Practicing Tips for Beginning Students
Help create a routine -
Most piano kids will need some support establishing a practice routine. Whether that's sitting down with your teen and looking at their calendar to find some good practice times, or helping your young beginner with reminders to practice at a certain time each day. What each child needs may look a little different, some may need help reading & checking off their assignments in the binder, some may need help problem solving when they get stuck, some may want to play the games or lesson activities with you every day, some may just love for you to call out encouragement as they go, and some may need peace and quiet so they can focus. You know your kid best, so you'll know the best way to let them know that you're on their team when it comes to piano study.
Warm up before playing songs -
For new students especially, we are learning brand new concepts all the time in lessons, so we often need to circle back to those concepts to help prime beginning pianists for what to anticipate in their music. If your piano kid ever sits down at the piano, looks at the page and says they can't remember how to play an assigned piece, that's a sign that today's practice might be better spent doing some review work on the new concepts. Some ideas for that:
- Flip back a page & try reviewing the new concepts
- Play any games in that chapter that go over the theory
- Read through my notes in the binder to see if there are any prompts to help your kid remember.
- If you spend time on review, it's ok to try coming back to the song later in the day or week when those concepts are a little more confident.
Short, frequent practices -
Several short practices throughout the week will be more beneficial than one or two super long practices. Visiting the concepts frequently helps with retention, and keeps any frustration to a minimum. Know that you don't have to check off every single assignment at every single practice. Some days you might play through your song assignments or tackle a challenging piece, other days you might play the included game, some days you might improvise or play one of our rote memory pieces. It all counts as practice, and helps your piano kid learn to love playing the piano. I'm hesitant to prescribe a set amount of time for practice because effective practice is more important than running through things until a timer goes off. But as a rough guide I will suggest student practice 3 times their age (so a 3 year old student would practice 9 minutes, a 4 year old for 12 minutes, a 5 year old for 15 minutes, etc). Even with very young students, if you do a song or two and a game or other off the bench activity, this can be very do-able.
Get off the Bench -
Some of what we do in lessons is not done sitting at the bench or playing the piano, and that can be the same for home practice.
- Try standing up and clapping the rhythm of their pieces
- Spend time in score study, marking the music to help you anticipate (This doesn't mean to write all the note names in though 😉, instead notice larger patterns in the music, work through fingers for tricky passages, etc).
- Watch a youtube video of the piece, feel the flow of the piece and make note of any expressive choices you like or don't like for your own interpretation.
Communicate with your teacher -
This can be a big one, especially if your piano kid is feeling a little lost or stuck. Whether it's an SOS message sent during the week for some guidance on a specific part, or if you just have a quick note to jot down on the assignment sheet, communicating where things are difficult lets me help you get back on track.