Advice to Parents

 

In my experience children make the most progress when parents take an active interest in their efforts, listen to them play regularly and encourage them to work on their new pieces and play old pieces they like – old favourites perhaps. Most children need help organising their practice time but parents can support them by arranging regular sessions, possibly at the same time every day. Sitting with them for at least some of the time and by being positive and enthusiastic about the pieces they are playing really helps.

 

Once the novelty of having music lessons wears off some children find practice becomes another chore and it is important to help them get over the occasional times when they might seem to be losing interest. It is not unusual for a child to go through a bad period but then become passionate about the instrument later. It can be immensely frustrating for parents to see their child doing little practice but simply giving up results in a sense of failure and doesn’t necessarily bode well for the next activity they might want to try. Of course there does come a point when it is clear that the child really doesn’t want to play; they have tried it and decided it isn’t what they really want to do. It is up to the parent then to make the decision to stop but it is usually a good idea to talk to the teacher first to see if they can help to boost and refresh their student. All teachers want their students to succeed and can usually modify the lessons to include some more variety. In some cases it is exam fatigue and the child sees learning the instrument as yet another subject for examination. It is best, in my opinion, to forget about exams for a while, perhaps permanently unless the child really wants to take them. In this case they must be clear as to what is involved and have the commitment necessary to work on all aspects of the exam requirements; not just playing the pieces they like.

 

If possible it often helps if the parent is able to sit in on the lessons so that they can be better informed as to what the teacher is asking the student to work on. This is particularly important if the child is very young.