Help! I Can't Get My Kid to Practice

 How do I get my child to practice? I've literally heard this question hundreds of times. I remember when I began taking piano lessons at the age of 7; how I dreaded practicing. Practicing was torture.  It didn’t help that I had teachers who were uninspiring and wore clothing that smelled like a cross between wet dog and unemptied ashtrays. They also had chronically bad breath. Because of these horrific experiences, I was determined never to play an instrument again. Looking back it didn’t have to be that way.  I vowed when I began Strumwithmarco that I would never do this to my students. There had to be a better way and I was determined to find it. 

Here are 3 ways to get your child to practice and to actually enjoy it: 

1. Practice consistently, but not for long: When parents ask me how long should their child practice, I usually say 4x a week for 10-15 minutes. That’s it. That’s all you need in the beginning.  It’s more important at this stage for your child to develop the habit of practicing. Consistency is the foundation for any musical success. 

2.Make it fun: Find creative ways to make guitar practice enjoyable. Whenever parents say to me that the child finds practicing boring, I suggest different, novel ideas such as allowing your child to play “Guitar Hero” or “Piano tiles” or the best option of all to listen to music. I remember when I would hit a practicing rut, I would do creative, fun, out of the box ideas to reinvigorate my practice sessions. One of the more interesting ways that I would do this would be through turning my TV on mute and by making up music according to what I saw. One of my favorite things to do was to mute Spanish Telanovelas and provide music for it. Cartoons and comedy sitcoms are great for this as well. If you haven't tried this I strongly suggest that you do so for fun and a great laugh.

3. Don’t force them to practice if they don’t want to.  I know that this sounds counterintuitive, but this is very important!  Let’s face it your child has an already busy plate with school, sports and other activities.  It's a delicate balancing act. On the one hand you don’t want to overburden them, but on the other hand you do want them to develop the discipline necessary to learn the instrument correctly.  So if your child is especially stubborn or unmotivated I tell my students and their parents that all the child has to do is pick up the guitar, strum it 10x and place the guitar down. This should take no more than a minute.

I believe that these simple suggestions are game changers. Ultimately, learning an instrument, although difficult at times, can be tremendously rewarding and provide the proper foundation for an immensely improved quality of life.