How to Help Your Kids Practice if You are Not a Musician Yourself

Photo credit: Richard Masoner

Two weeks ago I shared a great post about how to get your kids to practice without having to ask or remind them. I highly recommend you check it out and try the suggestions I make. If you implement all of them, I guarantee they will work and you won’t have to ask your son or daughter to practice anymore.

This week I wanted to take things a step further. How do you help your kids if you are not a musician or if you know nothing about music?

As a kid growing up, I practiced like a maniac. My parents were not musicians. My mom took piano lessons for 2 months as a kid, but quit because her teacher was mean and only let her to play exercises. I never needed to rely on my family to help motivate me to practice or to help me get through the music I was supposed to work on. I practiced a lot; I was an anomaly. Now, as a teacher, I see first-hand what a difference it makes when parents are involved.

I think the first thing for all parents to recognize is that kids, especially younger ones and students just starting out, need guidance practicing. This is one of the biggest misconceptions of parents. Teachers provide guidance once a week at lessons, but support from parents during the week between lessons makes an incredible difference.

We all had to learn how to handle the responsibilities in our lives. We weren’t born just knowing that we needed to do our homework, get our practicing done, study, report to work on time, etc. People in our lives- parents, teachers, friends, taught and showed us that handling our responsibilities leads to a more gratifying life.

Especially if your child is young or has never done anything that requires “practicing”, it it important to get involved until they become self sufficient. Most likely, a 5 year old is not going to just go to the piano every day and effectively practice his pieces. They just don’t know how to do it yet. Practicing is a learned skill.

Your involvement doesn’t need to be in a harping, nagging sort of way. Setting a positive example and showing them why practicing is important will suffice.

After all, would you expect your child to learn how to ride a bike on their own?

Absolutely not! You would show and teach and practice with them until they could ride without their training wheels and without you holding their bike upright while they pedal. The same is true for taking music lessons.

Furthermore, I suggest the following:

1. Clearly understand the teacher’s instructions

• What is your son or daughter supposed to practice?

      I have a number of students who do practice, but don’t practice the specific pieces or sections I most want them to work on during the week.

• How are they supposed to practice?

      Should they use the metronome? Count out loud? Play slowly? Practice in sections?

On the one hand, it’s important that they do practice. You need to ensure that you hear their instrument being played most every day each week.

On the other hand, if they don’t follow their teacher’s directions and opt to just play through their music, that is not effective practicing.

Even if you do not know music, understand the teachers goals/ expectations for your son and daughter and make sure that that’s what they are working towards. If you’re not home when your teacher arrives or departs, ask them to leave you a note or follow up with an email or call, so you’ll know what the week’s goals are. As teachers we love keeping our students’ parents informed, as it ensures more progress and a happier, more excited student for us to teach.

2. If your child is young, sit with him while he practices

At the beginning of musical instruction, everything is quite simple. If you allow your child’s teacher to show you, you will easily be able to pick up what they learned in their lesson. Sit with your child while they practice. Help them learn and master their pieces. Not only will you enjoy spending time with him and bonding over music, your child will look forward to practicing because it will also mean spending time with you.

As your child progresses, you should be able to keep up with them for quite some time. Eventually they should be able to handle practicing themselves. You might even decide to take up lessons yourself. No one is ever too old to learn to play an instrument! Feel free to reach out to us if you’d like to get more information about beginning your own lessons.

I hope you give these ideas a try! Now I want to hear from you. Leave a comment below. How have you been able to help your child practice as a non-musician? What other suggestions do you have? Subscribe to the newsletter, share this with your friends, and “like” us on facebook.

Thanks so much for reading, and I’ll catch you next Thursday!

Sincerely,

Cassie