Tricks of the Trade

This year, I tried a new idea with the students: The Karate Challenge. For each "belt" color there were several pieces that needed to be covered plus technique work like scales and chord work. Several of the kids earned their colors, even one blue belt which is quite advanced. Instead of real belts, I gave the children certificates and silicon bracelets, which the kids seem to be wearing these days.

The Note Mastery Challenge motivated some kids to win either bronze, silver or gold badges. I had these badges specially designed and made for me. Designated notes had to be learned so well that they could be recognized, the tone played and the note names spoken within 60 seconds. The ones who won also got to sign a special list on the door. It's fun to see who has "done the work" over the years!

Repetition and rehearsal of information enhance a process called consolidation, the process by which memories are moved from temporary storage in the hippocampus (a small structure within the brain) to more permanent storage in the cortex (the outer layer of the brain) (Richards, 2003, p. 24).

Multiple repetitions of the information provide rehearsal, but doing so may bore students. When bored, the brain can go into a pattern similar to the "screen saver" mode on your computer monitor. The student may not pay attention to what he is repeating. Therefore, using strategies with humor, movement, songs, and other forms of novelty are critical in enhancing the value of the repetition.

In the lessons, I used every motivation game I could think of to make repeats more fun. Many students believe that just playing something once is enough. Often, that is not sufficient. We remember something best when it is organized and rehearsed. Repetition is the mother of skill. I used the penguin game, dice, The Memory Game, Sweet Repeat Treats...

Imagine if we as teachers, and parents reinforced kids  for their use of concrete strategies in organizing their information. Pediatrician, Dr. Mel Levine suggests: "I thought that before a test, kids ought to be asked to hand in a memory plan. The same way a pilot would hand in a flight plan. In other words, how are you going to go about getting stuff into and out of your memory? And students ought to be graded on the plan as much as they are on their test" (Levine and Meltzer, 1998). I'll be thinking about this during the summer break. Maybe I can develop some concrete tips!

The students enjoyed THE AMAZING PRACTICE GAME this spring. Each child received a poster with squares (or circles!) on them. The object was to check off one square after 15 minutes of practice. It was also possible to cross off two squares after 30 minutes, which some children did. Along the way, the kids got to pick activity cards (scales, arpeggios, favorite piece, last memorized song, etc.) in the lesson, open the Tinker Bell Music Box, receive an extra goody or two, and finally, open the GOLDEN BOX!

At the beginning of the year, I gave  most of the kids a “practice log”. The idea is to write down what was practiced, how it was practiced and how long. Then they showed the log to me at the next lesson. I hoped it encouraged the kids to think about what they are doing a bit more. I could also see what kind of practicing techniques the kids know (or don’t yet know). I just asked the "newbies" to cross off a square.

I worked on intermediate and advanced practice techniques with some students. I pasted "difficult passages" onto a sheet of paper and the students (with my help) were asked to develop ways to practice them. These were listed below the passage. These "hard parts" had to be played perfectly before I allowed the students to begin the piece in earnest.

I felt like a preacher, exhorting the value of daily practice albeit short at times. I begged students to develop fingerings and really learn them. I cajoled the kids who knew no notes to learn them as a way to independent learning. But it was worth it. Yet some (very few) hardly practiced and some still don't know their notes. But I tried!

This last month was tough: lots of athletic events, final events at school, last exams, etc. Yet the children played a lovely recital - The Piano Party. The Family Picnic afterwards was fun.

I’ve asked the parents to please take advantage of my offer to listen to digital recordings during the summer. They record the piece their child is working on at the beginning (just starting the piece), and perhaps each week afterwards. They send me the recording and I gladly listen to it as well as send back a critique and some practice suggestions. It's a free service I offer. It just takes me a few minutes anyway.

To ponder

Neurons that fire together, wire together.

To understand a motor image, think about struggling to remember a phone number. You may move your fingers in the pattern of the phone number as if dialing it and find that this helps you recall the number.

