From Passion to Chore: Why telling your kids to ‘Practice All the Time’ can backfire, and instead encouraging them to play will help them?thrive

In the pursuit of musical excellence, well-intentioned parents often urge their children to ‘Practice All the Time.’ However, as we’ll explore, this seemingly dedicated approach can backfire, turning the joy of music into a monotonous routine akin to homework

Many parents often fall into this trap, especially early on in their child’s music journey, and it is a big reason why so many young people quit music prematurely.

Thankfully, there is a game-changing solution to this!

Embracing ‘Play’ as the Key to Your Child’s Musical Success

I know this one may stir up the most controversy out of all the others, but hear me out!

Let me be clear?—?I’m not suggesting you let your kids off the hook if they go days without touching their instruments.

At its core, this approach involves stepping into the psyche of your child, understanding how they perceive the world and navigate life. It’s about realising that, for a child, the world is their playground. It’s a space for exploration, discovery, and innocent enthusiasm. Embracing this perspective can transform not just their music experience but also infuse joy into every aspect of their learning

More often than not, I’ve seen parents force their children to practise their musical instrument and run through mind-numbing drills and exercises.

Whilst building solid foundations and an efficient technique is a crucial part of a child’s musical development, the irony is, the moment you place this thought into your child’s mind, music INSTANTLY becomes an academic chore, just like their maths or english homework.

Now, let me ask you: when it comes to sports, say, soccer, do you instruct your child to ‘go out and practice soccer’ or ‘go out and play soccer’?

I bet the latter resonates more naturally. The idea of ‘practising soccer’ might not even cross your mind

Consider this?—?even on training days for their soccer club, it’s often viewed as play.

Why?

Because, ultimately, it’s all geared towards ‘playing’ a match on the weekend. In the world of soccer, training is considered play for young kids just as much as the game itself.

This is a crucial perspective shift that plays a significant role in harnessing a love for music, especially early on in your child’s music journey. In the same way you would encourage your child to “play soccer”, encouraging your child to play their instrument gives them permission to explore music on their own terms and have the freedom to discover what they like,

How the idea of “playing” music helped me fall in love with music at a young?age

Growing up, I had an incredible teacher between the ages of 7–12 who never explicitly told me to “practise”.

Instead, he taught me how to play good songs during lessons, and before our next lesson, he would give me a CD of the songs we were learning and encouraged me to “play” these songs every day.

To me, at that young age, music was just like playing sports or playing with my action figure toys.

Every day after school, I couldn’t wait to pick up my guitar and start playing it to songs from The Beatles, Michael Jackson and my favourite of all time, The Wiggles!

Ironically, this advice from my teacher motivated me to “practise” the guitar almost every day.

I learnt how to play over 1000 songs from all different genres, eras and levels, and this is how I developed my skills to become the confident guitarist I am today.

You might say “well that’s fantastic, but where did you learn the basics and foundations of music theory?”.

Aha! Here’s the twist in the tale!

Little did I know it at the time, but my teacher was secretly teaching me all the foundations of music.

In my mind, I thought I was just playing some cool songs that were fun to play.

Simultaneously, I unknowingly absorbed important foundations of music including:

· How to play a melody with strong expressions

· How to keep in time with a song and play a funky groove

· How to develop an efficient and effective technique to play different songs

· How to read music as he always gave me music sheets along with the CD recordings.

By the time I was 14, I had developed the ability to play whatever song I wanted just by listening to it and I quickly overcame my stage fright at a young age.

Moreover, this mindset allowed me to view elements of music theory, such as scales, as essential tools in my musical toolbox that can be turned into a beautiful piece of music.

Many of us know consistent practise is important in any field, let alone music. The problem is, a lot of us forget that, if the process is not enjoyable, then it becomes increasingly difficult to constantly turn up everyday.

This is particularly true for young children. Introducing music practice as an academic obligation too early can inadvertently strip away the joy inherent in the learning process

As I’ve gotten older, inevitably there’ve been more tough days than good days, and music has become more or less a job for me.

That being said, to this day, I still see music as “play” and this mindset has helped me get through the tough days and continue to love music as much as I did when I was 7.

Whilst I’ve had many parents tell me they want their children to do well in their music studies, ultimately all parents just want them to enjoy the journey, and perhaps even perform for them one day.

If you approach encouraging your child to practise in this matter, I have absolutely no doubt that they will be playing for hours every day, and before you know it, they’ll be performing at the next family Christmas concert!