We’re early on in the summer, so many students still have this feeling:
And there’s nothing wrong with that. A more relaxed schedule and freedom is good, however, what about keeping up practice over the summer?
Many, many, many years ago, when I took piano lessons, I didn’t have summer lessons. I guess it was because my teachers wanted to do things like travel, relax…..you know, be human. So even though I didn’t have that regular routine of lessons, my mom still made me practice. I had to give up my freedom of playing Nintendo or Sega, shooting hoops, or doing anything outside to sit at the piano and practice. I hated it….then. Now, I’m thankful my mom made me do it.
Why does it matter? Well, just like with schooling or anything in life, if you don’t use it, you lose it. Keeping up even a more relaxed schedule of practicing, you’re still practicing. You’re still reviewing those skills. You’re still having fun. You may even be working on a challenge to stretch and grow your abilities.
The challenge is that most children don’t want to practice. So, it is a responsibility of the parent to set guidelines and encourage that practice to happen. That’s not the easies thing to do, I know. I have 2 daughters. I was that child that didn’t want to practice. But practicing is a discipline, and the more you stay consistent in that discipline, the easier you’ll stay in that discipline and turn it into a habit.
So what to do to practice? The thing that I encourage students to do is to review songs they have played in the past. What this does is to help keep the skills sharp, review music they’ve already spent time with, and helps to show the progress they’ve made. Also, it’s a reminder of some of the fun songs or the songs they enjoyed playing. That’s one of the many things my mom made me do when I didn’t have summer lessons.
Another thing, as I mentioned previously, is to challenge with new music. One of the skills that we as teachers are trying to instill in students is the skills to break apart and learn a piece of music. One of the biggest joys I have as a teacher is when a students comes back and shows me the work they did on their own to learn a piece. That shows initiative, work, and they’re putting the skills learned to work!
Finally, fun music is helpful! My focus as a teacher is to help students enjoy music, and the reality is, it’s much easier to work at something we like or want to play than what is “assigned”. One book I remember going through regularly over summers was piano arrangements of Beatles songs. Or Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and other sheet music (I still have that sheet that I got back when the song came out!)
Practice doesn’t have to be every day over the summer. It doesn’t have to be 30-45 minutes in one sitting. Find the time to have some practicing over the summer, keeping skills sharp and letting that investment in learning music continue to grow. You’ll see a difference when fall lessons start!
Click here to download a resource on practicing that I share with my studio parents.
Here is a post from a couple years ago about summer practicing.