Repetition and practice trigger neurons (brain cells). When a set of neurons fire together, they develop a "habit" of firing together again. Habits as well as academic learning occur this way. Use multisensory strategies so your child simultaneously sees, hears, and touches or moves with the information.

Did you ride a bicycle when younger? Did you learn to ride your bicycle by reading a book about it? No, you needed to actually practice riding. With enough repetition, you retained a motor image of the procedure. Would you be able to now get on a bicycle and ride with relative ease? Most people will answer yes to this question. Why is that? Our muscles remember information or procedures that were practiced many times. Muscle memory is a powerful learning tool!

Challenge vs. guaranteed success

I just got back from teaching and the whole way home I contemplated the dilemma „how much can you challenge students?“.

I have some girls from Mexico and they knew/know no notes! They can’t read music. I have tried to encourage them with my Note Mastery Challenge and the button they could get as a reward/prize. I gave them flash cards, we did our 60 second challenge. But they are going back to Mexico not one bit better than they came over.

Do I need to say they didn’t practice, either?

I love to teach my students how to practice and how to solve problems that pop up in the pieces they are learning. I don’t give them all the answers but I do help if I notice they are getting really confused. Yet I’ve had some kids give up the instrument because it was „too hard“.

Should I have pampered them by showing every note and letting them copy? Essentially playing by rote. Those kids can’t help themselves at all when they are stumped at home because they can’t read what the music wants to tell them.

How much challenge can kids take? When is the point where I softly give them a hand until they can stand on their on two feet.

Some kids act like they don’t know what’s going on and the teachers help them very quickly. These kids never learn to learn independently.

I have some students who enjoy a good old „wild challenge“ and it’s fun to see them grow as young musicians.

After so many years of teaching, I still ask myself the question: How much success must/should I „guarantee“? Should I make their learning so easy that they hardly have to think themselves?

There are no shortcuts!

Yesterday, I gave a 3-hour workshop for young musicians in Cologne. We covered time management, mental practice and general practice methods.

The kids practice about one hour a day and some might want to study music after graduating. 

They were quite shocked when I told them that "messing around" with their instruments doesn't count as practice. Playing old pieces, always starting at the beginning of pieces and playing through doesn't constitute work for me. It is nice and should be enjoyed but do your work first.

Then I introduced them to priorities and planning, two very important time management principles.
We talked about long-range goals (the competition next year; the audition in two years...), mid-term goals (pick out the pieces for the audition/competition), and short-term goals (learn and memorize the exposition of the first movement). 

We also need micro-goals for polishing up our pieces (speed up the trills using a metronome; work each finger to be able to play even trills with every finger...)

Knowing exactly what you are going to work on BEFORE you start is imperative. Don't just start at the beginning, play through until you make a mistake, doctor the difficult part until it "works" and then play on until the next mistake. Dat crazy-man practice!!

It generally helps motivation if you know exactly what you want to work on and how. If it doesn't, work on it anyway! Work on the hard parts first, when you are fresh. Attack the difficulties with gusto, analyze the problems, find solutions. Self-discipline must take over where motivation is lacking.

Don't waste precious practice time! Don't wait until you are inspired! Don't procrastinate!

There are no shortcuts.

Practice Mastery

Before you start practicing, ask yourself:

What do I want to accomplish during this practice. Take five minutes to decide what result you want to attain.

I, ____________________, promise myself that I will practice at least ___ minutes a day. I will be patient with myself and will keep in mind that my instrument is a long term project.

Use reminders on any device you usually carry with you to remind you of your sessions. There are good apps for recording your practice time and techniques.

The one thing that holds back students, by far, is not having consistent practice. SO, set a specific time in your schedule now (ex. 6:00-6:30 PM) and leave it free every day!

