Dear parents,

One of the questions I get the most from parents is how to get their children to practice.  Such a great question!  There are a few things to keep in mind when asking (and you will most likely need to ask) your child to practice:

Choose your words and practice time carefully.  Instead of saying it's time to practice, try saying one or more of the following:

• Show me what you played in your lesson.
• How does this song go?
• Which one is your favorite?

Remember that lessons are teacher guided and while we do teach children how to practice it does take a long time for them to master the ability to practice on their own.  You will have to remind them to practice for several years until they take initiative.  Keep in mind what is age appropriate and even if you don't play an instrument, or read music, you can help your child by sitting in the same room with them and asking questions along the way.  One of the main ideas is to create good habits, and that comes with consistency and positive reinforcement.  Using words like play and show sound different than practice.

The other two questions I get about practicing from parents are how long/often should my child practice and what should they be doing when practicing?  Music Center faculty write lesson notes in a notebook each week with a child-friendly list of practice activities to do.  Your child should practice twice their age in minutes, so if you have a 6 year old they should be practicing 12-15 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week.  15 minutes is not that long, and if they do everything in their notebook they won't even notice the time.  The point is to have a small goal for each session (as a child, I personally used the three penny game referenced in the article, Getting Kids to Practice, although sometimes it was M&Ms.....) and after a while I forgot about moving over the M&Ms when I did something correctly and just ate them at the end.

This is just a start, there are many, many other ways to get kids to practice their music.   And remember, all faculty can be reached by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  Please let us know if you have any questions, we are here.