Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Sat, 04 Nov 2023 23:27:57 GMT

Facen — Sat, 04 Nov 2023 23:27:57 GMT

A child should always be brought up not by words, but by example. No matter how much you tell him or her, if you don't start doing it yourself, nothing will work. We always develop our children. We try to buy some natural games that will have a positive impact on them. For example, we are now interested in the Montessori furniture method https://goodevas.com/

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Thu, 28 Oct 2021 03:31:19 GMT

flyingboy365 — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 03:31:19 GMT

sharing kid's practicing video below to attract/encourage your child's interest and passion to play piano, this is so call peer pressure, heehee

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQx_vLN8c-gFjBILSp7lJYwLtXTtPLK7V

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Fri, 11 May 2012 00:19:46 GMT

jce — Fri, 11 May 2012 00:19:46 GMT

Rhythm and pitch is, to a certain extent, in-born though it can be trained over a long period of time.

When it comes to exam, one thing to bear in mind is that exam pieces will need to be drilled to a certain level, those who can and who will strive for perfection will be drilled to this level.

A certain amount of discipline has to be instilled at the early stages of practising but the child will, or should, see the need to put in more effort and time as demands (from the teacher, the pieces and themselves) get higher.

A teacher will want to see the student progress, to achieve what he/she is capable of. If it means just a "C" level then so be it, provided he/she has put in the effort to do something. Not every child is of "A*" quality, but it is to bring out what can be achieved, that is the goal.

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Thu, 10 May 2012 23:20:24 GMT

Wan — Thu, 10 May 2012 23:20:24 GMT

I started learning piano at 5yo myself. I was drilled to play 1 hour a day since young. I got my grade 8 but didn’t enjoy it abit.

When i have my way now, I don’t force my children to practise everyday. Playing piano should be self motivated and enjoyable. I found a piano teacher for my son who agrees with this approach. In fact, she commented that my son can sight read now. Should be practicing listening, singing solfege and playing by ear. I think that is what many piano teacher or school lack. We can practise the exam pieces until we get distinctions, but we killed our passion for music.
I don’t target my children to get grade 8. If he wants, he’ll get it. He’ll practise to achieve it. My K1 girl hasn’t start formal music class. But she has better rhythm and pitch sense than her brother. She can dance and clap, play the chords while her brother play the melody. I hope they enjoy their music journey. Whether they practise everyday is secondary…

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Thu, 10 May 2012 15:28:55 GMT

troubled — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:28:55 GMT

I'll tell my boy to play those songs that his teacher asked for, 3 times each.

Then will tell him I want to choose one or two favourite songs and get him to play for me again.... :evil:

Sometimes he'll go thru previous songs that he had completed again and tells me I can choose from those too :please:

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Thu, 10 May 2012 11:19:54 GMT

piglet and calf — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:19:54 GMT

I try to get my gal to Practise her piano pieces about 5 times a week. Each time, either my mum or I will sit with her. I feel that it is important to be around and by their side when they practise especially when the childis young. My girl is only 4.

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:21:45 GMT

cnimed — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:21:45 GMT

I don’t actually stress over getting my K1 kid to practice daily. He practices maybe 4 times a week? But I will play for him sometimes, and we listen to pieces together and I take him to casual concerts. For me the goal at this age is more music appreciation and having music as part of his life. I do not want it to be a chore. With my elder child, I am a little stricter in that when he practices, I will ask him to work on certain parts. He probably practices about five times a week. I do not sit with him, but I listen. He likes to experiment with the keyboard and play impromptu made up tunes after his practices, and to me, that is more along the line of my initial purpose for getting him to learn an instrument. As a form of expression and emotional outlet. I do not need him to pass grade 8, but I want him to know all the important composers and musical periods, and to understand what a piece is trying to convey.

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:25:51 GMT

KiasuPiano — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:25:51 GMT

Hi,

It is a fact that kids like music :rahrah: but almost all won't like practicing

Few thoughts for parents :

(1) Just like brushing teeth everyday, doing homework, I believe piano practicing should be a habit too.

Parents may guide kids to add piano practicing as part of their daily routine, plan exactly when and what time the piano practice will take place.

This will avoid anxiety and fighting over practicing.

(2) Piano practicing is a very lonely task for kids. Parents may sit with your child or be in the room in the beginning and watch them practice.

It is to keep them accompany and giving them encouragement and praises whenever a small task is accomplished.

Actually, many kids like to have a parent keep them company while they practice.

The followings are for teachers :

(1) Do not assume that students know how to practice at home.

Do show and discuss with them how to practice at home, what to focus during each practice session.

