Tag Archives: music for children

Creating a Practise Nest – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Would you sleep soundly if the only place you could sleep was in the middle of your laundry while the washing machine and dryer were operating?

How productive would your work be if half the items you needed to do that work were not to hand?

If you were trying to study, would your effort be effective if you were banished to a cold, musty downstairs room away from the warmth and comfort of the main house?

Of course, we are more successful in what we do if we have everything we need, are in the best environment and are nice and comfy. It’s no different for our piano practise. If going to the piano is lonely, uncomfortable and disorganised, chances are you (or your child) won’t feel inclined to practise. What can we do to help?

We can create a ‘practise nest’. A place that is welcoming, comfortable and organised.

The wonderful folk at Teach Piano Today have provided some great tips for creating such a space. While they have been written for parents of piano kids, the same tactics apply for adult students; create a nest where you feel comfortable and have everything you need before you begin.

Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSW 1. When choosing a location for your piano, select a space that is lived-in, welcoming, and well-lit. Keep it close to ‘the action’ but not in the action. Your children will gravitate to the piano more often if it is in a central place in your home. Avoid bedrooms, basements and other ‘put away’ places. Feeling shut-off from the family while practising will inevitably lead to a reluctance to spend time on the piano.

While choosing an appropriate space, also consider the noise factor; not only from the piano, but also from your family’s day-to-day activities. Your children want to be close by, but not competing with noise from televisions, dishwashers and washing machines.

2. Make the space warm and welcoming. Your children will be encouraged to spend upwards of 30 minutes every day in this space. Is it a happy place to be for this amount of time? Small adjustments to lighting and heating can make a world of difference. Seek out places with natural light and ensure it is a cheerful and welcoming space that will encourage your child to visit the piano often for their own enjoyment.

3. Ensure your children have all required materials at hand. Help your children put together a small basket or bin of everything they may need for home practise. Pens, pencils, highlighters, and post-it notes will give your children a sense of organisation that will then spill over into their practise habits. Your children will also need adequate lighting to see their music, and a comfortable bench at the correct height to practise comfortably and correctly.

4. Make the practice nest a communal space. Children of any age appreciate company while they practise. Having a chair, couch, beanbag chair or pillows nearby where family members will be inclined to sit, listen and enjoy the music immediately sets the tone for happy time on the piano. Encourage siblings to stop by and listen quietly, and allow yourself even just 10 minutes to sit and listen with undivided attention each time your children practise. A set-up that is conducive to including the family in home practise will encourage everyone involved to make piano practise an activity the entire family can be a part of.

5. Set the stage for organisation. Ensure your children’s practise space is uncluttered and organised. Clear out old sheet music and books from the piano bench, use a magazine organiser to hold current and favorite materials, and minimise knickknacks and other distractions from the top of the piano. If you can, avoid having the piano room do “double-duty” for laundry, toys and other clutter. Having the books your children need at their fingertips reliably ensures that no time is spent searching for lost or crumpled music. Get into the habit of placing the piano books in their appropriate space immediately after each piano lesson so they are ready and waiting.

Plus one more! Adding small surprises to your children’s practice nest (fresh flowers, a hand-written note of encouragement, a small treat, a new sticker pad, a special pen etc.) helps to show that you value the time they are spending on the piano and that you appreciate their efforts and dedication. Preserving the “specialness” of their practise space encourages positive feelings towards their home music time.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

How to Practise Away From the Piano – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

It’s that time again… How do the holidays seem to come around so quickly? We’re no sooner getting into the swing of the term and the term is over.

Spring is in the air and we are picturing sunny days spent running around outside, all cares and responsibilities momentarily suspended. It’s a beautiful thought, isn’t it? But the reality is a little different. For those still learning in the early years/grades, for every week spent away from the piano, about two or three weeks’ work is undone. Have a break from practising in the holidays and you’ll find it harder to catch yourself back up on the other end.

