The Fun is Had Once You’ve Put in the Work: An Interview with Rebecca Lane

In this episode, we talk to Rebecca Lane. Rebecca is the director, founder, and owner of Lane Music School. She co-hosts the Kids Q the Music Podcast with her daughter Zara and coaches teachers and professional musicians in their businesses. She is a violinist, a teacher, a mom and we talk about embarrassing practice stories, practice with our children, why we teach and how the fun is had once we’ve practiced and gained the skills we need. 

Some Highlights Include:

“It was kind of a love at first sight situation. I don’t remember specifically
when I said I want to play the violin, but it was always the one for me.”

“So I guess my discipline and practicing did improve over time. University was probably the best stage where I was practicing the most and the most effectively. But yeah, I’ve never really been a huge fan of it. I do it because it’s necessary.”

On reminding our children to practice: “They’re not going to eat vegetables. They’re not going to brush their teeth. They’re not going to put their shoes away unless I ask them to, and then we’re really consistent about it. And practicing is very similar.”

“In order to enjoy an instrument, it really helps if you’re good at it. And so you can’t leave that excellence and that rigor out of the equation. If you want to teach children to love and appreciate music because the child that is not practicing the child that is not advancing is not enjoying music. They are hating every minute of it because it’s either super boring or super frustrating. So finding that balance between supporting the student, teaching them well and encouraging progress, it’s essential to balance that with showing them how much love and wonder can come from learning music and learning to play it well.”

“We incorporate all these games and practice strategies and we encourage them and
everything to make the journey fun from the beginning. I think that’s essential because they don’t yet know what they’re working towards. The journey is the entire thing for them.”

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Listen to the full episode for more

Christine’s top takeaways:

1. Practice isn’t always enjoyable but what we get from it often is (and is what’s motivating).

2. Practice with our own children often feels much harder and more complicated than working with our students.

3. Feeling motivated and taking ownership of practice happens at really different ages depending on each individual child.

4. Even the pros haven’t always loved to practice (and still might not) but we do it because we can see it’s what works – it takes time and experience to learn that lesson.

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Resources:

Rebecca’s Website: https://www.rebeccalanecoaching.com/

Lane School of Music: http://www.laneschoolofmusic.com/

Find Rebecca on Instagram: www.Instagram.com/rebeccalanecoach

The Lane School of Music on Instagram: www.instagram.com/laneschoolofmusic

Listen to Rebecca’s Podcast: Look for Kids Q the Music in Your favorite Podcast Platform https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/kids-q-the-music/id1545639619

To Submit a question for an upcoming Pep talk (google form) 

Reach out: TimetoPracticePodcast@gmail.com 

Find Christine on Instagram @SuzukiTriangle 

Sign up for one of the upcoming Time to Practice Pep Talks HERE