• Start by playing the piece really slowly. What matters at first is that you get the progression of notes and chords. (Don’t always begin a piece at the beginning. Start by learning the last page first, for instance. Or the very end. Or perhaps the middle.)
• After you've mastered the progressions and development of the piece, start perfecting your rhythm.
• Use sectioning while learning. Learn sections of the song, master them and then move to the next section. A section can be a melody, a chord progression, a chorus or refrain, etc.
• When practicing more complex pieces, start by practicing the right hand part of the piece, then the left hand (or vice versa) then try to play them together. Take your time, don't rush it. Once you've mastered one part, move to the next, and not before that.

Practice Plan

1. Start by limbering up to a few exercises. If you are more advanced you may like to practice some Hanon finger exercises or Czerny Studies. 1-2 Minutes.

2. Then focus on some technical work or scales and arpeggios for 5 minutes.

3. Spend 10 minutes practicing your assigned pieces for the week; work at them purposefully and slowly, separate hands at first. Use a metronome or try to develop a feel for keeping the pulse or beat – count out loud if necessary.

4. Now spend maybe 5-10 minutes reviewing past pieces. It’s always a good idea to go over old pieces reminding yourself of what you have already learned and to build up a little repertoire of pieces.

5. If you can spare a little more time then try to do a couple of sight- reading exercises. You just need to look at two short passages; look through them noting all their features then play them slowly forcing yourself to keep going in time until the end. Your sight-reading will improve no end if you do this regularly. (5 Minutes)

Practice alternating one hand with the other, having established an absolute and unerring sense of pulse. With this process, using the metronome is not a bad idea. Leave a bar’s rest between each repetition or new variant, being strict about keeping the beat going during this measured silence.

You might have success by practicing the very last bar first.  Then a few bars leading into the ending, and then a few more bars to the end until you can establish an ending section. Then a few bars leading into the ending section, and a few more until there is an obvious middle section. Then a few bars leading into the middle section, and then a few more until there is a definite beginning section. Many pieces will have more sections but the basic idea is to work each section an equal number of times over the long run.

Pick out a difficult section of your piece. Try to play it three times in a row without a single mistake. When you can do this, try playing five times in a row without a mistake. When you can do this, try it ten times in a row perfect. When you can do this, you know you've mastered the passage.

Once you can do all the small sections perfectly, you can combine them and try to play the larger sections perfectly. Keep combining sections until you can play the whole piece flawlessly.

Practice Merry-Go-Round

At first, you might just try to get all the notes. Now is the time to memorize the fingerings. (If you change the fingerings, write them in the music and erase the old ones.)

Later you'll want perfect rhythm, tone, phrasing, dynamics, pedal, balance, evenness, etc. Work on just one small section and one thing at a time, repeating several times until perfect!

You can keep a record of how many mistakes you make each time you play a passage. First, record the passage. If you play it perfectly, put a "P", otherwise put the number of mistakes. You'll be amazed at how many mistakes you make and never even noticed before.

Add-a-note at a time. Practice this tiny bit almost in tempo and only add the next note if the others are „easy“.

For advanced practicers:

Visualize.

Start with a piece you have memorized. Close your eyes and try to imagine yourself playing it at the piano. Imagine the piano keys, and your hands playing them. Try to make it just as vivid in your mind as it is when you actually do it.

Visualising is one of the best practice methods, but it takes a lot of thinking! Here are some ways to make it a little easier:

·      Visualize just one hand at a time. This is much easier than doing both hands.

·      Visualize only a short passage at a time. Play it, then try to visualize, then play it again. Keep doing this until you can visualize it very clearly.

·      Look at the music while you visualize. This builds up your visual image, but you don't have to have it memorized first. In fact, it will help you memorize it more easily.

·      Try table-top practice, that is, play your piece away from the piano. You simply imagine the sound and feel of a real piano as your fingers play on the tabletop. If you can play a piece or a passage this way, you really know it!

Exercising your brain is just like exercising a muscle: with visualization, you have start out with just a little bit, and then gradually work your way up.

Begin playing your piece.  Have a friend say “Stop.” Keep thinking (playing) the music in your head.  When your friend says “Start” again, pick up where you are in the piece. This technique is easier with a metronome.

