While students are sometimes super motivated to practice at home, we also know that getting your child to practice might sometimes feel like pulling teeth!
WITH THE LAUNCH OF OUR 2020 PRACTICE-A-THON, WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO SHARE 10 OF OUR FAVORITE TIPS FOR PRACTICING AT HOME!
Unpacking can be the hardest part of practicing! If your child plays an instrument, consider getting a stand or wall hanger for that instrument and leaving it in a safe space for easy access. Sometimes the mere act of unpacking can feel like a hurdle, but once the instrument is out, it’s hard to resist playing a few notes!
Singers can practice anywhere! Who doesn’t love singing in the shower, or singing along with the radio on a long drive? Our Elemental Choir students can practice their craft anywhere that they can sing!
Set a practice schedule. Writing down a practice schedule helps students stay accountable, and establishes regularity. Think about it this way…you always brush your teeth before going to bed. Practicing should feel the same – is there a regular time of day where your child can fit in 20–30 minutes of practice? Maybe before school works best for your family, or maybe a practice session every night before dinner makes the most sense. Whatever that schedule is, try to keep it regular!
Keep your practice tools handy. All students should have a music stand at home, with a pencil on the stand to make any notes to the music. We also recommend a stand-alone metronome (phone apps work too, but using a phone during practice can be distracting) as well as a tuner.
You don’t have to practice all in one go! Sometimes the best way to get in 30 minutes of practice is to break it up. A 15 minute practice session right when a student gets home from school and a 15 minute practice session right after dinner still count as 30 minutes total! Sometimes shorter practice sessions help students remain focused.
Start with the hardest spots first. A lot of students always start at the very beginning of their pieces, but that isn’t always a very good place to start (sorry, Maria von Trapp). We recommend starting at the trickiest measures! Maybe this means practicing in the middle of the piece, or even at the very end. By starting at the hardest parts first and working on things in small chunks, students are maximizing their time and practice efforts.
It’s all about the repetition! Sometimes a student tells us, “I only practiced one day this week, but it was for 3 hours!” We hate to break it to you, but this is not as effective as practicing more days a week for a shorter amount of time. Practicing is about building muscle memory. Just like cramming for a test doesn’t help students in the long run, cramming in practice is not an effective use of time. We’d rather that students practiced 20 minutes a day for 4 days a week than practicing for 2 hours on 1 day!
Slow practice is good practice! Students sometimes want to play through everything quickly. By slowing down their pieces, they can really work on posture, intonation, rhythm, sound quality, and other things that might get lost in the mix by practicing at a fast tempo!
Set practice goals. It always helps to have a goal in mind when practicing at home. Having a whiteboard in the practice room where your child can write down their practice goal for the day is a great way to help guide focused practice.
Remind your child to practice! Sometimes parents are hesitant to ask a child to practice because they want music to be a joyful and self-driven activity. This is a beautiful idea, but we have found that music becomes even more fun for all students when they practice and improve their skills! The better you are, the more fun it is to play. And sometimes, a 9 year old needs encouragement or reminders from an adult to practice instead of playing a video game or watching TV. Helpful reminders from parents and guardians about practicing will set your child on the right path towards a lifelong love of music, even if it doesn’t seem like it right now. ;)
BONUS TIP: Sometimes a reward system works best. Yup, we said it. It is ok to use a reward system to help young students figure out how to establish practice habits. We’re using a reward system in our Practice-a-thon ($10 ice cream gift card to the student in each ensemble with the most practice minutes!) and you can use a reward system at home too. Maybe it’s 10 minutes of extra screen time for each week that a student practices 4 days in a row, or maybe it’s 5 M&M’s for every 30 minutes practiced. We even know professional musicians who motivate themselves to practice through reward systems!