So it goes without saying that I expect my students to maintain practise over the school holidays… although I also realise the reality is quite a different story.

Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSW However, for those who are going to be away from their piano for a period of time, standard practising obviously isn’t possible. I have posted before about ways to practise away from the piano, but that was more about keeping your repertoire fresh in your mind.

Val has written a great post over at takelessons.com that will run you through a host of activities you can do to enhance and maintain your technique while you aren’t near your piano, or are pressed for time. She has even included great infographic summaries you can use. Check it out and discover the things you can do to help your body form habits that will help you when you are back at the piano.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

App Review “Music for Little Mozarts” by Alfred – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Can you tell whether sounds are a low or high pitch?

Is the music going up or going down?

Does what you see match what you hear?

Beethoven Bear and Mozart Mouse are here to help you out!

‘Music for Little Mozarts’ is an app that was conceived for preschool and kindergarten-aged students, but if you don’t mind the cuteness, it is helpful for beginners of all ages. I mostly use it with students to help develop aural awareness, but it also contains some basic note recognition and rhythm games.

This app corresponds with the the Music For Little Mozarts piano method books (published by Alfred), but the activities are still extremely useful even if you aren’t using those method books.

The following image shows the range of activities available in the app:

Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSW

Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSW The two I use most are the first two, as they are great early ear training activities asking only to tell the difference between two things. Is the note played a high note or a low note and are the notes going up or down? The interface is easy… just tap the red circle to hear the sound and then drag the same circle to either Beethoven Bear or Mozart Mouse, depending on your answer. For example, the image on the right shows the ‘Notes Going Up or Down’ activity. The student taps the red circle and hears a succession of notes. If they think the melody is moving from lower to higher notes, they drag the circle up to Mozart Mouse sitting at the top of the staircase. If the think the melody is moving downwards, they drag the circle to Beethoven Bear.

The app will not let the circle stay in the area of the wrong answer; it needs to be answered correctly before moving on to the next question.

Some of the activities don’t require the student to answer a question and act more as a teaching reinforcement. The child can play any note on the keyboard and the app will show them where it sits on the staff. After that, they can move on to the activity where they need to identify the keyboard location of a note after seeing it on the staff.

Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSW The app also has a simple rhythm exercise, using the note values that are commonly learnt in their first few lessons. Beethoven Bear and Mozart Mouse are each standing under a different rhythm. The student taps the red circle to hear a rhythm and then drags the note to the character standing under the rhythm they think is correct. Once again, the question needs to be answered correctly before moving on.

Aural training is such an integral part of a complete music education, so it’s great to find an app that approaches it in such a simple way for beginners. The first two activities are also great for discovering the aural capabilities of a new student… but they don’t even know you’re testing them.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

Filling Your Child’s Practise Tank (Part 2) – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

You have invested in piano lessons for your child and you believe in the benefits of music education. You love to see your child enjoying music, how hard they work and the joy it brings them.

Piano teacher in Wallsend NSW A couple of weeks ago, I posted – here – about ways you can show your kids how much you value the effort they are making with learning the piano and how these strategies can help to refill their “practise tank” when it is running low. Ramp up your involvement by trying some of the following ideas:

1. Balloon Surprise – Fill a kitchen cupboard with balloons that will spill out when your child opens the door. Ask him or her to help you with dinner and wait for the cupboard to open. On each balloon write one thing you love about your child’s piano playing (e.g. “I love to hear you play when I’m making dinner” or “I can hear so much emotion when you play” etc). Read all the messages together.

2. Surprise Sheet Music Shopping – When you collect your child from school, head off on a surprise trip to your local music shop and offer then the opportunity to choose any piece of sheet music or music book they like. Spend some time with them browsing through the options and finding just the right thing to take home. (Music stores are a treasure trove and can be overwhelming on the first visit, so ask the sales assistant to point you in the right direction for your child’s level).

