Getting Your Child to Practice: Sensible Tips for Parents

Your child is taking music lessons, but it seems like she never practices. You think, “why am I paying for all of this?” Before you give up, here are some ideas for supporting your children toward a positive, productive musical adventure.

Call it play instead of practice. Asking, “Why don’t you play that new song for me?” is more inviting than “Why haven’t you practiced yet?” The word “practice” conjures up notions of routine work, while the word “play” suggests exploring, creating and experimenting.

Have a sensible routine. After school, many things compete for your child’s time and attention: sports, friends, and video games as well as family, homework and school events. If after-school hours are tight, maybe the best time to “play” music each day is in the morning before school or on weekends. Do what works for your family.

Remember that a little time is better than no time. Even if there are only five or ten minutes available, there can be time to play a few songs or scales. Keeping the instrument and music books set up in a convenient spot can make a quick rehearsal possible.

Consider your child’s maturity. While one child might be able to maximize 10 minutes of playing time, another might get very little done in a half-an-hour session. At every age and for every child, the level of focus varies. The best approach is to  encourage quality over quantity! Playing well for a few minutes trumps aimless, half-hearted effort for twenty minutes.

Use a reward system. Help children manage their time by providing special incentives. If a child resists learning new songs, for example, but loves to play familiar songs or have an audience, you can set up a reward system that encourages  him to persist. Set a timer for five to ten minutes where the child must work on new songs. Then the next five to ten minutes let him give a “concert” where he can play any and all of his favorite songs.

Hire the right teacher. If your child is having a very negative experience, it may just be that the teacher, although qualified, is not the right person to teach your child. Don’t hesitate to try a different teacher whose style of teaching more closely matches the way your child learns.

Music lessons available at www.imagineandplaymusic.com

Choosing your pathway to musical expression

There are many ways music can be learned: through books, through imitation, and by ear, all with or without a teacher. A successful musician might start off using any one of these approaches but at some point, teacher guidance and focused study plays an important role for most students. Before selecting a teacher, it can be useful to know about some of the approaches they may use.

There are essentially three approaches:

• Traditional – book based, with emphasis on reading music.
• Rote – visually-based, with emphasis on copying.
• Ear-training – sound-based, with emphasis on developing musicality

Teachers may use a combination of these as well. Although I have my own preferences, overall I recommend finding a teacher that recognizes your strengths and is willing to work with them.

More on each method:

A traditional method will provide a foundation in music notation and theory: many teachers prefer this route . It is a text-based learning method, using a written system of symbols that must be interpreted. Learning to interpret musical notation takes years, and there is no guarantee that knowledge of music will make you a good performer of music. But this approach does provide a clear way to communicate and record progress.

• Pros: Students will understand standard musical terms and notation, be able to talk about music easily with others
• Cons: Students may be bored playing simple, unfamiliar songs; they may be unable to perform without a book

Learning by rote is a fast way to move toward actually playing, especially with songs that are familiar. This method is greatly preferred by children, who often watch their friends or siblings play a song so many times that they figure it out for themselves. You-tube videos are also a primary source for kids who want to learn particular songs. Kids will carefully observe the placement of the performer’s hands on the keyboard, often watching over and over, and then mimic with great accuracy songs that would be very difficult to read out of a book. Having a patient teachers provides an extra advantage for getting tips on proper fingering and rhythm.

• Pros: Students learn more difficult songs they really enjoy playing before they are even able to read music.
• Cons: Students don’t always play with understanding and they may not be able to transfer what they learned to other songs.

Learning by ear is what happens when the student figures out the notes to a song purely by sound, with no visual model (such as a friend to play it for them first). The student perceives different pitches and then finds them on the instrument, playing the notes in the order he hears them and according to the rhythmic pattern he discerns. It is a slower process at first, but a very intimate one. Students who learn this way tend to know why they are playing certain keys on the keyboard and eventually become very quick absorbers of new songs. Like the rote- learners, music is always memorized. But the advantage for ear-players is that if a song is forgotten it is easily relearned.

• Pros: Students able to learn many songs and play fluidly
• Cons: Student may resist learning to read music

Each of these methods will allow students to express themselves musically, although some are better suited for  certain applications.

