5 Surefire Ways To Ensure Your Child Continues To Learn Music

Do you know that the drop out rate for music lessons are very high after the first year or so?

In the case of piano lessons, kids hardly ever make it to the fourth year of piano lessons. Those that do go all the way, master the instrument. 

Any idea why that is?

So, isn’t it a pity that most of them never make it that far?

Is it that the child is bad at it, or has no talent? Or is it that they haven’t found the right teacher or the teacher doesn’t have the right methodology? 

It’s often not the fault of the student and not always the fault of the teacher either. However, it could be a combination of variables and in this post I want to tell you how you can ensure your child continues to learn music and not drop out. 

A lot of the insight shared in the post, like all my other posts come directly from my own experience both as a student and as a teacher. So here goes. 

Making Mistakes Is Normal

Yes, this is the key. 

This is the one thing that as parents you have to ‘grill’ into your child.

It is ok to make mistakes while learning. There is no shame in making mistakes. 

When I was a child, I felt that making mistakes was wrong and that I should get it right the first time. This is because my mom used to call out every time I made a mistake. 

Hey, I knew I had made a mistake, I just needed time to go back and correct it, but before I could, she had called it out, making me feel lousy. 

This was one of the reasons that I quit learning to play the piano, many, many times over. 

So, if you have a child learning a new instrument, please, please remember that it is very difficult and challenging and encourage your child to keep going through the mistakes. 

Not sure, why doing so, will help? Then you should definitely read my post 3 Reasons Why Making Mistakes When Practicing Is Perfect. 

There Is Always A Story Behind The Glory

I know kids are often inspired to learn a musical instrument because they watched someone else play. 

That someone often makes it look so easy and your child is not wrong in believing that she can play like that too. 

Unfortunately what is never visible is the years of hard work and dedication that went into mastering the instrument and playing it to perfection. 

This is what we need to tell our kids. We need to make them aware of the sweat and tears that went into the process. 

The goal of that should not be to discourage them, but rather to mentally prepare them for what lies ahead. 

You can also make them aware of the story behind the glory when they are frustrated about making mistakes. 

Progress Not Perfection

Yes, as I have said many times before, always go for progress not for perfection. 

That should be our goal. 

Perfection will no doubt come, but we should go for progress. 

So, if your child was struggling to play a line of music, but manages to play one bar of that entire line correctly, that is progress. 

Take it all in bite sized pieces and go for progress and trust me, perfection will eventually come. 

Celebrate The Victories Even The Small Ones

Yes, celebrate each and every victory. Don’t wait for the big goal to be met and don’t wait for everything to be perfect. 

If your child can only play one line of music correctly, then celebrate that. 

Once she is able to play the next line, celebrate that as well and go on. 

This way you will be encouraging her rather than making her feel bad. 

Learn Alongside Your Child

It would be amazing if you can do this. 

Learn alongside your child, if you can. 

She will see how you are struggling and persevering and what better example than that, for your child?

Don’t know where you can find such a music program? No worries, sign up for my Read Music Notes And Play Piano in Five Days program and I will teach you how you can teach your child to play the piano and you can learn alongside her. 

All my programs come with a component where I enable parents and give them all the tools and tips they need to teach their kids, so what are you waiting for? Sign up right now.