music practice - bad habit

[SoCal_Bear]

So, this is my dilemma. I've caught my son a few times reading books while simultaneously practicing the piano. He has this ability to memorize the pieces that have been assigned by is piano teacher. Somehow he can play the pieces while reading a book in his lap. The pieces are completely accurate which is why this is driving me nuts. I suppose he's bored, but he didn't have the song mastered at the beginning of the week when he has his lesson, but somehow towards the end of the week this happens. Part of me hopes that maybe this is because the pieces are not complex enough yet, and that this will be a temporary temptation. He's probably around the beginning of intermediate level for piano.

 

Is my kid the only one that does this?

 

[brownie]

My son did this. Probably more with pieces he knew but at an advanced level. I don't think it's a big deal...a worse habit is not practicing. Maybe talk with his teacher to communicate that he is able to do what he is doing while reading a book. Perhaps skipping through the books more quickly is called for. There will get to a point he cannot read while 1st learning a piece.

[SanDiegoMom]

My piano teacher used to encourage kids to read while doing their Hanon exercises and scales. But she only had a couple of kids that could memorize the harder songs so she never thought about kids doing that with their assigned songs. 

[mathnerd]

Let the teacher know what is happening and they usually have a few strategies for this behavior.

 

If your child already knows the piece and you think that he is bored, then, until he goes to the next class, you can ask him to modify his practices to improve his musicality as well as to challenge himself - transpose the piece to a different key, switch roles between rh and lh and play the piece hands separately, change the tempo/rhythm/patterns etc in the piece, play the longest section backwards, switch the dynamics etc. These are all some of the techniques that students use when they reach higher levels and getting started on them could help him accelerate his learning as well. Another idea would be to ask the teacher to give you some supplementary book suggestions so that he can play on those pieces when he has mastered his current ones in his practice session.