1) Make Practicing Part of Routine : Same time everyday
2) Realistic Practice Duration : Eg. 15 mins per day for young kids
3) Set Specific Practice Instructions: Eg. 5 times slow, 5 times fast
4) Practice With Your Child
5) Reward Them With A Song Or Activity They Like After
6) Praise The Effort, Not Just The End Result
Practice tips for young children
We all know how challenging it is to get young children to practise and motivate them to do so, yet consistent and effective practice is essential to growing as a musician, starting from young!
Here are some practice tips to help parents with their young children!
Make practicing part of their routine, just like eating meals, learning other subjects etc ideally before their play time
Set realistic practice duration for your child depending on their attention and age. Duration can gradually increase as they get older.
Specific instructions such as 5 times each piece work better than just 15 mins or 30 mins a day
Practise with your child. This is more effective with very young children such as 3.5 to 6 years old as they might not have the discipline to do it properly by themselves, or they might practise wrongly without any guidance.
Music is more fun when they get to play their favourite piece or do their favourite activity. Reward them with a fun music activity after a more serious practice session.
Praising the effort encourages your child to keep trying and that is what we are looking for. Praising the result sometimes only gives pressure and actually might cause your child to be anxious about practicing and resistant to try if they cannot repeat their good performance.
What other tips do you have when practising with your young child?