Practice Tips #4: “Bribery” and Other Incentives for Practicing!
What’s the number one question I get as a piano teacher? Without a doubt, it’s “How can I get my child to practice more?”
People often believe that only child prodigies have an intrinsic ability to focus on practicing for long periods of time. But even for the most motivated of students, practicing can still feel like a chore sometimes.
In an ideal world, practicing would be its own reward, but sometimes the proverbial satisfaction of a job well done just isn’t enough to motivate many children to practice consistently.
Practicing regularly isn’t just a route to better playing, it’s also a skill that will stay with your kids for life as they develop self-discipline and learn that hard work pays off!
Here are 5 tips for getting your children or your students to practice more!
1. Bribery! (I’m only kind of kidding)
I came across the concept of Chore Bucks recently, where parents reward their kids for chores or good behavior with an item they can “buy” from the Family Store, usually a small toy or a favorite activity, like watching a movie or checking out a new book from the library.
I decided to try out a similar idea with my students a few months ago, and it’s been a hit ever since! Students earn Practice Bucks for each week they practice. At the end of each semester, they get to buy something fun at the Studio Store—pencils, erasers, small toys, and other fun things!
If you’re a music teacher, download my Practice Bucks (emblazoned with Mozart’s face!) for just $2.99!
Practice Bucks featuring Mozart!
2. Keep a Practice Log
For most students 12 and under, this can be something as simple as checking off one day for each day you practice your warm-ups and pieces. Practicing means going through each piece at least several times until you can play it smoothly and without any pauses. Download my FREE Practice Plan for younger students! It has squares they can color in for each day they practice! Some of my students have gotten very creative and drawn a little picture in each square or filled them in with stickers!
For students over 12, they are mature enough to keep their own detailed practice logs. Your practice log should include what you’re working on and any difficult passages to target. It’s especially important to note the tempo at which you’ve been practicing so you can keep track. My personal favorite is the Musician's Practice Planner by Hal Leonard. This is a simple yet sophisticated logbook that has a good amount of space to write and allows you to easily keep track of tempo information, technical studies, and more.
3. Have a Routine
Make practicing part of every day, just like homework or bath time. Practicing will start to feel more ordinary and less like a big deal if it’s just part of the daily routine.
Find a time that works for your family, such as after school, or even first thing in the morning. Very soon, your kids will begin to associate this with practice time and they’ll know the drill.
4. Set a timer!
Parents often ask me how long their kids should be practicing. For most beginners, just 15 minutes per day is enough. Set a timer and tell them they have to practice until it goes off! Short, daily practice beats one long practice session any day!
But what is that 15 minutes supposed to look like? 15 minutes is usually enough time to warm up with an exercise or two and play through each piece several times.
For very young children (under 7 or so), parents can help practice time along by breaking it up into playing and activities. One way of doing this is to have your child spend 10 minutes playing through their pieces a few times and 5 minutes on an activity like composing, finding all the C’s on the piano, or finding all the groups of 2 and 3 black keys.
Even spending 5 or 10 minutes a day practicing is better than nothing, and that can already seem like an eternity to a four- or five-year-old.
As students move into more advanced repertoire, they should be practicing at least 30 minutes or an hour per day. Practicing will generally involve both playing through pieces and targeting specific areas for intensive work. You can continue to be the timekeeper, or better yet, give them their own egg timer so they can set it themselves and take responsibility for their own progress.
5. Make it into a game!
As children move toward more advanced repertoire around age 10 and up, they often have trouble focusing long enough to practice a troublesome passage or even one specific measure of a piece. Barbara Nakazawa, a flute teacher whose adult son is also a professional musician, invented a neat game called Three Penny Practice.
To play, you put three pennies on the left side of the music stand. If you play the passage correctly, you get to move one penny to the right side of the stand. If you make a mistake, you have to try again. When you’ve successfully moved all three pennies to the right, you get to keep the pennies!
If the idea of using real money feels strange, you can also use beads, buttons, paperclips, or any other trinkets you might have around!
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.