3. Monday Morning Mirror Message – Use a white board marker to leave a message on your child’s mirror or the bathroom mirror before he or she wakes up. Write something like, “It makes me so happy to listen to you playing the piano.”

4. Post Office Package – Create a little package of special treats and a note about your pride in your child’s piano accomplishments. Mail it to your child and let them discover it in the mail box.

5. Build Excitement – If a recital, performance or exam is drawing near, build excitement with a countdown. Use a whiteboard, blackboard or even just a piece of paper on the fridge with “___ days until Jane’s piano recital” written on it. You could also use a calendar and cross off the days. Either way, the important thing is showing you value involvement in the performance aspect of music and this will ensure participation well into the teen years.

6. UnBEARable – Probably more fitting for younger kids… Find some teddy bear stickers and attach one to each of ten Post-It notes. Write, “It’s unbearable without your piano music. Please play for us” on each note and hide them around the house in unexpected places. Each time your child comes across one, they can play a piece for you.

7. Buddy Practise – Piano practise can be lonely, but a buddy on the bench can make a lot of difference. Even if you don’t possess a snippet of musical know-how, your child will appreciate you being there with them and will love answering your questions. Your child’s teacher will be able to give you questions and activities to help you show your involvement.

As mentioned in the first list of suggestions, most of these ideas require some planning and effort, but it will be so worth it when your child sees how much you value their hard work. It’s natural for their practise tank to run low; they only spend thirty minutes of the week receiving one-on-one encouragement from their teacher and the rest of the week it’s up to them to keep it going. So pick a few of these ideas, give them a try and watch your child’s confidence soar.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

Filling Your Child’s Practise Tank (Part 1) – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Kids who are involved in sport tend to get a lot of “proud parent moments” – Mum shouting encouragement from the sidelines or Dad giving an enthusiastic pat on the back post-game. Piano kids don’t get this as much. They slog away day after day perfecting their skill with little glory until it is time for an exam or a recital. So what can we do to change this?

The key is in having your child see that you truly value the piano and that you understand the commitment it takes to learn an instrument. Most importantly, let them regularly see how proud you are of their effort.

Piano teacher in Wallsend NSW Your child has a piano practise tank. It’s usually about 3/4 full – fun pieces, enjoyable lesson activities and a love for music keep your kids going. But occasionally that practise tank dips and the indicator light comes on telling you that a fill-up is due. What can you do to fill this practise tank? Try some of these ideas:

1. Sneak-a-Practise – Leave your child a note on his or her pillow on a weekend night that says, “Tonight you get to stay up late. When everyone else is asleep, you and I are going to sneak to downstairs/music room/lounge room so I can listen to you play the piano.” Serve warm milk and a snack in the piano room and light it by candle light only. This will be a very special memory for your child.

2. Piano Pancake Surprise – On a weekend morning when the routine is more relaxed and you are still all in your pyjamas, surprise your child with ‘piano pancakes’ topped with chocolate chip crotchets (or quavers, or rests or whatever symbol they know that takes your fancy). For each pancake on the plate, have your child perform a piece for the family while you all watch.

3. Exclaim with Pleasure – It doesn’t always need to be something fancy. Sometimes a genuine, enthusiastic and unexpected, “Wow, that was amazing!” part-way through their practise is a great motivator.

4. Check In – If you are on your way home from work and your child is already home, call him or her (hands free) from the car and make a special request for some driving music as you continue on your way home to them.

5. Tech Free Practise Time – Whenever your child sits down to practise, make the household tech free. Turn off the television, mobile phones, computers… everything. Let the home be filled with the music they are creating and allow yourself to be fully present. This also shows your child that you value what they are doing and how hard they are working.

6. Start a ‘Warm Fuzzies’ Bag – Hang a pillowcase from the top of the piano. For each practise undertaken during the week, write a note about something you noticed was done well (e.g. how your day was brighter for hearing the music, a piece was improved, he played your favourite etc). At the end of the week your child can open the bag and read all the notes.

