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From: swb@lasspvax.UUCP (Scott Brim)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: How do I get my 6 yr old to practice piano
Message-ID: <517@lasspvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Sep-85 09:39:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: lasspvax.517
Posted: Thu Sep 12 09:39:21 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Sep-85 06:17:52 EDT
References: <2578@pegasus.UUCP>
Reply-To: swb@lasspvax.UUCP (Scott Brim)
Organization: LASSP, Cornell University
Lines: 42
Summary: 

In article <2578@pegasus.UUCP> dsl@pegasus.UUCP (David S. Levine) writes:
>I have a 6 year old daughter who take piano lessons weekly.
>If she puts her mind to it she is an excellent player.
>Practice, however, is a nightmare. Either she totally refuses to practice
>or she fools around and turns what should be a 20 minute practice session
>into a two hour ordeal.
>
>I would appreciate any ideas on how to motivate her to practice.
>

My daughter is now 10; piano practice has been a somewhat rocky road
but now she's going strong.  Our 6-year-old boy is just starting.
Here are my thoughts (I'm not an expert, just a parent!).  I wouldn't at
all say that you should follow these to the letter, but the concepts
might be useful.
   Lots of support, of course.  It's her life.
   Share your enthusiasm for music with her - not in words so much as 
     the pure emotional impassioned enthusiasm when you hear something
     you like.  
   Very small incremental goals.  Things she can accomplish and feel
     good about, not "ok, the next thing is to learn the left hand for
     this whole piece, and then you can put both hands together".
     Dynamics in small sections are good for this.  I like giving my
     kids tiny goals that they can accomplish the very next time they
     try to play a piece, but which they hadn't thought of before.
     You have to have an agreement with her teacher about this, and it
     helps for the parent to be involved in both lessons and practice.
     (By the way, we used the local Suzuki school for a couple of years
     -- you might want to check them out.  I like their approach).
   Don't be concerned about how much progress she's making, rather with
     how well she's grokking the music and the instrument.  Leave rate
     of progress up to her.  The goal is to rely more and more on the
     child's motivation, not the parent's.
   Finally (and we didn't do this until about a year and a half ago when
     our daughter was old enough) you might simply lay the responsibility on
     her.  Our daughter knows that if she stops practicing we'll stop
     lessons - it's completely her choice (of course if she *did* decide 
     to stop we'd express great regret and try to talk her out of it 
     (still leaving the decision up to her)).  Now that she is good enough    
     to enjoy playing, she wants to keep going, so she practices.
     Because it's on her own initiative she enjoys it even more.
						    /Scott Brim