Piano Practice Ideas from Parents and Teachers

How to Create Peaceful Practice… And End Practice Wars for Good!

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012 : BY ANDREA @www.teachpianotoday.com

This post isn't written by me, but another piano teacher with a blog (see above). However, I could have written it because I get asked all the time how to help a student practice (see my post here on motivation tips for teen students).  It's so hard to give advice for a very private matter for your home and family.  But here are suggestions, I use all the time.  Remember, music is a long-term skill.  Some parents want to pull their children from lessons because they don't see them not practicing, which means, to the parent, that their dollars are wasted.  Never fear, their kids are still learning at lessons and those skills they learn on the piano are so important in the long run.  Have faith, don't give up, and trust that your student/child is soaking it all up.  One day it will return to you many fold from the study habits learned, motor skills enhanced, math figured out, and music in their heart.

In harmony, 

Ms. Leslie

p.s. enjoy the following ideas 

Recently, I had a teacher email me looking for solutions to end the practice wars that were occurring in the home of one of her piano students.  Her studio parent was stressed to the max; feeling as though piano practice was creating a rift between her and her child, testing her parenting patience to the limits, and making her say all sorts of things she regretted later.  It was not her idea of “music in the home”.

When parents sign their child up for piano lessons they are not looking for a way to encourage epic battles at home.  As piano teachers it is in our best interest to help piano studio parents end these battles…

When choosing a location for your piano, select a space that is lived-in, welcoming, and well-lit. Keep it close to “the action” but not in the action. Your children will gravitate to the piano more often if it is in a central place in your home. Avoid bedrooms, basements and other “put away” places. Feeling shut-off from the family while practicing will inevitably lead to a reluctance to spend time on the piano.

While choosing an appropriate space, also consider the noise factor; not only from the piano, but also from your family’s day-to-day activities. Your children want to be close by, but not competing with noise from TV’s, dishwashers and washing machines.

2. Make the space warm and welcoming. Your children will be encouraged to spend upwards of 30 minutes every day in this space. Is it a happy place to be for this amount of time? Small adjustments to lighting and heating can make a world of difference. Seek out places with natural light and ensure it is a cheerful and welcoming space that will encourage your child to visit the piano often for their own enjoyment.

3. Ensure your children have all required materials at hand. Help your children put together a small basket or bin of everything they may need for home practice. Pens, pencils, highlighters, and post-it notes will give your children a sense of organization that will then spill over into their practice habits. Your children will also need adequate lighting to see their music, and a comfortable bench at the correct height to practice comfortably and correctly.

4. Make the “Practice Nest” a communal space.  Children of any age appreciate company while they practice. Having a chair, couch, beanbag chair or pillows nearby where family members will be inclined to sit, listen and enjoy the music immediately sets the tone for happy time on the piano. Encourage siblings to stop by and listen quietly, and allow yourself even just 10 minutes to sit and listen with undivided attention each time your children practice. A set-up that is conducive to including the family in home practice will encourage everyone involved to make piano practice an activity the entire family can be a part of.

 5.CRAMMING IS NOT THE ANSWER

Nothing stresses a parent out more than helping their child practice when they have 10 minutes before leaving for the piano lesson.  Keep the peace at home by beginning home practice immediately after you return home from their piano lesson.  They will still remember what they covered in their lesson, and the piano books will actually make it to the piano… setting you up for a good start to the piano practice week.

Cramming creates feelings of inadequacy in your child as they struggle to perfect what should take 7 days to percolate.  Cramming makes you sweat and wonder why in the world you are paying for these lessons.  Cramming is not the answer.

6.  MISTAKES ARE OKAY

We promise!  It’s our job as piano teachers to sort out the mistakes in lesson time.Your job at home is to be the support – to remind them to spend time on the piano, congratulate them on their efforts, revel in the joy that is your child creating music, and show that you value music in your home.

Avoid the following statements and watch peace fall over your home immediately:  “Is that right?  I don’t think that’s right.”… “That’s not how it’s supposed to sound.”… “Are you watching your music?”… “Your sister played that piece and it didn’t sound like that.” … “Wrong note!”… “Try it again.” etc.  Your child will get their back up immediately and the practice wars are sure to ensue.

7.  “BUT MRS. JONES SAID!”