Think the first beat and begin playing on the next.  Think the first two beats and begin playing on the next. Then three beats, etc. Can be done with metronome.

Practicing in a variety of ways, with a variety of touches, builds and strengthens your memory. If you have practiced your piece soft, loud, staccato, legato, with and without pedal, with five different kinds of stops, hands separate, visualized it, counted it, recorded it, played it with metronome at a variety of tempos, and practiced in small and large sections until they were flawless—you really know it.

Draw a "Board Game" that includes several of the items on this list.  Roll the dice and do the thing on which you land. 

Make practice flashcards, with each one listing an item from this list that need attention in your piece.  Select one at a time and practice that way.

For example, the cards for one piece might say

a.      “Play 3 times at quarter note equals 88

b.      “Play right hand three times”

c.      “Play left hand three times”

d.      “Count or verbalize and clap rhythm in measure 8”

e.      “Imagine an angry dragon (happy clown/ dancing girl) and play the middle section” 

Play one hand while singing the other, in solfège syllables, note names, or counting numbers, a good exercise in coordination and musicianship.

Metronome:  Start very slowly with metronome.  Play the piece or passage again, and increase the metronome number by a click or two.  Continue, gradually increase the tempo again, until the goal tempo is reached.  Write down the top metronome marking achieved each day, and try to surpass it the next day. 

Micro-metronome:  Assign the metronome to the smallest unit of the beat in the piece and subdivide each longer note in relation to it.

Double Bubble:  In 4/4, with 16 sixteenth notes per bar, do this at tempo, but with pauses after doubled notes: 

a.  double first note of each group of 4

b.  double second note of each group of 4

c.  double third note of each group of 4

d.  double fourth note of each group of 4

Play a certain finger number, say 1, with an accent. Every time that you play the first finger, say “one” out loud and accent the note. Do this 3-5 times.

a)   do the same with the second (third; fourth; fifth) finger. Always say the finger number out loud.

b)   Now say the names of the notes that a particular finger number are playing. Accent the note, too.

In each group of four equal notes (eighths, sixteenths), play the first note a bit longer and the others fast. Lengthen the second note. Then the third. Then the fourth. The others are played fast.

Tips for pre-performance practice

1.     Take a moment to breathe.  The most important thing is to lengthen your exhalation. Breathe in normally. Then exhale very slowly yet comfortably.  Do this 5 times. Now, you are ready to practice.

2.     Play a scale with the utmost care and attention. Make is beautiful and with a rich sound.

3.     Pick out a passage to “care for” – it should be a musical phrase.

a)    play the passage slowly (even though you’d rather play fast!) and musically.

b)   look at the music and play the passage “in your head”. Do this twice.

c)    play the passage actively twice.

d)   Close your eyes and take two deep breaths. Your brain is still assimilating so leave it alone! Just sit for about 10 seconds.

4.     Repeat step 3 with another passage. Do all the steps, even if you are impatient to play through everything!

5.     Sometime today, listen to the piece on YouTube or CD. Imagine playing the piece while watching the notes. The recorded performance should be an excellent one.

6.     Now play the whole piece through with utmost attention. Focus completely on the music. If possible, record your playing. Listen to the recording and correct/improve anything that needs polishing. Pat yourself on the back for practicing like a professional!!

7.     Pretend you are in the performance situation. Before beginning to play, breathe slowly at least once. Give yourself and your audience time to settle and focus.

Getting Ready to Perform on Stage

Performance Preparation

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “That which we persist in doing becomes easier—not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability has increased.”

Ernst Bacon: “The greatest freedom in playing results from the most disciplined preparation.”

When you’re not motivated, you have to be disciplined.

Without the goal of improving performance, the motivation to engage in practice vanishes.  When you mention discipline to most students, they groan and roll their eyes, but discipline is a good habit to develop to get us through those times when our motivation is at low ebb.

