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new to piano – practice question
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My dc 7 and 5.5 are taking piano lessons. This is also our first “activity” that requires practice other than bike riding and other casual acitivties in the yard, etc. Anyway, they don’t want to practice. This is actually our first week with owning a piano that they can practice on and I haven’t built it into the schedule yet. Any words of wisdom to help us start off on the right foot? Also, do you sit with them to help them practice? My dh and I do not play at this point…I’m secretly hoping that I’ll learn to play piano!
Any help is appreciated.
At that age, if you can at all, listen to them practice. More positive comments than negative ones. A couple of shorter practices at this age is better than 1 longer one. Finish with something fun like a favourite song.
There are ways to make it fun now and then… a concert for stuffed animals.
Ask if you can sit in on a lesson or two (or just pop your head in for part), and supervise their practice at home at least for the first few weeks (maybe longer for the younger one). Ask the teacher to be sure to write a goal or two for each assigned page (example: curved fingers, steady tempo).
Learning how to set little mini-goals, pace yourself through the practice session (start with challenging things, end with a fun song), learning how to break a harder/longer song into bite-size learnable chunks and then put it back together again etc. are often new skills that need to be developed alongside the “musical” skills.
Incorporate games like finding all the A keys, all the sets of two black keys, echoing small patterns that you play (I bet you can figure out how to play a little 3 or 4 note pattern!) etc., or whatever is appropriate to what they are learning.
Make sure the teacher knows you want to be involved with the practice and check in with him or her about what you can do to help.
Hope some of that helps. I have taught piano for almost 19 years but I’m just getting barely started with my own child playing a bit, so I’m speaking mostly from a piano teacher’s perspective.
Also, give them some time to “play” with the new piano, respectfully and gently of course, apart from practice time. It really helps to get familiar with it.
I have to supervise all piano practices here…they often sit pouting at the piano.
They also often need help getting their fingers on the right keys. We have it worked into our HS schedule so we keep up with practice. I agree about the positive comments! I’ve yet to hear a negative comment from their piano teacher and I try to keep up with that at home. I love playing music, so it’s easy for me to offer too many suggestions. It’s very easy to learn along with them…at first anyway! 😉 My oldest DD’s music is getting tricker for me to play at the first try. She’ll be passing me buy unless I start practicing more! I’d taught myself a bit of piano over the years, but she’s almost at my level.
Also, I’ve seen it recommended to sit in on their lessons. It can give you a better idea of how to help them at home. I don’t go to every single lessons, but try to once in awhile.
Short practice sessions – also, you can set little goals for them (after a while, they should set the goals).
For example, the goal is to play the first four measures of the lesson piece absolutely correctly. Or with only one mistake….whatever, tweak for your situation. Sometimes, it helps to set a goal to be reached rather than a certain number of minutes that they must sit at the piano. If you’re doing this, I’d say two practice sessions a day – and once they reach the goal, they can move to another goal or stop for that session, whatever you think is best.
Practicing an instrument is like setting new habits in place — they must be done, or they’ll never be habits. So, start small, focus on one thing at a time (correct hand posture or correct notes or correct rhythms). You can change the goals while only practicing one piece – for ex., this time I’m going to play it with fabulous hand posture; or correct notes or correct rhythms, etc.
We sit in on all practices (a bit younger than your guys still though), the stuffed animal concert is a great idea. We do some practices over the phone with grandparents too. Often we’ll work on something to play for da when he gets home as well. We break practices up to if needed.
Have fun with it! I’ve actually been trying to learn along with the kids right now too. So far, so good, but I can see my daughter quickly surpassing me! I need to get in a better habit for practicing myself!
Rachel
They also often need help getting their fingers on the right keys. We have it worked into our HS schedule so we keep up with practice. I agree about the positive comments! I’ve yet to hear a negative comment from their piano teacher and I try to keep up with that at home. I love playing music, so it’s easy for me to offer too many suggestions. 
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