How many times has your child shouted a statement similar to this?  “Mrs. Jones said I only have to play the first page!”… “Mrs. Jones said to play it up here.”… “Mrs. Jones said to play it this fast!”… What your child is actually trying to say is “I want to be in charge of my learning.”  So let them!  Whether or not Mrs. Jones actually said these things is beside the point.

Resist the urge to argue (and resist the urge to call up Mrs. Jones to ask what the heck she is teaching) and trust that your child will sort it out themselves.  This is often a knee-jerk reaction on your child’s part – they so desperately want to be right and in charge and it’s their way of saying “Stay out of this, I’ve got it.”  If you allow them this right to direct their own learning you will help to create a confident piano student.

More websites to visit ideas with charts, non-candy rewards, and encouragement for parents, please read to help you in your quest to not have piano practice wars at your house.

Monday Music Moment- My Piano Story, part 1

Me- accompanying for a play

My Piano story

              My parents didn’t play any musical instruments but we always had records playing in our home on our large Hifi that took up one wall of the living room.  Phantom of the Opera, Andy Williams, Ella Fitzgerald were what my parents listened to.  My older sisters were listening to Bread, Karen Carpenter, and 3 Dog Night. Because of my family, I’ve always had a broad listening repertoire.

            I started piano when I was six.  My oldest sister, Cindy, tried to teach me piano.  She was a very social fourteen year-old, so this must have been slightly painful for her.  She was patient with me, though.  We tried our homemade lessons for a year. 

            Then it came time for formal lessons.  I don’t really remember my first piano teacher and her methods, but I can recall the room she taught in.  Her studio was a converted porch on the back of her house.  I had a thirty minute private lesson then another student came and we would have fifteen minutes of theory together.  I really liked having another kid around.  I can still see the green, turf-like carpet and orange chairs we sat by next to the large porch windows.

            After a couple years with her, we moved to another state and I had ordinary private lessons.  I don’t remember much about them.  Mostly I was bored.

            When I was eleven, we moved again, to the state that boasts some amazing piano schools and teachers, Texas.  I had three memorable teachers here.  The first teacher used ordinary methods- a private lesson, then a monthly theory class with three to four students.  We met in her small living room and her family often tip-toed by the doorway and waved when they went by. She was into what I call “alternative” performance.  The “alternative” part came at recitals.  She would invite different piano colleagues to perform “creative” music on the piano by dropping paper clips, erasers, feathers and other odds and ends onto the strings of a grand piano.  Sometimes, the colleagues would play a classical song and embellish a trio or stanza with forks on a high string or rubber balls on a bass string.  It was heady stuff for the early 1980’s.

            My classical training progressed nicely.  I played sonatinas, quadrilles, minuets, and was moving into advanced romantic era pieces.  At twelve, I needed a different approach.

            Barbara Brashear was a real classical pianist.  Her studio- another add-on type structure to the back of the house- had a sitting area and a large grand piano filling one space.  On the opposite side of the room was a wall full of awards and pictures of Mrs. Brashear standing in front of a grand piano shaking hands with a judge or her standing with roses in her arms accepting a medal. Underneath this display were rows of crates full of dusty albums, cassette tapes, and recording equipment.  Sometimes she would record my playing, just to humble me.  My favorite part of the lesson is when I would get it right.  Mrs. Brashear always sat toward the back of the room- to hear the vibration waves at the “sweet” spot.  When I performed a section especially well with feeling and musicality, she would pump her long, crane-like legs up and down and say “yes”, “yes”, “yes”.  At my tender age, I didn’t know what to think.  Instead of questioning her, I played to please her. 

Mrs. Brashear primed me to start judication- which is piano language for competing on the piano.  Yes, people do compete to one-up each other on the piano.  For me it was very stressful.  I did get very nervous. My legs got the shakes and my hands sweaty.  The fear of forgetting passages loomed.  But, I always did well.  I have many ribbons and, one time, I was a finalist for the Junior Van Cliburn competition.

            She lived in an area of Dallas called Lover’s Lane.  It was about 30 minutes from my house, without traffic.  Bless my mom for driving me for one or two lessons a week.  My practicing time was ramping up also.  No measly 30 minute practice would do, I had chose to practice one or two hours a day for optimum results.  In middle school and high school, I kept this up with honors classes, school sports, and I worked a little bit after school.  And you thought I was joking about being type A. Hah!