Too often, we return to the beginning of the piece rather than dealing with the troublesome passage itself. Knead those problem parts—get them worked out. Refuse to let them trip you up. Effort must eventually turn into ease. The idea is to make the most difficult measures sound (and feel) easy.

Sometimes we spend time on passages that we can already play. This can be a waste of valuable practice time. Spend your time working on what you can’t play so that you will eventually be able to play it. Play the things you can already play when you need a little bit of ego boosting or want to maintain learned skills.

“Almost” being able to play a piece isn’t enough.

Like climbing to the peak of a mountain, there’s a difference between being there and almost there. Keep practicing.

Prepare the piece over many months, practice the hard parts completely until you can play it automatically from memory. You do not have to perform the piece from memory though.
Be able to play it to 'performance standards' 3 times in a row.

I suggest performing one of your favorite pieces. One you have already learned thoroughly and have allowed to “rest” for awhile.

Performance Practice

About two weeks before the performance, begin your Performance Practice. Rehearse your complete performance.

a)    Play your piece through completely – no stops.

b)   Play your piece without warming up. No stops.

c)    Record your performance. Use an iPad or video device so you can observe your stage deportment.

d)   Begin performing in front of others. (see Opportunities…)

Opportunities for performance

• ·      Experience a recital before you perform in one.
• ·      in front of family and friends
• ·      in front of your class (only if the class has learned manners and respect!)
• ·      talent shows (Tanzania Night)
• ·      practice recitals in the band room or a studio setting
• ·      performance run-through before a lesson
• ·      performance run-through at the end of a lesson
• ·      performance run-through after a lesson (at home)
• ·      Dress Rehearsal on the stage with no audience (perhaps just your teacher or parent)
• ·      Piano Party & Picnic on the theater stage

Practice as if you have no limits. Perform as if this were true.

What do you have to lose by thinking this way? What do you have to gain?

When in doubt, breathe.

Few directives are more important than this one. Sir Edmund Hillary: “It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” Before you begin to play,  breathe deeply twice. Let yourself breathe out slowly and comfortable. This technique tricks your brain’s “alarm system” into believing you are relaxed and not in danger.

Always do the best you can if not the best you are capable of.

Some days are better than others. All you can do is to play up to fullest ability in any given moment. Forgive yourself if it’s less than what you are capable of.  You may then learn from the experience and ask yourself what you can do to make your next performance even better.

What if  something “happens”?!

One of the principles of performance includes getting on if you make a mistake. Just go on without grimacing. Most audiences won’t notice or won’t mind anyway. One of my professors used to say “Flucht nach vorne” which means “escape forward”. Just focus and move on.

Establish points in the music where you could begin if you lose your place or if you, for some reason, have had to stop. Jump to the nearest point and off you go again. No problem!!

My daughter often mentions how pleased she is that she performed most of her young life. She has started her own business and actually enjoys presenting. That is one of the reasons I encourage playing in the recitals.

Plus – I love feeling proud of my students. They “feel the fear and do it anyway”!!

        

       

PRACTICE TOOLS 101

You want to help the child and keep him motivated. Yet how?

Here are some ideas for practice in the lesson and at home.

►Achievement Scale

Many kids like to keep track of what they’ve achieved (steps toward a goal for instance) and where they are going (goal). Decide together what is necessary to reach each new step on the ladder (scale). I print out the following scale and paste it into the assignment book. Then the child and I decide what improvements belong on each level and write it next to the appropriate number. This helps students measure their progress.

When that level has been reached, color in the square with the number in it.

Achievement Ladder: Where is your child now? What needs to be done to get up to the top of the scale? What can your child learn to “win” each step?

     (What needs to be achieved to reach each new level?)

5  (polished piece or technique)
4
3
2
1

►Portion Control

No, this doesn’t have anything to do with diets! Take a new piece and blow it up (I actually mean enlarge it by copying it at about 150-200%!). Large notes are less intimidating. The younger the child, the larger the notes should be! Now that I am older, I appreciate larger notes on the page, too! I often take printed music and enlarge it on the copy machine. The larger page might need a cardboard backing - One of my mothers uses cereal boxes.

