We all love watching a child fall in love with music. Their favorite singers croon, a guitarist deftly plucks their strings, and soon, your child is on fire to be just like them. That is, until they finish their first lesson and you tell them they have to keep finding the motivation to practice music. It’s a long hard road to becoming a musical sensation, but with these effective ways to motivate your child to practice music, you’ll help them on the path to musical greatness.
Discover the Source of Distraction
One of the most effective ways to help your child find the motivation to practice music is to identify what might be stealing their motivation from them in the first place. A few examples of things that could keep them from working on their musical skills include:
- Fear
- Perfectionism
- Boredom
- Unrealistic goals
- No goals at all
- Outside distractions
This may be something your child isn’t aware of themselves, so it’s important not to demand answers about why they don’t have the motivation to practice music. Instead, walk with your child to explore their own heart.
Let Your Child Set the Schedule
We all remember what it was like being kids. The quickest way to turn a child away from something is to command them to do it. But beyond avoiding the aggravation of childhood pride, there are several benefits to letting your kids set their own practice schedule. Here are some of them:
- It helps them to assess their own ability.
- It encourages them to make goals.
- It gives them a greater personal investment in their playing.
- It stirs up confidence and self-efficacy.
- It allows them to practice time management skills.
Effective ways to encourage your child’s motivation to practice music starts with helping your child determine what skills they want to work on and what aims they want to achieve. Then, sit down with them and help them pick the times they feel would work best for them. From there, it’s less a matter of forcing them to play and more a matter of holding them accountable to their own plan.
Explore the Music
Kids come to music because they want to be creative, so rote practice can feel like drudgery. For these kids, it’s essential to emphasize the imaginative side of practicing. Yes, you’re learning to play the right notes at the right time. But practice is also the time to explore the emotions and meaning of a piece of music. The musician can decide on their interpretation. When you open a child’s eyes to this approach, practice will feel less like practice and more like a jam session to them.
Become Their Biggest Fan
It may sound easy, but the role of being your kid’s number one fan can be a little more complicated than it seems. Of course, you want to show you believe in them and want to listen to them play. At the same time, you don’t want to put such high expectations on them that you feed into a perfectionist mindset. The best thing you can do is to be a good listener. Hear them out on their struggles and become the audience for their music.
Part of your child’s motivation to practice music is having you as a superfan. That’s why you should make sure they have the tools they need to explore their art. That’s why here at Eliason Music, we provide all the instruction your kid needs, including private online piano lessons. You just need to focus on being their cheerleader. We’ll do the rest.
