In a perfect world everyone would have 30 minutes of undivided time to sit in a quiet room with their child to devote their full attention to helping him or her practice. Every parent would have basic musical knowledge to help their child through any roadblocks that popped up during the week, and every parent would know what makes for an efficient practice routine.
But let’s look at reality. Most of our students likely practice alone while life goes on around them.
Dad’s making supper, the phone is ringing, mom’s at work, the dog needs out, and a younger sibling walks by every 5 minutes and pounds on the keys for good measure.
Most parents have never played the piano (maybe they played saxophone in school 24 years ago but that’s about it) and their idea of a “good” session of practice is determined by minutes on the oven timer. 30 minutes? Good. Go clean your room.
This is reality, but the three tips we’re sharing today (plus a free piano parent printable!) can help to improve the success of your piano student’s home practice.
1. Shout It Out From The Kitchen And Make A Difference
We’ve blogged before about how parents are an integral part of our piano students’ success. Without support and assistance from home, our student’s progress can really be affected.
When dealing with 7 year old students, they just don’t have the skills they need just yet to go it completely alone when it comes to home practice. They cope, but a bit of help goes a long way.
So, let’s accept reality and work with it.
Hand out our “Shout it From the Kitchen” sheet to your parents and ask them to follow it if they just don’t have a moment to sit down and help their child that day. It’s easy, it’s do-able (tape it to the fridge!) and this small bit of direction will make a difference to your piano students’ progress.
Download the “Shout it Out From the Kitchen” list here.
2. Stop Swimming Up Stream… Go With The Flow
One of the biggest changes I have made with my students is sending home an activity that involves the entire family (sometimes away from the piano, sometimes at the piano).
This way my students are learning theory concepts or practice strategies in conjunction with their busy life.
Just last week my daughter took on the practice task of inviting her sister to the piano for a mini practice session. Usually Halle is the younger sibling who walks by and pounds on the keys, but with Lexi’s undivided attention she was very attentive on the bench.
As Lexi explained the piece to Halle, I noticed that she suddenly made an important connection about a repeating pattern in her music. After Halle had drifted off to kick a ball, Lexi sat and played the piece through without hesitations. You can find these kinds of family-involved activities here (theory-based) and here (practice strategies).
3. Be Real, Be Successful
One of the many things I’ve learned while running a 320 student piano studio is that what we’d like to happen at home is not always feasible. And while piano lessons are front and center in our own minds (it’s our job after all!), for many families it’s just one more weekly activity. But we can change that. With a bit of flexibility, and a lot of realism and understanding we can work with families to make piano a priority.
Fighting against busy lives and expecting the impossible often results in the opposite of what we hoped to achieve. It is so tempting to say “If you don’t have 30 minutes to practice then your life is too busy. Surely you must have just 30 minutes?!” but it’s a tough row to hoe and it is what it is. In our studio we’ve chosen the flexibility route, and the payoffs have been huge, both in terms of the success of our business, but also in the success of our students.
Wanting an easy way for families to be involved in just 5-10 minutes of home practice? TEDDtales – our uber-popular technical exercise book – gives piano parents a chance to be involved without needing any musical knowledge. The story-based format means Mom or Dad can read while their child creates the “soundtrack” to the goofy tale. Articulation, fingering, sight-reading, expression, note-reading… it’s all here!
Dorla says
As always…good stuff.
In a perfect world Andrea and Trevor Dow would “convert” these awesome posts into snippets of info or newsletters that teachers could email to the parents once a month. (because they have no other plans!:))
Emailing parents today!
Beth says
Love your list of “Shout It From The Kitchen” prompts! May we link them to our FB pages?
Andrea says
Hi Beth – absolutely! Use it anyway you like 🙂
Barbara says
This is such a great post. Like most everything, piano lessons have to evolve with the times, and that might mean that students don’t learn at the pace we did “way back” when we were taking lessons. But if we don’t make it fun and we’re not flexible many kids won’t be learning music at all. Oh, and we may not have many students! Thanks for all these great tips!
Andrea says
Hi Barbara – exactly! You’ve hit the nail on the head and I’m betting you have a thriving studio because of it 🙂
Andrew says
I love this list! Hysterical because I hear myself and my wife saying many of these things almost verbatim! Cheers from Brooklyn! Andrew
Andrea says
Thanks Andrew! Yes, it wasn’t difficult to come up with the phrases LOL
Drema says
Thanks for your encouraging post. I was feeling a bit down about teaching from yesterday — related to student’s practising and progress. This gives me some things to think about. I think your “Shout it From the Kitchen” poster of ideas also allows parents to know how to participate in their child/ren’s practising with questions that show interest and are yet intentional. Often times, parents either don’t know how to help them in their practising or over-help by telling them exactly what to do. Questions are really good! I think not only would this improve practising but perhaps even family relationships. 🙂
Tracey says
I teach my 2 boys and regularly shout from the kitchen, bedroom etc…. Often counting out the beats for them. I never thought of encouraging parents too! Great idea, thanks.
Cara says
What a great post and printable. Thanks very much!
Emilynn says
This makes me so happy! I love that even if parents don’t know much about music, they can still feel involved- and I hope it will help students pay more attention in lessons, too! Thanks for this awesome printable!
Sarah says
I can’t thank you enough for all these helpful tools you put up for us piano teachers. I just stumbled across your website (due to pinterest) and have already saved and printed several things to give to my parents as we resume lessons after the winter break. Thank you soooo much for sharing your ideas!
Andrea says
Hi Sarah – great to hear! We’re excited to connect with you on the blog. Cheers!
Guy says
Great list! I attended a parenting seminar not long ago that talked about the benefit of praising effort over praising results. I like it that the “Shout It Out” list is all about the effort — for example, “That used to be hard for you!”
Trevor says
Hi Guy – thanks for your comment! Yes, that’s exactly the point – praising efforts rather than results often means … better results! 🙂 Hope this “Shout It Out” list is useful for you!