How do you encourage your child to practice her/his musical instrument as well as possible

[IsabelC]

As the Title says! 

 

What tips do you have for getting your child to focus and make practice time productive. My beginner musician is only 5, so her practice times are pretty short (20-30 minutes per day at most). 

[Plink]

I ditched the timer and substituted a check list. My boy could easily spend his entire allotted time adjusting his music stand and fiddling with the metronome. The list keeps him on track.

[FriedClams]

At that age I'd say you have to sit with her, or be close by. When my youngest was that age and taking heir teacher had them practice each song 5 times a day. That seemed like a much more doable goal for him and helped a lot. My kids HATE the metronome but it makes their practice a lot better when the my use it.

 

IMHO, For a 5 year old 20-30 minutes sounds like a lot. My kids are 11 and 12 and practice 40 minutes a day in 2 20 minus blocks. They're not passionate musicians or headed for performance arts, or they'd have to do a lot more at their ages.

[73349]

I made the goal audible improvement--It sounds better than yesterday--rather than time on task.

[KSinNS]

Practicing with little ones can definitely be a challenge!

 

My kids at 5 could typically do 10-15 minutes of solid practice (not counting games). At that age they need lots of moral support and direction. I usually have a list based on their teacher's assignments, and when that is done, practice is done. Keep it short, and do short repetitions (you are better to practice each difficult phrase 5 times than the whole song 5 times for example). We also follow a practice routine (tuning, poem, first favourite song, new work, scales, review, last favourite song). 

 

I add in games to make it more fun-a sticker for each thing done, monopoly money to reward success (we've been working on holding the violin correctly, so he gets $1, $5, or $10 depending on how well he does), candies for focussed effort, play tic-tac-toe and each song you add an x or an o (I let him win). I'm going to try doing the memory game with him today. I wasn't big on games initially, but they really help with the little ones, and I find as they get older, they outgrow the need for that support. There's a book called Helping Parents Practice which can be very helpful. 

 

If you are struggling, ask your teacher for advice. 

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

DW has taught middle school band since '87. 15 minutes a day is plenty for most elem and early middle grades.

[Mona]

When my dc were 5 & 6, I had to sit with them and direct their attention. They also forgot easily, so I had to help them. I eventually ended up taking piano lessons myself so I could help them. I did this for about two years before they were able to sit and do their lessons by themselves efficiently. I used to require 15 minutes at that age. It was plenty of time to get through finger exercises and all their songs two or more times and still have time to do a previously learned song to stay fresh in their mind. Those are the songs they end up being able to play by heart at any time. 

My dc are 10 & 12 and they practice for 20 minutes each morning.

[petepie2]

Definitely use a checklist, and at that age, they need supervision and direction during their practice time. I even sit down with my 8 year old when he's starting new practice material, and occasionally I have to do the same for my 9 yr old.

 

Also, FWIW, I think 30 minutes is too long for a 5 year old to practice in one sitting. Of course, some kids are exceptions and have longer attention spans..... just my two cents....

[Miss Tick]

For our family - for the first 6 months (7yo) they practiced 2 10 minute sessions a day (later bumped to 2 12 minute sessions, now 15 each)

 

I stay out of practice as much as possible. I am more involved now, but for us, especially at the beginning, I wanted it to be between the teacher and the students.

 

We have a marble jar, one marble if you practice twice a day. It holds about 120. Once it is full we do something in the$5-$10 range per child.

 

As a few pp have pointed out, I'm working on moving them away from playing each piece twice through, to having them focus on trouble areas and beat.

[maize]

Sit with her. Have a checklist or better yet a game board with something she can move from square to square. Offer a reward when she is done, it could be a promise to read her favorite book. Don't try to do more than 15 minutes at a time.

[Dmmetler]

Checklists help, definitely. There's a book I love called "How to get your child to practice without resorting to violence" that is very good as far as teaching parents how to structure practice time effectively. It's available through Shar Music and other Suzuki vendors.

 

I will also say that eventually it becomes self-correcting, but it usually takes 3-5 years before students get to that point (and then a lot of them reach adolescence and that new found responsibility becomes very erratic....it comes back a year or two later)

[Veritaserum]

Their music teacher gives them a specific list of things to work on during the week. I make sure they do them. Currently, my 7yo, 9yo, and 11yo are taking lessons. I keep an ear out and correct poor habits or mistakes, but I don't sit with them. Their teacher gives them a reward at the next lesson if they completed all of their assignments and practiced five days per week.

