6 Ways to Help your Child have the Best Lesson Ever

In certain organizations for boys and girls, they learn to “Be Prepared.” What are some ways to help your child be prepared for their lesson each week?

1. Make sure they practice after their lesson (the same day) or the very next day at the latest. (You knew there was something coming about practicing, didn’t you!)

2. Make sure they practice 5-7 days in between lessons. Seriously, this will help them so much.

3. The day of their lesson, make sure they have had a snack and have used the bathroom within an hour beforehand.

4. Be on time or a little early to their lesson so they don’t feel rushed.

     - If lessons are held in your home (teacher travels to you) have them warm up on their songs in           the 10-15 minutes before teacher comes over. No TV or video games during that time!

5. Before leaving the house, help them make sure they have all of their books. The teacher may not have a second copy handy.

     - If teacher comes to your house, have your books out and ready to go when they arrive!

6. Speak positively about their upcoming lesson. Your positive attitude will rub off onto them!

“Encourage and support your kids because children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.” Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady of the United States.

                                                                                Image by Valéria Rodrigues Valéria from Pixabay

5 Ways to get Practicing into your Routine

Sometimes we know we need to do something; it’s just doing it is the tricky part.

Here are some tips to help you get practicing into your routine.

1- Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to practice. On any given day, I have 4-6 alarms that go off to remind me to do something. It’s nice having an “extra brain” to help me remember things!

2- Put your piano/music stand/practicing area in an obvious place in the house. Seeing it frequently helps to remember to practice.

     

      A- Don’t have your piano in a place where kids are nervous to be alone, like the basement or a            lonely room or back closet. Letting them practice in a well-lit, pleasant room will help them want        to practice more.

      B- Keep their music open on the piano or music stand.

      C- For some instruments such as guitar and violin, you can get mounted wall hangers. Having            the instrument “out” can make it easier for some to see it and go practice.

(Image from amazon.com)

3- “Attach” practicing to something that happens everyday; meals, for example. Put a note on the fridge to remind your student (and yourself) that practicing happens right before or after dinner, or as soon as they get home from school.

4- Make sure practicing happens before the fun begins. So before they go to their friend’s house, go to sports/dance/etc, or play video games or watch TV, get that practicing in. Treat music practice like homework, and make sure it gets done first.

5- Make a practicing calendar and put it somewhere you will see it frequently. Let your student put a sticker on each day they practice. It will be motivating for them to see how much work they have done, or how much more they need to do! You can even give them a prize for practicing a certain number of days per week or month, as long as it is enough according to the teacher’s policy. (Don’t reward them for practicing 1-2 days if the teacher wants them to practice 5-6 days.)

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” John C. Maxwell, American author, speaker, and pastor.

                                                                                         Image by allegralchaple0 from Pixabay

Help, Don't Handicap

If you have a young pianist in your home, you may have seen those stickers that can be put on the keys, which tell which note is which. They are supposed to help. But they don’t. Oh, they do at first. The child confidently puts their hands on the labeled C’s and G’s and plays the pieces like a professional. But if they play on a non-labeled piano, they are lost at sea. (No pun intended!) I had a family that took lessons for months on their labeled piano, but it wasn’t until I insisted on taking the labels off that they actually learned the patterns and where the notes were. Another student had labeled keys, done by an older family member who was also trying to learn to play. Not surprisingly, this student didn’t do well on my non-labeled piano during lessons.

(Photo retrieved from amazon.com)

These stickers and labels are HANDICAPS, not HELPS.

Instead of memorizing the pattern of 2- and 3-black key groups and their surrounding white keys, the student reads the letters and totally ignores the black keys. But if they go play a different piano with no labels, suddenly they have no idea what they are doing. At Grandma’s house trying to play her a song? Out of luck. At a recital on a different piano? Cue the freeze and panic. Please don’t do that to your child!

And finally, don’t do what this teacher encountered:

Do not ever write on the keys! (Photo by Alicia John; used by permission.)

Keep the keys clean and pristine. If your child has trouble remembering note names of the keys, practice naming them each day with your child. There will be a graphic somewhere in their book, or look on the internet. Treat it like a spelling test- they just need daily practice!

“Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.” Robert A. Heinlein, American author, engineer, and Naval officer.

(Clean, unlabeled keys- Image by nightowl from Pixabay)

Keeping it Positive

Two scenarios.

Parent A: “You are doing so well in piano, honey. You are learning so many songs. I love to hear you play. You get better every day. Grandma and Grandpa can’t wait to hear you play when they come to visit. That piece sounded so hard but you made it look easy! I can’t wait for you to show your teacher what you’ve worked on this week!”

Parent B: “Ugh, it’s lesson day again. I don’t really want to drive you over there but I guess we have to. Do you really have to practice right now? I’m trying to watch a show here. Your violin sounds so squeaky! Can you stop the screeching? Why do you have to play that song over and over? Play something else!”

Which child is going to stick with it? Enjoy practicing? Want to play for others?

