Parental Roles

Please note:  The following material was taken from –      http://pianoeducation.org/pnotchld.html#Parent .

Many successful musicians regard their parents’ influence and inspiration as the most important in sparking their own interest in serious music. Whether or not your child makes a career of music, your efforts in bringing the world of music to your child will make his or her life fuller and happier. You can help your child learn faster and enjoy lessons more by doing a few simple things:

• Become Involved With Your Child’s Piano Training. Discuss with your teacher the kind and degree of involvement which makes the best sense for your child. Should you attend lessons and, if so, how often? Should you supervise or coach practice sessions and, if so, how should you go about that? Communicate often with your child’s teacher to monitor progress and learn what you can do to be helpful to the learning process.
• Encourage Your Child As Much As Possible. Be sure to praise effort as well as accomplishment. Even if your child does not learn as fast as another, in the long run, hard work will determine the final result. There is no better way to bring about the hard work than to reward the effort. Try to express interest in what your child is doing, even if you are getting tired of hearing “Chopsticks”. Encourage your child in every way possible to perform for family and friends in relaxed settings.
• Avoid Negative Criticism. Most of us respond better to thoughtful, loving help than undirected criticism. If your child seems uncooperative, it may mean that they need more help, encouragement, and support. Punishment is usually not a long-term solution.
• Make Sure Your Child Knows That You Consider Music a Serious Commitment. Schedule piano practice time for your child just as regularly as you do Little League or soccer practice. See to it that practice sessions are as free as possible from distractions. If the piano is in the living room, try to limit access to the living room during your child’s allotted practice time. If your child has not practiced for some reason, do not cancel lessons. If you find the child’s interest in lessons waning, the best thing to do it to discuss the problem with your child’s teacher; often, this can be solved with proper stimulation and supervision by you and the teacher working together.
• Provide As Much Cultural Enrichment As Possible. The experience of listening to music without the pressure of having to play the notes correctly can add greatly to your child’s appreciation for music generally and lessons in particular. Go to concerts with your children whenever possible. Introduce your children to the works of the masters by playing the music in your home. These days, computer technology, especially the advent of CD-ROM disks, has made it possible to explore great music in a way that is fun for the entire family. If you have a CD-ROM drive equipped computer, try any of several different CD-ROM’s of this type.

Taking an Active Role in Your Child’s Piano Training

It is important to choose a teacher who can not only teach your child how to play the piano, but provide musical enrichment experiences like performance opportunities (home concerts, recitals, and competitions), encourage access to professional music concerts, and develop an overall appreciation of and interest in serious music. What may not be so apparent to parents and students is that these extra activities represent a major commitment of largely unreimbursed and uncompensated time and money for the teachers who make them possible. This fact of life is especially noteworthy in light of the fact that only a small fraction of teachers make them available at all, precisely because of the time and financial burdens required to bring them about. Thus, the task of bringing these activities into being falls disproportionately on a few active and committed teachers. Even if your child’s teacher doesn’t actively support such enrichment experiences, your child benefits from the efforts of other teachers and volunteers who do the extra work to put on a competition or recital.

You can have a major impact on the quality of the music education your child and other children receive by volunteering your time and/or contributing money or goods to support such enrichment activities. Volunteering can take only a few hours of your time a year, but can be of tremendous help to already overburdened teachers who run such events. Such volunteer service generally requires no special training, but can be critical in producing the best possible experience for your child. It can also be a lot of fun for you!

For example, by volunteering to provide and handle refreshments offered to students at competitions, you can not only make the competition more fun and enjoyable for your child and other children, but take some of the load from the teachers who must run the competition itself. You can also serve as a monitor, receptionist, or usher for the competition. When your or another teacher mounts a studio outing to the symphony or other performance, offer to drive and chaperone a car full of kids. You’ll get to see the glow in the kids’ eyes as they experience their first professional performance. If your teacher does recitals or home concerts, you can lift a major burden from the teacher by offering to organize refreshments or a bring-a-dish dinner after the recital. If your time is limited, we can say without fear of contradiction that monetary contributions to your local music teachers organization will be greatly appreciated and well-used to enrich your child’s musical training.

These are just a few of the ways you can help. Getting involved is easy. Just talk with your teacher about how you can help in the studio’s activities or call the local music teachers organization to volunteer. Your piano teacher should be able to give you the phone number of a contact person there, as well. If these kinds of activities aren’t readily available locally, talk with your teacher about the possibility of starting them with your help. If they are available and your teacher doesn’t participate in them, encourage the teacher to participate and to volunteer as well. We think you’ll find that you’ll enjoy helping to better music education for all the students in your area.

Article taken from:

–      http://pianoeducation.org/pnotchld.html#Parent