2.Find The Mistake

Sometimes music students seem heedless of the fact that they are playing wrong notes, or out of tune. Instead of pointing out their mistake directly, I'll tell them to listen to me play their piece, to see if they can here anything wrong. Then I'll deliberately make a mistake (usually one that they've been making that they don't seem aware of). Often, students can identify the mistake I've made, so I encourage them to listen to their own performance as carefully and critically as they listened to mine. Most of them immediately correct their mistake! If a student Can't hear a deliberate mistake in the music, then they don't know it well enough by ear, and they should listen to the piece again and again until they can recognize its pitches better.