As parents, we want to have our children learn to have perseverance, how to work hard, and have a positive outlook on life, among many other things. They learn these things from us. “More is caught than taught,” teaches Rachel Cruze. The more positive we are about things, the more positive they will be too. The more we are positive towards practicing, the more they will embrace it as part of their routine. If we show enthusiasm about attending lessons, they will learn not to be too apprehensive about them. The more we are excited about their progress, the more they will appreciate it as well.

What are some ways you can show your child that you are invested in them in helping them learn to play their instrument?

- have them teach you what they know. Let them teach you a song or how to read music.

- sit with them while they practice.

- help them practice as necessary. Even if you don’t know anything about music or their instrument, you can help them read the instructions, look back in the book for answers to questions, or contact the teacher if neither of you can figure something out.

- organize a family recital. Make it a big deal. Let the child bring out their inner showman so they can experience their family’s support.

- video record their best pieces and send them to friends and family or share on social media.

Let’s talk about when it’s a little more difficult to listen and enjoy their practicing. I call it “beginner sounds.” Beginner sounds on some instruments, like the piano, are not too bad (as long as your piano is in tune!) But on some (violin, oboe, and clarinet, I’m looking at you) the “beginner sounds” can be like the proverbial nails on a chalkboard. Those squeaks and awkward noises on some instruments are very normal at first, but the more they practice the fewer “beginner sounds” they’ll make. For wind instruments, they will learn how to control their airflow and embouchure; for violin (especially) they will learn bow control. But they do have to practice quite a bit (in encouraging circumstances, don’t forget!) to get through this phase.

And finally, those cute little 12-second songs that they usually start with. Yes, they are short and not very interesting. Yes, they don’t sound or look very hard. Yes, that is what their teacher assigned to them and is what they are supposed to learn and master this week. Remember, keep it positive. If you treat those little ditties as if they were Mozart sonatas or a Chopin Nocturne, your child will be proud of themselves. And your positivity will rub off on them and fuel their desire to want to learn more.

“For me, life is about being positive and hopeful, choosing to be joyful, choosing to be encouraging, choosing to be empowering.” Billy Porter, Broadway performer and writer.

Image by Mircea Ploscar from Pixabay

Don't Be a Robber

As a member of a Facebook group for piano teachers, I often read interesting stories from fellow teachers around the world. There is one I can’t forget. The teacher telling the story had a new family sign up for piano lessons, who had previously studied with someone else. The new teacher asked to see what books they had been using, and was shocked at what was produced: entire lesson books that had been photocopied - by the previous teacher. That teacher had also charged the families full price for these “books.” The family had no idea that this was not normal. They had been paying full price for an illegal copy of a lesson book.

Think of all the money that the previous teacher had made by illegally copying a copyrighted work. Think of all the money that they stole from the writers of that lesson book by not having their student buy a real copy. Think of all the money that the family spent on cheap-looking photocopies when they could have had a brand-new book for the same price. Yuck.

Here’s how music copyrights work. “If a work was published in the United States before 1923, it’s mostly likely in the public domain and can be copied freely. If it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1978, the work enjoys copyright protection for 95 years from the date of publication. For works published after 1978, the copyright holds until 70 years after the composer has died.” (https://www.connollymusic.com/stringovation/ins-and-outs-of-copying-sheet-music , retrieved October 25, 2019.)

In some cases, when a piece of music is several pages long, it can be impossible to turn the page by yourself without a noticeable pause. In this case, “If you are copying only a single page for a difficult page turn, you may do so without permission.” (https://www.mtna.org/MTNA/Learn/Copyright_FAQs.aspx , retrieved October 25, 2019.)

Now about music in public domain. “The term “public domain” refers to creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it.” (https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/welcome/ , retrieved October 25, 2019.)

Here are two different sources for music in public domain:

http://www.ibiblio.org/mutopia/

https://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page

I have used these sites to get legal copies of music in public domain for students.

The main point is, that the more we know, the less we are hurt. If you have a teacher that frequently gives you copies of music NOT in public domain (still protected by copyright,) offer to buy the book instead, or ask to borrow an extra book from them. They may be unaware of laws regarding copyrighted materials. It is unfair to rob composers of hard-earned money by copying their music, rather than having students buy from them.

Here are suggestions for teachers of what they can do instead of copying music illegally:

- Have the family buy the book, and have them learn many or all of the pieces in it.

- If teacher only wants to use a single song or piece from an entire book and the family does not want to buy the book, teacher buys the book and lends it to the family while the student learns the piece.

- If two students of different families are learning a duet, buy two copies of the book and lend them to the students.

- When purchasing music online, buy a “studio license” (if available for the music you are buying) to allow you to legally copy and distribute music to multiple students.

In the words of a composer I know, “If I had a nickel for each piece of my music that was illegally copied, I could have retired by now.” Be cool, people. Don’t steal from composers by photocopying. Learn about copyright laws and urge your private teachers to do the same. Use real copies of music books, not illegal photocopies.

“Don’t set sail using someone else’s star.” African proverb

                                                                                       Image by TeroVesalainen from Pixabay