7. Host a Piano Picnic – Invite the whole family to a ‘Piano Picnic Dinner’. Spread a blanket on the floor near the piano and serve some special picnic fare – cheese and crackers, tea and biscuits. In between bites, have your child provide the dinnertime entertainment. You may even like to make it a fancy occasion, drinking your tea with your pinky raised and speaking in a dignified manner… “Oh, daaahling, that was simply splendid… just magnificent playing, daaahling!” It will give them a good giggle as well as making them feel proud.

Of course, these ideas all take a bit of effort and some preparation. But think about the amount of effort your child is putting in to master an instrument like the piano. By showing how much you value their involvement in piano, you are laying a strong foundation for years of musical enjoyment, as well as strengthening their self esteem and self image.

So pick one or two of these and give them a try. In a fortnight I will give you another seven ideas, so be sure to check back in.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

Congratulations! Exam Results Are In – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

**It is a time of celebration here at ‘merri bell music’.**

Piano Teacher Wallsend NSW In mid-June, an assortment of students from our little piano studio in Wallsend sat for practical exams with Australia’s premier examining body, AMEB (Australian Music Examinations Board).

I am extremely proud to announce that all results have now been received, with all students achieving an A grade (honours) and one student receiving an A+ (high distinction).

Children and adults, teenagers and pre-teens… they all experienced the same level of nerves, which they learnt to channel into useful nervous energy. For many of them, it was the first time they had participated in a formal practical examination (of any sort) and they all handled themselves professionally and with confidence.

I’m thrilled to bits with them all and thank them for their hard work, dedication and perseverance, but mostly I am proud of their commitment to practising and bettering their art.

Congratulations!

Of course, following the exam path doesn’t suit everybody and here at ‘merri bell music’ about half of our students work to this goal, while the other half are learning purely for personal enjoyment. Either way, the aim is to help them learn, enjoy and love what they are doing.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

How to Practise Away From the Piano – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Back in the day when Australia had three school terms per year, it meant we were on school holidays shortly before we were due to sit our yearly piano exams. One year we were lucky enough to travel to America over the holidays and I remember thinking my mother was crazy for making us pack our music. We knew it was pretty unlikely we would find a piano anywhere to play! But she knew something we didn’t at the time… there’s are a lot you can do that will be useful, even without a piano. It’s about keeping the details of the music fresh in your mind.

SCORE STUDY

For younger students, setting up a scavenger hunt is a great tool. Any teacher would be happy to help you out with devising a list of items to find, such as “How many dynamic markings do you see? What kinds of articulation markings are found and how many of each? On what note does your piece start? While these questions may seem simple, they help to create important connections in the student’s brain that will transfer nicely once he’s back at the keys.

For more advanced students, it can be a challenge to ask them to write – from memory – a passage from one of their pieces. This should include all articulation markings and dynamics. The ability to take what they can play and actually write it out in detail is challenging, but it allows them to see how much they are relying on muscle memory and auto pilot and how they may not be fully aware of the details of the score. While this is certainly challenging for advanced students, the technique can also be used for beginners.

MENTAL PRACTICE

Mental practice is a simple concept. You “play” through your piece in your mind, hearing it as you would if you were actually playing it. But for a young child, mental practice is likely to go a little something like this…

“lah lah lah… I wonder what Ted is doing now… Ho hum… I’m hungry… hmmm… Georgie said I could borrow her skateboard… lah lah lah… uh oh…I’m lost.”

Kids are naturally active and their brains work a mile a minute. Asking them to focus on a fairly involved mental task that is hard to evaluate can be tricky. There are tools to help improve mental practice and we’ll look at those in more detail in a later post. The good thing about mental practice is that is can be done anywhere, at any time – in the car, brushing teeth, lying in bed etc. The goal is to have students be able to mentally hear both treble and bass clef (together) from beginning to end with all of the articulation, phrasing, dynamics etc. that are on the page.

