In an article written for The Music Parents' Guide, Grammy-nominated music educator Anthony Mazzocchi shares his insight on why music students quit their instruments and provides tips on how parents can encourage kids to keep playing. Here are some of the takeaways. 1) As a parent, you must place as much value on music as on other subjects. Mazzocchi reasons that you - and school officials - wouldn't let your student quit math or English. Because of all its benefits, music education is just as important to a child's brain development and should be regarded as a core subject that can't be dropped. 2) Students don’t know how to improve. And not getting better can lead to frustration. “Teachers must teach students why, how, where and when to practice,” writes Mazzocchi, and parents who get to know how students learn music can provide the necessary support at home. 3) Kids assume they're not musically gifted. Yes, to some people playing music comes more naturally. But, if practiced correctly, all children can enjoy success as an instrumentalist. “As long as students know how to practice and [understand] that it needs to be done regularly,” writes Mazzocchi, “they will get better.” 4) Students stop playing over the summer. If you don't play your sport for a few months, you'll get rusty. The same is true for music. So, mom and dad, encourage your young musician to make regular practice part of their summer vacation. Otherwise, they could lose much of the momentum they built up during the previous school year. 5) The instrument is not working well. As an adult, you know how annoying a task can be when your tools are in disrepair. Old reeds, sticky valves, dents that prevent proper air flow and other mechanical problems can make playing an instrument more difficult. For help, contact your band or orchestra director or call a music shop that offers repair services. 6) There may not be enough performance opportunities during the year. “The best way to motivate students musically is through performance,” suggests Mazzocchi. “Weeks or even months of practicing without performing for an audience gets old very quickly.” He says that teachers should schedule performances about six weeks apart. And, as a parent, you can hold Friday night after-dinner concerts or performances for visiting family members. 7) Make the music fun. The music your student listens to for pleasure is likely available in sheet music form, and learning to play it can be exciting for them. Your minimal investment in sheet music can pay off as a renewed passion for their instrument.
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In September of 1996, world-renown trumpeter Wynton Marsalis published his "Twelve Ways to Practice" in the Education Digest. His tips are still relevant today. 1) Seek out instruction - Find an experienced teacher who knows what you should be doing. A good teacher will help you understand the purpose of practicing and can teach you ways to make practicing easier and more productive. 2) Write out a schedule - A schedule helps you organize your time. Be sure to allow time to review the fundamentals because they are the foundation of all the complicated things that come later. If you are practicing basketball, for example, be sure to put time in your schedule to practice free throws. 3) Set goals - Like a schedule, goals help you organize your time and chart your progress. Goals also act as a challenge: something to strive for in a specific period of time. If a certain task turns out to be really difficult, relax your goals: practice doesnʼt have to be painful to achieve results. 4) Concentrate - You can do more in 10 minutes of focused practice than in an hour of sighing and moaning. This means no video games, no television, no radio, just sitting still and working. Start by concentrating for a few minutes at a time and work up to longer periods gradually. Concentrated effort takes practice too, especially for young people. 5) Relax and practice slowly - Take your time; donʼt rush through things. Whenever you set out to learn something new - practicing scales, multiplication tables, verb tenses in Spanish – you need to start slowly and build up speed. 6) Practice hard things longer - Donʼt be afraid of confronting your inadequacies; spend more time practicing what you canʼt do. Adjust your schedule to reflect your strengths and weaknesses. Donʼt spend too much time doing what comes easily. Successful practice means coming face to face with your shortcomings. Donʼt be discouraged; youʼll get it eventually. 7) Practice with expression - Every day you walk around making yourself into “you,” so do everything with the proper attitude. Put all of yourself into participating and try to do your best, no matter how insignificant the task may seem. Express your “style” through how you do what you do. 8) Learn from your mistakes - None of us are perfect, but donʼt be too hard on yourself. If you drop a touchdown pass, or strike out to end the game, itʼs not the end of the world. Pick yourself up, analyze what went wrong and keep going. Most people work in groups or as part of teams. If you focus on your contributions to the overall effort, your personal mistakes wonʼt seem so terrible. 9) Donʼt show off - Itʼs hard to resist showing off when you can do something well. In high school, I learned a breathing technique so I could play a continuous trumpet solo for 10 minutes without stopping for a breath. But my father told me, “Son, those who play for applause, thatʼs all they get.” When you get caught up in doing the tricky stuff, youʼre just cheating yourself and your audience. 10) Think for yourself - Your success or failure at anything ultimately depends on your ability to solve problems, so donʼt become a robot. Think about Dick Fosbury, who invented the Fosbury Flop for the high jump. Everyone used to run up to the bar and jump over it forwards. Then Fosbury came along and jumped over the bar backwards, because he could go higher that way. Thinking for yourself helps develop your powers of judgment. Sometimes you may judge wrong and pay the price; but when you judge right you reap the rewards. 11) Be optimistic - How you feel about the world expresses who you are. When you are optimistic, things are either wonderful or becoming wonderful. Optimism helps you get over your mistakes and go on to do better. It also gives you endurance because having a positive attitude makes you feel that something great is always about to happen. 12) Look for connections - No matter what you practice, youʼll find that practicing itself relates to everything else. It takes practice to learn a language, cook good meals or get along well with people. If you develop the discipline it takes to become good at something, that discipline will help you in whatever else you do. Itʼs important to understand that kind of connection. The more you discover the relationships between things that at first seem different, the larger your world becomes. In other words, the woodshed can open up a whole world of possibilities. |