• If you want to play in orchestra, you need to read music.
• If you play in a garage band, no music books are necessary but a good ear is very helpful.
• If you play in three piece jazz band, you may be glancing at pages of a fakebook that contain only words and chords—the best players will have a strong foundation in music theory.
• If you play solo, you can pretty much do whatever you want!

As a teacher, I have used all these approaches at one point or another to prepare my students to express themselves musically. I am not hung up on one method. But I will say that the main ingredient in any musical program, for an adult or a child, is time and attention. To be good, musicians put in years of practice with attention to detail. That’s not bad news, though, because learning music can be a pleasure in itself.

Enjoy your journey!

The Right to Play Music

Who should learn to play music? Do only the musically gifted deserve the opportunity to learn music and play publicly? Some music teachers conduct evaluations before accepting students, even at the elementary level. If the goal is to produce performers, then this makes sense. But for most people who study music, in the long run, the benefit will be mainly personal: playing for friends or self, or maybe in a local band. And studies have shown that there are both cognitive and emotional effects to playing music, so that tells me that everyone should have the chance learn how to express themselves through music.

How can we open the door for more people to participate in music? I follow these simple guidelines:

1. Remove the goal of performing publicly or professionally—at least initially.
2. Concentrate on enabling musical expression.

Even beginners can improvise after learning just a few notes and rhythm patterns. One of my favorite first activities with students is something I call “The One-Note Blues”: I provide the chord changes and they improvise on a single note that I assign. It helps students see how much can be done just with rhythm and attitude!

Of course gaining knowledge and skill is important—it certainly gives players more options as they create music. But depth of knowledge and refined skill is not a prerequisite to enjoying creative musical expression, even in the first days of learning.

Look for the video featuring the one-note blues in the weeks ahead!

Recommended Reading:

“The Child’s Right to the Expressive Arts: Nurturing the Imagination as Well as the Intellect”. Position paper of the Association for Childhood Education International, by Mary Rench Jalongo, Professor of Education, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana. 1990.

Related Links:

http://acei.org/action/acei-positions/positions-papers/

Making Room for Music

One afternoon, I heard music coming from the living room. Who could be playing that funky tune?  I grabbed my video camera and snuck down the stairs. I was thrilled to find my son totally immersed in improvisation. What inspired him I don’t know, but maybe he just wandered into the living room, saw the Yamaha Motif digital piano, and decided to “go for a spin”.  I also don’t know how he came up with that cool riff, but clearly he was onto something that mesmerized him and he just played it over and over.

I think what is captured by this video is something that many people wish to experience for themselves: being lost in a creative, musical moment. What made this moment possible was allowing my son to have access to my digital piano. Easy access to a musical instrument is one part of opening the door to creative musical expression. Imagine if you wanted to learn to play the electronic keyboard, but every time inspiration struck you had to pull it out from under the bed, carry it over to a table top, plug it in, find a chair the right height  (or not)… in most cases, these steps get in the way of playing.

Another factor that inhibits musical creativity and learning is keeping an instrument in a location that is uninviting. I have met families who kept their piano in the garage, the basement, or even on a back patio. Not surprisingly, the pianos were always out of tune because of frequent changes in temperature and humidity. But it was also inconvenience, musty odors and lack of ambience that kept the kids from being drawn to play those pianos .

Parents who want to encourage a child to play don’t need to have a big house with a music room, but they do need to designate a special place for the instrument. The more visible, the better! Even a living room corner or child’s bedroom can work. My nieces could barely walk by the piano in their living room without stopping to play something. These practice sessions, consisting of just 30 seconds at times, probably added up to an extra hour by the end of the week.

Having a special place for music is equally important for adults. Most adults have such busy lives that they might only have a few minutes at a time sit down and play. Seeing that instrument propped in the corner, waiting for you to come and create something special, might be the lure you need to stay consistent.

So if you want to be begin creating some special moments with music, begin by designating a place for your instrument. You may also want to setup a place for keeping your learning materials such as music books, pencils, notebook, speakers for listening to songs, headphones, and perhaps a metronome. This is a place for you to build positive associations between learning and music.  One of my adult students, when planning her special area for music, included aromatherapy candles, special artwork, and décor that made her feel creative.

I welcome your comments and questions, and am especially interested in hearing about how you are making room for music in your life.

Appreciately,

Pam Szalay