Blog #113 Halloween Listening Challenge: Watch Your Students Transform One Link at a Time

Christy | the Practice Pro
2 days ago
8 min read

By Christy | the Practicing Pro

www.ScotiaSuzuki.org

Hey!

Can I share something with you that's going to change the way you think about teaching music?

Right now, you might be focused on getting your students to practice more, drilling technique, pushing through repertoire. But what if I told you there's something even more powerful you could be doing - and it only takes five or more minutes a day?

Why Your Students Need to Listen First

Here's what Dr. Suzuki figured out in the 1930s that's going to blow your mind: your students' brains are already wired to learn music the same way they learned to talk.

Think about it - did you teach them grammar rules before they could speak? Did they practice pronunciation drills as babies?

No.

They listened. Hundreds and hundreds of times. And then, naturally, they started speaking.

When you apply this to music, everything changes.

The Suzuki method expects your students to listen to recordings of their music every single day. Not as background noise (though that helps too) - but ideally as real, active listening that seeps into their subconscious. By the time your students pick up their instruments, they've already formed a personal bond with those tunes through continual listening.

I'm going to tell you something that might sound radical: Listening is more important than practicing.

I know what you're thinking.... But hear me out. If your students don't have time to practice? They can still listen. And when they DO have time to practice? They still need to listen. You're not choosing between the two - you're making listening the foundation everything else is built on.

What You'll See Happen in Your Studio

Your Students Will Learn Faster

When your students develop "audiation" - the ability to hear music in their heads - you'll notice something amazing. They'll spend less time learning notes because they already know them. Instead, they'll focus on expressivity, on making music instead of just playing notes.

Imagine this: your student comes to their lesson having listened to "Twinkle Twinkle" fifty times. Their brain already knows what comes next. They're not decoding the piece note by note - they're figuring out how to make their fingers produce sounds they already hear in their head. You'll see them learn pieces in half the time.

In order for your students to fully audiate, they need extensive knowledge of the song first. And that's what makes this such a powerful tool - the listening creates the foundation, then the physical playing becomes almost like joining in with a duet partner who's already playing in their head.

Your Students Will Remember Better

Here's where you're going to get really excited. Your students who develop strong audiation through listening will retain music better because they've internalized it. They can even practice without their instrument by audiating their way through a piece in the car, before bed, waiting in line.

Music listening triggers memory enhancement through the hippocampus - the part of the brain essential for turning experiences into memories. When your students listen repeatedly to a piece, they're not just memorizing notes. They're creating deep neural pathways that make recall easier and more automatic.

You'll have students who come back after summer break and still remember pieces from months ago. You'll have students who can play their repertoire without sheet music, effortlessly. That's the power of audiation built through listening.

Your Students Will Feel Confident on Stage

This is my favourite part, and you're going to see it transform your recitals. When your students have listened to a piece so many times they can sing it in their heads perfectly, something magical happens on stage. They're not alone up there trying to remember what comes next. The piece is playing like a recording in their mind, and they're simply playing along with it.

Imagine how your students will feel when they make a mistake or drop a note and the "recording" in their head just keeps going. They can jump back in at the next note. No panic. No trying to reconstruct the piece from memory. It's already there, complete and whole.

Research shows that listening to music significantly reduces anxiety levels. Your nervous students? They'll walk on stage feeling like they have a safety net. Or better yet, like they have the best duet partner in the world right there with them - one who never makes mistakes and never stops playing.

Your Students Will Develop a Beautiful Sound

Dr. Suzuki believed that recording technology made it possible for ordinary people to be surrounded with excellent performances. This is HUGE for you and your studio. Your students can listen to the finest musicians in the world playing their pieces. That becomes their sound model.

When your students listen to professional recordings, they're absorbing tone quality, phrasing, dynamics, tempo, style - all of it. These recordings serve as models they can internalize. Your students might still make pieces their own eventually, but they'll have this incredible template in their brain of what excellence sounds like.

You'll hear the difference in their tone. You'll hear it in their phrasing. Parents will come up to you and say, "When did they start sounding so professional?"

