If you have a kid taking music lessons, you understand how easy it is to go from 0 to Miserable in 3.4 seconds. Today I’m sharing my top tips for keeping music practice at home both effective and fun for young students.
My oldest daughter started taking violin lessons from a Suzuki-certified teacher a few months before her third birthday. So in addition to my several years of playing violin, I’ve also been experimenting with running my daughter’s music practice sessions for over three years now. Through a lot of trial and error, I’ve learned a lot about how to keep little kids making progress towards music goals.
When
One of the most helpful habits we’ve instituted has been having practice sessions at a consistent time of day. After lunch, both me and my daughter are usually in a good mood, having just eaten. By setting our practice time right after lunch – a daily ritual that never gets skipped – we ensure that violin practice never gets skipped. And since lunch is served 7 days a week, you can bet we practice 7 days a week.
This daily practice also includes those few weekends when my daughter spends the night at her grandparents’ house or on the rare occasion we go out of town. If she’s staying somewhere over night, her violin goes with her. Are practice sessions at her grandparents’ house as effective as the practice sessions I run at home? Hardly. But that’s not the point. The point is the habit itself.
If I miss practicing one day, I know it; if I miss two days, my friends know it; and if I miss three days, the public knows it. ~ Franz Liszt
Where
One day, I’d love to have a large house with a music room dedicated to music practice. But until then, our tiny apartment barely has room to comfortably host two music stands. I recently invested in a Manhasset music stand for my daughter, since apparently our city’s youth orchestras are now all BYOS (Bring Your Own Stand). No regrets, but it does command quite a bit of space. It has its own corner of the living room, quite close to my daughter’s violin case. All of her books, pencil, highlighters, tuner, flashcards, stickers and clothes pins (for keeping track of repetitions) fit comfortably on her stand. This is her space for practicing. Everything stays out and ready to go. This is key for having effective daily music practice. If you’re having to hunt for the tuner or dig out a pencil, you’re wasting precious time and attention.
In addition to the music stand and instrument, I also keep my portable speaker nearby. A practice session is usually not complete without listening to a piece or a specific section of a piece that’s currently in progress. This is a very important part of the learning process and keeping my speaker out in plain view is a good reminder to not skip this step.
How
Another key to having effective daily music practice at home is to have a structure for your practice. No two practice sessions will be the same, but having a consistent structure means you’re never wondering What should we practice next?
The day we get home from my daughter’s violin lesson, I rewrite my lesson notes on a blank sheet of paper. I start with the scales my daughter knows, I list the skills she’s currently working on (e.g. shifting, vibrato) and then the main piece she’s working on, along with the teacher’s comments on specific sections. This usually includes specific exercises for practicing a particularly difficult passage of the piece. Then, we move on to any other books she’s working through for more specific skills. Right now, that’s sight reading. Next, I list any other pieces that need review (e.g. group lesson pieces, holiday pieces, competition pieces).
This means we’re generally warming up with scales, focusing on skill development, spending a good chunk of time on the main piece she’s working through, then wrapping up with review of other repertoire. I know some people like to start off by reviewing easier / more fun pieces. For us, I know my daughter’s attention is short and precious, so I try to front load the difficult work and end with the easier stuff so we end on a more fun note. This is something you’ll have to figure out for you and your child.
I mentioned above the importance of listening to the pieces you and your child are working on. (Something that Shinichi Suzuki himself wrote about. See the book recommendations below.) Another way to keep practice “fun” and interesting is to mix up the recordings you listen to. A few years back, Hilary Hahn re-recorded the Suzuki albums and they’re beautiful. However, it’s nice to go on YouTube (or hunt through your ancient CD collection) to find different recordings of the same pieces. Hearing different versions of the same piece will show your student what is possible in terms of interpretation.
How Long
After my daughter’s last recital, where she played a Bach minuet flawlessly (and having just turned 5), I had a lot of people asking me how long my daughter and I practice every day. The short answer: approximately an hour. Every day. The longer answer: we get interrupted a lot. A lot of interruptions come from my daughter herself. She’s thirsty. She needs to stretch. Her leg is itchy. She has to go to the bathroom. Then there are the interruptions that come from her brother, now 2.5 years old. My daughter is not playing non-stop for an hour. But I block off an hour in my schedule every day to make sure we are hitting everything I listed above, given the inevitable interruptions. An hour sounds like a long time to invest in somebody else’s practice routine. But if you’re reading this, you’ve probably already invested quite a bit of time and money in your child’s music lessons. If we’re not taking practice at home seriously, then what are we even doing?
A Note on Sticker Charts
When it comes to practicing, I don’t use bribes. As I said at the beginning of this post, my daughter has been taking lessons since before she was three. Practicing violin is just something we do. Like school. Or going to church on Sundays. It’s part of our routine. That being said, I do like to use sticker charts as habit trackers to show that we’re making progress. But these only come out when a recital or competition is coming up. It’s to make sure we don’t miss a day of practice and it’s also a tangible reminder, as the performance date approaches, of all the hard work my daughter has put into practicing. Believe me, putting a little sticker on a piece of paper is not enough motivation for my daughter to pull her violin out and practice.
Further Reading
I’ve read quite a few books on effective music practice and many have some great nuggets of wisdom. But listed below are the ones I have in my home library that I would recommend reading from cover to cover. Nothing will compare to reading Suzuki’s own works. I also have listed the controversial Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, not for practice HOWs but for practice WHYs. I think Amy Chua did such a great job communicating why passing on a love or at least an appreciation for classical music is so important to some of us. And lastly, I also have a blog listed below. It’s full of studies on the ins and outs of practicing. For example, it’s scientifically proven that practicing a little bit every day is better than only practicing for several hours the day before a lesson. Some of these studies are just interesting and others are actually really insightful and will influence how you run your practice sessions.
Nurtured by Love by Shinichi Suzuki
Ability Development from Age Zero by Shinichi Suzuki
Beyond the Music Lesson: Habits of Successful Suzuki Families by Christine E. Goodner
Positive Practice: 5 Steps to Help Your Child Develop a Love of Music by Christine E. Goodner
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
BLOG: https://bulletproofmusician.com/
Do you have a young musician in your family? How are you ensuring you practice effectively at home? Any fun traditions or rituals?
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