The following is an excerpt from the book Beyond the Music Lesson: Habits of Successful Suzuki Families which officially comes out on Amazon Thursday June 22nd. It is meant to be a resource for families looking to answer the question: "How do we make the Suzuki method work in our every day life?" I was a Suzuki student, starting lessons at the age of two and a half. There are parts of being successful at the Suzuki method that…
I’ve finished most of the parent teacher conferences in my studio for the year (If you want to read more about my process you can read more HERE & HERE). The most common issue I heard (besides learning to practice well as students start to become more independent in practice – a theme that kept coming up for the middle school students) was that in a number of families the parents felt like it was a daily battle to get practice started.
Let’s be honest – it is not very motivating to keep taking your child to music lessons if you know it means daily squabbles with your kids over the practice. Many working parents have just a few quality time hours a day with their kids and spending part of that time fighting about something is not a fun idea.
This is why parent teacher conferences are so important – I don’t know what practice is like for families at home without these honest conversations and sometimes these situations can be turned around quite easily, as long as parents are willing to put in a little effort to change the tone for practice.
In each of the cases where this issue was brought up we decided that the number one priority for this student and family was not moving forward on the instrument – it was developing a positive attitude about practice.
If practice is always a student playing something, an adult telling them what needs to be fixed and then student playing again and looking to the adult to tell them if it is good enough something is lacking.
Progress might be made but the student is not learning how to practice, how to self-analyze, or how to think critically.
Especially as students get older it is much more effective to ask questions than give the answers.
“How did that sound to you?”
“What do you think we should try to do better/improve?”
“Did you remember _______ (insert the teacher’s assignment/focus point here) for the whole song/section?”
“Did you think about what you were playing the whole time?”
“How do you think we should practice that?”
As a parent working closely with our children, it's easy to point out mistakes and what is wrong. It's easy to see when things aren't going the way we think they should. When we know our children are capable of more, it's easy to talk about what is hard or get frustrated. But how do we turn things like this around and build on what is going well in order to make progress towards our goals - especially when it…
Learning to enjoy the process is a critical part of helping our children and students stay motivated and inspired. Of any of the aspects of motivation we have discussed in this series, it has the most long-lasting effects on them as people and musicians. It is easy to get too focused on outcomes and results and kill the joy of learning in the process. Let’s find ways to help both students and ourselves (as teachers and parents) enjoy this process together!
If learning something new is a daunting and dreaded task then why would anyone want to keep doing it?
I often tell parents that games and rewards can be very useful for very young students until they start to see learning music (and enjoying that process) as the reward. How do we develop this in our children and students?
Below are 5 great ways to help students develop the ability to enjoy the process of learning music. I was inspired for this post by a great article on the website Parents.com (click here to read) . The points in the article really echo what I see in my teaching and I expanded on some of them to fit our experiences as Suzuki parents and teachers.
“I can’t do this!” “It’s too hard!” “I’ll never get it!”
Comments like these (or trying to avoid practicing a specific practice task) are strong indications that a student does not feel they are capable of something we are asking them to do.
Some students may not even be able to verbalize these thoughts and simply act out or seem to lose interest in studying their instrument.
To keep our students motivated it’s important to to address these feelings. Feeling capable and seeing that it is possible to accomplish something plays a huge role in staying motivated.
I’d like to suggest 4 ways to help students feel capable & would love to hear what you think works the best for your children or students.
Last week I started a new blog series about keeping students inspired and motivated. You can read the first post in the series HERE.
In that article I outlined three things students need to stay motivated and inspired including seeing progress, feeling capable, and finding joy in the process. Today we’re focusing on the importance of helping students see their progress!
Students stay engaged & motivated in the process of learning their instrument by being able to see that they are, in fact, making progress.
Practicing is hard. It takes a huge amount of concentration, discipline, and persistence to get it done everyday. It’s just human nature to feel like it is not worth it if we can’t see some kind of tangible progress along the way!
It’s the time of year when many people are focused on the holidays and on giving. When this season is at it’s best, there is a big focus on acts of service and spreading joy. It is also a great time to teach our children and students about giving. Music can be a great way to do this!
Sharing music with family, friends and the community can be a great way to learn the power of giving. It’s an important value I want my own children and my students to adopt, this time of year, and all year long.
Here are some ways you can think about helping your students or children give the gift of music this season:
One thing I’ve noticed about students and families that are successful in the Suzuki Method, is their ability to stay focused on the big picture.
There are endless details to keep in mind when learning a musical instrument, and it’s easy to get over focused on some of them and forget what is really important.
As a teacher I like to think of three basic ways for students and families to focus on the big picture: Tone, Technique, and Character.
If you are working on a piece in practice and you are unsure of what to work on next, Tone is always a good answer.
Tone is defined (by the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary) as “the quality of sound produced by a musical instrument or singing voice.” It goes beyond playing in tune. How warm is the sound? Does it having a ringing quality or harsh quality to it?
I’d like to sit behind my computer screen and present a perfect image of myself as a Suzuki teacher and parent. But I have to be honest – the reason I’m so passionate about writing on the topic of Suzuki parenting and trying to help parents be successful, is that I was far from perfect as a Suzuki parent.
As my children have grown and I learned the hard way, I have also read and learned everything I can on the subject to help the families I work with. I could have really used that help myself!
I had my kids while in college so I was a younger mom. In fact, I was just starting out as a Suzuki teacher myself, when my oldest was four years old and we started the violin together . . . the same instrument I happened to teach . Some people do this beautifully and if this is you, you have much respect from me – I know it works really well for some people. But, it did not work well for us.
I’m not sure there is a way to accurately describe the struggle between a very opinionated and headstrong four your old and a very inexperienced and idealistic mom/teacher.
We struggled!
There were some epic showdowns where you could practically see the standoff happening like in an old Western movie, with the tumbleweed rolling by, as we sat in suspense about who would win the battle of wills this time. I so wanted to do it “just right” and she so wanted to avoid how hard it felt and most likely the pressure she felt from me.