How to Run Your Halloween Listening Challenge

Here's what you're going to do, and I promise you'll be amazed at the results.

Set Up Your System

Grab some Halloween-colored paper - oranges, blacks, purples. (You could do this with Christmas colors in December, Easter pastels in spring, or just rainbow colors any time of year!) Cut each sheet in half, then cut each half into three strips. That's six links per sheet. Use scissors if you're worried about paper cutters - we need those teaching hands safe!

Start each teaching day with a stack of these strips ready to go.

Make It Easy for Your Families

Put your listening links where families can easily find them. If you don't have this set up yet, create a simple page with Spotify playlists, YouTube links, or whatever works for you. Yes, families might have to sit through ads without premium subscriptions, but you can reassure them - the benefits of listening are SO worth a few commercials.

Check In Weekly

Here's your new opening for every lesson: "How did your listening go this week? How many times did you listen to your assignment?"

You'll feel the energy shift in your studio. Suddenly, listening isn't this abstract thing you mention occasionally. It's a priority. It's something you check on every single week.

Watch the Habit Build

Here's what you'll see happen over the month:

Week 1: Many of your families will forget. That's okay. Give them their assignment, show them where the links are.

Week 2: When you check in, you'll hear "Oh shoot, we only did it once!" Give them that one strip. Celebrate it.

Week 3: The chain is getting longer. Families start noticing. You'll see more students earning strips.

Week 4: The momentum builds. Families who struggled all month suddenly jump on board because they see everyone else doing it.

There's something incredibly powerful about seeing that chain grow. It's not competitive - your families can't really read individual names easily on all those links. But they CAN see that wow, everyone's listening together. Everyone's doing this. And if they can do it, I can do it too.

Celebrate Your Struggling Students

Pay special attention to the kids who find listening hardest. When they come in having listened even three times that week, you're going to make a HUGE deal out of it. Take their photo with their links. Post it online or send it to their parents or print it and put it in their binder.

Success breeds success - it's a core Suzuki philosophy. When your students see themselves succeeding, when they see that photo of themselves holding their little chain with a big smile, something clicks. They think, "That's me. I listen to my music. I can do this again."

You'll feel incredible watching these transformations. The student who never listened before? Suddenly they're excited to tell you about it every week.

Create Your Big Reveal

Plan a Halloween party or group event at the end of the month. But starting the week before, begin decorating your studio or school halls with ALL the chains.

Can you imagine how you'll feel walking into your studio and seeing hundreds and hundreds of links filling your space? Each one representing a listening session. Each one a tiny investment in a child's musical brain development.

And every time your students walk through those halls, they'll see the visual proof of what your whole community accomplished together. You'll see their faces light up. You'll hear them counting links. You'll feel the pride radiating from them.

What This Will Change for You

You'll spend less time on remedial work. When your students know the music before they start learning it, you won't be constantly backtracking to fix wrong notes they've practiced incorrectly.

Your musicans will be more motivated. They'll want to play pieces they recognize. They'll feel confident. They'll enjoy lessons more.

Your studio culture will shift. You'll create an environment where listening is just what everyone does. New families will see it and think, "Oh, this is how we do things here."

You'll see faster progress. The more your students listen to their recordings, the more quickly they learn. It's that simple.

You'll feel like a better teacher or practicing parent. Not because you're doing anything different in the lesson itself - but because you've given your students the tool they need to succeed.

Start This Week

You don't have to wait for Halloween. You could start this Monday. Just five minutes a day of listening. Five minutes of having that piece playing while your students get ready for school, while they eat breakfast, while they're in the car.

Those five minutes? They're building neural pathways, creating sound models, developing audiation skills, and making everything else - the physical practice, the performances, the memory, the tone quality - so much easier.

Grab your colored paper. Set up your listening links. Start checking in weekly. And watch what happens.

You're going to feel so proud when you see those chains growing on your walls. You'll feel excited knowing that something incredible is happening inside your students' brains. You'll feel like you've unlocked a secret that makes everything else about teaching easier and more effective.

Your students will learn faster. They'll remember better. They'll perform with confidence. They'll develop beautiful tone.