[Runningmom80]

20-30 minutes would be a lot here too. My 7 year old does 15 minutes a day.

[MinivanMom]

I have always had a checklist. They finish the checklist rather than practicing for a certain amount of time. When they are first starting out with lessons (ages 6-7 or the first few months on any new instrument), I either sit with them or stay close by for emotional support. As they get older, I have them make their own checklist and set their own goals for what they want to improve on. I talk through it with them at the beginning of each new week so they can articulate the goals aloud. My oldest is now very good at setting her own goals and staying on task without any input from me.

 

I agree with others that 30 min sounds long for a 5 yr old. I have never started a child quite so young, but I always have my new beginners practice each song 3 times. It's a small, achievable number, and it keeps the practice time short. As beginners at 6 or 7, my kids were never practicing more than 10-20 min at the most. It would be closer to 20 min at the beginning of the week when the songs are new, and it would be closer to 10 min at the end of the week when the songs are mastered. My 8-yr-old now practices for about 30-40 min daily. My 10 yr old practices her first instrument for 1-2 hrs daily and her second instrument for 30-40 min daily.

[Cosmos]

My ds did 10 minutes a day at age 6 and that was plenty. Also, I sat with him the entire time to make sure he used proper technique and stayed on task. It took a long time of building good habits before he was able to manage his own practice. It was kind of like teeth-brushing, I guess, in that we supervised very heavily at the beginning to ensure that it was done correctly and after that it was a habit.

[Pen]

:bigears:

[librarymama]

Well, I shall go against the grain...

 

20-30 minutes per day is not necessarily too long for a 5 year old. If your child is capable of paying attention to a television show for that long, they are certainly capable of spending the same amount of time engrossed in a musical instrument. The key is that they enjoy their time with it. If they don't enjoy it, then yes, that would be too long.  

 

My 6 year old plays piano and is learning with a Suzuki teacher. He practices every day. Each practices lasts for about 15-30 minutes, and the length isn't important so much as what he accomplishes. He has a set list of about 9 pieces right now, and he works through the list twice. After that he is free to play whatever songs he wishes.  We worked our way up to this, adding pieces over time and then deciding to go through the list twice once he became good at all of them. 

 

For us the key was that he consider the time fun. :hurray: I sit with him and we do it together with me encouraging him. He sees it as bonding time for us. The entire time isn't necessarily productive, as he does like to fiddle the keys or make a joke or chew his fingers thinking before jumping into a song, but as others said, having a list of tasks to accomplish keep him moving forward and focused. 

[Alice]

Our piano teacher has them do every song 5 times a day 5 times a week. She then gives them work so that when they are younger that equals about 20 min. I’d say my 7 yr old now can be done in 20-30, my 10 year old is more like 30-40, depending on the pieces he has.

 

I find that my 7 yr old still does much much better when I sit with him. I keep track of the number of time and help if needed. I know less than him about music now so I’m not much help but he likes the company and it keeps him on track. 

 

I also treat music as a school subject, it’s just not negotiable. My 7 year old in particular is going through a phase where he complains a lot about it but he also complains about math and spelling. He has to do them all. :) 

 

[IsabelC]

Thanks for all those replies :)

 

Just to clarify a few points:

 

I do stay with her and work with her closely. It didn't even occur to me to expect her to practice independently at that age.

 

The 20-30 minutes maximum isn't an amount of time I make her practice. It's just how long it takes. But that is start to finish, ie wash hands, get out violin, attach shoulder rest, I explain and demonstrate what to do, she practices, we do a little bit of theory, pack up violin. So probably only half the time is actually her playing stuff lol.

 

We're not having any particular problems at this stage. I am just anxious to get this right. 

 

A list to check off sounds like a great idea, especially as we already do a checklist for our chores etc. 

I'd quite like to make it a not negotiable subject, however there is the issue that big bro and sis aren't having music lessons at the moment, might need to rethink that. 

[Sarah CB]

A check-list is definitely going to help.  It's also helpful to have a certain point to each aspect of practice - what is she working towards?  For kids at that age on violin, it's usually a posture thing.  When playing review pieces we had a specific practice point, for example, playing May Song and keeping a rounded pinkie finger on the bow the whole time.  Or doing O Come Little Children with a the bowing arm opening and closing like a gate so the bow would stay parallel to the bridge.  Having one point helped me to chill out and not be giving the kids "helpful" reminders while they played and it gave them an achievable goal but it was also specific enough that it was helpful to their overall playing.  

