Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

"It's time to practice!" If you're fighting the battle to motivate your child to continue his or her music lessons once the initial novelty has worn off, join Mike Smith on today's Home School Heartbeat. He offers suggestions for helping you support your child's healthy attitude toward practicing his musical instrument.

Mike Smith:

Once your child has moved through the beginner phase of learning an instrument, the excitement of music may wear off. If left to his own, a child may decide to give up music altogether. If you want to encourage him to continue with it, you may need to really get involved. Studies have shown that until a child is 10 years old, the biggest factor in whether or not he progresses in his musical studies is the degree of parental involvement.

Your child may find increased motivation if you study music as a family. Whether his role is to be the only instrument while everyone else sings, or whether he bangs out a rhythm on a pan, making music together will reinforce the notion that music is fun and worth the hard work. Reward both effort and achievement with stickers or something else that motivates your child. At the same time, avoid criticism as it may cause your child to fear making mistakes.

You can also mold your child's practice sessions to increase his sense of success. Once he's mastered one piece, suggest that he begin and end his practice session with playing this piece that he knows well. In between, he can fumble through the hard stuff, but you want his last experience in the practice session to be one of accomplishment. And until next time, I'm Mike Smith.