Today, we’re speaking to Christopher Maloney of Practice Warriors. Christopher is a multi-instrumentalist who has…
Growth Mindset in Music Practice
This post is part of a series on the type of mindsets that parents, caregivers, and other adults can develop as they support the music practice of children and teens. You can read the first post here.
Growth mindset is a concept coined by researcher Dr. Carol Dweck and has become familiar to many parents and educators. Believing that we, and the children in our lives, can learn, grow, and change is so important. If you are reading this, you likely have heard this term already and may already understand its importance.
As a Suzuki teacher, I think a growth mindset is already baked into our method. We start, often with very young students, from not knowing how to hold our instrument or get a good tone. As teachers, we learn to see each student as an accomplished, advanced player and to teach from the knowledge of what they will need to get there. We believe that each child in front of us truly can learn at their own pace.
As parents, and caregivers, practicing with children, it’s harder sometimes to think about how we put this idea of growth mindset into action. How do we tangibly cultivate a growth mindset in our practice sessions and our home? I believe this, along with connection & teamwork mindsets, is one of the practice mindsets that helps make practice more positive and productive for everyone involved.
Here are a few ideas on how to make it work for you:
Praise the effort, even more than the product, that you see in practice.
If we believe improvement happens through the effort we put forth and the belief it will improve, then this is key. Are we working on the assignments from our teacher? Are we working consistently? Do we see our child putting forth the effort, even if there is some frustration involved? If so, we can trust the process and know we’ll get there eventually. Growth will come.
We can notice that growth is happening even if we aren’t there yet and there is still work to do. A favorite phrase of mine is: “This is why we practice!” Learning and growth come from effort. Emphasizing and recognizing that effort is so important.
Let your child see you learning & growing in some area of your life.
A great way to develop a growth mindset is to make it a family project. What are the adults in the family working on? Perhaps you are training for a race, fixing something around the house, learning a new skill like a new language or an instrument themselves. Parents might be reading and learning about a new topic for work or learning to work with a new piece of technology. Your specific answer may vary. The point is, if our children see us working on learning something, this is a powerful example to set.
It’s easy for children to feel that everyone around them has an easy time with everything, and they are the exception to that rule. We know that couldn’t be further from the truth, but the best way for our children to learn that reality is to see it in action.
Notice how far you’ve come so you can see the growth.
It’s easy to see only tiny increments of growth each day to forget how they add up over time. Sometimes I will recommend students in my studio and their family watch a recital video from a year ago to look for progress. Another option is to look at lesson notes and what they were working on many months in the past.
Looking back and realizing how far we have come is often very illuminating.
Just like it’s hard to see how tall our children are getting when we see them every day, it’s hard to see progress when we are part of the tiny daily steps forward. It can be so encouraging to look back and see the improvement in a tangible way.
Normalize Mistakes as a Way to Learn
Embrace mistakes as a way to learn; This is true both in practice & other areas of life.
Sometimes our children have perfectionist tendencies and get extra discouraged by mistakes. If we’re honest, some of us parents fit that description too.
Remembering that mistakes are a powerful way to learn and part of the process is important. Collect stories about musicians and athletes, and any others you can find who share their process. Sometimes I will make a mistake on purpose in a lesson with students who are sensitive to mistakes so we can discuss how even teachers make mistakes.
Let your child see you make mistakes and treat yourself with grace (easier said than done, I know!). How do we treat ourselves if we drop and break something? If we lose something? If we’re running late? These are teachable moments.
And, if you’re anything like me when I start paying attention to how I model such things, I realize I might practice this for my own benefit as well and give myself some grace when I’m not perfect.
Adopting a growth mindset as a family and working on developing it together can provide great motivation on the instrument and other unexpected ways.
If we see our effort pays off and that our mistakes are leading us to figure things out – that is a powerful motivation and a great way to embrace the process of learning.