All from listening. Just five minutes or more a day.

Are you ready to try it?

Want to see listening links in action? Set up a simple page on your studio website with organized playlists - your families will thank you!. You are also welcome to head and grab ours too on our student portal page - scotiasuzuki.org

Want More Support?

GRAB MY FREE CHECKLIST

Free Checklist: Download my "Checklist for Successful Music Practice" – your simple guide to organizing effective and enjoyable practice sessions, whether you're a new practice parent or a seasoned one.

Practicing Pro Academy: For families ready to dive deeper, my comprehensive digital course offers step-by-step guidance to create more effective, positive, and fun home practices. This once-yearly course includes personal support from me and a special package delivered to your door. Join the waitlist to be notified when registration opens.

DIGITAL COURSE from the Practicing Pro Academy

Learn more about PPA and join the waitlist HERE for the next Practicing Pro Academy course. It's only offered once a year so you don't want to miss it. The registration will only open for a few weeks and I'll let everyone on the waitlist know immediately so that you can grab one of the spots.

LIKE, FOLLOW, and SHARE on Instagram and/or Facebook to be inspired and join the positive practicing music community.

Facebook: Practicing Pro

Instagram: @practicingpro

By Christy | the Practicing Pro

www.ScotiaSuzuki.org

Hey!

Can I share something with you that's going to change the way you think about teaching music?

Right now, you might be focused on getting your students to practice more, drilling technique, pushing through repertoire. But what if I told you there's something even more powerful you could be doing - and it only takes five or more minutes a day?

Why Your Students Need to Listen First

Here's what Dr. Suzuki figured out in the 1930s that's going to blow your mind: your students' brains are already wired to learn music the same way they learned to talk.

Think about it - did you teach them grammar rules before they could speak? Did they practice pronunciation drills as babies?

No.

They listened. Hundreds and hundreds of times. And then, naturally, they started speaking.

When you apply this to music, everything changes.

I'm going to tell you something that might sound radical: Listening is more important than practicing.

I know what you're thinking.... But hear me out. If your students don't have time to practice? They can still listen. And when they DO have time to practice? They still need to listen. You're not choosing between the two - you're making listening the foundation everything else is built on.

What You'll See Happen in Your Studio

Your Students Will Learn Faster

When your students develop "audiation" - the ability to hear music in their heads - you'll notice something amazing. They'll spend less time learning notes because they already know them. Instead, they'll focus on expressivity, on making music instead of just playing notes.

In order for your students to fully audiate, they need extensive knowledge of the song first. And that's what makes this such a powerful tool - the listening creates the foundation, then the physical playing becomes almost like joining in with a duet partner who's already playing in their head.

Your Students Will Remember Better

Here's where you're going to get really excited. Your students who develop strong audiation through listening will retain music better because they've internalized it. They can even practice without their instrument by audiating their way through a piece in the car, before bed, waiting in line.

You'll have students who come back after summer break and still remember pieces from months ago. You'll have students who can play their repertoire without sheet music, effortlessly. That's the power of audiation built through listening.

Your Students Will Feel Confident on Stage

Imagine how your students will feel when they make a mistake or drop a note and the "recording" in their head just keeps going. They can jump back in at the next note. No panic. No trying to reconstruct the piece from memory. It's already there, complete and whole.

Your Students Will Develop a Beautiful Sound

Dr. Suzuki believed that recording technology made it possible for ordinary people to be surrounded with excellent performances. This is HUGE for you and your studio. Your students can listen to the finest musicians in the world playing their pieces. That becomes their sound model.

You'll hear the difference in their tone. You'll hear it in their phrasing. Parents will come up to you and say, "When did they start sounding so professional?"

How to Run Your Halloween Listening Challenge

Here's what you're going to do, and I promise you'll be amazed at the results.

Set Up Your System

Start each teaching day with a stack of these strips ready to go.

Make It Easy for Your Families

Check In Weekly

Here's your new opening for every lesson: "How did your listening go this week? How many times did you listen to your assignment?"

You'll feel the energy shift in your studio. Suddenly, listening isn't this abstract thing you mention occasionally. It's a priority. It's something you check on every single week.

