My approach to inspiring piano practice has always been to begin with my students… giving them the tools that they need to learn independently, the music that they are excited to play, and the goals that they are pumped to work towards. This combo usually works wonders… usually.
But sometimes, regardless of my best efforts, home piano practice still doesn’t happen.
I feel badly for my little students who come in and scrunch their faces into a “I don’t know what happened… I wanted to practice but I didn’t…” frown. When you’re 7 years old, the weeks can go by in a blur of school, soccer, cheerios and bedtimes. Despite the best of intentions, some students and their families need an extra bit of help to make practice happen.
In today’s post we’re sharing a helpful practice printable for parents that you can send home with any students who are struggling to make home practice a regular habit.
A Piano Practice Handout For Parents
Whenever I notice that one of my students has come in having missed practice for more than one week I know it’s time to nip the problem in the bud. Letting it ride for more than 2 weeks inevitably results in my students becoming discouraged by a lack of progress… which then leads to a reluctance to come to lessons.
So, when I have a student in a practice funk I leap over to my trusty laptop, print off this Piano Practice Handout For Parents, and send it on home. Feel free to use the text within the document to create a handout that suits your own personal style and needs.
Note: This handout doesn’t have to be used as a response to a problem only… it also works wonders as a start-of-year handout for ALL of your piano students.
Hope you can put it to good use!
More Tips For The “Piano Practice Problem”
The tips in the handout above were taken from a collection of several different piano practice posts we have written over the years. These posts have a ton of good stuff. You can check them out here:
Creating a Practice Nest: 5 Ways Piano Parents Can Improve Home Practice
What Your Piano Parents Need To Know About Practice
How To Create Peaceful Practice And End Practice Wars For Good
Claire says
September 21, 2016 at 5:29 amThanks for the excellent resource! I’m glad you mentioned about students up to age 11 needing hands on parental help. Too many parents expect 6 & 7 year olds to manage piano practice on their own and then complain that the child won’t practice. The younger the child the more the parent needs to be involved.
Andrea says
September 21, 2016 at 8:24 amHi Claire – it’s true! We expect a lot of young children and having that support from home is really needed. Hope this hand-out is helpful to you 🙂
Melinda says
September 21, 2016 at 7:21 amPerfect timing! This week I’m wrapping up my Pirate Practice Challenge. I sent home a “Welcome Back Pack” for parents when lessons started the last week of August and it had 2 handouts for helping with practice (your Parent Practice Guide and Piano Parent Cheat Sheet) alon with a sheet of Parent piano practice stickers. I briefly went over the contents with them (and wrote on the outside what was in there). However, in spite of that, I have still had parents ask “what should I be doing at home?”. So I am going to send this home next week with a note about how I hope the pirate challenge helped to jump start things and that this is an additional help to keep things going-along with what they received in the welcome pack!
And Claire is 100% right-the younger the child, the more the parent needs to be involved. It’s directly correlated! As a piano parent myself (I’m teaching my two kids, girls ages 11 and 5) and sometimes it is hard to drop absolutely everything to go sit with my 5 year old when she’s ready to play (within reason, sometimes if it’s in the middle of dinner prep, I tell her she has to wait), but when I do, I never regret it, and she’s making fabulous progress! (Now if only I could get her to want to learn to read words as well as she reads notes…. ;-))
Andrea says
September 21, 2016 at 8:26 amHi Melinda – glad it’s such great timing for you! They say you have to tell someone something 7 times before it “sticks” – so any practice help reminders you can give are needed and useful! Sounds like you’re doing a great job of inspiring this 🙂
Melinda Workman says
September 21, 2016 at 8:06 pmVery true! I should also say I’m glad they are asking, since many parents don’t even ask. And today I had a student come with parent stickers on TWO of her pieces! (I LOVE how it’s a double indicator of student practice AND parental involvement!).
Andrea says
September 22, 2016 at 10:07 amHi Melinda – yes… it’s “sneaky” double-duty 😉 Glad you’re using the stickers!
Jan says
September 21, 2016 at 7:59 amThank you Andrea and Trevor. As always, a timely post….
Andrea says
September 21, 2016 at 8:26 amHi Jan! Great to hear from you 🙂 Glad it’s useful!
Dana M. says
September 22, 2016 at 1:53 amThanks so much, this is AWESOME!!!
Andrea says
September 22, 2016 at 10:06 amYou’re so welcome Dana! Hope it helps in your studio 🙂