(2) A small group get-together of about 3 - 4 students of the same levels may motivate them to prepare a piece well.

\"Little and often makes a lot in time.\"
German Proverb

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:05:42 GMT

Dreamaurora — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:05:42 GMT

Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively – A Practical Guide for Parents

How to get my child to practice piano? This is just one of many questions that parents often ask. Many parents provide the best piano lessons money could buy, but we all know even the best instructions would not bear any fruit without any actual practice. Most students only see their teachers once a week, and the rest of the week is where the actual work is. Yet there is a dearth of information available on how to practice piano effectively. Many teachers also do not discuss this with their students’ parents, limiting their lessons to no more than imparting instructions. As such, many questions like above remain unanswered in many parents’ minds. Besides these unanswered questions, many misconceptions persist such as ‘if my child likes piano, he will automatically practice’, etc. Therefore I have decided to write this article to address these issues and put up a general guideline on what parents can do to assist their children in achieving successful piano practice at home. Although this article will especially benefit parents with young children below 9 years old, you can also gain some insights if your child is older and not practicing well and you are looking for ways to rejuvenate your child’s practice sessions. Do note that as your child grows older, he/she should be able to learn independently and be able to execute the points discussed below with minimum assistance from you.

1. Practice to achieve goals
The common advice given by teachers is to set aside a fixed amount of time for practicing. If more progress is desired, then more time needs to be allocated. While there is some truth in this, it does not tell the whole story and is a poor way to plan practice. The most glaring issue arising from this way of practicing is that a child may only do actual practice within a fraction of the time allocated. E.g. in a 30 minutes practice session, a child may spend 20 minutes fiddling with random pieces or daydreaming, and only 10 minutes for the piece he/she is supposed to practice. And without clear aims, practice will be reduced to mere repetition, making your child increasingly bored.

So, a far more efficient way would be to set mini goals that your child will need to accomplish at the end of each practice session. The goals set should be reasonable ones that can be completed within the time allocated for practice. Your child’s teacher will set general goals to be achieved during the week e.g. learn piece A 2 hands together at half tempo; you will need to break this into even smaller and progressive goals. So instead of saying “I want you to practice this piece A for 30 minutes today”, you should instead say “I want you to slowly speed up the left hand part of bars 1-4 for piece A to its intended tempo by the end of your practice session today”. If you do not have piano background, consult your child’s piano teacher for a practice plan during the week and the mini goals your child will need to achieve in each practice session.

2. Be critical
Practicing piano unfortunately involves a substantial amount of repetition to build up the various memories required to perform a piece. However, this does not mean the entire process of learning a piece can be summed up as ‘repeat the piece x amount of times until all the notes are correct’. Quite the contrary, the process of acquiring an accurate rendition of a piece requires a critical mind capable of analysing and solving problems. Too often students ignore problems and mistakes during practice sessions, relying solely on their teachers to fix these errors during lesson times. Very common among young children as their thresholds for mistakes are high and they can be easily contented once the piece sounds ‘right’. As a consequence, pieces are learnt much slower and progress is slower overall.

So how can you and your child be critical in practice? When you spot a mistake or difficulty, do not ignore it. Pause, analyse it, and work out a solution to fix the problem. If your solution does not work, note the problem down and discuss with the teacher in the next lesson. For example, if your child is having problem playing a particular bar two hands together, you could ask him/her to play it hand separately first to familiarise each hand and then recombine to see if it solves the problem. If problem persists, you could try breaking up the bars into smaller blocks and practice these blocks separately. And so on. You may also wish to invest in a good set of recording equipment to record your child’s practice sessions for further discussion with your child or his/her teacher. It is highly recommended that you sit in your child’s lessons as much as possible so you can note down the various ways your child’s teacher use to fix the errors.

3. Vary the activities in practice
No one likes to repeat the same thing over and over again for a long period of time. Making your child practice the same thing every day will most likely result in boredom and loss of interest. Progress will also be slower as the more your child work on the same piece, the less information is absorbed as practice becomes stale and monotonous. In fact, study has concluded that the brain absorbs more information when exposed to multiple materials over a short amount of time.

With this in mind try to plan your child’s practice sessions in such a way that repetition of materials is kept to a minimum; this way even if a material is revisited again in another practice session it will not feel stale. So for example on Monday your child could practice piece A and on Tuesday he/she could practice piece B before returning again to piece A on Wednesday. Other activities such as sight-reading, music listening, theory homework, will need to be varied as well. Once again, this is an area where you should work closely with your child’s teacher to arrive at an optimal practice plan.

