Scheduling Peace

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could simply tell students the what and the why of musical practice and then trust that they would take care of the rest?

Children do not have this capacity
But as I have observed, most children do not have this capacity for self motivation, self control and self direction in achieving musical goals! In fact if you have a child that has all of these characteristics consistently then “take them to the doctor!” they are not normal healthy children is what Dr. Kataoka used to say to parents.

So how do we help children to develop self motivation and other self directed attributes?
I have been researching this for the past eight years and it is through observing successful parent/child teams and also searching through Suzuki’s philosophy that led me to a few observations that I would like to share:

Scheduling Daily Practice at a consistent time and following through in a peaceful manner is perhaps the greatest key to helping children learn a musical instrument.

Some tips:


The Practice Alarm
some parents use a daily alarm to create a “third party” that controls the start time - that way the child and parent do not have a daily battle of wills to determine when the practice will happen.


Morning Practice is best
I recommend that the practice be in the morning before other tasks and school are begun, that way both child and parent are rested and can focus on the daily assignment before the stresses of the day tire and distract them.

Timing lessons and being fair
Timing lessons and being consistent and fair with the timer will allow that child to build a sense of ownership for the time spent and awareness of the difference between practice time and play time.

Once the issue of a start time is established and a daily alarm (either internal or external) is set and the practice is approached from a peaceful and focused manner by the Parent then children can begin to learn how to improve their music talents. This is a first step for young creatives to learn how to become self motivated as well!

Tomorrow we will be talking about Pizza Party Markers - or How to Develop Long Term Motivation in your Child! See you then, Ben