Teaching With Ease

How to help your child with music at home

Your input can a big difference when a child is learning an instrument. Here are three key things to help your child reach their dream.

1. Practise. This is key to successfully learning an instrument. Without it, your child’s dream of being a rock star just won’t happen. Build practice sessions into their weekly routine and give clear expectations. Tell them when they should be practising and for how long, and remind them when they inevitably forget. For beginners, playing their instrument for 15 minutes four times a week will make a huge difference. Ask your child’s teacher how long they should be practising for and how often at their current level. As your child becomes more proficient on their instrument, they will benefit from practising for longer. Remember, playing little and often will help them to learn more efficiently than one mega practice session the day before their lesson. Children who know they have worked hard on their pieces go into their lessons feeling confident and with a positive attitude.

2. Practise effectively. There is a difference between practising and playing. Playing is spending time using the instrument. Practising is working on specific sections of music with the aim of improving them. It is unlikely that your child will know how to practise effectively at first so you will need to help them out. Before starting, make sure your child refers back to their music notebook to remind themselves what they should be playing and what their teacher wants them to work on. If they can already play a section well then they don’t need to practise it again. They need to focus on the bits that sound bad! A common mistake while practising is to go back to the beginning of each piece every time you make an error. This is a waste of time. If your child goes wrong, get them to play the tricky bit until it sounds better and then go back a few bars to run into it.

3. No shortcuts. Most students will be learning to read sheet music. Often parents try to help their child by writing the musical note letters underneath. Their playing then sounds good but it is an illusion; they will only be reading the handwritten letters and not the notes. Once the music gets too complicated to do this, they will then be unable to read the musical notation. Instead of writing all the letters (or finger numbers if they are learning the piano) underneath, you can help them to learn to read the notes on the stave. Children love playing musical games and this is a great way for you to get involved with your child’s musical journey. Get started with Musical Four in a Row and Treble and/or Bass Clef Dominoes.

© Teaching With Ease, 2023