 

That age - things take so long!  Even doing things like practicing ten bow holds can take up a good chunk of practice time.  My kids liked to have me close my eyes and then they'd surprise me with a bow hold that had one thing wrong with it and I'd have to fix it.  Or, I'd do that to them and they'd have to fix my bow hold.  You can go on and on with stuff like that and it's really helpful, but it also takes a long time.  Violin is really picky that way.  But, that's kind of an advantage to starting so young.  You can turn all those picky little things into "fun" games and so they learn them enjoyably and are able to practice them over and over and over without getting bored.

[Donna]

When dd was that age, I always sat with her (still do sit with her many days because she enjoys the time together).

 

We played games to practice like...

-counting repetitions on an abacus (her teacher often told/tells her to do something...a certain measure or a couple notes, not an entire piece, 100X a week and we count this on the abacus)

-scoring repetitions...good was 1 for her and not so good was 1 for me

-getting a chocolate chip for so many good repetitions

-playing for stuffed animals or dolls

-made flashcards for pieces being worked on and other color flashcards each with a technique she was to work on....she'd pick one of each and either show me or keep it a secret from me and have me guess which technique card she had chosen based on her focus

 

(I second the Helping Parents Practice book by Edmund Sprunger for tons of ideas on games.)

 

Focusing on one technique issue at a time is very important when they are that little. You can look at them playing and see 5 things they need to fix but keeping each repetition to one thing and breaking difficult tasks into small, easily accomplished tasks is very useful. (For example, instead of playing through an entire piece, just work through the difficult measure or two until it is easy.)

 

Practice has always been non-negotiable like brushing her teeth or getting dressed. She started at 3yo so she doesn't remember a time when she didn't play violin. I always told dd that "we practice to make it easier." That phrase helped to keep her from getting discouraged if something wasn't easy the first or 5th time.

 

We broke it up into smaller chunks (and still do this) so she could focus her best. At 3yo it was 5-10 min a number of times a day (whenever she brought me her instrument and wanted me to practice with her), by 5yo it was closer to 20-30 min. a number of times a day, and now it is 3-4 hour long chunks a day. (yeah, be careful what you are getting into)

 

When she was younger, we kept her polished repertoire on a list and she played each piece daily until she had gone through Suzuki Books 1 and 2 then we broke up the repertoire listing it in 7 columns by day so she would play through each piece at least once a week.

[Tracy]

Mostly, I don't.  I have a dd8 and a ds5 taking piano lessons.  They have a list of pieces that they are currently working on, and I generally encourage them to practice each one once per day.  But if they spend their time practicing something else instead, I don't belabor it.  I want them to love the instrument first and foremost.  We have a teacher who wholly supports this.  She doesn't question the kids on their practice time or make comments if it seems they haven't practiced.  She provides lots of materials to choose from, trying to support what they are most interested in.  For my kids, at least, this has been a very effective strategy.  They often play when they are not required to, which exactly what I am going for.  

[robsiew]

I started my oldest on piano at age 6.  I did sit with him until he had enough proficiency to practice on his own.  This was probably for a year/year and half.  I also think 10 min. or so is long enough for a 5 year old.  Their attention span is not very long, especially if you expect him to be self directed.  I've never put a time expectation on practice time (although I do insist they practice 6 days a week).  They practice until they feel they can do their lesson.  For my youngest this meant about 5 min. at first (he was 7 when he started piano), but now at 8.5 he has gotten some proficiency and feels really good about his ability.  He practices more like 15-20 min.  at a time, sometimes longer if he has pieces he really enjoys.  3 of the 4 kiddos play piano and I've rarely had trouble getting them to practice.

[robsiew]

Thanks for all those replies :)

 

Just to clarify a few points:

 

I do stay with her and work with her closely. It didn't even occur to me to expect her to practice independently at that age.

 

The 20-30 minutes maximum isn't an amount of time I make her practice. It's just how long it takes. But that is start to finish, ie wash hands, get out violin, attach shoulder rest, I explain and demonstrate what to do, she practices, we do a little bit of theory, pack up violin. So probably only half the time is actually her playing stuff lol.

 

We're not having any particular problems at this stage. I am just anxious to get this right. 

 

A list to check off sounds like a great idea, especially as we already do a checklist for our chores etc. 

