Getting Your Kids to Practice - 3 Easy Tips
Here are 3 quick, easy tips for getting your kids to practice without having to pull teeth:
1. Ask them to play you a concert
Kids (everyone, actually) craves attention. By asking your kids to perform for you, they get the attention they crave in a positive way that is directly related to their musical advancement. Genuine listening is the best. Take time out of your day to just sit down and listen to them. No phones, no prepping dinner. Just listen. Even if it's just for 5 minutes while they're getting started. Make this a regular thing and soon they'll be full of pride, asking to show you the latest song that they've conquered.
2. Listen to awesome music
Nothing is so motivating as a beautiful and impressive performance. Try to find music that is played on the instrument your student plays and once you find an artist you like, just listen to all their content.
YouTube is one of the greatest resources around. It's pretty easy to locate some of the best recordings of classical music and unique musicians who've taken it upon themselves to do cool arrangements of modern music.
Pianists try out 'Constantino Carrara."
Brass people, try out 'Mnozil Brass' and 'Maniacal 4.'
Stringers try out "2Cellos" and "Vitamin String Quartet.'
Guitarists try out "Andy McKee" and "Preston Reed."
Again, take some extra time to foster this interest with your child. Sit down with them and surf through a few videos together. Develop a playlist that you can put on in the car. YouTube chews up data but if you find an artist you like, just break down and buy their album. You are supporting the artists, your child's development, and music is dirt cheap these days. It's totally worth it to hear your kid saying "I want to play that!"
3. Develop a Routine
You're probably sick of this advice so I'll attempt to add a unique nugget of wisdom. Routine does not always mean doing the same thing at the same time every day. Associating two activities with one another can be an enormous boon to developing a routine. What is something that you do every single day? Eating, brushing your teeth, taking the dog out, a particular TV show, etc. Practice just before this activity. Before is crucial, because once you've discharged your psychological routine, you're more likely to forget or feel compelled to move on to recreation. Withholding a small piece of the routine you already have in place is a little trick that psychologists recommend to us. We can use this tool to develop new habits like exercising, completing chores, and - you guessed it - practicing instruments!
Try applying just one of these techniques and see what a difference it makes for your student. It will have an immediate effect. They'll be all smiles after their next lesson, telling you about the praise they got from their teacher. Keep it consistent and you'll find your child getting to their instrument without any reminders. That's falling in love with music looks like.
