How Parents Can Help the Teacher

Please note:  The following material was written by Martha Beth Lewis, Ph.D.

When your child begins lessons, the child does the piano-playing, but -you- make a commitment of time, energy, and money. Here are some tips which will help you realize the greatest reward from your investment.

Find the Best Teacher You Can

Obviously, this is the first step!

Don’t forget the lesson!

Your child needs contact with and input from the teacher on a regular basis. Put the lesson on your calendar every week. If a holiday or something else intervenes that makes it “feel like today’s not Tuesday,” your calendar will remind you that it is. If your child has a calendar, help him enter lesson

Have a piano.

Unless the teacher says it’s perfectly ok for the child to have a digital piano or an electronic keyboard at home indefinitely, make a real piano available to your child as soon as possible. You want your child to play the piano, yes? A digital piano and an electronic keyboard are different animals. True, all have keyboards (accordions and carillons also have keyboards!), but the touch is very different and the ability to do certain pianists techniques is different on them all (and not possible on some!).

A digital piano is expensive, so it should -not- be considered a half-way stop. An electronic keyboard (usually with 66 keys instead of 88), also called a synthesizer or synth, is far less expensive, and most teachers will say it’s ok for starting lessons. (To my beginners, I say 6 months, maximum. The synth is great to take to the mountain cabin or to Grandma’s house, whether you go over the river and through the woods or not!)

If you aren’t ready to buy an instrument, rent one.

Maintain the piano.

Twice a year, your piano should be “given a tune up.” Literally. Your piano will need tuning twice a year. Actually it will need tuning more than that – – usually at each season change – – but most parents cannot afford piano service this often!

You may not think that your piano needs tuning, but it does. You’re just “used to” how it sounds.

Your piano may need other maintenance, too. You wouldn’t drive a car 100,000 miles without a tune-up, but some people think nothing of letting a piano go 5 years without service! The longer you let a piano go, the harder it is to get it “running correctly,” and thus the more expensive it is to bring it back to proper working order.

Likewise, you wouldn’t ignore it if your child’s computer produced a K every time she pressed the E key!

Don’t make your child “fight” the instrument in addition to learning how to play it!

Make practice a regular activity.

Your child will need your assistance with time management, especially a young child or a beginner (or both!). Help him make piano playing (I prefer this term to “piano practice,” which smacks of drudgery) a regular part of every day. Choose a time of day and make it a routine activity; select a time for weekend days, too. Split piano time in two part if needed (before school and after), which is particularly good for young ones (pre-school through pri 2).

Make sure the home is conducive to piano playing when the time comes. This is a great time for siblings to do homework. This way, the musician is assured that “something cool” isn’t going on elsewhere in the house and he is missing out while at the piano.

Carry out the assignment the teacher has given you.

This may be on-the-bench time with your child, or it may be playing music games, listening to weekly “recitals,” and so on. It also may be keeping-company time while your child plays; you read, balance the checkbook, etc. (Don’t offer suggestions or point out errors unless your child asks for your input. These activities are the teacher’s domain and why you hired him!)

Check in with your child after the lesson. What did the teacher say? What went well? What needs more work (rather than “did not go well”)? Celebrate successes with “family parties.” Did the lesson go especially well? Let the child choose the dinner menu for the next night or get two servings of dessert on lesson night.

Ask the teacher what else you can do.

Teachers will be delighted to know your interest in the child’s musical education extends so far that you want to know what else you can do to further it! There may be nothing, but if you ask there may be something more than you are currently doing.

Note: The teacher also may ask you to distance yourself, especially from a student of several years’ study. Be prepared for this, too. For example, as noted above, if you are calling out corrections from your home office as the child practices in the living room, this is probably detrimental, even though you mean it to be useful and are doing it out of love.

Note:  Lessons are at 45 min or an hr a week, parental roles are very important!!

( Article taken from:  http://www.serve.com/marbeth/help_teacher.html )

Copyright 2011, Martha Beth Lewis, Ph.D.  Used with permission.   marthabeth.com  Please contact her for permission to reproduce this material for your students or your site.  This material is   her property and may not be used without permission.  Thank you for honoring copyright.