Run Competitions

Put some prizes up for offer - chocolates, CD or book vouchers, free DVD or game rentals - and then declare open a Practice Championship of the Universe.

You can offer rewards for consistent practice, highest weekly totals, greatest improvement - you can even have teams of students competing together against other teams.

Whatever the competition, you'll have ready access to all the stats you need to determine results, and you can post updated scoreboards in the Studio Newsletter.

How effective is their practice?

Because your practice stats page provides you with details of how much time students spent practicing this week, you can measure that against what they actually achieved to determine the effectiveness of their practice.

So if a student comes to their lesson with their piece in tatters, but plenty of practice recorded, it's a sign either that they are not being honest about how much practice they actually did, or that their practice methods simply don't not work.

Either way, it's a reason for a conversation with them. (Your ultimate aim should be to help them get more done with less practice!)

How appropriate is their workload?

If students are recording solid practice times, are being smart about how they practice, and still are not ready for each lesson, it probably means that you are simply giving them too much to do each week. (It happens!)

Your Practice Stats page can help you detect this problem before they become discouraged.

If students feel that they are drowning in the work you have set them, encourage them to send you a midweek "help!" message - should you then choose to revise their practice instructions, the changes will appear immediately on their own webpage.

Track your students' peaks and troughs

Your Practice Stats page allows you to view practice records for any student over an extended period of time, allowing you to compare recent times with times from three, six or twelve months ago.

Apart from being useful information for conversations with parents, it can also help you understand when each student is most likely to be productive.

For example, some students are enormously productive during school holidays, while for other students that can traditionally be the worst time to practice. Knowing this can help you plan more effectively for each student, tailoring their workload to suit there preferences.

Track effectiveness of your motivation ideas

Instead of trying to guess what sends your students into a flurry of musical activity, you can actually use your Practice Stats page to objectively measure the effectiveness of your various strategies for motivating your students.

What happens to practice times when a studio recital date is announced? Or straight after you've taken the studio to hear an inspirational international concert artist? Or if you increase everybody's workload? Or if you reduce everyone's workload?

Or if parents are involved in the practice process? Or if parents are banned from the practice process?

After each idea is introduced, you'll quickly be able to see any impact on their practice stats, helping you separate great ideas from those that simply look good on paper.

Post highlights in the Newsletter

Public accolades are always an effective means of positive reinforcement, which is why your studio newsletter is a great way to give accolades to hardworking students. You might want to start posting some "Top 10" lists - students who aren't on the list will start thinking about what they have to do to be listed, while those who already are will be practicing harder to be listed higher.

Other categories to consider are "most improved" or "most consistent" - or to simply list the top 5, but to do so  according to age groups.

The aim is to ensure that plenty of students are mentioned every week. It encourages everyone to work harder, it also creates the perception of a busy and motivated studio.

Send midweek messages

Because your own page is dynamically updated the instant your students record their practice times, you'll be able to see how their week has been going long before their next lesson rolls around.

This means that you can intervene midweek if the stats are looking grim.

If, for example,  they have recorded only five minutes of practice for the first three days of the week, instead of simply waiting for a disaster at the next lesson, send them a quick message:

"Hi Susan

Looks like the beginning of your week has had other plans for you (it happens sometimes!) - just a reminder though that you still get everything done in time for next lesson if you it the accelerator over the next four days.

Let me know if you need any help."

The message will only take you a minute or so to dash off, but it has the potential to rescue next lesson - while the positive tone reminds them that you're on their side, and that you don't just think about them at their lesson.

Set up Practice Buddies

Training at a gym can be much easier if you have a training partner urging you on. Instead of stopping after only 20 reps, you're likely to push on to 30, because you know someone's watching you.

You can use the same tactic for students as they practice.

Go to the "Studio Buddies" tool to set up partners for each student. Every couple of days, they simply need to send a message to their practice partner detailing how much practice they have done, together with some encouragement for their partner if it looks as if their times have been flagging.

If you have competitive students, you can actually have the students go head-to-head, trying to out-practice each other during the week.

They might not be practicing for purely musical reasons, but they'll be working harder and playing better, so you won't be getting complaints from their parents. And it also means that the reminders to practice are not coming from the traditional sources (ie. you and their parents), saving you from having to play the role of the bad guy.