I recently had my older son to stay with us over the Christmas period, and it was towards the end of his stay that I realised I had not made full use of his presence in our house. My current goal is to improve my younger son's playing of all the pieces he currently knows. He can play them, but often doesn't really listen to the sound he's making, nor include the polishing points that he's learned in the past. This 'going through the motions' type of playing doesn't improve technique or tone and in fact can lead to bad habits. Each time the learner plays, they should, as far as possibly, be trying to improve.
So my recent strategy, to encourage my son to listen to himself, is to set up a competition between his review songs. At the end of the review part of practice, he must reward each of them, figuratively, medals according to how beautiful they sounded. He currently reviews four pieces a day, so the medals range from platinum to bronze, and we discuss why each song got its placement - did he play the left hand softly? Was there a beautiful tone? And so on.
One day as my older son was present I decided to make him a judge, and asked him to award places to the songs, then the two of them could discuss whether they agreed. The effect was quite remarkable: my younger son's interest increased noticeably and he enjoyed asserting his opinion in the discussion afterwards.
This got me thinking about the wide support network that most children have and how this can affect the progress of their learning. My previous piano teacher once told me of a pupil she had who had given up. The teacher found out that her father used to watch TV in the same room as her when she practiced! Not only would the child have had difficulty concentrating with the noise from a television in the background, what also had this habit conveyed to the child? That her playing was unimportant, and that television was more interesting, I imagine. No doubt her father had had no desire to give this impression, he just hadn't really considered the impact of his behaviour.
If all of the members of a child's family view his or her learning as important, however, the child cannot help but develop the same opinion themselves. That isn't to say that the family should make critical comments or badger the child about their practice, but ideally they should treat practice time with respect, actually listen when required to do so and at home performances applaud and comment positively, though always truthfully, on the progress the child makes.
Other things the family can do is attend performances, buy piano or music related gifts, take the child to concerts and take an interest in their playing. It all comes back down to playing and practice being a part of the child's life. To a young child, their family makes up the majority of their world, so the family as a whole needs to act as a support if the child is to succeed.
Your child's support network also extends to their teachers, friends, friends of the family and relatives in the extended family. You will know best how to encourage these people to support your child. At my son's previous school music was not a valued part of the curriculum, and although he had told his teachers he was learning to play the piano none of them had ever really taken much notice. Then one day his teacher at that time asked him to show her what he could play. She was impressed and invited his class in to watch. Then she invited some other teachers in, then one of those teachers invited her class too. Finally, he was asked to play at the school fete that year. Needless to say, the effect on my son's attitude to playing was extremely positive.
It's not only the child that needs support, though. Sometimes, the parent who is the main practice guide is in need of support too, at least, I know I certainly am at times! One thing I do is read other blogs, and one of my favourites is this one: http://musicmattersblog.com/. The poster on here recently reviewed some books, which are of course another great source of inspiration and support for parents. Next on my reading list is Lang Lang's autobiography, Journey of a Thousand Miles.
I'll let you know it's like!
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