PARENTAL ROLE
- Parents have crucial role in helping their child develop a good practice routine.
- Create a home environment that prioritizes music - bathe your child in music.
- Parents support their child by creating a motivating environment without anger or negative criticism.
- Parents will need to remind, encourage, and ensure their child is practicing daily.
- Keep a positive and supportive attitude toward your child’s practice.
- Recognize and rejoice in your child’s work no matter how small the improvement or success.
- Create a reward system for practicing regularly.
- Be creative - remember what works one week might not work the next. Switch it up and try new things.
PARENTS - CHOOSE RESIENCE OVER HAPPINESS
- Developing practice routines is not easy. Remember both yourself as the parent coach and your child are learning a new role and skills. As the home coach it is important to acknowledge that your child is not obligated to be motivated to practice - motivation is created and recreated. What motivates today may be different tomorrow.
- Acknowledge & empathize
- Set boundaries
- Stay calm
- Repair
- Although practice can be enjoyable it is not always fun. The fun part is when your child develops his/her skills and can play well!
Remember that one of the most rewarding feelings is when we master something difficult!
- Developing resilience and focus are lifelong skills.
PRACTICE ROUTINES
- By developing regular practice routines
- Skills slowly improve over time
- Improved skills make playing become more enjoyable
- This leads to a student that wants to stay engaged and interested
- Truth - when a student keeps progressing practicing becomes an activity they start to enjoy!
- If you don't practice, you will play poorly. Nobody wants that!
- Irregular practice consequences
- Student experiences slow progress
- Develops into a frustrated / bored student
- Leading to less motivation to practice.
- It is better to practice a little bit every day than to practice a lot all in one day.
- Students are asked to practice the length of their lesson a minimum of 6 days a week.
- Younger students would do best by breaking practice into smaller time segments
- Know exactly what you are expected to have prepared for your next lesson.
- Practice at the same time every day.
- Habit stack by attaching your practice session to the end of an already existing routine you have.
STRIVE TO PRACTICE EVERY DAY
It is daily practice that leads to ability development. As Dr. Suzuki says:
- "Talent is the result of 10,000 repetitions!"
- “Practice only on the days you eat!”
YOUR PRACTICE SPACE
- Find an area free of clutter and distractions that will be a dedicated “practice area”
- Leave your music and music stand set up.
- Leave your violin where you can see it and it is easy to pick up and start playing any time.
- Have your accessories, tuner, metronome, device for listening to your current pieces and/or record your practice.