4. Be interested in your child’s practice; provide emotional support and reward
One of the most common misconceptions I have heard uttered by parents is that they believe if their children like piano they will automatically practice. Interfering with this will not be appropriate and may be construed as being forceful. While there is some truth to this and some children may be self-motivated to practice because they genuinely love piano, most will need time to slowly develop their appreciation for the instrument. Practice is hard work and seldom fun. And the work is going to get exponentially harder as your child progresses. Even the self-motivated ones may find their interest slowly waning when the learning curve increased and greater commitment is required of them.

Parents’ emotional support is especially crucial here. Ideally try to be around to assist your child when he/she is practicing. But if this is not possible do make the effort to inquire about your child’s practice sessions and discuss if he/she has any difficulties or questions. Acknowledge the complexity of picking up the instrument and the likely mental exhaustion that may come with constant practicing. You will have to provide constant affirmation and reward for your child so he/she can persevere to attain the long term goals set by the teacher. This can be as simple as saying “Good job” after your child successfully complete the goals for his/her practice session. Even if the goals are not achieved but your child put in his/her best effort to achieve them, do still remember to praise him/her.

For the more difficult and longer term goals, you may consider giving more substantial rewards e.g. a treat in your child’s favourite restaurant. Be careful though in dispensing rewards; you do not want your child to solely practice just because he/she wants the rewards. The rewards are not meant to be the goals, but rather as an incentive/bonus for the effort your child puts in.

5. Schedule fixed time slots for practice
A mistake many parents make is to only let their children practice during their free time. Allocate specific time slots within the day to practice; this will send a signal to your child that piano practice is important and needs to be done regularly. Break the practice sessions into shorter separate slots if your child’s attention span is short or his/her schedule does not allow long practice sessions.

6. Rest your child before practice
Practicing piano is a physically and mentally exhausting exercise. The degree of concentration and coordination required to play the piano is immense; you would want your child to be properly rested and fully alert so his/her practice sessions can be as fruitful as possible. Definitely do not put practice sessions immediately after long hours at school or after another strenuous activity such as sports. I normally recommend a child to practice after a short nap or a light meal/snack.

7. Set up a proper practice corner
Self-explanatory. The piano should be placed in a properly designated space with all the tools and resources such as metronomes and scores easily accessible. Ensure also the practice space is free from external distractions such as TV programmes to maximise concentration level.

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:42:53 GMT

peanut_butter — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:42:53 GMT

Try getting one of those Adventures Books with CD. The big notes are 'friendly' to follow. The tunes are catchy. Book A and B come with backing tracks. Kids are likely to feel and follow through with a steady pause. Make they run through a few pieces in each practice session and don't revise. http://pianoadventures.com/myfirst/materials.html

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:33:16 GMT

mongz — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:33:16 GMT

jedamum:
Agree with setting a routine.

Myboy now knows that home prac is 2x a day, once after breakfast or lunch n once after dinner. We have a designated corner of the living rm to place his keyboard n related music books. I borrow related stories to read to him. I try to learn with him n he takes pride that his sight Reading is better than me.
but I find that once he works out the score n somewhat memorise it thru daily practises, his performance will drop as he'll just rush thru it based on memory without looking at the score.

Jedamum, I agree with your last sentence. My girl also started having this habit. I am a bit worried with her sight reading because she hates that and will try to memorise the song and play from memory. The rhythm maybe out too. She practises only once a day and the no. of times she practises on her piano decreases with the days to her lesson. eg, Mon-5x, Tue-4x, Wed-3x etc for all the songs. It's a method we used to encourage her to practise everyday when she first started out last year. But now that she is going for her Gr 1 exam, I am thinking of ways to encourage her to play more times. :scratchhead:

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:15:28 GMT

jedamum — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:15:28 GMT

Agree with setting a routine.

Myboy now knows that home prac is 2x a day, once after breakfast or lunch n once after dinner. We have a designated corner of the living rm to place his keyboard n related music books. I borrow related stories to read to him. I try to learn with him n he takes pride that his sight Reading is better than me.
but I find that once he works out the score n somewhat memorise it thru daily practises, his performance will drop as he'll just rush thru it based on memory without looking at the score.

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:56:32 GMT

LLK — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:56:32 GMT

regardless of age, 5 or 15 years old, it is always hard to get kids to practise piano everyday, unless they are crazy about piano and can not live without it. based on my experience, it is better to tell them (I presume they enjoy music and playing piano, and are not forced to attend piano lesson) if they want to continue their piano lesson, they must at least have a short practice (20-30 mins) everyday. By so doing, they would be better prepared for the next lesson (teacher would have a better impression of them) and even advance to higher grade faster than their friends. Give them a sense of achievement is one of the ways to motivate them.

