Terminology

Another thing that music teachers hate to hear is when parents call us up to cancel a lesson and they say "(insert name here) won't be at practice today because he/she is (insert excuse here)."

I think that word doesn't mean what you think it means.

I understand the confusion: for lots of other activities in which parents might enroll their kids, the word "practice" means a group activity where a team meets once a week to coordinate their efforts as a group. Example: "I drop off my kids at soccer practice twice a week." In music, however, we call this same group activity a rehearsal, while the word practice means something entirely different. You see the reason for the confusion.

So in the interest of smoothing relations between Soccer Moms and Music Teachers everywhere, allow me to provide a rough translation of commonly-used sports words and their appropriate equivalent in the music world:

In the athletic world, when someone spends individual time every day exercising to get himself/herself in shape for an upcoming event, developing muscle strength and physical coordination and mental focus, it's called Conditioning. This is what we musicians refer to as practice. Example: "I've got to practice that Brahms piece before my lesson next Thursday."

In sports, when someone meets one-on-one with an instructor or coach once a week, it's called Training. In music, when someone meets one-on-one with an instructor once a week we call it a "lesson". Example: "I just took a lesson with Pete Petersen, and my tone sounds awesome!!"

In sports, when an individual goes through a series of tests in front of a coach, manager, team owner or all of the above in hopes of making the team, it's called Tryouts. In music the same thing happens only we call it an Audition. Example: "I wouldn't say I'm worried or anything, but there were 200 clarinetists at that audition last week, all for a single part."

In sports, when a group of athletes meets a few times a week to go over drills as a team, it's called Practice. In music we call this a rehearsal. Example: "You know the conductor's going to expect us to nail that section of the Mendelssohn at tomorrow's rehearsal"

In sports, when a team or individual takes all of that preparation, coaching, practicing, conditioning and training and puts it all on the line in a competitive event where their skills are put on display for spectators, it's called a Game or a Match. In music we call it a Show, a Performance, or a Concert. Example: "Dude, I've got a concert next week. Want to go?"

Once more, to sum up:

SPORTS    ------     MUSIC
=====================
Conditioning   =   Practice
Training          =   Lesson
Practice           =   Rehearsal
Tryouts           =   Audition
Game              =   Concert

I hope this clears things up. The appropriate phone call a parent should make to a music teacher should be "I'm sorry, (insert name) won't be able to make it to his/her lesson because (insert excuse here)".