Practice Tips for New Students
Congratulations on your very first online music lesson!
Now that you are taking the first steps in your musical path, let’s talk about something that will help greatly along your journey - practicing! Playing any musical instrument is a skill and all skills require consistency over a long period of time to develop properly. Which is why creating a practice routine from the start can help all new students make consistent progress in their musical studies and allows them to achieve goals and reach exciting milestones on a regular basis.
Tip #1
Here at Krescendo Music Academy, we encourage our beginner students to start small - just a short 10-minute session, 3 times a week. This small amount of practice helps young students to review and get comfortable with new material, while letting them get into the habit of reinforcing the knowledge they gain at every lesson. Practicing consistently, even for a short amount of time, allows beginner musicians to build on previously mastered skills and learn new ones rapidly, which increases their confidence and determination.
Tip #2
In many cases, young kids will start out super excited to learn a new instrument and willingly practice what they learned in the first few weeks or months of their studies. But once the novelty wears off or some challenges arise, kids can start avoiding or resisting their practice sessions. In these situations, we highly encourage students and parents to first consult their teacher for individualized advice and encouragement. However, one idea that has always helped in our experience is to create a reward system. This takes the student’s mind off of how challenging the act of practicing might be and instead helps them focus on achieving something positive in the future.
A fun way to do this is to create a sticker system for completing weekly practice sessions and homework.
In our opinion, 6 weeks of consistent practice is a practical goal that’s long enough to be a challenge, but not so long as to feel completely out of reach.
For example, a student can earn one sticker a week for practicing regularly and another sticker for completing their homework and having a productive lesson.
Once they reach 12 stickers, the student gets their reward! It can be anything parents and their kids agree on - a treat, toy, outing with friends or family, screen time, etc.
As students continue their hard work in hopes of gaining the next reward, what happens more often than not is they start to progress rapidly and quickly get past their plateau.
Before you know it, the rewards are no longer necessary because the student’s own achievements and their pride at overcoming challenges becomes their newfound motivation.
We hope our ideas help you in your new practice routine and make the first few months of your musical studies with us productive and joyful. All of us here at Krescendo are cheering you on!