Watch the Habit Build

Here's what you'll see happen over the month:

Week 1: Many of your families will forget. That's okay. Give them their assignment, show them where the links are.

Week 2: When you check in, you'll hear "Oh shoot, we only did it once!" Give them that one strip. Celebrate it.

Week 3: The chain is getting longer. Families start noticing. You'll see more students earning strips.

Week 4: The momentum builds. Families who struggled all month suddenly jump on board because they see everyone else doing it.

There's something incredibly powerful about seeing that chain grow. It's not competitive - your families can't really read individual names easily on all those links. But they CAN see that wow, everyone's listening together. Everyone's doing this. And if they can do it, I can do it too.

Celebrate Your Struggling Students

Pay special attention to the kids who find listening hardest. When they come in having listened even three times that week, you're going to make a HUGE deal out of it. Take their photo with their links. Post it online or send it to their parents or print it and put it in their binder.

Success breeds success - it's a core Suzuki philosophy. When your students see themselves succeeding, when they see that photo of themselves holding their little chain with a big smile, something clicks. They think, "That's me. I listen to my music. I can do this again."

You'll feel incredible watching these transformations. The student who never listened before? Suddenly they're excited to tell you about it every week.

Create Your Big Reveal

Plan a Halloween party or group event at the end of the month. But starting the week before, begin decorating your studio or school halls with ALL the chains.

Can you imagine how you'll feel walking into your studio and seeing hundreds and hundreds of links filling your space? Each one representing a listening session. Each one a tiny investment in a child's musical brain development.

And every time your students walk through those halls, they'll see the visual proof of what your whole community accomplished together. You'll see their faces light up. You'll hear them counting links. You'll feel the pride radiating from them.

What This Will Change for You

You'll spend less time on remedial work. When your students know the music before they start learning it, you won't be constantly backtracking to fix wrong notes they've practiced incorrectly.

Your musicans will be more motivated. They'll want to play pieces they recognize. They'll feel confident. They'll enjoy lessons more.

Your studio culture will shift. You'll create an environment where listening is just what everyone does. New families will see it and think, "Oh, this is how we do things here."

You'll see faster progress. The more your students listen to their recordings, the more quickly they learn. It's that simple.

You'll feel like a better teacher or practicing parent. Not because you're doing anything different in the lesson itself - but because you've given your students the tool they need to succeed.

Start This Week

You don't have to wait for Halloween. You could start this Monday. Just five minutes a day of listening. Five minutes of having that piece playing while your students get ready for school, while they eat breakfast, while they're in the car.

Those five minutes? They're building neural pathways, creating sound models, developing audiation skills, and making everything else - the physical practice, the performances, the memory, the tone quality - so much easier.

Grab your colored paper. Set up your listening links. Start checking in weekly. And watch what happens.

You're going to feel so proud when you see those chains growing on your walls. You'll feel excited knowing that something incredible is happening inside your students' brains. You'll feel like you've unlocked a secret that makes everything else about teaching easier and more effective.

Your students will learn faster. They'll remember better. They'll perform with confidence. They'll develop beautiful tone.

All from listening. Just five minutes or more a day.

Are you ready to try it?

Want to see listening links in action? Set up a simple page on your studio website with organized playlists - your families will thank you!. You are also welcome to head and grab ours too on our student portal page - scotiasuzuki.org

Want More Support?

GRAB MY FREE CHECKLIST

Free Checklist: Download my "Checklist for Successful Music Practice" – your simple guide to organizing effective and enjoyable practice sessions, whether you're a new practice parent or a seasoned one.

DIGITAL COURSE from the Practicing Pro Academy

Learn more about PPA and join the waitlist HERE for the next Practicing Pro Academy course. It's only offered once a year so you don't want to miss it. The registration will only open for a few weeks and I'll let everyone on the waitlist know immediately so that you can grab one of the spots.

LIKE, FOLLOW, and SHARE on Instagram and/or Facebook to be inspired and join the positive practicing music community.

Facebook: Practicing Pro

Instagram: @practicingpro

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