The school year begins and families are busy planning hectic schedules for their kids. With the best of intentions, wanting to give every opportunity to their offspring, hockey, soccer, guitar and karate make the cut.
Calendars are printed and posted on fridges. Work is adjusted to accommodate Johnny's tournaments and meals are planned around hockey. Sound familiar?
Throughout the chaos, Johnny also has to fit practice time on his guitar. He's asked for months and you decided he was ready. You get the guitar. You sign him up for lessons. You fit THAT into your schedule. It all falls into place right?
Wrong.
Parents beware. Most after school activities require that you drop Johnny off somewhere for a prescribed amount of time, pick him up and you are done till next time. Music lessons are different.
Usually they are the shortest of the weekly activities, lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour, but they require discipline and daily allotted times at home to practice. That's where trouble begins.
Families need to figure out when Johnny can fit good practice times into the schedule. If he can't practice, he won't improve. That can be discouraging.
Parents come in a variety of flavours, every one of them well intentioned.
"Johnny, if I don't hear more practicing, we will stop lessons."
"Son, you can't practice this early in the morning, you'll wake up the house."
"Your homework comes first, then chores, then practice."
"Are you sure that's what your teacher wants you to practice?"
"You must have something else to play!"
If Johnny is taking guitar, you are actually pretty lucky if he wants to practice early morning, compared to Jimmy's family, who must listen to trumpet (as lovely as trumpet is, it IS a little loud first thing)!
All kidding aside, your child must carve out a time that not only works for him, but for the family. This can be next to impossible with everyone's busy schedules.
Here are a few ideas that may help.
Create practice times that are as important and valued as other at-home times. You try to have dinner at around the same hour everyday and your child knows this. It becomes part of his internal clock. "I will eat soon." Practice time can be made to become just as regular.
When your child first starts taking lessons, instil respect for practice time right away. Make it as important as any other routine activity, such as brushing teeth or doing homework.
Find the perfect time slot! This is right up there in importance with parent involvement (coming up soon in a blog). A great time to practice is when parents are preparing meals. The parent can hear the practice and throw in a few well placed words of encouragement, and since this is usually a time when kids are left to their own devices, filling that time up with practicing can be a great solution.
If you have more then one child, while helping one with homework, the other practices. Then switch.
Some kids have 30 minutes of wasted time in the morning so for those bright eyed children, practice time could be before school.
Avoid scheduling practices before bed, especially for young children. Concentration is nil and frustration can arise.
If you can't fit in more then a few minutes on weekdays, then make up for it on week-ends. As an example, if Monday Johnny goes to his after school activities directly from school and gets home too late, skip that day. Make up for it the next day. This should be a priority. If he can only fit in 15 minutes on Wednesday, plan for an extra great practice on Saturday. You can also double practices on week-ends. One in the morning and one later in the day.
Making each practice count is essential when you have limited time. Instead of going for the long haul, get your child to set a goal for the practice. Master the first 2 measures of the piece, figure out the fingering for that pesky scale, fix that hesitation on the third line.... By mastering one thing, the practice will have been a success. Get your child to journal her practice and goals. This will help give her control of her time.
Teaching your kids to respect their practice time is teaching them to invest in themselves. That's a safer investment than any other on the market!
If they can practice even for a few short moments everyday, they will still see some progress, and eventually, as they improve, they will carve out the time they need to really fulfill their potential. At first, how often you practice is more important than how long you practice.
A child will never react positively to being forced to practice, but he will always be pleased by the encouragement and respect he receives for his progress. Baby steps. A little practice today, a lifelong love of music tomorrow.
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