Creating a Practice Plan With a Deck of Cards

Thanks to Natalie Wickham, I came across Scramble, an idea for a practice game on sfrack's Weblog that involves using a deck of cards as a practice tool. Basically, you assign each difficult section of a piece a playing card, then draw randomly and practice the section of the piece represented by the card. Brilliant--it turns practicing into a game (which children and adults of all ages love) and can be customized to suit different students, levels, and repertoire. You can also stick the Joker in the deck to make the parent play the piece through (or the teacher at the lesson).