All of us go through periods when it is difficult to find motivation or time to practice our instruments. There are different reasons for that and I've talked with many of you at different times and I reflect quite often about it as a teacher and a performer and have always reflected and talked about it with friends and colleagues as a student (which I still am and will always be).
Below you can find an article from NPR that I think you might find interesting and where you can get some ideas from. The last paragraphs will apply more to most of you or your children, since the first part of the article talks more about young students (3-10 years old).
I think the main problems with establishing a practice routine are:
- Creating a habit (trying to practice every day around the same time, whatever works better for you, the amount of time that works for you - could be anything from 10 minutes to 2 hours or more if you are a professional)
- Being focused and organized about your practice: work on your pieces or songs and try to get better at the chord changes, at remembering the lyrics, at particular passages in your pieces, etc.
- Being motivated, so that the practice is a positive time and not a negative one. If we get some results and practice an amount of time that is not too long for us, we should be able to enjoy it.
Also, try to listen to your kids playing and compliment it and their progress. You are the most important motivators in their lives, and if practicing and playing is part of the family life, that will make it much more meaningful and motivating. I think many times the students use their lesson time as their practice and they don't practice much at home. Even though is not what’s best, it still gets results and they progress, though much slower than they could. But they still enjoy coming to the lessons and learning.
Sometimes parents think because they don't practice at home it means they don't like it. I think the problem is that they don't have a practice routine and a coach at home, and the lesson becomes their practice time and I become their only coach. Eventually they will become their own coaches too and find times to practice at home regularly. We should all encourage practice as a positive thing, as a way to get better, and a way to develop their potential.
It's not an easy subject, since it involves many different aspects, but I think we all need to keep reflecting on it and trying to find better ways to get practicing at home easier.
Now that the summer is here and most of the students don't meet with me ,it's a good time for them to review pieces and songs they have learned, to get better at some, try to memorize them, and maybe to explore other material from songbooks or repertoire collections.
Here is the article: