Practice and the Home Environment
do you love studio meetings? I do!
I recently sat down with my violin students and their families to discuss practicing music and the ways we can make it easier through the home environment! To listen to me walk through these thoughts, you can listen to a recorded version of my presentation here: Practice and the Home Environment.
Practice Goals for Music Students
Let’s start off with a snippet on practice from my music studio’s handbook!
Best practices for students include:
Practice 5+ days each week.
Consistent practice leads to consistent progress. Even just 15 minutes daily is better than 60 minutes just two days a week. Please protect your schedule to allow for regular practice.
Aim to improve one specific area of each practice assignment each time you practice.
Some students may benefit from multiple short practices vs. one long practice.
Take a ten-minute break for every 45 - 60 minutes of practice. Ideal practice sessions are about the same duration as your weekly lesson.
In addition to regular practice, students are expected to listen to various recordings of their instrument, including listening to their Suzuki recordings every day. Each week, students should also choose an extra listening to listen to three to five times throughout the week that features their instrument. The instructor can provide suggestions to get you started.
As I thought about music practice for my students and for my own family over our last break I realized again how so many of our successful practice habits were dependent on our environment. If a room or routine encouraged getting the instrument out or made our gear more accessible, we were much more likely to regularly practice in a productive way!
Two titles to inspire your practice journey:
Two books came back to me again and again as I was thinking about these habits and how I wanted to be as a parent or teacher.
Within Tomie’s book he recounts his earliest memories of becoming an artist. Through encouraging interactions with his family who loved to display his work everywhere and gave him advice on becoming a real artist and understanding instruction from his earliest teachers, Tomie’s story provides some concrete examples for how we can encourage the young creative people in our lives.
Alongside of that book, my read through of “The Artist’s Way for Parents” provided twelve areas to encourage creativity in our children.
12 Areas to Cultivate Creativity as Addressed in "The Artist’s Way for Parents"
Safety
Curiosity
Connection
Limits
Self-Expression
Inventiveness
Conscious Inflow
Focus
Discovery
Humility
Independence
Faith
Take a moment or two to think through these twelve areas. You can probably already see some ways that you can foster more creativity just by thinking about how you can use music to connect with your children or help them discover new styles or instruments. This book was a delight to help me brainstorm easy ways to be more creative in my house!
Why does our home environment matter for music practice?
If we can find ways to incorporate and model these behaviors in our home, it can help to remove the resistance to practice at home! If our children see us being curious about their instrument and finding new recordings or local performances, they will find it interesting, too. If you want to keep yourself from having too much sugar, you try to limit the sugary treats in your home. If you want your family to value music, you bring in tools to help facilitate that.
Below I’ve outlined various practices for making music study easier in the home for all ages.
Home Environment for Ages 10 and Younger
Some ideas for making it easier:
Be an engaged and active participant in the lesson.
Try practicing the material at home the same day as or next practice after your lesson!
Remove as many hurdles as possible.
Listening is the issue? Keep a Bluetooth speaker in your living space and put it on when you notice everyone is in the room.
Unpacking the violin is a fight? If possible, find a safe way to store the instrument without it being totally put away.
Repetitions? Have a quick list of games to decide the repetitions for you - Dice, Ask Siri/Alexa for a random number between 1 and 5, Spin the Wheel, etc.
Give your child as much exposure as possible to music and violinists through live performances, videos, etc.!
Home Environment for Preteens and Teens
Some ideas for making it easier:
Give thought to the balance of engaged parenting and the process of transferring ownership. Discuss this with your student and their teacher.
Ask your child to summarize the week’s assignments in the car as you are leaving lessons.
Ask your child to tell you what they are most excited to share in their lesson on the way to lessons.
Remove as many hurdles as possible.
Listening? What is their easiest access point without distractions? Smart devices are all the rage, but come with lots of attention sucking distractions. If that doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to ditch it and go analog with an old CD player from the attic and a CD.
Schedule? Be a voice of reason as they prioritize various opportunities and commitments.
Validate your child by helping them acquire the best gear possible.
Home Environment for Adults
Some ideas for making it easier:
Your Suzuki Triangle looks a little different - You have student, teacher, and your community! Be sure to seek out and support your music friends.
Journal about music practice - Keep it simple! Summarize practice, the highlight and lowlight of the practice session, or an idea for what you want to try tomorrow.
Remove as many hurdles as possible:
Listening? What is your easiest access point without distractions? Adults are not immune to the distractions of smart devices either.
Schedule? Be a voice of reason as you prioritize various opportunities and commitments.
Treat yourself! Plan little (or big) rewards at different points in your music journey.
Ready to try one (or more) of these ideas out?
I encourage you to pick just one area to try out over the next month. Write it down on your refrigerator or on a post it that you place in your violin case. Discuss what this idea looks like with your partner or your child. Define what you consider practice and how you hope it’ll improve with these ideas. One of my favorite ideas from Gretchen Rubin is “What is measureable is manageable”, so having this outlined can set you up for success.
Feel free to share any additional thoughts on practice you have in the comments below! I would love to hear how others are approaching the home environment as a tool in successful practice habits.