Variation 1: Cut out each line or musical phrase. Give your young genius one "strip" of the piece pasted on colored paper each week (or when she has completed the old one). The rest of the colored paper under the strip is for stamps/stickers.

Every time your child practices the ‘strip’ she gets a stamp or sticker for that page.

In the end, she has several pieces of colored paper and a whole sticker collection. Plus a complete knowledge of the piece. Then you present her with the "whole" composition. Maybe enlarged only to 125%.

Variation 2:

Make a copy of the music and divide it up into sections. Number or letter the sections and have someone call out the section (you?) and your child has to start the piece from that section. You can make a cardboard dice and write a section letter on each side. Or use normal dice and the number your child rolls is the section she plays.

What to do with each section

1. First work out the fingering and the rhythm (counting).
2. Then try playing the section, with careful attention and at a slow tempo, seven times over. If you can’t play it flawlessly (at a minimum: correct notes and counting) after one or two tries, then the section is too long or the tempo is too fast.
3. Add the dynamics and special things like fermata, decrescendo etc.
4. After playing the section seven times, close the music book or turn over the piece of paper and try playing it by memory. If can’t be played from memory easily, the section is too large. Just cut it in half and try again.

►Learning to work with the metronome

These steps will help your child use the metronome well:

• clap to the metronome, listening first before clapping starts; start with mid-range speeds, such as 80 and speed up a little at a time; when 208 is reached, give a slow one, such as 52. Slow is difficult for young kids!
• same as above but hide the metronome so the student must listen only, not watch and listen. You can hold up a piece of paper in front of the metronome for older kids.
• clap the same beat as the metronome and speak rhythmic syllables, rhythmic motives or the like at the same time. Or, let your child hold the metronome in his hand (works only with electronic metronomes!) and speak. The vibrations of the metronome can then be felt, which sometimes helps.
• same as above but play these rhythms on one note with the metronome.
• work on a "metronome piece" each week. This should be a song that is very easy—with relatively simple rhythms--so he can really concentrate on playing it at different speeds with the metronome.

I like "The Metronome Game". The child avoids "getting hoodwinked" by me or the parent who sets the metronome speed. The clue is to listen before starting. Try 3 or 4 different speeds daily.

Variation: Metronome speed-up

Start the metronome at a fairly slow tempo. Your child should play the passage at this tempo until he can do it perfectly and still stay exactly with the metronome. Then move the metronome up a notch and have your child repeat the process. Keep doing this until your darling reaches the tempo desired.

Often, the tempo at which one can play a passage precisely with the metronome and without mistakes, is surprisingly slow. Help your child find this (surprisingly slow) tempo and gradually work from there up to the speed at which your teacher would like him to play the passage. It is better to practice this way than too fast with mistakes.

►Mini-Breaks

After a child has repeated a section carefully several times, has tried to play perfectly in tempo or the like, you might like to “reward” him by letting him color part of a picture, find Waldo (wonderful books!), draw a line between dots on dot-to-dot pictures, etc. This helps break up any rigidity and tension ensuing from intense concentration. Take a slightly longer Mini-break after you have finished a passage, piece or the like to briefly stretch, move, etc.

►Sight Reading

Playing a piece you’ve never played before is a skill you can develop! Have your child sight read pieces that are about two levels lower. It is fun to become conscious of the progress made. Remember when your child had to practice this kind of piece?! The more often you sight read, the better you get.  One of these days, your child will be able to play about anything placed in front of him!

►Keep it fun!

Music making is a magnificent activity. Avoid any negative feelings on what the young instrumentalist is working on as this will directly effect progress and in many cases cause her to lose interest in studying the instrument. So be sure your child is always working within his ability in the daily time that is allowed for practice. Do not push your young learner to practice through signs of tiredness. Keep the sessions brief and interesting. 

