How can you support your children in piano lessons once you’ve enrolled them? That’s a great question to be asking because – as always – you can be a main player in your children’s success. There are a few factors to consider right off, including the condition of piano they’ll be using at home, the practice space, and their practice schedule.
The Piano Practice Schedule
Creating a practice schedule might be a challenge because families are so busy these days. But as it is with everything, if it’s a priority you will find the time.
Keep in mind that success will only come with practice – and isn’t that true with most everything? So, here’s an added benefit of piano lessons – with a consistent schedule and your gentle reminders, your children will learn that practice is almost always necessary for success.
And that leads us to a very important point: when you choose to begin music lessons, you are making a serious (but fun!) commitment.
Setting the Stage for Piano Success
As with any new endeavor, your thoughtful preparation will help set the stage for success. As we said earlier, if your children make a conscious commitment, have an appropriate practice space, and an instrument worth learning on, they’ll be far more likely to succeed.
Commitment to the Piano
Perhaps you’ve chosen the piano because it’s a great first instrument, or because your-1.jpg?width=487&name=CFMA%20Teacher%20and%20Student%20%20(9)-1.jpg)
children are drawn to the piano in your home. No matter the reason, it’s important that your children buy in to the idea of taking piano lessons – and the greater their buy-in, the better their chance for success. But whatever their level of excitement, they need to commit to sincerely try to make their lessons work.
The best thing you could do is have a full-fledged conversation together about what it means to learn the piano. You can do this before or after enrolling, but it would be a mistake to let this opportunity pass by. Now’s the time to talk about how much time will be needed for practice – and, as we said earlier, why practice is necessary to learn just about anything.
If your children are mature enough, you could even add that having personal successes in their lives will most likely lead to a more successful life overall. The opposite of that is (generally) also true.
A Quiet, Dedicated Practice Space
Life can get chaotic at times, especially if you have several children, so it’s best to have a dedicated space where children can practice, make mistakes, and keep at it. Take One! Take Two! Take … you probably get the idea.
So, learning the piano also offers an opportunity to learn about the necessity of “mis-takes”—which are necessary for learning absolutely everything. You might suggest that your children simply consider them as steps in learning, so if they aren’t making mistakes they’re not stepping into new, unfamiliar territory. Let’s get those mistakes going! And let’s have a quiet, judgement-free, uninterrupted place to make those mistakes.
An Instrument Worth Playing
Do children know when a piano is out of tune? Do they notice if a couple of keys stick, or a pedal doesn’t work?
Yes. It may not be obvious but yes, they do.
Let’s put the shoe on the other foot. Imagine that you decided to get into shape at your neighborhood gym. You were excited to begin, but when you arrived you discovered old, squeaky equipment that needed a good cleaning. Wouldn’t you lose some of your enthusiasm for working out?
Children may not be able to identify the issues yet, but we can say from decades of experience in the music lesson industry that sticky keys or pitchy notes will negatively impact their experience.
Learn about the Instrument … Piano History, Anyone?
The piano has a fascinating history and learning about it together can help support your children in piano lessons.
The piano evolved from the harpsichord in 17th century Europe. History tells us that Bartolomeo Cristofori wanted more volume control than the harpsichord allowed, so he switched out the plucking mechanism with a hammer. In other words, little hammers hit the notes instead of fingers plucking them. Pretty ingenious, wasn’t it!
That, of course, was only the beginning of the evolution of the piano. Could you and your children get excited to learn more?
Thoughtful Preparation Supports Children in Piano Lessons
We all want our children to be successful and happy, and our support in piano lessons can make a big difference.
Our Piano Instructors and Administrative Team will do everything in our power to help make your family’s journey into piano lessons a success.
Piano Lessons are available in-person at our Houston Campus or fully online (via Zoom).