How Should Practice Time Look For A Beginner?
Regardless of what instrument you're beginning to play, practice should be fun! Playing by yourself, jamming with siblings, parents, children or friends, writing your own songs, or practicing your lesson are all great ways to get used to your instrument and get better!
How Long Should a Practice Session Be?
For young children, short and sweet is best. In fact, in our homes, we rarely have a set time limit children have to practice. If we were to give you a time, we'd say 15 minutes to start, and up to 30 minutes at a time. Young children often do best practicing sporadically throughout the day -- playing through their songs before breakfast, working on a new lesson before lunch, doing a worksheet during quiet time, and performing for family members in the evening.
We want music to become part of our homes . . . a rich family culture our children don't just associate with "practice," a "timer," and "can I be done yet?" But a creative outlet they get to partake in every single day for the rest of their lives!
How to Encourage Practice?
First and foremost, have your instrument out and handy. DON'T tuck your guitar, ukulele, fiddle, or mandolin in it's case every time you're done playing. This leads to a lot of friction between you and your instrument. You will have to reinstall your shoulder rest, retune your instrument, and put it all back in your case when you're done.
Instead, hang your instrument on the wall! Not only is this beautiful art, but it's a constant reminder of your identity as a musician, and a household that prioritizes making music! Instruments on the wall are a great talking point for guests, and in our homes, this often leads to an impromptu jamming session with friends we didn't even know made music! If we're lucky, next time they'll even bring their own instrument and you can play all evening.
Here are some of our favorite inexpensive wall mounts: the fiddle wall mount, guitar wall mount, and mandolin and ukulele wall mounts.
Also, knowing WHAT to practice, and WHY to practice are important. At Voetberg Music Academy, each student enrolled has a proven success path that gives them clear goals and bite-sized challenges to help them go from beginner Musician Apprentices to Music Masters!
Getting Children To Polish Pieces
Making music more of a lifestyle than a chore that you bring out and then tuck away, is all well and good . . . but when do you really dial in your pieces and get them performance ready? Perhaps more importantly, how do you get your children to do the last 10% and hit every note correctly every time without nagging?
One of the best motivators we have found for this are, performances! When students know a performance is coming up, they naturally put more energy into practice because they will be more exposed. Practice sessions can run much longer, an hour or maybe two, as students work long and hard repeating the difficult parts and playing with a metronome to bring their piece up to speed.
At Voetberg Music Academy we hold monthly Student Showcases where our Musician’s Apprentices show up to perform and cheer each other on! Students in Voetberg Music Academy also get rewarded for performing for family, guests, and in their communities — like we did growing up! One of our student’s favorite places to play are elderly rest homes. Older generations delight in seeing young children learning something new, and are a gracious audience.
Sample Practice Schedule
Like we mentioned earlier, practicing throughout the day is our favorite. But if you want to sit down and cover all your bases at once, here's a sample outline.
Play through pieces you already know
Work on your new piece
Pick 1 to 3 songs you are trying to get performance ready and play just the difficult parts with the metronome, steadily increasing the tempo
Finish up with scales, and a worksheet (Of course, you can always start this way too!)
Don't forget, we're here to help! If you have any questions, login to your Voetberg Music Academy Community page and get on one of our LIVE question and answer calls! We want you to love music as much as we do!