It’s recruiting season for many school Band, Orchestra, and Choir programs. If your child hasn’t already told you that the older ensembles (an ensemble is a group of musicians performing together) came to perform for them, they probably will soon.

Katy students are lucky to have excellent award-winning music programs through Katy ISD. To have an award-winning music program means a lot of time and effort has to go into the program, both on the part of the teachers and the students and parents.

Two instruments = double the daily practice time

When your child runs home in elementary school or middle school and breathlessly states, “I want to play the trumpet in Band!” consider the following first:

1. Kids get really excited after seeing cool things. It doesn’t mean that they will be committed to daily practicing.
2. What will you cut from your schedule and your child’s schedule to make sure that your child can practice?
3. Most piano students struggle to get adequate practice time as it is. Can your child handle two instruments with daily practicing expectations for both?
4. Consider the financial investment that you’ve already made with years of piano lessons. Will you have gotten a return on your investment if you let them quit piano and start a different instrument?
5. There is an additional financial commitment if you have to purchase or rent another instrument and hire another private teacher.
6. Your child will be a music beginner again: Will she want to start from scratch learning a new instrument when she can already play the piano and read music?
7. There are mandatory concerts and rehearsals for ensemble students that often conflict with their other activities.
8. If your child joins Band and continues with Band, Marching Band will probably be a requirement in high school. Marching Band takes up portions of summer vacation and large portions of the Fall semester both during the week and on the weekends.
9. There are often fundraising requirements for the students. Are you prepared to help them with fundraising?
10. Lastly, do you want to hear your child practice the violin or trombone every day? Contrary to the piano (which sounds great when you press a key down, even as a beginner!) beginning instrumentalists often don’t sound so great. While they should improve with lots of practice, do you want to listen to a honking, scratchy, out of tune instrument in your house on a daily basis?

The benefits of Choir

If your child really wants to join an ensemble, have them try Choir. While there are wonderful benefits to all of the programs, here are some benefits for piano students who join Choir instead of Band or Orchestra:

1. Learning to sing is easier than learning an instrument.
2. You don’t have to buy another instrument! No burden of having to care for and carry an instrument around.
3. Students aren’t expected to practice singing at home every day as they would be expected to practice in Band or Orchestra.
4. When students learn to sing, they acquire skills that transfer wonderfully to the piano, such as a better understanding of phrases, breathing, tone, etc. In fact, many piano students around the world also learn to sing as part of their piano studies.
5. There are some really fun opportunities for performing pop and musicals for Choir students.
6. The Choir students also get to perform, compete, and do fun end of the year activities, similar to the Band and Orchestra kids.
7. Most of the kids who sign up for Choir have not studied singing formally, so they all learn together as beginners.
8. Singing in front of an audience — especially as a soloist — can really improve and increase self-confidence. It’s one thing to play an instrument in front of an audience, but to sing in front of your peers or an audience takes extra courage for many.
9. There are more opportunities to sing as adults: In the future, your child may end up singing in a church choir, singing for weddings or funerals, at a coffee shop, in a community choir, or simply singing with their own kids. There aren’t as many opportunities for former Band and Orchestra students to play their instruments as adults (do you know an adult who used to be in a middle school orchestra who still practices their cello?)
10. Your household does not have to listen to the daily gurgles and splats of a beginning instrumentalist.

Piano lessons are an investment

As a piano parent, you’ve probably already invested thousands of dollars into your child’s music education over several years. If they are in 5th, 6th, or 7th grade, that might also be the time when they really take off with their piano progress.

Some students have slow starts in piano for the first several years and then progress more quickly later on, but if they quit because they want to start a new instrument or rarely practice the piano, you’ll never know how well they might’ve been able to play.

Conclusion

Many piano teachers would probably recommend that piano students not sign up for Band, Orchestra, or Choir. It’s not because we don’t understand the reasons to join these ensembles or the benefits that they offer, but rather, we don’t want to see a student’s piano progress fall to the wayside.

While I do have piano students in a variety of the ensembles, it is my Choir students that consistently report that they love being in Choir. Choir enables students to continue with their piano studies more easily than Band or Orchestra.

Regardless of whether or not your child signs up for an ensemble, continue to support your child’s piano skill development through the years. Neither of you will regret the investment.