Parental Supervision Of The Child's Practice

Every child beginning music lessons will need parental supervision of practice. At first all the practice will need the parent there to draw attention to the piece to be practiced: whether it needs repeating, which part needs to be worked on etc. Also any explanations on the page will need to be read to the child. As children begin to understand what they're doing the parent should gradually move away from the child, allowing them to start playing by themselves. From the other side of the room the parent can call for a certain scale or piece to be played. Eventually the parent may move to an adjacent room for part of the practice session. The parent will need to keep listening to what is being played and perhaps occasionally listening standing by the door. Children left to themselves will often loose focus and start playing other pieces or just doodling on their instrument instead of doing consistent practice.

Parents will need to work out a sensible time length for practice: perhaps just 10 minutes at a time to start, gradually building to perhaps 30 minutes per day if the child can manage to concentrate for that long. Otherwise two sessions of 10 minutes could be done. Inability to concentrate can often be cured by a reward system: Stickers can be given with a small reward given when the required number of stickers are earned. Coins can be used as a method of counting repetitions of a scale or piece: Make a pile of 4 or 5 coins. As each repetition is done the top coin is moved into a new pile until all the coins have gone into the new pile.

Most parents find it difficult to reduce the supervision gradually. Many parents seem to stop the supervision suddenly. Others continue supervising every note for years. This prevents the child from thinking for themselves. Every child has to learn to decide for themselves whether the last 2 bars played was correct, whether it needs repeating or not. Sometimes it is difficult for a teacher to know just how much a pupil really knows and is able to do, when the parent so closely continues to supervise practice.

What about older children - do they need any parental supervision? Parents should read their child's lesson notebook with the child to make sure the child knows what to focus on for the week's practice. Once or twice through the week the parent can listen in to hear how the new piece is progressing. Every pupil should be building a 'repertoire' of well known pieces. The parent should regularly ask for various pieces from the repertoire to be played.

In conclusion: Parents do supervise your child's practice - not too much and not too little!