News flash! Many piano students don’t “practice” the piano. They “play” the piano instead.

And while they may “play” the piano daily, there are important differences between practicing the piano and playing the piano when it comes to skill development, progress and mastery.

If your child spends regular time at the piano but doesn’t seem to be progressing much, they’re probably playing the piano instead of practicing.

What you’ll hear from kids playing the piano instead of practicing:

1. They immediately try to play the new piece with hands together (which means you’ll also be hearing a ton of wrong notes!)
2. They rarely stop to fix mistakes so that the same mistake doesn’t happen again. This means maybe they correct one note but then they keep going, instead of repetitively playing the section over and over again.
3. They play the entire song. Then they play it again. Practicing involves working small sections of a piece – not playing the whole song over and over again when first learning it.
4. They play too fast. Smart musicians practice very slowly to avoid mistakes.
5. They hop from one piece or exercise to the next. Maybe they play it once or twice, but then move on too quickly to the next assignment.
6. They play easy sections that they’ve already mastered over and over again instead of tackling the newer, harder sections.
7. They may completely avoid learning a new piece or exercise that was assigned.
8. They play old pieces that they have already learned instead.
9. They don’t count out loud or use the metronome.
10. They don’t fix mistakes from one day to the next – they continue to steamroll through the piece each day with stumbles, re-starts, hesitations, and errors.

What does practicing a new piece sound like?

1. The scratch of a pencil as they write in the counting or make other notes in the piece.
2. Clapping and counting out loud.
3. One hand at a time very slowly playing just a couple of measures (“measures” – just a few notes of the song).
4. You might still be hearing counting out loud as hands alone play.
5. The same measures are repeated over and over again to fix mistakes, still very slowly.
6. Those measures are sped up slightly after mistakes are fixed.
7. Maybe that hand continues with a few more measures, very slowly, still with counting out loud.
8. The other hand tries a few measures very slowly.
9. Maybe there is a pause as the pencil is picked up to write another note.
10. There might be more clapping and counting out loud.

Instilling practicing habits in students

Piano parents often report that kids experience the most piano frustration when starting to learn a new piece. Kids come up with some very creative ways to avoid learning new pieces. I’ve heard the following as a teacher:

1. Oh, you didn’t tell me to learn that piece.
2. I thought it would be better to keep working on my old piece instead.
3. I lost the book that has my new piece.
4. I forgot/can’t find my book that has the new piece.
5. I tried learning it, but I didn’t get it, so I stopped.
6. It was too hard.
7. I don’t like that piece.
8. I was too busy to start it.
9. I forgot that I had a new assignment.
10. You wanted me to learn THAT piece? Oh… I thought you wanted me to learn THIS piece.

To adults, learning a piano piece might seem like a small thing, but to a child, it can seem like a huge task. For kids who have ADD, ADHD, are prone to anxiety or who become easily overwhelmed with new tasks and challenges, starting a new piano piece can even be anxiety-provoking.

Kids don’t naturally approach things in methodical, slow ways. Adults have to teach them self-discipline and organizational skills at home.

Many piano teachers teach kids how to practice during lessons, but kids often walk out the door and forget what the teacher said. We can only touch on that topic very quickly with 30 minutes of time each week. Even if teachers give students hand-outs or write reminders on their music or lesson notes, kids often don’t look.

If you’ve already created an organized practicing environment and have started coaching and monitoring your child’s practicing with the basics, then it’s time to take things a few steps further.

Creating practicing goals and assessing outcomes

Teach your child to come up with an achievable practice goal before they start mindlessly playing the piano:

1. State the objective, achievable goal.
   Example: I will be able to play the first four measures with my right hand.
2. Give the goal a time limit.
   Example: I will be able to play the first four measures with my right hand after practicing that section for 5 minutes.
3. Assess whether or not the goal was achieved.
   Example: I achieved my goal because I can play the first four measures with my right hand.
   OR: I didn’t achieve my goal, but I was really close. I can play the first 3 measures but I still struggle with the 4th measure.
4. Repeat the process: Set a new goal.

When a goal isn’t achieved, no problem. This isn’t a “fail.” Celebrate what went well and what was accomplished through effort-focused praise. Then, set a new goal or modify the previous goal.

Typically, when first trying this process, students will choose impossible goals, their goals will be vague, or they’ll bite off more than they can chew.

Here’s an example of an impossible goal: “I’m going to learn this new piece today and memorize it.” Here’s an example of a vague goal: “I’m going to work on this section so that it gets better.” Here’s an example of biting off more than they can chew: “I’m going to be able to play the first three pages in 4 minutes.”

That’s where you come in as the parent coach; help them modify their goals to be attainable, objective, and bit-by-bit. Try not to tell them what the goal is going to be. If students have input into what they want the goal to be, not only will they be more intrinsically motivated to accomplish the goal, but they’ll be learning how to create practice goals by themselves in the future.

Conclusion

Learning how to slow down in order to think about a task before beginning is something kids have to learn from adults. Teachers covering how to practice in lessons isn’t enough reinforcement. Parents need to teach the concept daily until a student has internalized the difference and has created a practicing habit.

When kids become fluent at creating their own goals, it’s amazing how quickly they can do that, and how they can apply it to other aspects of their lives, including academics and sports. Even the youngest students can learn how to set appropriate practicing goals with your guidance as parents. It instills confidence in them to tackle large tasks without panic, anxiety, or distress, and it can motivate them to continue learning.