Joan’s 10 Easy Steps for Getting

the Best Results out of Piano and Voice Lessons

 
1.   Encourage and Praise.
  • Ask your child to play or sing for you - and then listen.  
  • Encourage your child to play or sing for a visitor or family member. 
  • Bragging about your child's talent, in front of them, will only bring positive results.
2.   Provide a good environment for playing or singing time.
  • Place the piano (or keyboard) in the family area where you can hear them play.
  • Keep the piano tuned and provide good lighting.
  • When it is ‘playing or singing time’, there should be freedom from distraction and interruptions.
  • The family should respect the importance of your child's practice time.
  • Keep their music on or near the piano (or in the bench).
3.    Always find something positive to say.
  • “That was good – will you play or sing it again for me?”
  • “I love to hear you play piano”.  "I love to hear you sing".
  • “You look so comfortable sitting at the piano” (singing).
 4.    Schedule lessons and practice so that your child doesn't miss out on other activities.
  • Students need to have other activities and they'll have more fun at the piano if they get to do both.
  • Try to schedule playing/singing time about the same time every day
 5.  Avoid asking your child “have you practiced today".  
  • Don’t demand that they “practice.”  Get them to ‘play’ or 'sing' for you.  If you push kids too hard, they turn off right away and it can be difficult to get them back. 
 6.    Keep a happy face.
  • If they’re having a problem with a particular part, no worries - we can fix it at lesson time.  Let them know how proud you are they are trying. 
 7.  Avoid practice when your child is tired.
  • They need time to concentrate.
  • Be patient - Make it easy to musically please you.
 8.   Although you already know how to play the piano or sing - avoid
becoming the ‘teacher’.
 9.   Take your child to a music store and pick out music they want to
play or sing.  
 10.  Don’t take playing piano or singing so seriously. If you think it’s
fun, your kids will, too.