🎃 The Holiday Practice Challenge Is Here — Two Years of Challenges, Zero Repeated Content
October is closer than it feels. And if you've ever hit week three of November wondering why half your students clearly haven't touched their instrument since the last lesson — you already know what the holiday slump looks like.
Schedules go sideways. School events pile up. Sports and family obligations compete with practice time. By Thanksgiving, the students who were doing so well in September have quietly checked out.
The Holiday Practice Challenge is the system that changes that — and this fall, it's bigger than ever.
🎃 What Is the Holiday Practice Challenge?
The Holiday Practice Challenge is a done-for-you, print-and-go practice system that carries your students from Halloween through Winter Break. Each kit includes:
Three monthly practice charts with seasonal designs for October, November, and December
A color-by-number practice chart students actually want to fill in every day
11 weekly bonus challenge cards — each with a technical task, a creative challenge, and a listening activity
A prize basket raffle system that gives students a concrete reason to bring their challenge cards to every lesson
A sticker chart template customizable for your entire studio roster
Clear challenge rules and how-it-works instructions for you and your families
You open the download, print everything, and hand it out at the first October lesson. That's the entire setup.
🍂 What's New This Year — Meet Set 2
Set 1 has been running in studios for a year now, and the response has been genuinely wonderful. Students coloring in their charts. Parents texting that their kids are asking to practice. Lessons filled with conversations about the weekly bonus challenges.
This fall, Set 2 launches — and it is a completely fresh second year.
Not a tweak. Not a light refresh. Every single weekly challenge theme, technique task, creative prompt, and listening activity is brand new. A student who ran Set 1 last year will never see a repeated challenge in Set 2. Not one.
Here's a side-by-side look at just October:
Week 1: Haunted House (Set 1) vs. Whispering Scales — E Harmonic Minor pianissimo (Set 2)
Week 2: Skeleton Dance (Set 1) vs. Phantom Rhythm — dotted rhythms with Long/Short pattern (Set 2)
Week 3: Pumpkin Parade (Set 1) vs. Shadow Steps — silent hand shifts between positions (Set 2)
Week 4: Spooky Sounds (Set 1) vs. Echo Etudes — compose a 2-bar echo motif (Set 2)
Week 5: Halloween medley listening (Set 1) vs. Haunted Harmony — g minor chord progressions and perform in costume (Set 2)
November and December are equally fresh — new themes, new challenges, new creative tasks all the way through.
Already Have Set 1? Here's Set 2
If you ran Set 1 last year and your students loved it — welcome back. Set 2 is ready for you.
Same system your students already know. New challenges they've never seen. You don't have to explain anything new — just hand out the October chart on the first lesson and they'll take it from there.
If you already own Set 1 and want to add Set 2 at a loyalty price, reach out directly and we'll work something out.
❄️ The 2-Year Bundle — Two Sets, One Download, Save $15
If you want to run the Holiday Practice Challenge for the next two years without ever repeating content, the 2-Year Bundle is the move.
Both sets in one download. Run Set 1 this year, Set 2 next year. Your students get a fresh challenge every fall, you never have to buy anything new, and you save $15 compared to buying them separately.
Here's what that looks like in practice:
Year 1: Your students run Set 1. They love the Haunted House scale challenge, the Gratitude Groove arpeggios, the Carol Countdown. They ask if you're doing it again next year.
Year 2: You hand out Set 2. Every challenge is brand new. Whispering Scales. Apple Arpeggios. Circle of Sound. They have no idea it's the same system — it just feels fresh.
Twenty-two total weekly challenges. Six monthly practice charts. Zero repetition. One $60 purchase.
One Final Thought
October comes fast. The challenge works best when students start from day one of the month — so the earlier you get set up, the more impact you'll see.
If you're new to the Holiday Practice Challenge, start with Set 1 and see what it does for your studio this fall. If you loved last year and want two years locked in, grab the bundle now and you're done.
Either way — your students are going to walk into that first October lesson with a reason to practice every single day.
Happy Teaching!
Becky