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:21:23 GMT

jedamum — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:21:23 GMT

dovetail:
lifetimeparent:
my boy i s5 yrs old, he goes for his piano lesson once a week willingly, but he does not like to practice daily or consistently. do you have experience of getting your child to get on to any routine practice on his own?

Write a list of things you want him to practice for the session. Get him to tick off those items that he has done and it must be ticked by him (this has a psychological effect on him). Don't reward him with anything for day to day practice sessions if possible. If need to, just stickers. His reward should be intrinsic, the enjoyment of the music and the good feeling from having been discipline and done a good practice session. It is crucial at this starting point to teach him how to divide and conquer his homework. So it's helpful if you sit down with him for the first couple of years to guide him.

I strongly discourage extrinsic rewards because I've friends who had changed from carrots to sticks over their kid's years of practice. Ouch!

jce:
At this age, it is short practices but more times a day. So something like 10-15mins but twice a day (as suggested by another kiasu parent). Another way would be to have a good 30 mins in one shot but include some rhythm clapping, singing. That way it might break the monotony.

today is my ds2's first lesson. we did the above underlined.
will see if such can sustain his practice interest.
if can, i'll summarized it again and include what other stuff we have added to 'spice up' practising time.
thanks!

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 03:34:43 GMT

Dreamaurora — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 03:34:43 GMT

Getting a child to practice daily at such a young age may be very difficult because they may not be able to see the reasoning too. As such normally as teacher what I did I worked out a reward system. Say, if they can accomplish certain tasks by a week e.g. learn certain scales, play a piece up to speed, then they acquire some reward point that they can use to exchange for gifts. Don’t worry so much that they will be too dependent on rewards. If they love music, when they grow older to pre teen, they will automatically be motivated. But if they don’t I believe there’s nothing wrong with it and I think all parents should strive to find an activity that their kids will enjoy more.

Parents can also use this method to motivate the children and as someone has mentioned before need to sit down with them to practice.

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:04:48 GMT

jce — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:04:48 GMT

At this age, it is short practices but more times a day. So something like 10-15mins but twice a day (as suggested by another kiasu parent). Another way would be to have a good 30 mins in one shot but include some rhythm clapping, singing. That way it might break the monotony.

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Mon, 04 Jul 2011 08:26:04 GMT

dovetail — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 08:26:04 GMT

lifetimeparent:
my boy i s5 yrs old, he goes for his piano lesson once a week willingly, but he does not like to practice daily or consistently. do you have experience of getting your child to get on to any routine practice on his own?

Write a list of things you want him to practice for the session. Get him to tick off those items that he has done and it must be ticked by him (this has a psychological effect on him). Don't reward him with anything for day to day practice sessions if possible. If need to, just stickers. His reward should be intrinsic, the enjoyment of the music and the good feeling from having been discipline and done a good practice session. It is crucial at this starting point to teach him how to divide and conquer his homework. So it's helpful if you sit down with him for the first couple of years to guide him.

I strongly discourage extrinsic rewards because I've friends who had changed from carrots to sticks over their kid's years of practice. Ouch!

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Mon, 04 Jul 2011 03:54:43 GMT

gt1122 — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 03:54:43 GMT

try to play chords ad ask him to play melody… then switch roles… it works well for my DD

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Sat, 28 May 2011 05:28:35 GMT

UncleLim — Sat, 28 May 2011 05:28:35 GMT

Do you listen to and discuss music together with him?

Can he be inspired by watching great pianists play on Youtube?

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Wed, 25 May 2011 15:11:09 GMT

MummyThreeStreams — Wed, 25 May 2011 15:11:09 GMT

At that age, it’s best if you can sit down with him. Even if he is motivated to sit at the piano on his own, he may not be able to practise correctly. Also, having you sit with him allows him to feel like he is enjoying an activity with you, rather than on his own.

On top of that, I also used sticker rewards. Stickers are great motivators for everything!!

Once he gets into the routine, you can try encouraging him to practise independently. (more stickers!)

DS1, who is in P1, can practise independently but I try to be around when he practises. He likes me to sit with him. He still grumbles and complains about having to go over a piece many times, but I’m hoping these complaints will decrease in time…

Reply to Getting Your Child to Practice Effectively on Wed, 25 May 2011 04:02:40 GMT

jojo — Wed, 25 May 2011 04:02:40 GMT

set a time and seat down with him. if Per day u want him to practise 30 mins, you can break up to 15 mins each practise:) Reward him, if he does well.