So, you’ve decided to take the plunge and sign your child up for music lessons. The shiny new keyboard (or dusty old piano) is prepped and ready to play, and you have the date of your child’s first lesson highlighted on your calendar. You are excited to expose them to music and encourage them to hone their creativity, but one thought still makes you break out in a cold sweat—how do I get them to practice?
The Problem with Practice Logs
You may be tempted to use the good old-fashioned practice log as your go-to practice method, but despite its great intentions, practice logs can create a negative attitude toward practicing that hinders students’ growth. Why is this the case? The major problem with the practice log is that it focuses on the quantity of practice rather than its quality, and time rather than music. This mental shift undermines practice by shifting students’ focus away from learning their instrument to putting in time until they can do something else. As a result, their productivity plummets and they come to view practicing as a sentence to be endured (like time-out) rather than an opportunity to be creative.
The Progress Approach
To prevent this negative attitude toward practice, a better approach is to focus on the progress your student makes in each practice session. This way, you encourage quality practice and reward their achievement rather than clock-watching.
Assessing your student’s progress may seem tricky, especially if you are not musical yourself, but even if you don’t know much about music, you can still gauge their progress by listening for several attributes of their playing.
Consistent Speed. Do they speed up some sections and slow down others? Are there any places where they hesitate? Or do they sound confident and consistent throughout?
Correct Notes and Rhythms. This is more difficult to judge if you don’t know music, but you have likely already heard many of the pieces that your student plays, and even if you haven’t, trust your judgment. You’ve been listening to music your whole life, so if something sounds off, check with your child to make sure they are playing the right notes.
Eyes on the music. How important this is varies for different instruments, but as a general rule, student’s eyes need to be on their music rather than their hands (or whatever else they use to play their instrument). This is a difficult skill to master, but it demonstrates that your student has a higher level of mastery over a piece, and it is an important skill that will help them progress more quickly later.
Practice Consistently
Another key to establishing your student’s practice routine is to have them practice at least 5 days a week. Even if your student masters all their pieces on day one (one can dream, right?) they need to keep practicing. Why? A major component of practicing is physiological. When we practice, our brains create neural pathways that make playing the piece more or less “automatic,” but creating these pathways requires a number of repetitions over time, which cannot be achieved in a single practice session. If Susie nails “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on the first try, that’s great, but she still needs to run through it a couple of times a day until her next lesson so that she doesn’t forget how to play it. Trust me, it happens.
Add Variety
Finally, adding variety to your student’s practice routine is a great way to encourage good practicing habits. Think that the only way to practice is by putting in time at the piano? Think again. Practicing other musical skills such as listening or note identification can be an incredibly beneficial way to keep your student’s interest while augmenting their musical training. There is an abundance of apps that you can use to mix up the daily practice routine that are both fun and educational, and exposing your child to other musical experiences like concerts can help them learn to think critically and grow as musicians.
Although helping your student establish a successful practice routine can seem intimidating at first, by applying these helpful principles, you can help your child learn to practice in a way that is both enjoyable and rewarding and produces positive results in their playing.
Get your child started on their musical journey today by signing up for lessons with one of our instructors!
- Jordan Koehlinger, Music Instructor at Vibe Music Academy
