Gulp. I have a confession to make. I live and breathe piano education… but my own daughter has her piano lesson on Thursdays… and her books didn’t emerge from her piano bag until Monday.
Do I have a good excuse? Not really. We had a busy weekend, yes.. but I can’t rightfully say that every single second of her days was occupied.
Trevor and I looked at each other in horror on Monday night as we realized her piano books were sitting still in her music bag on top of our piano. Yikes. Had we become exactly what we work so hard day and night to prevent?
Our “Oops” Is Another’s Gain
Did we immediately skip bedtime reading and hit the piano instead? Uh huh. Did we gain some seriously valuable insight into how to help piano practice become more regular in the homes of other busy families? Absolutely. If we (double yikes) fell victim to a serious lapse in piano practice then families who are not as involved in piano as are we definitely will. So… here are some helpful tips for your piano families (from two very sheepish piano bloggers).
1. Promote Regularity Over Time Length
We’ve blogged about this here. For busy families, suggesting 30 minutes of practice may result in no practice at all being accomplished. Sometimes 30 minutes just doesn’t seem like it will fit into a busy day. However, suggesting that their child visit the piano at least twice a day usually then adds up to those 30 minutes you were hoping for. In our daughter Lexi’s case, she’s quite happy to play solo in short amounts of time, but extended practice sessions require parental involvement even if just for the sake of the company.
2. Send Home a Back-Up Plan
Our daughter, Lexi, had 2 brand new pieces to practice this week. This required some parental help as she’s only 6. I knew that she would need me… and so finding a time when we were both free (and her sister wasn’t hanging off of me) became the hurdle that resulted in no practice. Had she had some assignments that could be done solo then this barrier would have disappeared and she would have hit the keys on her own. Be sure to send home multi-leveled repertoire. At least one piece should be about 2 levels below where your student plays currently. Playing something easy is much better than playing nothing at all (and all kinds of skills are strengthened in the process).
3. Provide a “hook”
The week before, Lexi had a practice incentive that she was working hard to complete (wait for it on our blog… we’ll be giving it away for free!). There was absolutely no way she was going to miss a single day of practice, and her hounding and reminding broke through anything we had to accomplish and resulted in some real quality time on the piano. You don’t always need a practice incentive running… but even just a super-fun activity that your student can’t wait to complete will get those books opened. Piano practice needs to be front and center in your students’ mind (not the parents’) for regular practice to actually occur.
Here’s To Honesty And Learning From Mistakes
I’m sure you’ve all been in the position Trevor and I found ourselves in this week, either with your own children or even with your own personal practice time. And we’ve certainly all seen the fall-out from practice lapses with our students. Life takes over… but there is something you can do about it. Keep “life” at bay with these 3 strategies and watch your piano students’ progress become more regular (and therefore more rapid).
Catherine says
I’m so happy that you posted this too! It always make me feel guilty that some weeks neither I nor my seven year old spend anywhere near as much time at the piano as we ought to. Still, that fact does give me a lot of empathy with my students as I understand we all lead busy lives and struggle to fit practice in. I suggest trying to do some practice before school, which works well because I know my daughter is quite likely to revisit later on of her own accord – but it’s getting started which is always the hard part.
Mandy says
I have so been here. As a piano teacher I know and understand that my 7 yeS old needs to play her songs 3 times a day! Hard to fit that in with a 4 year old and 1 year old around! Before school is a good strategy and also while the other two are taking their baths at night.
Kathy G says
I am deeply shocked. Deeply.
Haha, not really. So great of you two to share the reality of your lives and parental perspective with us. For me, underlying my own experience as a teacher with students who don’t take their music out of the book bag until a couple of days before the lesson (or leave it here — that has happened a couple of times!), is my own memory of being a student. Slightly different — I think I got to the piano on my own, because I loved playing so much. But I don’t remember having much guidance from my teachers on HOW to practice, so I spent my kid lesson years playing through everything at top speed over and over. I became a great reader, but didn’t learn to practice efficiently and effectively until college, and especially after I started teaching.
I so appreciate your tips and tricks. You two give so much to the rest of us out here. Don’t worry. We’ll cut you some slack. This week. 😉
Natalia says
Boy, do I understand what you mean. I finally realized that parents need to be just as disciplined if we wanted our children to get things done. Considering most of our students come in prepared, I really should applaud our studio parents. Great post!
Angie Tse says
Oh Andrea… I think every word on your guilty piano parent lament resonate with me. My daughter (7) too, has her lesson on Thursday (with me!) and often, the lesson itself becomes a ‘practice masterclass’ as opposed to a lesson. *gulp* I can absolutely empathise with the lack of time to supervise practice. Try doing it for two instruments (my daughter does violin too!)… with a toddler sister who is only too happy to “practice” along her big sister. The one trick that I have been using with her and my other pupils – is to disguise ‘preview’ playing of pieces in musical games (eg. sight-reading cards that are made from phrases of the actual piece/ repertoire that the pupil rearrange into their mini pieces). They take the game home as one of the homework – and when the next lesson comes around, they generally can play the actual piece from the word go, when we try it for the first time! A real confidence boost – and seemed to work for ‘unsupervised’ practice at home. 🙂 I wonder if others have ideas to share? I’d love to have more of these up my sleeves with pupils (and my daughter) *guilty*….
Cheri says
Wow! What a great idea to use bits of the actual piece the student is playing for sight-reading cards! I’m definitely going to try this. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Jane Berkowitz says
I love that idea too! I’m going to start trying it this wee!
Jane Berkowitz says
I mean this week!
Eleanor Baldwin says
When I was a young teacher, I would make fancy graphs for weekly practice and had them fill out how many minutes they practiced each day. Now I put a number of minutes at the top left side of their assignment book that I want them to practice and tell them to “just get down to zero”. Some kids ask me what will happen if they practice after zero. Others come in with 15 minutes left on their practice column feeling guilty and I have to reassure them that the world will still revolve on its axis and it is okay.
Christine Dell says
Thank you for this post! It made me feel better as often times I would sheepishly take my son to his piano lesson and he had little practice. Guilty parent right here! Sometimes it feels like I don’t practice what I preach!