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Nagging Your Child to Practice Won't Work
Nagging your child to practice piano won’t work. I have news for you. There’s something called the Battle of the Piano and you’ve already lost if you have to nag your child. The Battle of the Piano is the time honored process whereby a child is either deemed a success at the piano or not.
Some children make it. They number 10% of all kids who try. Some children don’t make it. They number 90% of all the kids who try.
Piano Is Easy
Repetition Is A Very Dull Tool To A Child
The moment your child’s interest in piano lessons starts to wane, usually due to a lack of creativity on the teacher’s part, you have entered the Battle Zone. First comes the “honeymoon,” where a child finds piano rather fun and interesting. Then there comes a moment of reality, when the child realizes subconsciously that the teacher has no tools other than repetition.
The one tool of the non-creative piano teacher is repetition, mindless and numbing, because it is easiest for these teachers to go page to page in a standard text.
Such repetition is fine for an adult who is determined to play Beethoven, and is willing to pay the dues to do so. But for a six year old, it is a crushing regimen, a fact borne out by the 10%-90% statistics. When a child’s interest in the piano wanes, they are surely headed for quitting if the teacher’s only tool is repetition. For this reason, find a creative piano teacher who knows how to deal with kids.
The Child Can’t Blame You
As your nagging increases, the child becomes more and more alienated from the piano, until subconsciously the child blames the piano for your nagging. They can’t hate you for nagging, you’re Mom, so they hate the piano instead. Mind you, all the while you’re unknowingly paying this teacher to make your child hate the piano, and you’re adding to the stress with your entreaties.
The Teacher Blames The Child
You ask the teacher for advice, after all, you’re paying them. I guarantee you their only suggestion will be that the child practice more. That’s the one tool they have. It’s as if your child hates broccoli, and the chef’s solution is to serve even larger portions. That chef knows nothing of child psychology and human nature. Or cuisine.
Look at it from the child’s point of view. This crossfire of negativity from you and the piano teacher can have only one inevitable result, and that is the emotional destruction of the child’s desire to play.
A Difficult Problem Created By The Teacher
Nagging won’t help. Nagging is a huge part of the problem, not the solution. The child simply follows human nature. What is the solution? A rule of thumb is to listen to your child.
Don’t think that going and observing a lesson will be any indicator of your child’s progress. The teacher, your employee, will be putting on a performance and your child will be terrified that you will be displeased.
REFERENCES
Parents
Why Piano Number Stickers Work
Why Nagging Your Child To Practice Won't Work
Mom and Dad Make Kids Hate Piano
How To Make Your Kid Hate Piano
Ten Ways To Be A Bad Piano Teacher
Your Piano Expectations Are Too High
Visit Your Child’s Piano Lesson
Help Your Child With Piano Lessons
If A Child Succeeds At The Piano, It’s the Parents
Remembering Your Childhood Piano Lessons
Carnegie Hall Starts In Your Living Room
Should Parents Force Kids To Take Piano?
The Long Term Kid’s Piano Strategy
Longevity and Piano Lessons
Does It Matter Which Kid’s Piano Book I Buy?
Your Kid Needs A Good Piano Teacher
Piano Benefits Are Not About The Piano
The Biggest Mistake In Kid’s Piano
What Type Of Pianist Will Your Child Be?
What To Expect From Piano Lessons
Piano Teachers: Home Or Travel
A Child’s Classical Music Listening List
Parents Help Kids Enjoy Piano
Ten Things Parents Can Do To Help With Piano
