here in Nova Scotia, we celebrate on the second Monday of October. By November, our gardens are frozen and the harvest is long gone! So bookmark this one for your own Thanksgiving in November. It works just as beautifully then.
What Jacob Collier Taught Me About Practice
I was blessed to see Jacob Collier live in Montreal, and I came home so full of inspiration! If you haven't heard of him, he's a Grammy-winning musician who grew up making music at home with his mum. He's joyful, wildly creative, and a little bit wiggly in the best way.
When he talks about how he learned, he says something that stopped me in my tracks:
"My approach to learning and practice was to kind of follow the thing that felt interesting and felt like it lit me up."Follow the thing that lights you up.
So often, practice gets turned into a list of things the grown-ups want fixed. But when a child gets to follow their own curiosity, practice stops being a chore. It becomes an adventure they're leading.
So this Thanksgiving week and weekend, let's hand them the map.
How the Thankful Tree Works
Your player plays six review / upgrade pieces, and after each one, they fill a leaf on their tree. Here's how it goes:
Your child picks a review / upgrade piece. Not you. Not the teacher. Them!
Your child picks one thing to focus on. A beautiful tone. Relaxed hands. Standing tall. Playing it as quietly as a falling leaf. Whatever they choose is perfect. Some children are incredibly creative! Let them be.
They say both out loud. "I'm playing Lightly Row, and I'm focusing on my beautiful tone." Naming it is half the magic. They can also write it on the back of each leaf or on their sheet.
They play!
They fill in a leaf and write what they're thankful for. A person, a pet, pumpkin pie, the cello itself. Anything goes. Let them express themselves without shame or suggestion. If they say candy and video games, that's fine! Don't make them say what you think they "should" say or feel. Let them decide, without judgement.
Repeat until all six leaves are full. You can do all six in one practice, or spread them over the long weekend. Either way, by Thanksgiving dinner there's a whole tree of music and gratitude to show the family.
This fits so well with our mantra this month: Repetition Equals Joy. Every time your child plays a review / upgrade piece, they're not just keeping it. They're loving it a little more.
The Most Important Rule: A No-Judgement Zone
Here's the hard part for us grown-ups. When your child names their piece and their focus, don't change it. Don't improve it. Don't nudge it toward what you think they should work on.
If they want to play their Twinkle as a silly robot, that's the focus. If they want to play their hardest piece with their very best tone, that's the focus. Some days they need playful. Some days they want serious. Let them decide what they need today for their review / upgrade pieces.
Jacob Collier says one of the greatest blessings of his childhood was that he only had to "be Jacob" to be loved at home. Not a star. Not a prodigy. Just Jacob. He puts it like this:
"If you're lucky enough to [have] someone in your life who loves you unconditionally... that's the biggest gift."You get to be that someone. This weekend, your child only has to be themselves.
And teachers, this is for you too. When a student chooses their focus in a lesson, receive it with delight. Their choice is the door. You can teach so much through a door they opened themselves!
A Little Secret: Mix It Up!
Here's something I share with my own students. If you're checking off your six review / upgrade pieces a day chart and you purposely pick all the short pieces first, guess what's left at the end? All the long ones! And six long pieces in a row feels a lot harder than six mixed ones.
So help your child think like a smart planner (and then let them choose!):
A short one, then a long one
A fast one, then a slow one
A favourite, then a less favourite
An easier one, then a harder one
This isn't about controlling the list. It's about giving them a strategy so they can make great choices on their own.
Why Six Review / Upgrade Pieces, Every Single Practice?
Review / upgrade pieces should always feel easy. That's the whole point! Once a piece is performance-ready, we want to keep it there forever.
Here's what I see again and again. The children who don't want to practise often have only one piece that feels ready, or none at all. So they always default to that one piece, and everything else feels hard. Nothing feels like a win.
But a child with six (or sixteen!) pieces at their fingertips? They can play for Grandma at a moment's notice. They walk into a recital with confidence. Music feels like something they own.
That's why we do six review / upgrade pieces every practice. They're the main part of practice, and new things go in between them. Each time a piece is played, it gets a little upgrade, like the focus your child chooses on their Thankful Tree.
At Scotia Suzuki School of Music in Halifax, our teachers model this in lessons too. Review / upgrade pieces fill large parts of our lessons, with focused learning sections in between.
As much as possible, new skills are taught right inside a review / upgrade piece, so the child learns something new in a piece they already love.
Keep every piece ready. Watch the confidence grow.
For Teachers: The Thankful Leaves Group Class
This is what we're doing in our Thanksgiving group classes this Saturday, and you can do it too!
Print the Thankful Leaves page in colour on cardstock and cut out the leaves. Give each child two. All you need besides that is a few Sharpies.
Each child names a review / upgrade piece and one thing to focus on. (In a small class, they can choose a favourite instead.)
They play it, alone as a mini concert or together with the rest of the group.
They get a leaf and write what they're thankful for.
Do it twice, so every child has two leaves.
Make a human tree to end the class! Everyone stands close together for the trunk and holds their leaves out and up high. Snap a photo. It's adorable, I promise.
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