The Parent’s attitude plays a great importance in a child’s success with piano or music learning. Success in piano or music lessons requires support from the parents in the same way as the parental involvement is crucial to children in school.
The teacher is not the only one to teach your child how to play. It is parent’s involvement, encouragement and loving attitude towards music that will help your child learn, love and appreciate and produce great results. Most importantly, parents need to understand that it will take some time for a child to truly master piano playing. It is not a short lived process, but a life-long experience of constant learning.
Basic Guidelines
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Make a commitment. You have to believe in the importance of lessons. Would you allow your child to drop out of school because they found it tedious, boring or aggravating? Lessons should be viewed in the same manner. With my students, I have created a goal system. In our very first time together, we talk about what they feel they can accomplish with their practice routine. When playing gets tough, it is important for them to “keep their eye on the prize” and understand that it takes a lot of work to get to where they want to be. Face it parents, most of you say at some point in your life, “I wish my parents didn’t let me quit”. Although we don’t want to force your child into something they hate, we want to encourage them to keep trying even when they feel they’re stuck or can’t move forward. With Lessons in Your Home, the teacher-student relationship is very important to us. If your teacher is not “clicking” with your child or keeping them excited, we may want to try a new teacher before giving up completely. Sometimes this can make the world of difference!
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Define a Schedule. Come up with a regular time each day that you expect your child to practice and stick to it! Making practicing a part of their everyday (or every other day) routine will help them succeed and accomplish their goals sooner!
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Keep distractions to a minimum. Make sure there is no TV, music, or other noisy distractions in the same room. This will help your child focus better and accomplish more.
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Practice, practice, practice! Set an amount of minutes per day or week that your child will practice. I make my students come up with their own weekly goal so it is not something that was forced on them, but rather something that they feel is reachable. The most important day for your child to practice is either the night after the lesson or the next day. Waiting till the last minute won’t help keep the new concepts taught by the teacher fresh and will most likely result in a “re-do” of a lesson. Even with
out musical expertise, you can make sure your child’s practice time is productive. I found the best idea is for your child to become the teacher! Have them teach YOU something new!
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Encourage your child. Of course, no one wants a parent nagging them to practice, but rather the parents should point out the progress, compliment advance
ments and generally use this as a relationship boost! Setting specific goals and offering rewards for milestones along the way are great incentives to keep going when feeling discouraged. When my students reach their “big goal” (usually around 1000 minutes of practice), I reward them with a piano book of their choice featuring music they enjoy. Some choose fun rock-and-roll books, some choose jazz and blues! This is a great way to get them motivated again with something THEY chose resulting from THEIR hard work!
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Communicate with your teacher! Stay involved by asking about the lesson, expressing concerns and discussing your child’s progress with their teacher just as you would with a school teacher. Many misunderstandings that may end in stopping
lessons can be avoided this way. Remember that your teacher only sees your child once a week, the rest is up to you! All of the teachers on our staff are more than willing to give ideas and suggestions for how to keep the lessons going at home! Take advantage and f
ind the teacher that is right for not only your child, but also your family!
Parental support is vital in your child’s learning process. Keeping you interaction and outlook positive while being firm about teaching principles of commitment, your child’s piano lessons will be a ‘win-win’ situation for everyone!