►Carpe Diem: Using a Timer or a stopwatch

Decide how much time you need to spend on each piece (scale, technique, etc.) The timer (stopwatch) will help you not overwork one specific area and make sure that you cover all the material on your lesson plan. A timer set for a certain amount of practice time could mean the practice time will also end in the near future! Good for little kids.

►Record your child’s efforts

This is enjoyable and very helpful. Take an audiocassette recorder and record your child playing his assigned (or favourite – if different!) pieces and listen precisely to the results. Record the same piece at different stages along the way to “perfection”. Always listen to the newest recording exactly and decide what needs to be done to make it better.  Later, these recordings are a documentation of your child’s progress!

►Practice means work on what you don’t yet know well

Most kids who practice will preferably play those familiar things that sound terrific. To get the most out of practice time, work on material that presents a challenge. This will help you learn most effectively and quickly. Conversely, when you sit at the instrument and make NO MISTAKES... it is time to do something new and more challenging.

There are five goals we are working on when practicing: guarantee excellent memory, eliminate boo-boos, ensure a beautiful and musical interpretation (the “feeling” behind the music), develop technique further, and get ready for performances.

►Ear-Training

Ear training is another important area to begin at an early age. In addition to the structure of lesson material, ear training should always be a part of everyday playing. By developing ear training tools you will find students more connected to the instrument and able to interpret music more expressively and creatively. A lifelong process that anyone can develop with time put in. Practicing even the simplest exercises like picking out your favorite tune on the piano, or singing a note and finding it on the instrument will have you soon applying ideas using your ears more and more all the time.

►Set small goals

Often tasks seem so overwhelming! If the pieces your kids are working on seem formidable, be sure to break it down into small steps. For example: do the right hand perfectly first before adding the left hand or do the first 2 bars perfectly before adding the 3rd bar. This type of practice will give students the feeling of accomplishment while they are working on a piece. Work to succeed, keeping the week’s main goal in mind. Set achievable mini-goals that you can reach with a daily session. Sometimes I just work on one measure (or even ½ bar)!

►No rushing, please!

Always ask yourself: “Why does my child want to play this instrument?” The going gets rough sometimes and it isn’t always easy to be patient!

I thought I would kill my kids often (and I am sure they were planning the same) but, in the end, they were glad to have had the chance to learn. My son still plays his “kiddie songs” for me when he visits and he is grown! But we both have a great time!

The thing about playing an instrument is - it never gets “easy”! The new stuff is always slightly harder than the last. BUT – your child is also slightly better! Remind your child to play old pieces and notice what used to be difficult. Now it is much easier. We are never “finished”. There is always more to be learned. That is why we need to enjoy the process!

Marvel at your child’s progress and achievements. Set up good habits. Avoid discussions – parents nearly always loose!!

►PRACTICE AMOUNTS (“Time, time, time is on my side.”)

“Children can't structure a half-hour themselves. They need someone to coach them.”

Professor John Sloboda, Psychologist

How quickly do you want to progress?  In the case of children, even ten minutes a day would be acceptable. If done EVERY DAY, progress is inevitable.

►Daily practice time suggestions for different age groups

Age
5: 5 min.

6: 10 min.   

7: 15 min. 

8: 20 min.

9: 25 min. 

10: 30 min.

11 and older 30 minutes or more

These times are only suggestions. By applying these times you can expect a steady range of growth on the instrument and be developing important practice habits that will be carried on in the years to come.

Don't force young children into long practice sessions - five or ten minutes will probably be enough. You might even want to have 2 short practice sessions daily. 5-10 minutes twice daily lead to amazing progress! 

I’ll have to admit I was very surprised that one of my six-year-olds practiced 30 minutes daily! I never asked for that but his mother told him to and he did. Every day! With a timer. I figured, don’t change a winning game. He was definitely playing well and enthusiastically. I could hardly keep him in new pieces!!