Have you ever heard of “The Practice Cake?”
The analogy was first brought to my attention by Dr. Lori Rhoden, who I studied with in the graduate piano pedagogy program at Ball State.
Recently, I saw an article on The Practice Cake and it made me remember that I have an assignment sheet that is based on this idea!
It’s a simple idea really, but a great visual for how to teach students to build their practice.
1) Rhythm and notes/fingering
2) Articulation
3) Dynamics and tempo
4) Pedal
The image is flip-flopped, however, like a layer cake! The foundation is the rhythm/notes/fingering the top of the cake is the pedal. You can’t get to the top unless you have the foundation!
One of the assignment sheets I created in my early “assignment-sheet-creating” days included a small image as such.
However, after a reader asked if I could tweak it because it looked like *that* emoji, yeah, you know, the poop emoji, I decided to simply switch the analogy to a stairstep. (I was working from Microsoft Word, and didn’t know about things like Canva at the time, OK? 🙂 LOL)
It doesn’t really matter the graphic, right? The idea is the same.
If you like the idea of having an image as such on your student’s assignment sheet each week, check out Assignment Sheet #15: Practice Steps 2 on Assignment Sheet Central or just download it right here!
Interested in reading a little more on this idea?
Check out this article by Chrissy Ricker on Tonara.com: The Practice Cake: A “sweet” approach to teaching beginners how to practice