Help Your Child Succeed at Learning an Instrument

For children, learning an instrument is an arduous undertaking. It requires motivation, practice, patience, support, and reinforcement.  Especially for young children, many of the concepts involved in learning an instrument are unfamiliar. As children generally spend about half an hour a week with their instructor, they can benefit from additional assistance provided by parents at home.   Parents, even those not musically inclined, play an important role in their child’s success by providing behavioral, cognitive, and personal support.  A recent study by Andrea Creech (2010) outlined how a parent can best support their child’s musical education.

Here are 6 ways you can support your child’s musical education.

Appropriate Parental Involvement

You can discuss with your child how much they would like for you to be involved. This includes monitoring and participating in practice, attending lessons, and assisting with learning material at home. Having an open discussion with your child about how much assistance they would like, is beneficial. With a younger child, you may have to take a more directive role. As your child matures, they will benefit from having more control in their musical development.    

Practicing

You should have a clear idea from the instructor as to what, how long, and how often your child should be practicing. At home, you can assist with practicing by coming to an agreement whit your child within parameters set by the instructor. Keeping practice as a fun activity rather than a chore or punishment will go a long way.

Structure

Help your child at home by having a quiet area and a consistent time of day set aside to practice. Through supporting and reinforcing good practice habits, you help your child become more musically skilled and develop good learning habits that are transferrable to other educational activities.

 Promote Child-Instructor Rapport

You can assist your child with improving communication and maintaining a positive relationship with the instructor. If your child has questions, help him or her communicate that to the instructor. Talking with the instructor about what types of activities or instructional methods your child responds well to can improve lessons.  

Parent-Instructor Communication

In order to best understand what your child is learning and how to support them, talk with the instructor after each lesson. The instructor will discuss with you what is expected to be practiced at home and come to an agreement as to how much practice is appropriate. Some instructors can be demanding and expect your child to practice 1 hour or more daily. You can help the instructor understand how much practice at home is realistic considering time demands from other activities.  

Parental Audience

One of the most powerful forms of support you can provide is just being there to listen. Attending recitals and concerts, sitting in on lessons, and just listening to your child practice, all communicate support to your child.  

With parental support, your child will show a greater enjoyment and appreciation of music. They will be much more motivated to practice and do well. Through gaining facility on an instrument through hard work, your child will experience higher self-esteem and self-efficacy. Having you as an involved parent will positively influence the child’s satisfaction with taking lessons. 

Richard Sanger, M.A. is a guitar instructor and owner of RS Music Company. RS Music provides in home music lessons on a wide variety of instruments in the Central Jersey area. For lessons, please call 732-320-5980. You can find more information at www.rsmusiccompany.com. 

Creech, Andrea (2010). Learning a Musical Instrument: The Case for Parental Support. Music Education Research 12(1), 13-32.