Having an adult’s encouragement and support in their daily piano practice is key for a beginning piano student. Practice is the key to building musical skills, and it can be quite the time commitment! The NYTimes best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell suggests that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at a particular skill. In this New Yorker article, psychologists speculate that chess master Bobby Fischer spent between 20,000 to 50,000 hours practicing! The amount of time a pianist needs to spend practicing depends on their goals and their efficiency. For a beginning piano student, particularly a young pianist, shorter practice sessions with an engaged practice partner can help them succeed. Below, we’ve included ten ways that you can be a great piano partner.
At Hoffman Academy, we also believe in having fun and making music ! Be sure to check out our article on How to Make Piano Practice Fun to find tips that keep the joy in learning an instrument. With this advice from our expert piano instructors, your student will look forward to sitting down at the piano bench.
1. Wanted! Your Undivided Attention
Make some time every day to sit down with your child and practice the piano together. For young beginners, plan on spending the whole practice time together. As your child gets older and more advanced at the piano, you can gradually allow them to practice more on their own.
2. Communicate Positively
No one wants someone pointing out every little thing they’re doing wrong. As your child practices, keep suggestions to a minimum, and always state them positively. Look for the good and encourage it to grow. Instead of saying things like, “Your left-hand fingers are too straight,” say, “I like how your right-hand fingers are nice and curved, can your left-hand fingers do the same?”
3. Encourage Self-Correction
Your ultimate goal is to teach your child how to practice independently, and that involves helping them learn to detect and correct when they are missing notes or rhythms. If you hear a mistake as your child plays, instead of pointing out the mistake, have them listen to the song, then listen to themselves carefully as they play to see if they are doing it right or not.
4. Practice Begins When It’s Perfect
Once your child has learned something correctly, that’s when practice really begins. Up until then, they are figuring out the notes. Repetition is essential to developing confidence and skill. I like to have students “play their age” in a practice session, playing a song they’ve learned as many times as their age in years.
5. Practice Games
Practice games are a great way to help your child enjoy perfecting and polishing their piano songs. Choose a goal, such as playing a few measures without making a mistake, and then find a fun way to keep score. You can add or subtract things like coins or small candies, or move a small toy or other object back and forth along the keyboard. Want some more ideas? Check out this article on practice games.
6. Use a Checklist
Rather than practicing for a set amount of time every day, have a practice checklist. It could include things like doing a few finger power exercises, working on a new song, reviewing an old song, and listening to songs on the listening CD.
7. Consistency
It’s been said that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, however, this method only works if you keep taking bites! As a practice partner, one of your most important jobs is to make sure piano practice happens every day.
8. Keep It Short and Sweet
Some parents try to keep their child at the piano bench as long as possible, but is your child going to want to come back tomorrow if they feel like they’re going to get stuck there? On the other hand, if you end practice before your child is tired of it, they’ll be eager to come back for more.
9. Use Rewards
Of course the ultimate reward for your child is the ability that they will have to play the piano when they’re older, but that’s a little hard for them to see right now. You may want to set up a system to reward consistent piano practice, like going out for ice cream if they can practice five days a week for a month.
10. Celebrate Success
Let your child know how much you enjoy hearing them practice the piano. Praise them for working hard and being consistent in their practice. Point out how much they are improving. Shower them with hugs and cheers when they get things right. Thanks for doing your part as a practice partner to give your child the gift of music. Your involvement makes all the difference.
How long does it take to practice an instrument?
When you are just starting out with piano lessons with a young child, a short 5-10 minute session gives students a chance to practice without tiring out their attention spans. As pianists learn more challenging music, the amount of time they need to practice will also increase. Most students with one or more years of piano experience will be practicing at least thirty minutes a day. With warm-ups, technical exercises, and specific work on their songs, advanced musicians can spend upwards of an hour every day on their practice.
Practice goes on for a musician’s entire life. Practicing provides the opportunity to learn new songs, solidify current repertoire, and improve any technical or musical concepts that continue to be challenging. The amount of time a musician practices depends on what works for them. No matter how long you practice, remember that you can’t learn everything all at once. Consistent, shorter practice sessions every day will be more efficient than occasional long sessions.
For pianists, you can use our Practice Calculator to find out how long it takes to learn to play at a particular level based on how frequently you practice. In the calculator, selecting the amount of time you practice each day and how often you practice affects how long it may take you to reach the next level.
How do you mentally practice an instrument?
Scientific studies have shown that the simple act of imagining yourself playing the piano can form some of the same connections in your brain as actually playing the piano! When your piano student is away from the piano, they can speed up their learning by visualizing themself playing. As a practice partner, remind them to do this. It’s a great way to help with memorizing and retaining piano pieces as well.
Mental practice is particularly useful for musicians who experience stage fright. Visualizing success helps you achieve it! When mentally practicing for a performance, some musicians suggest lying on the floor and closing your eyes. Try to envision the place you’ll be performing – what do you see? Hear? Smell? Imagine the feel of the keys. That act of imagining sitting down at the bench may have made your heart beat faster, but that’s fine! Imagining the sensations and emotional reactions to a situation can help us cope better with it when it happens.
We hope this list of 10 ways to be a great practice partner helps you and your beginning piano student have fun and make music!