VISUALISATION AND TAP PRACTICE

Picture courtesy of brainpickings.org

Children spend so much time in an imaginary world, so they usually find visualising much easier than adults do. Visualisation is simply having the student – on a flat surface away from the piano – close their eyes while imagining their hands are on the keyboard. They then play through their piece on their imaginary keyboard. For younger or beginner students, you can use the following procedure to help them:

Have your student place their hands on the table top with their eyes closed, and imagine they are about to begin playing a current piece.
Ask questions to ensure they can really see their visualised keyboard and understand where their fingers are in relation to it, such as –

“If your hands were on the keys, what is the black key that is closest to your left hand thumb?”

“Can you think about the very first note(s) in your piece and wiggle the finger(s) you use to play it?”

“Can you put your hands down in your lap and then bring them back up to the very same position?”

They tap their way through their piece, playing exactly as they would on the keys, but with no sound involved. They still play hands together, with phrasing, dynamics and articulations as they would on the keys, but it is all done on a table top.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Combining tap practice with visualisation, mental practice and score study is very effective and stops tap practice being just random finger tapping. Give it a try not just over the holidays, but any time throughout the term as the skills that are being developed with these techniques will serve you very well in your musical journey.

So what happened when I took my music all the way to America? Well, I did study it while I was there, but didn’t help the panic when my luggage went missing on the trip home… with my music in it! Luckily music and musician were soon reunited.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

What is Involved in Learning the Piano? – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

It’s a question – and the variants – that is asked quite often… what is involved in learning the piano? What is the commitment? How do we approach the early weeks and months? What will happen? So let’s have a look at what is required for a solid start.

These days there is an increasing trend to treat learning the piano the same way as any other extracurricular activity. On the surface, it’s another activity that ticks the educational box and it is “the done thing”. However, learning an instrument and particularly the piano, is a big commitment, even for the pupils who are just doing it for a bit of fun on the side. In fact, if piano is not practised regularly, pupils usually give up pretty quickly.

The reason for this is simple. Learning an instrument requires the use of three different types of memory:

visual;
auditory; and
kinetic (muscle/movement memory).

Piano lessons Wallsend NSW The three must all be activated for a child to remember how a specific piece of music works. If a pupil doesn’t play or rarely plays during the week (for instance, just once at the weekend), the kinetic memory will not work and the student will not remember what to do. This usually results in them feeling discouraged. Chances are the lesson will be virtually the same as the previous one, the child will be disappointed and a vicious circle begins. A study determined that a pupil will forget 80% of the piano lesson if he/she does not practise within the following 48 hours. This is consistent with all types of research on learning and memory. A pupil who does not practise daily will not only feel bad, but will not play well at all and get frustrated. Think about how educators map out core lessons at school. In maths for example, if a child learned their times tables just on Monday morning they would struggle to remember them if they aren’t reinforced. Maths lessons are spread out throughout the week for a reason.

As you can see, practising regularly at home is crucial for the child’s enjoyment. It is absolutely necessary because a weekly half hour lesson will never be enough for them to make progress.

On the flip side of this is the good news… you don’t need to practise a lot if you practise every day. For a beginner, 5-10 minutes is fine. Of course this will increase with time, but it’s a good start and gets them into the habit. Children usually respond well to a routine so think about a fixed time such as just before dinner or straight after school. A little bit of patience and dedication is all it takes to both do well and get a real joy from their musical abilities.

There are so many benefits to learning to play an instrument, but they aren’t all going to happen overnight. Because of this, it is not really appropriate to take the, “we’ll try it for a few months and see how it goes” approach. The commitment needs to be made for at least a couple of years. It’s about being realistic about what it takes to gain musical skills.

Besides, you have made a substantial investment in not only time, but tuition fees, music and possibly even an instrument. You want it to be worth it!

