We just can’t get enough of these guys. Wow!
Our Spring Recital is Sunday, April 3rd 2011. We look forward to seeing you there! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email us at any time. (714) 661-5782, info@savannahmusiconline.com
Students and parents: Have any confusion about the upcoming holiday recital? Here’s all the information you need to know!
Parenting
Parenting is very important when it comes to music lessons. I might even say that aside from having a great instructor (at a great music school :)), parenting is the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to success in music.
This is a tough position for us. We want your business. We want to grow our business. But when a mom or dad comes in to sign up for lessons, it’s hard for us to say “it’s all up to you”. It sounds so harsh, but it’s the truth.
Parenting is so important because practicing is so important. We only get to see our students for 30 or 60 minutes per week! That’s not a lot of time. (This is, coincidentally, why we created LessonTrack). So there must be steady, disciplined practice happening at home. The problem, of course, is that most kids are not going to want to practice every day! Some kids will, but most kids don’t. And so it’s up to mom and dad to make sure practicing happens. If it doesn’t happen, lessons enter into what I call “the cycle”.
The cycle occurs when practicing doesn’t. It goes like this:
1) Lesson happens. Instructor assigns pieces to work on during the week.
2) Student goes home, doesn’t practice that day
3) Thinks about practicing the next day, but doesn’t
4) By day three, music doesn’t even enter their mind
5) Days four, five and six pass, and students probably can’t even remember what they were supposed to be working on.
6) The next lesson happens.
7) The teacher is expecting that the student has practiced
8) The student hasn’t practiced, so this lesson is basically covering the same material as last week.
9) Student is frustrated because they want to move on to new material, and begins to care less about their instrument.
10) Instructor assigns basically the same practicing material as last week
And round and round we go…
This cycle can only be broken by mom and dad, which is why parenting is so important. Here is how successful lessons work:
1) Lesson happens, instructor assigns things to work on during the week
2) Student spends just 10 minutes practicing their assignments that very same night, after their lesson.
3) The next day, the material is very fresh in the student’s mind. At some point before bedtime, the student spends between 10 and 30 minutes practicing their assignments. Perhaps they have questions about something they’re working on. They can ask their instructor on LessonTrack, and clear up any confusion.
4) Practicing like this continues each day until it’s time for the next lesson.
5) At the next lesson, having made significant progress, or even mastered, their material, the instructor moves to the next section of curriculum.
And this continues every week.
We want to help our parents help their kids. If you have any questions, please contact us!
-Chris
