Getting Organized for a Productive Year in Music Lessons with Your Child

It’s always a good time of year to review the materials and logistics your child needs to be successful in their music lessons. The start of the school year, or the calendar year, can be an especially great time to take stock of what you have, what you need, and what is coming up on the calendar.

You can make a big difference in your child’s progress this year by helping your child get organized. You’ll find suggestions below to consider as you think through what logistical help your child may need this year. Depending on your child’s age, they may be able to do some of these tasks with you or take on a few of them themselves.

As a music teacher, I am depending on parents to help make sure these items are taken care of. You can check with your own teacher to see what from this list applies directly to you.

If you notice any to-do items that you need to take care of below, I encourage you to see what you can get done today, and otherwise schedule time on your calendar to come back to this list and complete it in the near future.

Here are Some of the Items I like Families to take an Inventory of this time of Year:

• Do you have a working metronome or tuner? Do you need batteries replaced? Do you want to use an app on a device? Or a more analog version?
• Are pencils sharpened and available as needed?
• Do you have a dedicated space for all your materials in your home practice space?
• Do you have an effective way to get what materials you need to your lesson?
• Do you know where your rosin, cleaning cloth, or other necessary equipment are? Do any of them need replacing?
• Do you have important dates from your music teacher or program entered into the family calendar so you don’t accidentally schedule over them?
• Does your piano need tuning? Strings need replacing? If there are maintenance needs you can take care of now, when can you do so? If you need to budget or plan for the future, this may be a good time to make a plan and add it to your calendar.
• Do you have a lesson notebook, or another effective way to capture and organize your practice assignments?
• Do you and your child have a system for looking at the details of your assignments from the teacher when you practice?

Make a Schedule for Practice, not just the Lesson

Unlike many sports our children may participate in, no one sets your child’s practice schedule outside of their music lesson. This is up to each family to schedule, and I don’t think it gets talked about enough.

You likely have your lesson schedule set for the school year, and you likely know that in order to make progress in lessons, regular home practice sessions will be necessary. So, this is a great time to set up a daily practice and listening schedule if you don’t have one yet.

I recommend a weekly plan with each day having a scheduled time to practice. But also, look at the week ahead on the weekend and adjust that schedule against real-life obstacles that may come up on any given week.

If there are extra activities on a week that make being at the instrument impossible on any given day, what can your child do away from their instrument?

Note reading? Theory? Extra listening? Mental Practice? Ask your teacher if you’re not sure!

Taking care of these tasks early in the school year can set us up for a successful year ahead.

The idea is that eventually students, perhaps as college students or adults, are doing all of this for themselves. To help them learn how, we are doing it for them at first, and then along with them, and eventually passing off age-appropriate tasks for them to take care of independently.

In the meantime, this is a tangible and vital way you help support your child on their music journey, and your role is so important. Thanks for all you do to support your child in music!

Looking for more support to get your child set up for a productive year in music lessons? You can find a recording of the recent webinar I held with Barbie Wong on the topic here