You may have noticed that we recently changed the name of our practice mentorship programme from ‘Supervised Practice’ to ‘Guided Practice.’ While certainly not as earth-shattering as Facebook rebranding to ‘Meta,’ we believe this change better describes the value of this programme to students and their parents and teachers. Here’s why.
Actively involved in musicians’ progress
If you aren’t already familiar with the programme, Guided Practice is an educational technique proven to accelerate a musician’s progress by joining the dots between their lessons and practice. Once only available at elite, fee-paying music schools, we made Guided Practice accessible through the fully safeguarded Practice Pal app.
As a company, the concept of ‘supervision’ started to feel passive and disciplinary—more like what you would expect of a babysitter or schoolyard monitor at playtime. This language no longer aligned with what we set out to achieve when we created the world’s first virtual practice mentorship corridor.
A guide, on the other hand, helps us to experience places or things in a whole new way that wouldn’t be possible on our own. They draw on their deep knowledge of a subject to focus our interaction with it at that moment so we can get as much out of it as possible.
For example, a sommelier ensures we enjoy our food and drink to the fullest; a local tour guide divulges a city’s hidden secrets. We still would have appreciated the meal and the visit had we been alone—but perhaps not as completely.
Guided Practice does just that. Practice Mentors channel their passion and expertise to deepen a musician’s interaction with their practice. The improved focus that this guidance develops leads to exponential increases in students’ progress compared to that of their peers who practice alone.
New features to explore (based on subscribers’ feedback)
In addition to changing the name to Guided Practice, we’ve rolled out three new features based on feedback from Guided Practice subscribers. You can now:
- Pause your subscription and come back when you’re ready
- Reschedule sessions up to 24 hours in advance and keep your credits for next time
- Preview the price of the sessions you want with our ‘Subscription Builder’ before committing to a subscription
We take feedback from our community very seriously, and are happy to be able to release a version of Guided Practice that students and families will love. And as always, Practice Mentors are background checked and sessions take place in the fully safeguarded Practice Pal app.
Give your child the best chance at success this year
The back-to-school period is officially here, and we invite parents to subscribe their children to the new and improved Guided Practice programme this term.
With the Cost of Living Crisis in full swing here in the UK (and the effects of inflation being felt elsewhere, too), we appreciate that families are being forced to trim back their spending wherever possible. Despite what you may have heard that music education is less important than maths and science, we encourage you not to cut out music from your children’s lives.
It’s not because we are biased, being a music education company and all. It’s because learning a musical instrument has been proven to raise children’s IQ 1 and enhance their cognitive skills2. This means that children who learn musical instruments can go on to have greater academic success no matter the subject they pursue.
Read more about how learning a musical instrument boosts intelligence
A subscription to Guided Practice starts at £7.99 per week. While we know what is affordable to some is not to all, we have kept the price as low as we possibly can in the hopes that as many students as possible can give Guided Practice a try. Moreover, the Practice Pal app is entirely free, and the new features we have introduced above were designed with financial flexibility in mind.
Ready to give Guided Practice a go?
Sign up for a free Parent Account today to get started (already have an account and want to book sessions? Log in here). We are confident you will see the difference that Guided Practice can make on your child’s musical and academic progress.
Footnotes
- Schellenberg, E. Glenn. “Music and cognitive abilities.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 14.6 (2005): 317-320. Available online: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00389.x
- Jaschke, Artur C., Henkjan Honing, and Erik JA Scherder. “Longitudinal analysis of music education on executive functions in primary school children.” Frontiers in neuroscience 12 (2018): 103. Available online: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00103