It is important to follow your child’s progress and help them to have a bit of fun and focus during their practise sessions. Most teachers write notes on the music and/or provide a practise sheet, so check them out and use those notes as a starting point. I have written a number of blog posts about making practise fun, using different incentives and mixing it up a bit and you can check them out by checking out past blog posts.

Finally, make sure your child brings their piano books to every lesson. While most teachers will have books that can be used during the lesson, no individual notes can be written in them and sent home with the child so the continuity is interrupted and the child will start their next practise session trying to remember what they were told.

Nobody wants piano practise to be a battlefield, so start out as you mean to carry on and establish the routine early. Then everybody can enjoy it.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

App Review “Rhythm Cat” by LMuse – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Learning the fundamentals of reading music – rhythmic values and note names – is so vital to playing an instrument, but it can be boring and frustrating. Finding a way to make any part of it more interesting and fun is always a bonus. Rhythm Cat delivers.

The Rhythm Cat app (from the Melody Cats suite of apps by LMuse Limited) is a fun and effective way to improve rhythm skills. It is an engaging way for beginners to get past the challenging and often discouraging introduction to reading music but can also be a bit of fun for more experienced musicians to conquer the progressively more complex levels.

On each level, you are presented with a rhythm example. The levels progress in complexity, allowing you to move ahead as your skill increases. Piano Teacher Wallsend NSW

After hitting the Play button, the soundtrack begins and a countdown is shown (depending on the time signature – usually 1-2-3 or 1-2-3-4). You then need to tap the large green button to tap the rhythm of the example shown, in time with the soundtrack. As you move through the rhythm, correct taps will turn the corresponding note green, while incorrect notes stay black. The very first level is basic one-beat crotchet beats. A new rhythmic value is introduced at each level – minims, semibreves, rests etc but the first ten levels don’t move beyond these basic foundation-level rhythms, giving a beginner plenty to play with. This is an example of a rhythm near the end of this section:

Piano teacher Wallsend NSW

The app also has high-quality soundtracks. Rather than being cheesy or childish, there is a nice variety of musical styles and tempos, including classical themes, folk tunes, and pop-sounding tracks. Something for everyone 🙂

As the examples get more difficult, students must tap two different buttons, and then three The notes are color-coded with blue and red to match the notes. (The cat illustrations also become more colourful).

The color-coding is a great idea, but is a little confusing. The blue and red notes coordinate with the blue and red buttons, but the regular notes coordinating with the green button stay their original black. These green-button-but-black notes still turn green if you tap them correctly and stay black if you miss them. But it’s only a small annoyance and you’ll become accustomed to it fairly quickly. Piano teacher Wallsend NSW

The app is very sensitive about making sure you tap the rhythm exactly on the beat, which could potentially be frustrating at times, but also will help you learn to be precise as you listen to the beat of the soundtrack. Each level is scored with one, two, or three stars. If too many notes were incorrect, you will fail the level and be unable to proceed to the next one.

The free version of this app has 15 levels to try out and can be found here. The Pro version (here) has four “stages,” with 15 levels in each stage. Stage 1 uses basic rhythms, including crotchet rests and paired quavers. Stage 2 introduces the dotted crotchet paired with a single quaver and also ties, to create syncopated rhythms. Stage 3 introduces the quaver rest and complex time signatures (e.g. 3-13 is a killer – it mixes 3/4 and 2/4 and goes pretty fast). Stage 4 continues with more advanced rhythms using three buttons.

Developed in collaboration with professional musicians and educators, Rhythm Cat is an excellent app to use at home and in the studio. Students will learn to look ahead more as they tap these rhythms, and will learn the important skill of listening to themselves and others (in this case, the soundtrack) to stay together.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

Ending Those Piano Practise Wars – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

I have an old cassette tape that is one of my most treasured possessions. My Dad made it for me many years ago and it contains different performances of mine over the years. It starts way back when I was 4 years old and made up a song (called “Baa, Little Lamb”) on the ukulele and also contains many snippets of me during piano practise. Or to be more precise, me arguing with either Dad or Mum about my piano practise. And all through my practise. I enjoyed playing and I did well, but like every other kid in existence, I didn’t like being told to practise. My sister and I knew that we had to practise twice a day; it was the first thing we did after breakfast and the first thing we did when we arrived home from school. Summer afternoons were hard. So were weekends. We had very strict parents. But we still tried it on.