            My sophomore year of high school, my mother was pooped out I’m sure.  She called up to North Texas University to find a graduate, living in Dallas, and that would do in-home lessons.  Elizabeth fit the bill.  She had just graduated and wanted advanced students. 

            She wasn’t as serious as Mrs. Brashear. I desperately needed things to lighten up.  I was in serious danger of burn-out.  My parents were talking music conservatory school.  A professional singer at church had asked me to tour with her.  I just didn’t know if I wanted to dedicate my life to just one interest.  I had always loved my well-rounded upbringing, and now it was being funneled down to one thing.  The piano. 

            

Tuesday Music Video

Post by Giulliano Chiampi.











I've always told my piano students that playing the piano is truly a body workout.  Now they can believe me!

Tuesday Video Moment

What a GRAND sound?!  Don't you think?  This is beautiful.

In harmony,

Leslie

Music Moment Monday

photo credit

"There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original."

I've been saying this all day, like my mantra.  Just sayin' there's nothing wrong with following, especially when you follow well.  We need to artists that follow because then someone, usually a frustrated artist will break away from the pack and create a legacy.

Thank you Master Haydn for showing us that being away from the crowd and confusion is ok.  Being alone can create art so tasty.

This quote is so juicy I can't get over it!!  What are your thoughts about having space to create?

How to enforce your student's piano practice?

Gigi recently went the way of most 14-16 year olds that play piano.  She ‘thinks’ she wants to quit and not play piano anymore.  I smile because I know she’ll regret this later.  Gigi plays very well, but of late hasn’t been putting her full effort into her lessons and practice.  Of course, most kids her age fall into a pattern of busy after school sports, activities, homework, texting, and FRIENDS!  Where does practice fit in?  Well, as I was talking to Boss Moss about our course of directions with her, I remembered what Linda Eyre wrote about her kids and piano practice at their home.

The book Teaching Your Children Joy by Linda and Richard Eyre is what I used as a reference while I raised my family in the 1990’s. It still applies today and more so with the trials parents have with so many good choices of activities for their children, but what is the BEST choice of time spent for their future. This is what they did about piano or instrument practicing issues:

            “My mother taught piano and violin for almost 60 years….I remembering longing to be a normal child who could just get up, eat breakfast, go to school, and then come home afterward and watch “Leave it to Beaver”.  There was none of that for us!..... I can still remember mother standing over me with a clenched fist, watching the tears of frustration roll down my cheeks, and saying, “Someday you’ll thank me for this”.  She was right! I thank her in my heart almost daily when I think of the fun I’d be missing if she hadn’t made me become a musician…

            Now I face the same dilemma with my own children…I remembered what had taken the sting out of practicing for me.  From the time we were eight, our parents expected us to earn our own money for treats, movies, and clothes…They paid us to practice.  The pay was meager, but if we had a perfect practice record at the end of the week, our money was doubled!”

I don’t pay my children to practice like the Eyre’s do.  But, I’ve tried to teach my children to love it by the ‘fruits’ of how they feel after getting a song down or that they understand music when most the world doesn’t.  We make music part of their ‘chore’ chart.  It’s expected, just like taking out the trash.  Life is daily.  Music is daily.

What do you do to help your children practice?

In harmony,

Leslie

Chopins Favorite Piano

photo credit

Chopin is my fav.  He might be a little sad today because his favorite piano maker went out of business a little over a week ago.  Alas, they didn't keep up with the times.  

Please, do me a favor, and curl up with you laptop for this one.  It's a  great read and very interesting about the piano industry and how they are keeping up.  I guess China isn't all bad :)

Hang tight with this video because you'll want to hear the Chopin Waltz at the end.

Tuesday Music Video- The Piano Guys on the Great Wall of China

Back in May, I and some of my kids were privileged to meet in person the piano guy from The Piano Guys and hear his concert.  What a thrill that was!  He was so personable and even said my fingers looked just like his "E.T." fingers----it's a certain 'look' that advanced players get to their hands and bony fingers.  However, he had about an inch of length on my hands.  Which is amazing since I have large hands.

This summer he must have traveled to China to shoot this video.  This is so cool.  Back in 1980 when I went to China, there were large sections of the Great Wall that were in ruins.  It looks like they have repaired those now.

Hope you enjoy this video.... it is Epic!

In harmony,

Leslie