I'd quite like to make it a not negotiable subject, however there is the issue that big bro and sis aren't having music lessons at the moment, might need to rethink that. 

 

Just read this... I'm actually a violin teacher and this sounds great!  Keep doing what you're doing.  I would highly encourage practicing 5-6 days a week.  If you get her in the habit now it will be much easier later on when she will NEED to practice that much to progress.  I wish all my parents were as concerned about their kids' practicing as you are!  Most kids are so overscheduled they couldn't fit in practice if they tried!  :-0

 

[Sarah CB]

Mostly, I don't.  I have a dd8 and a ds5 taking piano lessons.  They have a list of pieces that they are currently working on, and I generally encourage them to practice each one once per day.  But if they spend their time practicing something else instead, I don't belabor it.  I want them to love the instrument first and foremost.  We have a teacher who wholly supports this.  She doesn't question the kids on their practice time or make comments if it seems they haven't practiced.  She provides lots of materials to choose from, trying to support what they are most interested in.  For my kids, at least, this has been a very effective strategy.  They often play when they are not required to, which exactly what I am going for.  

 

My daughter did piano like this.  She didn't get very far.  When she hit twelve she was really disappointed with her progress - she did her grade 2 exam that year after six years of piano.  

 

With the boys, we've embraced the Suzuki philosophy of creating a love of music by creating an environment that encourages a love of music.  But, we also know that that love for music can really be developed through playing beautiful pieces with enough skill to really sound amazing - and that takes consistent, dedicated work.  We make that work fun - especially in the early years with lots of games and rewards.  One of our mantra's has been Suzuki's, "Only practice on days that you eat."  Another is, "Never hurry, never stop."  My two oldest boys have a real love for their instruments that has been developed through lots of listening and concerts, a strong social group that revolves around music, dedicated, specific practices at home, and the hard work it's taken to reach a skill level that they are proud of.  My violinist, especially, loves performing a piece that he's spent his heart and soul polishing and perfecting.  My cellist prefers performing in a group, but also enjoys the rewards of the hard work he puts in.  They all play around on their instruments to varying degrees - the violinist has put in a significant amount of his own money into his music.  My cellist spent all his Christmas money and his savings on an amp for his cello.  Specific, dedicated, supported practice has not killed a love of music here - in fact, I think it's been an important ingredient in developing a lasting love of music.

[Guest busyboymama]

Sarah CB, where can I learn more about the Suzuki method? I haven't started my kids in lessons yet and I like the way that method sounds.

[KSinNS]

Hi, 

 

Not SarahCB but I am a dedicated suzuki mom. theviolinist.com website has an excellent discussion of the suzuki method, including a long and passionate debate about the good, bad, and ugly of the suzuki method from experienced teachers. The suzuki association of the americas website also has a ton of information. 

 

I love the Suzuki method with it's culture of music, fostering the parent-child relationship, and trying to grow great people through music. It's also very open to kids with special needs. However, you do need a great teacher and an active, local suzuki community. Most programs require you to observe lessons and such before you join, because it is a big time commitment, and that's a golden opportunity to see what it's about and drink the koolaid. 

[LAR]

Our girls (8 and 10 1/2) practice 15 minutes daily.  I don't sit with them as they understand the weekly assignments and homework required by their instructor.  I set a timer and they're good to go.   I anticipate increasing practice time to 30 minutes over the course of a year or so.

 

The first six months of daily practice went well, but this month I started a reward system - piano practice earns one tv show for the next day.   This incentive works because we don't watch tv much at all during the week.  The caveat is that all schoolwork must be completed before they can watch the show of their choice.

[Sarah CB]

Sarah CB, where can I learn more about the Suzuki method? I haven't started my kids in lessons yet and I like the way that method sounds.

 

There are some great books.  Nurtured by Love by Suzuki is the first one to read.  After that, I like To Learn with Love http://www.amazon.com/To-Learn-With-Love-Companion/dp/0874876060 

 

Our teacher did a lot of parent education to help us really understand the method.  We had a month of parent lessons before the kids began and then the last ten minutes of every group class was for parents in the first year.  She also invited experienced Suzuki parents in to speak to us and answer questions about things a couple of times a year.

[ScoutTN]

DD didn't start until she was 7, but for the first few months, I sat with her. Now Dh does once or twice a week, to make sure she's really doing what the teacher wrote and to correct any mistakes.