So, as a teacher, I get it. I know my students don’t like to practise. But I also understand how much they need to. Playing an instrument is a physical skill and requires training of the muscles and fine-motor skills. When parents sign their child up for piano lessons they are not looking for a way to encourage epic battles at home.

How do we bring the desired peace to the home practise world? The wonderful folks at Teach Piano Today have put together five tips (with which I totally agree) to help restore harmony in your household.

1. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

It’s true in the real estate world, and it’s also true in the home practise world. Having your piano in the most advantageous place in your home is of vital importance for successful home practise.

You want to find a balance between shoving the piano in a downstairs corner versus putting it in the centre of your most-used room. Ideally the piano should be located in a comfortable room, close to where the family is, but away from major distractions. Your child does not want to feel isolated during practise time – but they also do not want to compete with your food processor and washing machine.

2. CRAMMING IS NOT THE ANSWER

Nothing stresses a parent out more than helping their child practise when they have 10 minutes before leaving for the piano lesson. Keep the peace at home by beginning home practise immediately after you return home from their piano lesson. This is the best time as they will still remember what they covered in their lesson, and the piano books will actually make it to the piano, setting you up for a good start to a week of practise.

Cramming creates feelings of inadequacy in your child as they struggle to perfect what should take 7 days to percolate. Cramming makes you sweat and wonder why in the world you are paying for these lessons. Cramming is not the answer.

3. MISTAKES ARE OKAY

I promise! It’s the job of your child’s teacher to sort out the mistakes in lesson time. Your job at home is to be the support – to remind them to spend time on the piano, congratulate them on their efforts, revel in the joy that is your child creating music, and show that you value music in your home.

Avoid the following statements and watch peace fall over your home immediately: “Is that right? I don’t think that’s right.”… “That’s not how it’s supposed to sound.”… “Are you watching your music?”… “Your sister played that piece and it didn’t sound like that.” … “Wrong note!”… “Try it again.” etc. Your child will get their back up immediately and the practice wars are sure to ensue.

4. “BUT MRS JONES SAID!”

How many times has your child shouted a statement similar to this? “Mrs Jones said I only have to play the first page!”… “Mrs Jones said to play it up here.”… “Mrs Jones said to play it this fast!”… What your child is actually trying to say is “I want to be in charge of my learning.” So let them. Whether or not Mrs Jones actually said these things is beside the point.

Resist the urge to argue (and resist the urge to call up Mrs Jones to ask what the heck she is teaching) and trust that your child will sort it out themselves. This is often a knee-jerk reaction on your child’s part – they so desperately want to be right and in charge and it’s their way of saying “Stay out of this, I’ve got it.” If you allow them this right to direct their own learning you will help to create a confident piano student.

5. BE PRESENT

For those parents who do sit with their child during practise sessions, you and your child will enjoy practise time so much more if you, the parent, are not multi-tasking. Children thrive on one-on-one quality time, and if this is combined with their piano practise, it is an activity that you will both grow to cherish.

Take away the distractions – the mobile ‘phone, the baby, the dog, the dinner preparation – and focus on just your child. Soak up the experience of watching your young one learn such a complex skill. Find a time to practise that isn’t restricted by deadlines. Just enjoy making music together. It’s difficult to start a practise war if you are truly “bonding on the bench”.

Piano practise is a commitment. It’s a daily event that can either be gloriously wonderful or horribly stressful. Keep these five tips in mind when you start out this new practise week and welcome peaceful piano practise into your home with open arms.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.